Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: Skull's Vengeance by Linnea Tanner @GoddessFish

Skull's Vengeance

(Curse of Clansmen and Kings Book 4)

by Linnea Tanner

GENRE: Historical Fantasy

BLURB:

A Celtic warrior queen must do the impossible—defeat her sorcerer half-brother and claim the throne. But to do so, she must learn how to strike vengeance from her father’s skull.

AS FORETOLD BY HER FATHER in a vision, Catrin has become a battle-hardened warrior after her trials in the Roman legion and gladiatorial games. She must return to Britannia and pull the cursed dagger out of the serpent's stone to fulfill her destiny. Only then can she unleash the vengeance from the ancient druids to destroy her evil half-brother, the powerful sorcerer, King Marrock. Always two steps ahead and seemingly unstoppable, Marrock can summon destructive natural forces to crush any rival trying to stop him and has charged his deadliest assassin to bring back Catrin's head.

To have the slightest chance of beating Marrock, Catrin must forge alliances with former enemies, but she needs someone she can trust. Her only option is to seek military aid from Marcellus—her secret Roman husband. They rekindle their burning passion, but he is playing a deadly game in the political firestorm of the Julio-Claudian dynasty to support Catrin's cause.

Ultimately, in order to defeat Marrock, Catrin must align herself with a dark druidess and learn how to summon forces from skulls to exact vengeance. But can she and Marcellus outmaneuver political enemies from Rome and Britannia in their quest to vanquish Marrock?

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Excerpt:

Chapter 2 Cauldron’s Foresight

Near Antonii Villa in Gaul, Eve of Samhain, 31 October, 27 AD

Bewildered, Catrin found herself floating inside a concave, bone-white structure. Below her, light filtering through two large openings spun strands of golden light, forming a lattice around her. Indistinguishable voices whispered in her ears. Sensing someone was nearby, she glanced all around but could not see anyone.

Suddenly, an invisible force pressed her against a hard surface, immobilizing her. Panic streaked through her when she realized she could not escape. The voice of her dead father, King Amren, saying, “I’ve been waiting for you,” further struck fear in her.

Uncertain if she’d entered the portal to the Otherworld, Catrin looked up at the ceiling for the multicolored life threads weaving in and out of the tapestry on the Wall of Lives—a transitional barrier between the physical and spiritual worlds where past, present, and future merged into one timeline.

“Am I in the Depths of Possibilities below the Wall of Lives?” she asked her father.

King Amren’s deep voice resonated in her mind. “You are in my soul’s temple—my prison.”

Worried her soul had also been imprisoned, Catrin felt her heart pound erratically within her chest. “Your prison?”

“My skull,” King Amren clarified. “This is where Marrock keeps my soul prisoner to use as he pleases. How did you get past his magic to connect with me?”

“After I drank a mixture from Rhan’s cauldron, I suddenly found myself here,” Catrin explained, although she did not understand how the magic worked.

“Ah…a brew of wisdom, knowledge, and inspiration.” King Amren added, “Rhan is a cunning and treacherous sorceress. She has a knack for escaping death. A few years ago, when I hid in the dagger, I saw her spirit roaming the white cliffs. I thought she’d died. Obviously, I was wrong.”

“Did you hide in the same dagger I thrust into the serpent stone?” Catrin inquired.

“Yes. And the dagger you must pull from the stone to release my soul from the skull…” King Amren’s voice faded into an ominous whisper.

“Otherwise, what?”

A man’s shadow was cast on the dome-shaped ceiling from which her father’s voice emanated. “Marrock will drain my essence until I disappear. At first, I fought his attempts to steal my soul’s forces. But I no longer have the strength to resist.”

The force immobilizing Catrin weakened. Envisioning herself as the Raven, her spiritual guide, she transformed and fluttered to the domed ceiling to be closer to her father’s shadow, which was fading quickly.

“Why did Rhan send me here?” she asked.

“So you can access the truths in the depths of your mind…a realm few of us explore.” A gold corona began glowing around King Amren’s shadow, like an eclipsed sun, as he continued, “You asked if we are in the Depths of Possibilities. Perhaps you are, but not me. I am frozen in the past and must relive the day I executed Rhan over and over. The day I forced Marrock to watch me cut off his mother’s head. The day I created a monster.”

“Do you regret killing Rhan?” Catrin asked, disquieted by her father’s merciless act.

“At the time, I believed it was my duty. It was my right as king to condemn all traitors. But now…” King Amren sighed heavily, and his voice grew somber. “I loved Rhan so much. She was the air I breathed. Love that strong ignites from the same fire as hate. I opened my heart to her. I shared my fears, my darkest secrets. I would have done anything for her, even die to protect her. Yet, when I discovered she’d conspired with other nobles to overthrow me, my love turned to hate. I demanded justice for her betrayal. I sought vengeance against my queen, seeking the power that corrupted my soul. And now, Marrock threatens to destroy the remnants of my soul in exchange for the same power that consumed me.”

“If that is what he wants, why does he steal the life forces from my mother’s and sister’s souls?” Catrin asked.

King Amren chuckled grimly. “What vengeance is more apt than Marrock extinguishing everyone I love?”

Catrin’s throat tightened. “What do you want of me?”

The bright light around King Amren’s shadow continued to fade as he answered. “Destroy Marrock and free the souls of your mother and sister to reincarnate into other forms. You must unravel your doubts about moving forward. The last time you visited the Depth of Possibilities, before the Romans captured and enslaved you, your future had not yet been set in stone by your past mistakes. But now, the future of our kingdom depends on the choices you make in the present. To see the light to your destiny, you must first behold the darkest depths of your soul. Do you have the courage to do that?”

“I am afraid of what I might see. What I might lose or become,” Catrin said, a shudder slicing down her spine.

King Amren blew out a deep breath. “Ah…a conundrum. How can you both create life as a mother and destroy it as a warrior? How can the ecstasy of love be swept away in a crashing wave of hate? You need both forces, I believe, to forge the powers needed to draw the dagger out of the stone.”

Interview with Linnea Tanner

Any weird things you do when you’re alone?

Hmmm…that is an interesting question. I’m more likely to do weird things in a group. My family thinks I’m weird when I dress up as a raven queen and attend fan expo events to display and sell my books. I enjoy meeting readers, other authors, and vendors there.

What is your favorite quote and why?

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”—Nelson Mandela

I believe that true success comes from learning from your failures.

Who is your favorite author and why?

My favorite author is Marion Zimmer Bradley who wrote, “The Mists of Avalon.” It is an evocative and beautifully written story that retells the Arthurian legend through the eyes of women. This is one of those books I reread for inspiration. It tells about the many cycles of women, the many faces we wear, and, finally, the Goddess women should embrace. The Goddess represents the divine feminine that we’ve forgotten in the modern era. She is the antithesis to the patriarchal religion, in which the power of women has been stolen and we need to learn how to reclaim it.

What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?

The following are the most important elements, in my opinion, of good writing for fiction:

1. Good writing entails storytelling that resonates with readers. The story needs to connect, inspire, or move us emotionally.

2. Good stories should have relatable, three-dimensional characters who have both strengths and weaknesses. They should help the stage for the core message in the story.

3. Sentences should flow smoothly from one paragraph to the next so the reader can follow along easily. Further, writers need to be disciplined and edit their work for grammar and punctuation errors and for clarity in how the story is structured.

4. Robust vocabulary allows a writer to choose words that most clearly convey the concept.

5. Good writing uses vivid descriptions that elicit powerful imagery and evoke powerful emotions.

Where did you get the idea for this book?

A pivotal point for creating the primary characters in the epic Curse of Clansmen and Kings historical fantasy series is when I visited London and beheld the statue of a warrior queen in a chariot with her two daughters set beside the Thames River. I learn she was the famous warrior queen, Boudicca, who united the Celtic tribal kingdoms in AD 61 and almost expelled the Romans from Britannia. Roman historians described her as a powerful druidess who sacrificed some of her victims to the war goddess Andaste. She inspired my primary character, Catrin who is both a warrior and druidess in the series.

I was also fascinated with the legacy of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) who was known for his tragic love story with Cleopatra and their subsequent downfall. His son from another marriage, Iullus Antonius, rose politically in the imperial court of Augustus Caesar. Tragically, Iullus was forced to fall on his sword after being accused of treason for having an affair with the emperor’s only daughter Julia. As a consequence, the son of Iullus Antonius, Lucius, had to voluntarily exile in Gaul (modern-day France) to avoid his father’s fate. 

Very little is known about Lucius Antonius. Some historians surmise that he might have been the father or grandfather of the famous Roman general, Marcus Antonius Primus. The tragic legacy of Mark Antony and his descendants inspired me to create Marcellus, the son of Lucius Antonius. One of the burning questions I wanted to answer is how would Lucius react if his son went down the same tragic pathway as his forefathers and fell in love with a powerful foreign queen in Britannia.

One of the fantastical elements in Skull’s Vengeance is inspired by the Celtic belief that the soul resides in the head. The druids considered the human head to be the temple of the soul. As with so many aspects of the Celtic warrior’s life, taking an opponent’s head in battle, preferably in single combat, had a mystical significance. To possess the enemy’s head was to possess his soul. The concept that magical powers can be summoned from souls entrapped in each of their skulls is explored in Skull’s Vengeance. Catrin’s half-brother, a shapeshifter and druid, uses dark forces from the skulls of family members he has killed to destroy enemies on the battlefield.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Award-winning author, Linnea Tanner, weaves Celtic tales of love, magical adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia. Since childhood, she has passionately read about ancient civilizations and mythology. Of particular interest are the enigmatic Celts, who were reputed as fierce warriors and mystical Druids.

Linnea has extensively researched ancient and medieval history, mythology, and archaeology and has traveled to sites described within each of her books in the Curse of Clansmen and Kings series. Books released in her series include "Apollo’s Raven" (Book 1), "Dagger’s Destiny" (Book 2), "Amulet’s Rapture" (Book 3), and "Skull’s Vengeance" (Book 4). She has also released the historical fiction short story, "Two Faces of Janus."

A Colorado native, Linnea attended the University of Colorado and earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry. She lives in Fort Collins with her husband and has two children and six grandchildren.

You can follow her on her website

 

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