I’ve been giving myself a break this summer and taking advantage of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. I really enjoy CFFC, and I like being able to participate with photos only. However, this week I’m bending the rules – Cee, you knew it had to happen – and combining the challenge with a blog post I’ve been working on for a while. First the challenge:
“This week our topic is celebrating things that Would make a friend happy. There are endless possibilities for this week. Have fun and don’t forget to smile along the way.”
I am hoping the post I’ve been working will make my friend Teagan Geneviene happy. When I first started reading “The Veil – Journey 14” which is Teagan’s latest (and final) installment in her “Dead of Winter” serial, I was taken back to the very beginning. On page 1, there’s a reference to “Osibide’s empty cottage.” I think that was one of the capture points for me – a point in the early days of the story where I knew I was hooked. Osabide was my first favorite character. She was later joined (not displaced) by her niece, Zasha and then many others as the journeys took Emlyn away from her father and her family (who were willing to abandon her), to a world of magic and wonder. In addition to the physical journeys, Emlyn was on a journey of self-discovery.
Knowing I was at the end of a series I had been reading for a year and a half, I was hoping to see some of my other favorite characters. I didn’t have to wait long. Gethin, one of my favorite characters, appears in the first chapter, and even though I remember him well, I learned more about him in this Journey. I think that’s the remarkable thing about this epic story – I am still learning things about some of Teagan’s characters.
This is particularly true of the main character, Emlyn, I learned more about the power she had. The power and powerful weapons the Deae Matrres possessed, and the knowledge they possessed. A key thread in this amazing tapestry has been the value of knowledge, and that resonates well with me.
I followed Emlyn as she stumbled through the realm of the dead, as she rode in the company of the Deae Matrres, and as she became more confident in the abilities from which she could not hide. Her confidence grew slowly during the early journeys, as she was being prepared for the battle only she could face – the task only she could perform. Teagan brings readers into the epic fight, the struggle for which we had been waiting. Assembled alongside Emlyn are the many characters I had met along the way.
No spoilers here, but everything about this final journey seemed right and wonderful to me. Teagan’s characteristic strength of description is evident, as it has been throughout the story – as it is every time she shares her stories with us. She connected the dots for me, she answered the questions that had formed along the way – some as early as January 2021. Her characters acted as I expected they would – as I knew they would!
As many others have mentioned, in a way, I am sad to see the journeys end. I’ve never read anything like “Dead of Winter.” High fantasy is not a genre I would have ever claimed to be interested in, but this story held my attention from the first chapter of Journey number one. In a discussion with another blogger, I joked that “I enjoy the genre of Teagan.” I also noticed that Teagan left many possibilities for future stories to come from the realm of the living, and perhaps a visit here or there to the realm of the dead. I look forward to those if Teagan presents them.
If you were following “Dead of Winter” but haven’t read “The Veil” yet, I invite you to click on the universal purchase links listed ahead of my own shameless marketing block. If you fell off one of the Deae Matrres’ wagons along the way, visit Teagan’s announcement post which includes universal purchase links to all the Journeys. The Journeys are easy to read and the story will draw you in and hold your attention as it did mine.
I have a few more photos in the gallery that should make Teagan happy, and a few that stretch the definition of ‘friend’, but I think they meet the challenge Cee gave us.
Journey 14, The Veil
Kindle: relinks.me/B0B41FF3FX
Paperback: relinks.me/B0B3RVHG1S
All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
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