Ever wonder what it's like to be a wolf?

Wouldn’t it feel great to be in the body of a wolf? I’ve always wondered what it would be like. Alas, I don’t have that extraordinary ability, but my character in The Wolf Queen does. I get to live it through her eyes.

Snippet from The Wolf Queen:

Naked, she closed her eyes and thought of the wolf that lived inside her. Her blood grew hot as it coursed through her body. Her limbs twisted, her body shifting and transforming in a rush of tingles and surprisingly mild pain despite muscles, bones, and skin reshaping. The exhilarating sensations thrummed in her blood, a powerful combination of strength and belonging. She found herself on all fours, looking through the keen eyes of a wolf. An unexpected surge of excitement sent her leaping and pawing at the ground. She ran around to prepare for the jump across the river, testing her newfound skills. How could she have gone through her life so far and not experienced this?

Because it is forbidden.

****

Book Title: The Wolf Queen

Author: Kelley Heckart

Author website: http://www.kelleyheckart.com

Genre: Greek myths/fantasy/paranormal/werewolves/romance

Release date: 12/17/15

Page Count: 246

ISBN-13: 978-1519606242

ISBN-10: 1519606249 

ASIN: B019HML564

Kindle Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019HML564?ref_=pe_2427780_160035660

Trade Paperback Buy Link on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Queen-Book-Arcadia/dp/1519606249/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Blurb

The Wolf Queen

Book 2: The Arcadia Series

A new twist on Beauty and the Beast and the Greek myth of Lycaon the werewolf. A Bronze Age fantasy, adventure, and romance set in Arcadia, the wild forests of the goddess Artemis… Game of Thrones meets The Iliad…

A tormented wolf man… A mysterious girl with a terrible secret…

Alara, a princess from a foreign land, is forced to wed the sorcerer-king Aramon, a power-hungry warlord, who discovers her dark secret and wants to use her to create an invincible army. When she meets Lycaon, she must decide if she should trust the cursed, tormented half-man half-wolf who might be her enemy or her true mate.

Lycaon, once a great king until he was cursed by Zeus to be a werewolf, is drawn to the mysterious princess. He is torn between helping Alara escape and using her to gain power over those who despise him.

Secrets abound and old enemies are reunited to battle Aramon before his terrible plan is unleashed. Time is running out as the dark moon approaches. Soon, Arcadia will be overrun with an unstoppable, vicious army unless Aramon can be defeated. To prevent his victory, the cost is high. As Lycaon’s affection for Alara grows, it becomes more difficult for him to decide which to save: Arcadia or her.

5 stars! “A read any paranormal reader could love and one I highly recommend.” Sorrel at LASR

5 stars! “This was an amazing story full of twist and turns. Kelley Heckart is an incredible author and I found myself lost in the story from the start.” Amazon review

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

http://www.goodreads.com/kheckart

Erinyes—not your average heroines

Deciding to make my heroine in Daughter of Night one of the Greek Erinyes was a bit challenging at first. After all, these terrifying ladies are vengeance goddesses and their only duty is to punish mortal wrongdoers—not your average women. I had to figure out a way to make a female that looks frightening and punishes people into an attractive, likable heroine. With a little magic, I was able to make that happen.

And when I say magic, I mean that Rhea, the Great Goddess, used magic to turn her vengeance goddess into a human.

That seemed like the best way to turn a vengeance goddess into a heroine, considering that the Erinyes, known as Furies in Roman mythology, felt no remorse while enacting justice to mortal sinners. Punishments ranged from tormenting madness to suffering a terrible disease.

According to Hesiod, the Great Goddess, in her aspect as Night, bore these terrifying creatures. “Night bore hateful Doom and dark Fate and Death, she bore Sleep, she bore the Tribe of Dreams...and the Fates she bore, and the mercilessly punishing Furies who prosecute the transgressions of men and gods—never do the goddesses cease from their terrible wrath until they have paid the sinner his due.”

The Greek poets told of the Erinyes pursuing evildoers on Earth, usually as a group of three—Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto. These Daughters of Night had a frightening appearance with snakes for hair, eyes that wept bloody tears, bronze or bat wings and sharp teeth. The only way to avoid being punished by these ladies was to live a sin-free life. Sounds easy, right? Apparently not for some people that were punished by the Daughters of Night. There is one bright spot—showing remorse can help end the torment.

In my new release, Daughter of Night, Rhea created another Daughter of Night named Becuille. This vengeance goddess had the power to punish mortals, but her main duty was to punish the other gods, the Titans, whenever they disobeyed Rhea. She also served Rhea as a personal guard and became the Great Goddess’s most trusted servant. Rhea uses magic to make Becuille human and sends her to find the Titan that betrayed her and hiding in a foreign land. Even though Rhea trusts Becuille, giving a vengeance goddess human emotions and sending her out into the world might not be the best idea.

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

Blurb: Two mortals are caught up in the battle between the Titans and Olympian gods.

Buy links for Daughter of Night:

Mundania Press (in ebook formats and trade paperback):

http://www.mundania.com/book.php?title=Daughter+of+Night

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Of-Night-ebook/dp/B008OCANEO/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343182822&sr=1-14&keywords=kelley+heckart

Barnes & Noble Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/daughter-of-night-kelley-heckart/1112220212?ean=2940015001952

Buy links on author website: http://kelleyheckart.com/daughter_of_night.html

Other books in my Past Lives series:

Not even the wrath of the gods could keep them apart.

http://kelleyheckart.com/BookShelf.html

Crow and raven women in fiction

A common theme keeps popping up in my stories—crow or raven women. I’m not sure why this is happening, but my fascination with these beings probably has something to do with my love of Celtic myths. The Irish hero Cuchulain had many encounters with the Irish battle goddess, Morrigan. She is his nemesis. Ravens and crows are prevalent in Celtic myths. They are associated with battlefields and death, prophecy and the Otherworld. In some versions of the King Arthur myth, upon his death, Arthur turns into a raven. Crows and ravens play an important part in the lives of the ancient Celts.

Celtic goddesses embodied war and fertility and had a fierceness and danger that other goddesses lacked. Even the serene Brigit had her hand in warfare—she inspired blacksmiths that created farm tools as well as weapons. The aspects of the Celtic goddesses reflect what we know about Celtic women. Roman writers called them more fearsome than even their men.

Since I write a lot of Celtic-themed stories with warriors and otherworldly creatures, the crow and raven women that appear in my tales are important to the story. Though different incarnations of the battle goddess, my crow and raven women have some similarities. They are neither good nor evil, but they are unpredictable and make trouble for my hero and heroine. They can change their shape into a crow or raven or have feathered wings.

I am doing something a little different in a story I am working on with one of my crow women. She is not a Fae or goddess, but was human until dark magic transformed her. This is also the first time one of my crow or raven women is the heroine. And the story is set in ancient Greece, not one of my usual Celtic settings. I draw on Greek mythology for this tale, which also has its share of crow and raven myths.

Authors, do you have a favorite theme that appears in most of your stories? Readers, do you have a favorite theme in the books you read?

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/ Check out my long hair hotties!

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse…

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in dark age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.

http://kelleyheckart.com/BookShelf.html

Favorite paranormal creature?

I’m working on a new series and trying to decide which paranormal creature I want to use. Vampires have been really popular, but I hear they are on their way out, though I find this hard to believe. Vampires have fascinated humans since Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Then Ann Rice’s popular vampire novels changed the way people viewed the creatures of the night. She was the first author to write erotic vampires. And recently it was the Twilight series that became popular with women of all ages. I think vampires are here to stay. I have had a vampire, a Greek vampire, in one of my series so I’m not sure about vampires for this series I am working on now.

Werewolves have also been quite popular. I have to admit that I lean toward werewolves for the series I am working on. True werewolves, not shapeshifters that can change at will, but the ones cursed to change at the full moon. Bloodthirsty beasts. Killers. What fascinates me about this type of creature is that for the rest of the month, the werewolf is human. I think it’s that beast within theme that is so attractive to me—that mixture of innocence and danger.

Faeries and angels are also popular. I have written faeries before so I want to do something that I haven’t done before. There are so many types of paranormal creatures to choose from that I will have to do some more research and decide what is best for my series.

Do you have a favorite paranormal creature that you would like to see in stories?

 

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/ Check out my long hair hotties!

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse…

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in dark age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.