Are you fascinated by that most mysterious thing, the act, the mystery, the alchemy at the moment of creativity?

While The Tales of Tarya trilogy is presented as a fantasy for Young Adults, I think it’s an engrossing read for anyone aged 109 or under who is fascinated by that most mysterious thing, the mystery at the heart of creating things.

What happens to artists, writers, composers, as they disappear into “where the magic happens”? Do they go to another place entirely? Do they go to Tarya? The Tales will especially appeal, I think, to anyone who has stepped on a stage and entered that terrifying in-between moment being being oneself and playing the role.

‘Thunder rolled heavily as Mina neared her house, her steps weighed down by the endless years ahead, fulfilling everyone’s needs but her own.’

Mina’s quiet days consist of helping her family, particularly Uncle Tonio who had some sort of breakdown years before. She had enlivened her hours by telling stories but her father forced her to stop – he feared them for some reason.

Players arrive in her backcountry town of Andon in Litonya. The disturbing Harlequin invites Mina to join the troupe. She accepts in the hope of learning what happened to her brother who had disappeared years before. Her father now reveals that her story telling is a special gift: she can call visions into being with her words.

As the troupe rolls through Litonya in their wagons Mina tests her story telling powers and discovers a mysterious other world called Tarya.  But her new friends evade her questions, even Dario to whom she feels attracted . They pass through villages afraid of the Players and some people in them seem to be empty of soul, like Uncle Tonio. She grows more and more uneasy.

Rachel Nightingale looks at the paradox of power. When you can affect the lives of others you could do great good but also unwittingly cause harm. And always there are those who take power for themselves and abuse it anyway.

‘Darkness can come from what seems to help others’.

The descriptions of the other-world of Tarya itself are lyrical, dreamy, haunting. I couldn’t get enough of it. I will never think about creativity again without Tarya in mind.

The Tales of Tarya, by Rachael Nightingale are published by  Odyssey Books.
Columbine’s Tale, Book two of the series, and Book Three, Pierrots’ Song are also out now.

I recommend also the website for Rachael Nightingale, novelist, playwright, performer and thespian, where she speaks of the power of story and fantasy in our lives. Readers can learn more there about the Commedia dell’Arte.

The Tales of Tarya is available at: Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble, and Chapters Indigo, among others. For Columbine’s Tale see Amazon and BookDepository.

You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a bibliophile, dark coffee tragic, and the guardian and blundering typist for Mawson Bear,  one of this bright world’s few published bears.

Cats rejoice! Ollie is here. By perusing his diary, the discerning cat (and aren’t all cats ‘discerning’) can be taken through important questions such as how to successfully enter a new household, how relate to the other established felines, and how to manage the Two-legged-furless-food-bowl-filler-person.

‘There’s a lot of work involved in being a kitten. It’s not all lying around looking cute and adorable, you know, although that is part of my job description.’ Ollie speaking (on the day of The Great Toilet Paper Debacle.)

The Lazy Paws Guest House for Discerning Felines

The Pet Shop Man phoned The Cat Lady of Brook Street about a kitten who had lost his home. She called him Ollie, ‘and he didn’t stop crying.’ Meeting a line up of six huge cats, Garfield, Sam, Billy. Timmy, Ricky and Charlie, when he arrived only frightened him more.

Great Garfield, the Obi Wan Kenobi of Felines

But Garfield takes kindly to the kitten and helps him to understand important things. ‘Cats live alongside, humans and … we help them, guide them, show them the way.’ Mentored by wise Garfield, Ollie learns the ways of the Guest House and how to enjoy his life. Napping, eating, exploring, watching the birds, and dancing with butterflies are important parts of his curriculum.

Some Things To Not Do, Apparently

Trying to dig a way out of a laundry by making an artistic hole in a new mat. Peeing on a cushion. Leaping out from behind doors on unsuspecting fellow cats. Peeing on the cushion again. Chewing the knitting wool. Helping to sweep by standing on the broom. Bounding on to Mum’s bed at 4.30 am.

The Great Cat In The Sky

As he gets a bit bigger, Ollie also learns how to swing from the curtains, do daring roof climbs, and to make neighbourhood friends. From Garfield he learns the stories of cats who have lived before in the house, and how to Say Goodbyes.

‘The Great Cat gives us a certain amount of time with the two-legged furless ones … and its up to us .. to teach humans about life and how to get the best out of it.’ Garfield to the house hold cats.

‘I, Ollie, ,the award-winning Diary writer Extraordinaire, have danced with Butterflies’. Ollie, in May

 Landing On All Four Paws: The diary of a kitten called Ollie, by Ollie Cat, is now available on Amazon. (FREE too, if you use Kindle Unlimited.) The author dedicates it to “all the cats I’ve known and loved, and those I’ve yet to meet.” Take a look. You will purr, you will growl, y ou will discover cat Tai chi, you will curl up for a nap, and you will get a bit teary.

Ollies Further adventures are now out too! And a third one is on the way.

The author: Pauline Dewbery helped Ollie to record his adventures. She trained to be an editor and had many articles published in teen girl’s magazines. Pauline is a pet bereavement counsellor. The Daily Mews is Pauline Dewberry’s popular website for cat lovers. With cat humour and jokes, caption contests, guest articles about cat care and cat antics, it is your ‘purrfect way to start the day.’ It provides, among other things, a space to respectfully reflect on feelings of grief for our passed pets, for instance, in the tributes called “Napping on A Sunbeam”.

Pauline also wrote For Such A Time As This: My journey through cancer. How love and my cats sustained, fortified me, and helped take the pain away. This is listed at Amazon UK and Amazon USA and on Amazon Australia. and more. It’s about $3 on Kindle and in some regions its FREE to read with Kindle unlimited.

You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a dark coffee tragic, bibliophile and Guardian of Mawson Bear, a Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears.

She snarled in a most unladylike way, ‘Stay away from my grandfather, stay away from my family, and stay away from me.’ Robyn Stanford to our hero. P. 15.

We begin as Amun Galeas confides in us about certain events in 1888 in London and .. Wait, who is this Amun Galeas? He doesn’t seem to know that himself. Each time he carries his throbbing head out of a strange bedroom to seek answers he gets bashed again. I wondered if our narrator would even last the early chapters; nor did he seem to have much confidence about that chance himself.

Unarmed except for my razor wit, which many would argue made me totally defenceless, I crept through the gate ..

Time and again our hero is rescued by Sebastian Vulk, but just who is that randy old dog? We readers have little time to mull over these identities, however, due to the odd attitude of Amun’s hosts, the Stanton family, about their disappearing servants.

Journalist, Abraham (call me ‘Bram’) Stoker scents a scoop. Bram is turns out to be usefully related to Mr Doyle, a medical man, Arthur Conan Doyle, that is, who knows a peculiar corpse when he sees one.

Amun in the course of his most enlightening account, entrusts we readers with the curious and true facts of what really occurred in London the year 1888 (necesarily suppressed at the time); and we incidentally learn where Messers Stoker and Doyle first heard the genisis of the stories they were to later publish. The two cousins turn out to be handy with sword blades as well as quills, which is just as well because there is a certain degree of close quarter fighting in this story.

I hefted my sword over my head like some ancient statue depicting St George slaying the dragon, and then brought the weapon down with a noise similar to chopping into a thick cabbage.

A shipwreck in Australia, an overly-optimistic medical procedure on a Pope, a study of the London railway network, a survey of the complex Balkan history, and of one weird ‘Balkan Problem’ in particular, a hitherto unrecorded episode of young Winston Churchill’s career, and more .. These apparently disparent elements are most satisfactorily weaved together, twist by turn, in this thrilling, chilling, and entertaining novel from Phil Hore.

But, you ask, what about the dragons in the title? Oh, you will learn all about it in this true account, gentle reader. Select an armchair (set its back to the wall in the corner, of course) settle down, pour a red wine, a deep red red wine – and enjoy. Oh, and, err, keep a shield close to hand. Useful things, shields.

Where to learn about this dastardly Brotherhood of the Dragon: From Odyssey Books , and Amazon and Bookshop Org (supporting local bookshops.)
Or, ask your friendly local bookstore to order it in for you, and more for friends who appreciate gothic tales.