Keeper of the Light Blog Tour!

Title: Keeper of the Light 
Author: Cynthia Owens
Series: Wild Geese #2
Pages: 274
Publisher: Highland Press
Date Published: October 1, 2013
Format: ebook
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours

Synopsis:
…Like the Wild Geese of Old Ireland, five boys grew to manhood despite hunger, war, and the mean streets of New York…She was everything he despised…but he didn’t know it. Cathal Donnelly washed up on the shores of an Atlantic island one stormy night, with no memory of who he was or why he was there. But is his lovely rescuer his salvation…or his doom? She dreamed of a very different life. Laura Bainbridge has spent her entire life on tiny Turtle Island, but she dreams of a Season in London and a presentation to Queen Victoria. Can a handsome Irish stranger with a golden tongue and a disturbing past change her heart and convince her to stay? As Cathal’s memory slowly returns, both he and Laura must come to grips with his painful past…and fight for a future free of hatred and loss.

~~~Guest Post~~~

Hello, and thank you so much for having me here today to talk about Keeper of the Light and the genre I’d never write! It’s a topic that’s rather timely, since Keeper of the Light, although a historical romance, is a little bit the genre I never planned to write!

I have to confess I’ve never been a particular fan of paranormal romance. Time travel, while an intriguing idea, never really appealed to me as a writer, nor did vampires, werewolves or shape-shifters.

So no one was more surprised than I was when I decided to write a ghost into Keeper of the Light.

But my hero, Cathal Donnelly, has always been a bit of a dreamer, a story teller and a singer of songs…especially Irish songs. And there’s none like the Irish for a good ghost story.

Thus was born the legend of Helena Bodewell, a mysterious female apparition who appears when Turtle Island is being battered by the storms that blow in from the wild Atlantic. And she has a mission: to bring two people together who can experience the happily-ever-after that she herself was denied by a cruel twist of fate.

Laura Bainbridge, heroine of Keeper of the Light, first sees Helena during a fierce, late-spring storm. And when the storm abated, she found Cathal Donnelly washed up on shore, barely conscious and with no memory of who he was.

Of course, just like any other ghost, Helena is not exactly predictable. Later in the story, she told me she needed to make another appearance in the story. She wanted to help Cathal and Laura find their way back to each other.

One does not argue with a ghost.

So there you have it. Keeper of the Light was the story in a genre I never thought I’d write.

Which only goes to show that no matter where you think your writing is going, your characters might just decide to take the story in a completely different direction.

~~~Try an Excerpt!~~~

A high, thin cry sliced through her reverie. Her skin prickling, Laura peered into the thick fog.

Nothing. Had she imagined the sound? Was it merely the wail of the wind, the cry of a seabird?

The sound came again, lost, grief-stricken. A woman’s keening wail.

She squinted harder, straining to make out a form, a shape, anything in the thick shroud of fog and dark.

“Is someone there?”

The heartrending cry came again, shivering along Laura’s spine and raking fingers of pain across her heart. “Please… where are you?”

There! High on the cliff at the far end of the beach. A small white-gowned figure, long blonde hair blowing around her. Laura gasped, coughing violently as the wind scored her lungs.

It couldn’t be!

“Helena?” The howling wind snatched the whispered word and carried it away.

The woman turned slowly, and Laura’s breath caught in her throat. Had the woman in white heard?

She was beautiful. Laura had known she would be. Fragile and ethereal, the small woman’s sea-colored eyes blazed, her ruby lips curved into a smile of heartbreaking loveliness as she gazed steadily at Laura for a timeless moment.

Then the wisp of a vision vanished.

Laura squeezed her eyes shut. “It can’t be.”

Was it possible? Had she really just seen the legendary Lady of Turtle Island? Had Helena’s gaze really met hers?

Would the island ghost’s prophesy come true?

~~~Meet Cynthia!~~~

I believe I was destined to be interested in history. One of my distant ancestors, Thomas Aubert, reportedly sailed up the St. Lawrence River to discover Canada some 26 years before Jacques Cartier’s 1534 voyage. Another relative was a 17thCentury “King’s Girl,” one of a group of young unmarried girls sent to New France (now the province of  Quebec) as brides for the habitants (settlers) there. My passion for reading made me long to write books like the ones I enjoyed, and I tried penning sequels to my favorite Nancy Drew mysteries. Later, fancying myself a female version of Andrew Lloyd Weber, I drafted a musical set in Paris during WWII. A former journalist and lifelong Celtophile, I enjoyed a previous career as a reporter/editor for a small chain of community newspapers before returning to my first love, romantic fiction. My stories usually include an Irish setting, hero or heroine, and sometimes all three. I’m the author of The Claddagh Series, historical romances set in Ireland and beyond. The first three books in The Claddagh Series, In Sunshine or in Shadow, Coming Home, and Playing For Keeps, are all available from Highland Press. Deceptive Hearts, the first book in The Wild Geese Series, has just been released, and Book II, Keeper of the Light, will soon be released in October, 2013. I am a member of the Romance Writers of America, Hearts Through History Romance Writers, and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. A lifelong resident of Montreal, Canada, I still live there with my own Celtic hero and our two teenaged children.

Cynthia will be awarding a signed print copy of "Deceptive Hearts," Book I of The Wild Geese Series (Keeper of the Light is Book II), and a handmade beaded bookmark (US/Canada only) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and a GRAND PRIZE of a sterling silver Claddagh necklace will be awarded to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. (US/Canada only)