LOVE FAERIES? New Excerpt from STORM CROSSED by Dani Harper

"The latest stand-alone novel in Dani Harper’s Grim Series will delight old and new fans alike, transporting them to the ancient fae realm beneath the modern human world,
where magic rules and menace abounds…"

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was back in July to see Storm Crossed named as one of the 3 finalists for the PRISM award in Urban Fantasy! But it was nothing compared to the feelings that overwhelmed me on September 30th when I found out that my story had actually WON!

I'm still a little dazed, but truly thankful. Much appreciation goes to the organizers and judges of the PRISM - it's a lot of work to put on a writing competition. Most of all, I'm grateful to my wonderful readers who have taken this story to their hearts.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Heir to a noble fae house, Trahern is forced to watch helplessly as his twin brother is cruelly changed into a grim—a death dog—as punishment for falling in love with the wrong person. Trahern doesn’t believe love exists, but he will do anything to keep his brother alive—even join the Wild Hunt and ride the night skies of the human world.

Lissy Santiago-Callahan believes in love but has no time for it. She’s busy juggling her career as an academic and her home life as a single mom to a young son with Asperger’s. Her hectic life in sleepy Eastern Washington is made even more chaotic with the sudden arrival of a demanding fae and his unusual “dog.”

Mortal and immortal have nothing in common, and the attraction between Lissy and Trahern surprises them both. But when their desire places Lissy and her child in the path of a deadly faery feud, will the connection last, or will their separate worlds prove too great a divide?

EXCERPT:

The ear-piercing screams would have done a pterodactyl proud as nine-year-old Fox entered total meltdown mode in the produce department of Naturally Yours Organics. As usual, the din won either disapproving glares or pained expressions of sympathy from other shoppers. Today the glares were in the majority. In a last-ditch effort to defuse the situation, Lissy sat down on the hardwood floor next to her son’s flailing body. “Just breathe, bud. Breathe in and out.” She kept her voice calm and matter-of-fact, even as she slid his beloved Squishy Bear close to him. Sometimes the soft toy was a life preserver in a storm of stimulation that he couldn’t process fast enough.

Not today.

“It’s okay, we’re going now.” She got to her feet and hefted Fox, all fifty-one struggling pounds of him, onto her hip. He was small for his age—what on earth would she do when he got bigger? Either rent a hand truck or get a hip replacement. Especially when he continued to thrash like a netted tuna all the way to the front of the store. Once she’d taken a few steps outside, however, he went completely limp, his shrill screams subsiding into strange, silent sobbing, punctuated only by the occasional hiccup. Lissy remembered plenty of occasions those first few years when she’d sobbed all the way to the car, too.

She settled his rag-doll body into his booster seat, placed his bear and his favorite video game within reach, then half sat, half collapsed into the driver’s seat. The closing of the car door shut the world out with a satisfying clunch, and Lissy imagined a baseball umpire yelling, Safe! 

Taking a couple of deep breaths in the blissful quiet, she turned the key and switched on the air-conditioning. The car was parked in the shade, but temperatures climbed early at this time of year. Besides, cool air often relaxed Fox, no matter what time of year it was. She checked on her son in the rearview mirror. He lay unmoving, his blond head turned away from the window, face pale and his ever-serious blue eyes staring. He looked exhausted. Although he lost control much less often now, an episode still took a toll on him.

Truth be told, it took a helluva toll on her, too. But Melissa Santiago-Callahan would never give up. The word quit just wasn’t in her vocabulary. Sometimes, though, she couldn’t help but wish that things were different—

She had been close to finishing her doctorate in geophysics when she met Chief Warrant Officer Matt Lovell, on leave from Fort Carson.

Funny, thoughtful, intelligent, and every bit as driven to succeed as she was, the tall helicopter pilot fell hard for her—and she for him. On the six-month anniversary of their first date, they were engaged. Two months after she said yes, he was deployed to Iraq. And one month later he was gone. Death came for him not in the skies that he loved so much but on the ground in an IED explosion.

The shock to her heart was enormous. To go from such a high-intensity relationship to nothing in the space of a heartbeat was hard enough. But even as she swung between soul-searing pain and frozen numbness, Lissy discovered she was pregnant.

And seven months later, Fox was born by emergency C-section.

Despite his abrupt introduction to the world, her son was healthy and strong. Lissy was determined to be the very best parent possible, and if the universe was fair, it should have worked. She should have been able to shower Fox with love and have everything turn out fine. 

But by the time his third birthday rolled around, she realized that her beautiful son was different from other children—

.....

STORM CROSSED by Dani Harper is available on Amazon in these formats - Kindle ebook, paperback, Audiobook and MP3-CD.

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Crossed-Grim-Book-4-ebook/dp/B073TTTGZD

Check out all Dani Harper's novels or sign up for her newsletter at www.daniharper.com

The FAERY Month of May

Why would a mortal month be strongly associated with timeless beings?

And does that make May a time to celebrate – or to beware?

Some things just go together like sun and fun, peanut butter and jelly, and Watson and Holmes. One pairing that's much, much older is that of faeries and May.

The ancient Celts of the British Isles and much of Europe celebrated Beltane as a spring festival of renewal, fertility, planting and growth. Many people today still observe Beltane.  Even more celebrate May Day (May 1^st). Just as the spirits of the dead and other supernatural beings are associated with the waning of the light at Samhain or Halloween, the veil between worlds is also believed to be thin during this time of growth and new life. And the creatures to be most afraid of?

Faeries.

While many May rituals were simply happy celebrations, just as many were intended for protection. It’s no coincidence that a portion of the Beltane feast was given as an offering to the fae. Associated with nature spirits, they were considered to be one of the main threats to the success of the growing season and the fruitfulness of both livestock and humans. Faeries were easily offended and quick to anger. Unless appeased, they might cause a crop to wilt or cows to stop producing milk. (Mind you, they might do so anyway out of mischief or sheer spite!)

Pleasant weather often accompanies May but sleeping in the open air was considered dangerous because the faeries were thought to be at their most powerful during this month. Worse, both male and female fae were actively on the prowl for attractive mortals to carry off to their otherworldly realms! There, the captives would become lovers, servants, nursemaids … or simply toys. If the easily-bored fae tired of you, you might eventually be freed. But since time moves differently there, a mere day could be years long and you would not return to the world you knew.

Meeting a faery in broad daylight in May was also perilous. Even the most benign of fae beings could be tricky. Any conversation had to carefully negotiated so you wouldn’t accidentally agree to a bad bargain or be fooled into making a promise you couldn’t fulfill. Ordinary words that humans take for granted could be dangerous. A simple “thank you” was the height of insult!

Small wonder that people sought to protect themselves, their households, and their farms from these powerful and capricious immortals.

Since we're only halfway through this perilous month, I've included the following tips from one of my past posts:

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE FAE

Garlands made of yellow flowers such as marsh marigolds and primroses were hung over the barn doors to protect the horses from being ridden to exhaustion by faeries in the night. The flowers were also spread over windowsills and hung above the door-posts of the house for safety. Your best bet, however, was a plant called St. John's Wort. Wearing it was said to provide strong protection from faery magic.

Faeries could vanish at will and remain invisible to mortal eyes for as long as they pleased. Carrying a four-leafed clover would allow you to see and thus avoid them. A Celtic tradition was to sew several of the clovers into a tiny bag to be worn around the neck. You could discern the faeries once for each clover in the bag.

Red berries were believed to keep faeries at bay, especially if they were from rowan trees, mountain ash or holly. So did red verbena (a flower). Daisies were often tucked into children’s pockets or woven into fanciful chains to wear around their necks to prevent them from being taken away by the faeries. And if you were walking through the woods, it was best to carry a walking stick or staff made of ash or rowan wood.

Traditionally, yeast-risen bread provided protection from the Fae. Carrying bread with you, even just a crust, had a two-fold effect. It would repel some faeries. Other faeries would accept it as an offering and leave you alone.

My Welsh gramma taught me the old tradition of leaving a saucer of milk and a slice of bread or some bread crusts on the back porch for the faeries, so they wouldn’t play pranks on the family, ruin the garden, or trouble the livestock.

Salt is associated with purity, and spreading salt across the threshold and along the windowsills has often been used to keep faeries, demons, and spirits out of houses. If you had to carry food to the farmhands in the fields or tote your lunch to school, sprinkling it with salt was said to keep the faeries from taking it – or from extracting the nourishment from it unseen!

Even humble oatmeal was believed to be a faery repellent. You could carry a handful of dry oatmeal in your pocket or sprinkle it on your clothes.

But the very best protection against faeries? Iron. In any form or shape, legend has it that the metal is like kryptonite to the fae. If you kept an iron nail in your pocket, you couldn’t be carried away by them. Sometimes iron nails were sewn into the hems of children’s clothing for that very reason. A pair of iron shears hung on the wall near a baby’s bed was said to prevent the child from being swapped for a sickly faery baby. Horseshoes were nailed over doorposts, not for “luck” as we sometimes do today, but to repel the fae. Some traditions call for the horseshoe to be placed on its side like the letter “C”, resembling the crescent moon.

Enjoy the rest of the merry month of May – and don't forget to watch out for faeries!

..............................................................

Faeries + Fantasy + Romance
= The Grim Series

Available in paperback, Kindle ebook, audiobook and Audible See ALL Dani Harper novels on her Amazon Author Page or go to her website at http://www.daniharper.com

Here Be News

Other News:

Cover Revealed for STORM CROSSED
Book 4 of the Grim Series by Dani Harper 

A fae who doesn’t believe in love. 

A mortal who has no time for it. 

And a desire that defies everything they know.

"The latest standalone novel in Dani Harper’s Grim Series, Storm Crossed, will delight both old and new fans alike, transporting them to the ancient fae realm beneath the modern human world, where magic rules and menace abounds . . . "

STORM CROSSED releases January 9th, but you can pre-order it in Kindle ebook, paperback, or audiobook at https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Crossed-Grim-Book-4-ebook/dp/B073TTTGZD 

The Grim Series currently includes Storm Warrior, Storm Bound, Storm Warned, and now, Storm Crossed. A fifth book is underway.

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Bring It Back(list):

SECRET IDENTITY is my 99c Special for the Month of September!

This offer valid only on Amazon and my website.

SECRET IDENTITY
(Book 1 of the Identity Trilogy)
Urban Fantasy Romance
Word Count: 54K
$0.99 e / $9.99 p

Brenda McKay has no man in her life, and she really doesn’t have time for one. That’s not a problem, since Brenda’s new job responsibilities keep her too busy for any sort of social life. But the day she is saved by a strange man who calls himself The Defender is the day her heart will never be the same.

Lorne Palmer has loved Brenda since they were in grade school. Shy, introverted, and the middle brother of two over-achievers, he has never really approached her for anything other than to help her with her homework. And to be there for her when her other boyfriends deserted her.

It wasn’t until he finally acquired his super powers and became The Defender that Lorne finally decided enough was enough. If he couldn’t work up the courage to claim her as himself, perhaps The Defender could.

Warning! Contains sabotage, weird chemical names, smiley boxes, floating root beer, corporation hanky-panky, isolated safe houses, chocolate-covered strawberries, and things that go BOOM! in the night. 

Excerpt and buy links.

Shamrocks and Clovers - Are you feeling lucky?

When I was a kid, I used to hunt for four-leafed clovers in the belief that they brought good luck. I didn’t know then that one was only considered lucky if you found it by accident – the clover was useless if you looked for it on purpose! No wonder I didn’t get the pony I was hoping for….

The ancient Celts of Wales carried sprigs of clover as a charm against evil spirits, particularly faeries. The clover might be tucked in one’s hat. Or multiple clovers might be sewn into a tiny bag and hung around the neck. This would enable the wearer to see through faery glamor – but it would only work once for each clover that was in the bag.

The faeries couldn't hide from you if you were
carrying a four-leaf clover.Photo licensed from Bigstock.com

Druids esteemed the four-leafed clover as a source of protection, because holding one would allow you to see not just faeries, but many other supernatural creatures. A salve was sometimes made of four-leafed clovers and applied to the “third eye” area of the forehead, to bring out psychic abilities. And in the Middle Ages, a four-leafed clover worn inside your shoe was believed to lead you to either love or treasure! (If you put one in each shoe, did you find both?)

Both shamrocks and four-leafed clovers come from the 
same plant: Common White Clover (Trifolium Repens).
Photo licensed from Bigstock.com

The four-leafed clover is a symbol of good luck in many countries, but is most often associated with Ireland. The Irish claim that they have more of them growing there than anywhere else in the world. Maybe they do, since BOTH traditional Irish shamrocks and four-leafed clovers come from the very same plant:  Common White Clover, also known as Dutch Clover (Trifolium Repens). That’s right, it’s the same stuff that sometimes takes over the lawn on this side of the Atlantic. Irish botanist Caleb Threlkeld verified this when he wrote about Trifolium Repens in his 1727 book about local flora: “This plant is worn by the people in their hats upon the seventeenth day of March yearly.”

True, there are some pretty potted plants sold around March 17^th that claim to be official shamrocks, but they’re usually oxalis or wood sorrel. The leaves occur in a variety of colors, but apparently aren't brimming with good fortune. (I enjoy them anyway.)

The shamrock and the four-leafed clover are both
commonly associated with Ireland.
Photo: Public Domain

The Irish word for shamrock is seamróg, referring to the trefoil leaf of the clover plant. St. Patrick allegedly made it famous by taking an ordinary three-leafed clover and using it as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This is an excellent example of Christianity adopting – and changing – the symbols of ancient pagan faiths. The three leaves had previously been known as the three phases of the Goddess – Maiden, Mother and Crone!

So why are there four-leafed clovers if clover naturally has three leaves? Long thought to be a simple plant mutation, scientists have now found a recessive gene for the anomaly. In fact, there are no known limits as to how many leaves a clover can have. According to Guinness, the world record for the most leaves on a clover stem has been held by Shigeo Obara of Japan since 2002 when he discovered a clover with 18 leaves. He bested his record a few years later with a 21-leafed clover (see photo on this site - http://yeinjee.com/21-leafs-clover/). And in 2009, just before Obara died, he was credited with finding a clover with no less than 56 leaves!!!

Rabbits LOVE clover.
I wonder how many four leaf clovers
this little guy has eaten?
Photo licensed from Bigstock.com

In Ireland and a few other places, a clover bearing more than four leaves is said to bring BAD luck. In other countries, however, there are different meanings according to leaf number:

•      Two-leafed clover = love
•      Four-leafed clover = luck 
•      Five-leafed clover = attracts wealth
•      Six-leafed clover = fame
•      Seven-leafed clover = long life

So just how rare are clovers with more than the standard three leaves? Estimates place them at about one in 10,000 when naturally grown. Because the four-leafed clover is such a well-known symbol of good fortune, an entire industry has sprung up around them. You can buy genuine four-leafed clovers pressed between glass, embedded in resin, made into jewelry etc. But to get enough of them, some horticulturalists have refined the clover plant using the newly-discovered genes. In their specialized plots, four-leafed clovers occur about once in every 41 plants!

However, the luckiest man in the world just might be Edward Martin Sr. of Alaska. Guinness certified Martin's collection of 111,060 four-leaf clovers in 2007, and it's reported he has well over 160,000 now! 

(See how all those clovers were counted in this article in the Peninsula Clarion News - http://peninsulaclarion.com/stories/061307/news_0613new003.shtml#.WMcP2zsrI2w )

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I grew up on Celtic faery stories. Not the ones where faeries are tiny beings with delicate wings, and as sweet-natured as they are pretty. Nope, I teethed on the ones where faeries come in every shape and size. Dark or light, terrifying or beautiful, sensual or cold, indifferent or cruel ... all are dangerous!

My Grim Series is based on one of my favorite fae legends (with thanks to my Welsh grandmother). The Grim is also known as the Black Dog, and his role is to act as a herald of death and misfortune. But how did he get a job like that? And what if he doesn't want it?

Check Amazon for STORM WARRIOR, STORM BOUND, and STORM WARNED

Watch for the upcoming release of STORM CROSSED, Book 4 of the Grim Series!