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Sounds of winter: day 24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQOO9wCRXUo

The Coventry Carol is not by any means joyful. It commemorates Herod’s slaying of the young boy children when the magi told him about the birth of Jesus. I wanted a version sung by women because I think female voices bring home the despair the mothers must have felt.  I knew the carol but first became truly aware of the lyrics when I heard the Mediaeval Baebes sing it. However, I already have them singing some other choices in this list so I went searching and found this acapella version by the Lamplighters. I think we need to remember that there are various layers to the Christmas story, not all a matter for celebration.

On a more cheerful note, if you’re in UK try to watch The Goes Wrong Show: The Nativity on BBC1 iPlayer. We laughed for the entire half hour.

The frosted rose is by roxicons.

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Sounds of winter: day 23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NsngVi3rs

Solstice carol. I chose the version by the wyrd sisters for the illustrations. And that concludes my presentation of solstice songs! It’s also an anticlimax for me after the solstice when I celebrate the longest night, the gradual return of the light, and my daughter’s birthday all at the same time. Christmas is gaudier and New Year is internationally exciting (though probably not this year) but the solstice is ‘my’ festival.

The photograph is birds on our local lake again, a few years ago. They skated around happily on the ice, and came rushing to greet visitors in the hope of treats, which they got in such abundance that they started to be picky! They are usually much less ‘tame’ but just as beautiful.

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Sounds of winter: day 22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=borKzdlNzMI

Silent Night Solstice Night, here sung by classykassy is a version of the Christmas carol adapted for the solstice. Instead of a focus on the birth of Jesus the lyrics ask us to think about nature, the ‘fallow’ time of winter and the hope for rebirth.

I hope those thoughts might serve us well, in UK as we face cancelled holiday plans, strict lockdown, the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, food shortages, flood warnings, and general misery. Try to remember that some day there will be light again!

Happy Birthday to my daughter!

The quiet and misty winter night icon is by magic_art

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A Free Story for you at Solstice

A free Solstice story for you and some other gifts and price reductions.   My new free novella Across Two Seas is set in the world of my Living Fae Series.  

A quick summary: Eichhorn, from Germany, visiting Alderley Edge in Cheshire (UK), meets Velvet, who has come from Tara (Eire) to lead the Solstice Wild Hunt. Their instant attraction leads to an equally wild affair but will the relationship survive being separated by two seas?  

It takes place after the events in the books and concerns the romance (mm) between two minor characters. I hope it’s accessible to people who haven’t read the series and will give you a glimpse of the world of my fae.   I might get round to formatting it for Smashwords in which case it will be permanently free there, but meanwhile you can find it here on my website as a pdf you can download. To anyone who isn’t sure and prefers e-readers, remember Calibre is a free download and will convert almost anything to the e-book format of your choice.

https://jaymountney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/across-two-seas.pdf    

That’s my free gift to celebrate the Solstice but the series Living Fae, which is in four volumes, all about the lives and loves of modern fae living on Alderley Edge, is enrolled in the Smashwords end of year sale so they are all half price till Jan 1st. At only $1.49 each and all well over 60k words that’s $5.96 for four full length novels. (I was going to create a box set but time got away from me!)

The titles are:  

Growing Up Fae : the childhood and early adulthood of Harlequin, the narrator, told in diary style. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/720139  

Tales from Tara : relates the experiences of Harlequin and Yarrow, as they separately spend six months on royal guard duty.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/913151  

Flying Free: recounts the lives and loves of Harlequin’s siblings. (mm, mf and ff) https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/945685  

On The Edge: this brings us up to date on the lives of the fae of Alderley Edge and includes departures and arrivals.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/999158  

If you don’t read them in that order you will get desperately confused. Across Two Seas follows them but shouldn’t cause confusion as it isn’t primarily about the main characters of the series. There’s a glossary under the series tab but it needs updating and also needs the timeline I keep promising.  

My fae celebrate the Solstice rather than Christmas so this is the perfect date to launch my new story and slash the price on my series at the same time. It’s my preferred holiday, too, though I also go along with the traditions to fit in with everyone around me.  

Do any of you have children? Another free pdf is a children’s book, Answering Amanda, which is in some respects is the prequel to the entire Living Fae series. It works well for children aged 7 – 11 but young teens also like it, finding the concept amusing. Amanda corresponds with a fairy at the bottom of the garden. (Harlequin’s saga started when the fairy’s big brother pestered for his own novel.) It’s in colour – not just the illustrations but some of the text, and the colour is an integral part of the story – so if anyone downloads it for children to read, make sure you use a device that shows colour, not e.g. a b&w Kindle. Guaranteed no sex or violence, but this website has plenty of the former so please don’t let children explore.

https://jaymountney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/answering-amanda.pdf    


There are shorter free stories available, as most of you know: fantasy, contemporary, sci fi, mostly LGBTQ but some gen. Just go to ‘free stuff”.

https://jaymountney.com/free-fiction/    

Also in the Smashwords sale, and FREE until Jan 1st, is the first book I self published:
Silkskin and the Forest Dwellers is a retold and twisted fairy tale – Snow White, transported and transformed by taking place in mediaeval Great Zimbabwe with a prince instead of a princess. It’s a novella rather than a novel. As Snow White is a traditional holiday and pantomime story, I thought people might like to see the same (but mm) story told about an African prince. It also seemed a good idea to make it free in this time of trying to make sure that Black Lives Matter.  

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/170617  

So don’t forget: Across Two Seas (free), Silkskin (free), Living Fae series (price slashed), Answering Amanda (free) and a link to other freebies.  

Happy Solstice, everyone! Stay safe and well!

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Sounds of winter: day 6

White wine in the sun takes us on a journey to Australia and a Christmas family reunion. I like it because it makes me think of my Australian friends and time I spent with them there, and of how Christmas is celebrated in other parts of the world. Musically it doesn’t have a great deal going for it, but the lyrics are interesting, sometimes provocative and sometimes sentimental. It makes us think and it reminds us of sunshine – without snow. This is the ‘official’ version.

The photograph of Uluru is one I took when I went there.

I thought this was already published – I’m sure I got a reply on social media – but WordPress says not.

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Lights: a poem for the Solstice

Solstice Lights.

We have light

shining throughout the whole house.

In the bathroom there’s a waterfall of blue.

White stars watch over the kitchen counter and

pink baubles deck the back porch,

startling against the night.

The dining room and main bedroom display with pride

decorated windows to the lane outside.

The lounge has a myriad of lights.

Colours clash, compete and complement. There are roses

(probably inappropriate for the season but oh! so pretty).

A rich dark carving from the Cote d’Ivoire

boasts a delicate garland and

bookcases scintillate with miniature delights.

This year is different;

we can’t go out to see street finery.

I don’t know, even, whether there is any.

Maybe,

and maybe not,

but it won’t

be observed by us.

Instead,

we have an indoor feast

for the senses, and if I cannot share with others at least

holiday decorations can come to me.

The carving was a gift from a student from Ivory Coast. The bathroom speaks for itself.

I apologise for the way WordPress insists on formatting verse with extra line spaces. I have spent hours trying to correct it although I must admit it looks infinitely worse in editing mode.

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Sounds of winter: day 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ShwcA8KkkM

Ring out Solstice Bells sung by Jethro Tull (recorded in 1976…) celebrates the solstice. Personally I wouldn’t bother watching the video which I find distracting as it’s somewhat dated, but I enjoy listening to the bells! The carol of the bells would be equally appropriate but I wanted something with no religious connotations. It really is the shortest/longest day today this year. (I know I have quite a few Australian friends/readers.)

The picture, of winter sun, is by roxicons and is a depiction of the solstice setting sun, seen through winter trees.

Happy Solstice Everyone!

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Sounds of winter: day 20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuXKAFBJzD0

Holly Mistletoe sung by The Dolmen. For the next few days (or nights) I want to emphasise the solstice rather than Christmas or for that matter winter. There are some incredibly beautiful solstice songs, some based on carols and some totally unconnected. The solstice is round about 21st of December but the actual timing of the longest night and shortest day changes slightly from year to year according to the earth’s journey around the sun which does not fall neatly into an exact 365 days.

The mistletoe in my photograph is in Virginia Water, part of Windsor Great Park, where, of course, we find Windsor Castle. It’s not far from my brother-in-law’s house so ideal for walking dogs, grandchildren, etc. Unlike holly and ivy (and fir boughs) which are used to decorate church interiors, mistletoe has mostly been banned from churches, possibly originally because of its strong connection to druids.

The Hallé Orchestra (Manchester based) has just announced a specially recorded Christmas Concert, which will be available for free on YouTube from midday (UTC) on Sunday i.e. today. You can tune in by heading to the orchestra’s channel here. And no, I have no idea of the programme. I just copied the information from our local paper.

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Sounds of winter: day 19

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8i0ypSqBxE  

Santa Claus is pagan too is sung here by Emerald Rose with lovely illustrations that make us think of Yule, Green men, the origins (both pagan and Christian) of Santa, and the way the Church took over ancient festivals and remade them to suit its own agenda. I am by no means criticising that; I find it fascinating and just think we should always remember the roots of our festivals, as I said yesterday. Incidentally, I’m not Pagan or Wiccan. Or Christian for that matter. If I’m anything, I’m Humanist, but I’m not a member – I tend not to join things.

My photograph of a stone ‘green man’ is in the outside wall of Chester Cathedral. Masons often carved interesting symbols that had little or nothing to do with Christianity. Some were actually useful as water spouts; others were just decorative. We usually call them all gargoyles and use the term to mean something ugly but at times they have a strange beauty.

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Sounds of winter: day 18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI7NY7IFTt4

The Holly and the Ivy is sung here by St Paul’s Cathedral Choir. It’s a traditional carol, with a respectable history going back to the Middle Ages, but it inevitably makes me think of the pagan emphasis on the forests and evergreens of the far north. The trees are given Christian significance but this always seems an ‘add-on’, an attempt to bring Yule to Rome, or Rome to Yule. I love the melody.

I’m currently reading a really interesting book called A Book of Christmas by William Sansom. It explores the links between Christianity and older pagan festivals, both because the early church adopted traditions and added a Christian element to them, and because some of the gospel stories are deliberately ‘tweaked’ to make more of an impact. For instance, the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus have a lot in common with similar stories of Apollo and Mithras and it is likely that dates etc. were altered for missionary purposes. Today I learnt that carols prior to mediaeval times were non-religious songs connected with joyful ring dances. Obviously worth adopting and bringing into the church fold!

The holly in the photograph grows in the unadopted lane where we live. It’s in an ancient hedge and most years there are berries. We now have a holly sapling in our garden, presumably a gift from the lane.