MGOC Contributor News: Rachael Pruitt's The Dragon's Harp

Many Genres, One Craft contributor Rachael Pruitt has a new novel out--The Dragon's Harp.

ENTER THE WORLD OF THE DRAGON’S HARP

Arthurian Historical Fantasy for the 21st Century

Before Gwenhwyfar became Queen - before Arthur met Merlin - a tribal Welsh princess met a young Heatherlands Mage. Together, they will create a legend.

Inside a mist of beauty and brutality waits the Arthurian legend as you’ve never heard it before. Enter the world of THE DRAGON'S HARP, a realm of blood lust and vengeance, of spellbinding magic from the beginning of time. The realm of Princess Gwenhwyfar: a young girl torn between magic and desire, born with magical powers she can either wield to save her people from destruction - or deny to save her soul.

ERA OF DRAGONS: THE LOST TALES OF GWENHWYFAR: BOOK ONE

First in a five book series of historical fantasy, Rachael Pruitt’s unique take on a beloved legend reintroduces the mythic characters of Gwenhwyfar, Merlin, and Vortigern against the gritty backdrop of sixth century Wales, where scenes of shape-shifting and heartbreaking romance vie with torture, murder, and battle in a dragon-haunted land.


posted by heidi

MGOC Contributor: C. Coco DeYoung

C. COCO DE YOUNG

EXCERPT from "Linking Past to Present" by C. Coco DeYoung in Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction

"Wonder-lust," the need to know more and silenced only by research, can serve as both the catalyst and foundation of well-crafted historical fiction.

Carefully whittled, it becomes a chain linking the author and young reader to the annals of history.

Research is for me a hands-on experience steeped in sensory input. Wonder-lust created a need in me to feel the sensations of a rail-riding hobo during the Great Depression. "You don’t have to hop a moving train," a fellow writer once chided. "You could lose a leg!" Nevertheless, grabbing hold of the “grip iron” or ladder of the worn wooden boxcar was like gripping hold of a leg of history. As a writer of historical fiction obligated to fulfill the expectations of the young reader, the first-hand experience of hopping a train goes far beyond the realm of research necessary to write a period piece.

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C. Coco De Young is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and storyteller. Her middle-grade novel, A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, received the Marguerite de Angeli Prize, nomination for 10 State Book Awards, the 2000-2001 Keystone to Reading Book Award, Teacher's Choices 2000 by the International Reading Association, a Booklist "Top 10 First Novels" of 1999, and was selected by the Children's Book Council and the National Council of Social Studies as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Ms. De Young holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Elementary Education, and an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, both from Seton Hill University. She resides in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her husband, Don.