Title: Morrigan
Author: Laura DeLuca
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Tour Host: Lady
Amber's Tours
Synopsis: Shuffled from place to place in the foster system, Morrigan doesn't know the meaning of home. Plus, she is different. She has power over fire, the ability to move objects with her mind, and glimpse into the future. Just when she believes her life can’t get any stranger, she discovers her true identity.
Filtiarn, a knight with a dark past and a surprising secret, has been tasked with guiding the heir of Tír na NÓg through countless perils to be returned to her family. Once Morrigan has been reunited with her mother and grandmother, their triad can save the forgotten land of magic from being devoured by an ancient evil.
People always ask writers where they get their ideas from.
For me, most of my ideas initiate from dreams. I am one of those New Age gals
who keeps a little dream journal by my bed so I can jot down all my dreams as
soon as I wake up. I do this not just for writing purposes but because I am a
believer in the symbolism behind our dreams.I believe they are often our
subconscious or even the spirit world trying to communicate with us. It was
years ago that my muse came to me with the initial seed that would later grow
into Morrigan. One night about ten years ago, I had a dream about a man coming
through a magic portal and taking me to a fairytale world. The dream was brief and there wasn't much
detail, but it stuck with me for years. I wanted to make it into a book, but it
wasn't until I met my husband many years later that the rest of the pieces fell
into place.
Meeting my husband ties into dreams as well. When we met, I
was messing around on an internet dating site. I know it sounds pathetic, but
for a single mom in a small town, there was no other way to meet new people who
weren't drunken losers. Well, some of them still turned out to be drunken
losers, or married losers, or reverends of the jedi order--but that's another
story. It wasn't something I took
seriously. I wasn't looking to find true love or get married. I was just
looking to have fun on my nights without kids. I never planned on getting
married again. I had walked away from a bad marriage that could have destroyed
me emotional and financial, and picked up the pieces and rebuilt a good life
for me and my two children. I had a
great job, bought a house, and was the epitome of strong, independent women.
Not that falling in love would make you weak. I just wasn't interested. Then
one day I get an email on Yahoo personals from this guy named Timmie. He had no
picture. Normally this was a huge red flag. It usually meant one of two
things--they were hideously deformed or married. As someone with a love of the
Phantom of the Opera, it was more the married part that concerned me. I had
been on the other end of a cheating husband and didn't take kindly to being
placed in the role of the other women. My normal instinct to those emails was
to ignore them. Yet, this time, my instincts told me the opposite and I knew
why. This is where dreams come back into
play. The reason I kept reading that email from the imageless man was because
his name was Timmie and Timmie was my dream man. Quite literally.
In my novel, Morrigan often muses about the dark knight who
had haunted her dreams for as long as she can remember. For me, Timmie had been
in my dreams since I was a child. He was even my imaginary friend when I was
little. I still had the dreams occasionally, but I had long since given up on
any visions of love that might come from them. Then I got this email and I knew
I had to reply. The funny thing is, I told this mysterious Tim from the start
that I was only replying to him because of my dreams. That would have scared
most normal guys away. Of course, my dream man isn't normal. What fun would
that be?
In was only a week later that I met Timmie for the first
time. He was sitting on a bench in our designated public meeting place, and I
knew for sure it was him even before formal introductions were made. My feelings from that first glance were exactly the same as
Morrigan's the first time she saw Filtiarn.
Instantly, all her worries and fears vanished. It was as if
an angel had miraculously appeared in her moment of turmoil, albeit a scruffy
and somewhat rugged looking angel. He was amazing—a walking piece of medieval
art. She swore beams of light illuminated him in a strange, unearthly glow. She
wasn’t even sure if he was real or just another vision. There were two things
she knew with absolute certainty from the first second she saw him. She was
recklessly in love with him, and it completely terrified her.
The fact that Morrigan dreamed of Filtiarn is not the only
similarity between Morrigan's love
interest and mine. From our first date, Timmie enchanted me with his tales of
his cross county travels. He was once a dread-locked hippie who traveled with
the Rainbow Gathering, slept under bridges, and even lived in a cave for three
months. Now, the average girl would who heard these stories on a first date
would probably wish she had a cave to hide in.
Not me. Timmie was refreshing and unique. This was the first date I had
since my divorce that didn't leave me rolling my eyes. A rainbow even appeared in the sky as we
walked along the boardwalk, a sign of new beginnings (you might recognize this
scene if you've read Phantom).
Of course, I can't fail to mention the physical traits that
Filtiarn inherited from Timmie. Just a few weeks into our relationship, he had
earned the nickname of Chewy because he is literally covered in hair. He is the
reason for the term "five o'clock shadow". I could probably braid the
hair of his arms and legs. Even his fingers and toes have hair! As I was
working on my character development, this character that Timmie inspired could
only be one type of creature. Thus Filtiarn "King of the Wolves" was
created--a werewolf. He has Timmie's hairiness, his musical abilities (though I
switched it from a saxophone to a pan flute), and of course, his witty sarcasm.
“Humph.” Tiarn
grunted and curled his lip. “You call that filthy! You obviously do not know
the meaning of the word. That place we just came from—what do you call it?
Baltimore? Cement covering the Goddess’ green earth. Wires blocking
the view of Father Skye. Pollution making it difficult to breathe, and litter
everywhere you look. That was filth. The dust on those blankets is just good
old-fashioned dirt. Honest to goodness, deliciously clean dirt! You should
revel in it, Princess! The bed where you shall lay your head this night is the
cleanest and purest you have rested on in many moons.”
So often I have seen people turn up their nose at the idea
of "instalove", saying it’s unrealistic. I can tell you first hand,
there's nothing unrealistic about it. But this love at first sight phenomenon
isn't as instant as it seems. My relationship with my husband didn't start in
this life. I have had several past life
regressions that included him, some of which he was also recalled. So in my
mind, "instalove" is really a love between two old souls who have
found each other for first time in a new life. This is a love that has spanned
through countless lifetimes and that even death could not destroy. Timmie is my
soul mate, my inspiration, and the reason Morrigan became my most popular book
to date. I love my real life werewolf, in this life and the next!
Laura “Luna” DeLuca lives at the beautiful Jersey
shore with her husband and four children. She loves writing in the young adult
genre because it keeps her young at heart.
In addition to writing fiction, Laura is also the editor of a popular
review blog called New Age Mama. She is an active member of her local pagan
community, and has been studying Wicca for close to eight years. Her current works include Destiny, Destiny
Unveiled, Phantom, Morrigan, Player, and Demon.
Find the Book
“Guardians!” A low snarl emanated from the back of his
throat. “What are you doing with Guardians?”
“Stop it! Sit down!”
Morrigan wasn’t sure who she was addressing, the man or the
animals. Luckily, they both obeyed her command. She stepped in between them to
avoid any further confrontations. The cats took a seat on either side her legs,
but their posture hardly relaxed. They still glared warily at the newcomer,
even though their hisses died down to an occasional soft growl.
“Dirty, filthy beasts!” Tiarn snarled as he climbed to his
feet. “I hate Guardians.”
“They’re just little cats,” Morrigan told him. “What’s the
big deal?”
“Just cats! Hah!” He was standing at a careful distance,
even though they had started licking their paws nonchalantly. “They are much
more than simple cats! Though even those I find distasteful.”
Morrigan narrowed her
eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Never mind. It does not matter.” Tiarn dismissed her
question with a wave of his hand. “They are not coming with us.
“They most certainly
are coming!”
Tiarn growled again. “I beg to differ with you, Your
Highness. They would only get in the way.
Possibly even get killed.”
Danu raised her head from her grooming to hiss at him again,
as though she had taken that last statement as a personal threat. The strange
reaction of her faithful sidekicks made Morrigan wonder again just how much
Tiarn could be trusted. She also wondered why, when she wasn’t sure she could
trust him, she still felt the undeniable urge to wrap her arms around his neck
and kiss him.
“If they stay here
alone, they’ll definitely get killed or at least sent to the pound,” Morrigan
told him. “I can’t let that happen. So, they’re coming. End of story.”
Tiarn’s eyes flashed dangerously, and he looked like he
wanted to argue, but thought better of it. “Very well, Princess. Bring your
mongrel felines. Just keep in mind that Guardians and lycans do not mix well.”
“Lycans?” Morrigan repeated.
A sick feeling started to settle in her stomach, as the
truth of his words sunk in. It all started to make sense—his hairy arms and
chest, his reaction to the cats, even his earlier comment about smelling her
out. Her dark knight had a much darker side than she had ever seen in her
dreams.
“Why yes, Your
Majesty. Did you not realize? You are a witch and a sorceress. And I, your
faithful traveling companion, am a lycan—a werewolf.”
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