Five Short Stories For the Holidays

The romance of the coming holidays tugs at everyone's heart. The magic of Christmas is in the memories we hold dear and those precious treasures that remind us of the past. Join us as our Timeless Keepsakes take us on five remarkable journeys that heal old wounds, remind us of days gone by, play matchmaker, sweep us back in time and prove that love can conquer all.

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Introduction ~ Sharon Sala

Mistletoe and Magick ~ Ruth A. Casie

She would give her last breath for him. He would give up everything to guard her well and love her more.

Christmas Spirits ~ Lita Harris

A widow's everlasting love is renewed by the memories of the holiday season.

Granting Her Wish ~ Emma Kaye

She doesn't belong in his time and he doesn't belong back home. Could they belong to each other?

Letter from St. Nick ~ Nicole S. Patrick

She’s trying to save her home and he’s never had one until now. Can an unexpected gift lead their hearts to the same place?

Secret Santa ~ Julie Rowe

A nurse grieving the death of her twin brother receives an unusual gift at the staff Secret Santa party: the bullet that killed him along with a message of hope and love.

Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway information available.

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2 Unrelated Posts: ~Windows Tech Scam ~New Release

Today, I'm shortening my originally planned post about an anthology my critique partners and I are self-pubbing (see below) to talk to you about hacking.

Windows Tech Scam. Computer hacking to be precise. Last week, and again today, Windows support called me and told me that they had information that my computer was corrupted.

While I had them on the phone I instant messaged with my son who does computer security work for the Defense Department. After laughing and telling me windows is a program not a company (I knew that), he told me about the scam.

A technician from windows support calls to tell you about your corrupt computer. They walk you through getting to your Event Viewer to see all he error messages. They ask you to download software so they can remote into your computer and delete the error messages and 'fix' things. They go on to try to sell you software to protect your system.

I'm certain you've seen several red flags here. I've helped you a bit there. In addition you have given them credit card information and what you don't see is the software they download into your computer to do even more havoc.

Here is a great article and video from Wire.Co.UK that explains the entire scam. The scammers call randomly. When they called Jerome Segura they didn't realize they had reached a senior security researcher at anti-malware company Malwarebytes.

* * * * *

New Release. My critique partners and I have put together a holiday anthology that will be available on Amazon early November. We are excited that Sharon Sala has graciously offered to write the introduction. Here is the information about the book.

The magic of Christmas is in the memories we hold dear and those precious treasures that remind us of the past. 

Join us as our Timeless Keepsakes take us on five remarkable journeys that heal old wounds, remind us of days gone by, play matchmaker, sweep us back in time and prove that love can conquer all. 

Available November 1, 2013

Mistletoe and Magick ~ Ruth A. Casie
She would give her last breath for him. He would give up everything to guard her well and love her more.

Christmas Spirits ~ Lita Harris
A widow’s everlasting love is renewed by the memories of the holiday season.

Granting Her Wish ~ Emma Kaye
She doesn’t belong in his time and he doesn’t belong back home. Could they belong to each other?

Letter From St. Nick ~ Nicole S. Patrick
She’s trying to save her home and he’s never had one until now. Can an unexpected gift lead their hearts to the same place?

Secret Santa ~ Julie Rowe
A nurse grieving the death of her twin brother receives an usual gift at the staff secret Santa party: the bullet that killed him along with a message of hope and love.

Druids

Last month’s offering was about the ancient Avebury stones in Southern England. The stone circles and megaliths that pre-date written history leave much to the imagination. It’s no wonder they are the setting for mystical and magical stories. The Druids, a mystical order of people, have spurred legends and stories of magic, human sacrifice, and ancient rites. It seems like a match made in heaven!

The earliest references to Druids are in the writings of Julius Caesar. He cited Greek and Roman texts from 200 BCE. These now lost early writings depicted the Druids as wise Celtic elders. The responsibility of these elders was to memorize the history and knowledge of their tribe and pass the information on to the next generation to ensure the future of their society.

The Druids, with their revered knowledge, played an important role in society and were a respected warrior class. They were a single authority responsible to act as judge, a lifelong position passed down in secret, to the next generation. This elite training, held in caves and forests, along with their herbalist expertise and the later development of the Ogham alphabet, associated with the Celtic lunar tree calendar, may have led to the summation that Druids were strongly linked to nature. Their vast knowledge gave them unequaled power over their people.

They met annually at a sacred place in a region owned by the Carnute tribe in the heart of Gaul. Gaul was a large area in Western Europe that is now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, as well as parts of Switzerland, Northern Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

Without any written history, it is difficult to know the ritual, political and clerical practices. However, if we look at documented Celtic history we could make some assumptions about the druids.

The ancient Druids were priests, teachers, physicians (herbalists), legislators, astronomers, chemists, musicians, poets, theologians, philosophers, diviner, and judges of their time. Their insight was highly respected and their religious, judicial, and scholastic authority was absolute. Viewed as the conduit between the people and the gods, they handed down their knowledge orally from generation to generation.

Druid beliefs focused on the supreme power of the universe and the belief that the soul was indestructible/ immortal and after death passed on to another. Because of the diverse geography and number of tribes and cultures that made up the Celts, there were a variety of gods. This is one of the strongest factors in supporting the theory that Druids did not teach religion but rather taught their philosophy which gave order to the many different structures, instilled morals, virtues and ethics. So strong was the teaching that aristocrats, even kings, sought out Druids to teach their children. Because druidic instructions were memorized verses, none of the verses have survived.

Claims that Druids participated in human sacrifice are uncertain. Caesar claimed they sacrificed criminals by burning them in a wicker effigy, the wicker man. But other authorities claim Caesar’s information is all propaganda to demonize the Druid and justify his move to eradicate them.

Because the common people held them in such high regard, the Romans feared them. It was this reverence that prevented the success of Caesar’s invasion of Briton in 55 BCE. As a result, Caesar ordered their extinction. While almost successful a few Druids survived by hiding or converting to Christianity.

As with any invading and winning army, the Christian church absorbed the Celtic religion. Many of the pagan gods and goddess had new life as Christian saints with many sites that held spiritual significance becoming locations of cathedrals. By the 7^th century CE, Druidism was all but destroyed or had gone into hiding.

In medieval tales from Ireland, the Druids were portrayed as sorcerers with super natural powers. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, fraternal groups and neo-pagan organizations revitalized the ideas held by the Druids and there was a resurgence in Druidic beliefs. Today, modern Druidism is one of the pagan religions which include Wicca, Asatru, Shamanism.

If you are wondering about the picture at the top of this month’s blog, I couldn’t find a Druid but I found Gerard Butler from the movie 300 *sigh*  If you find a picture of a Druid, please send it along. 

A Sacred Site

I entered a contest after I wrote Knight of Runes not with hopes of winning, which would have been awesome, but rather for feedback. More than anything, I wanted feedback.

I did very well in the contest actually. Well, according to two of the three judges anyway. The swing in the third set of scores was, well that is a blog for another day. Suffice it to say, I placed well but didn't win. But I did get the feedback. Awesome!

My story is a time travel. Our heroine says the right words, carries the correct talisman, and is standing in the right spot, a constellation of events that transports her back in time 400 years. I set the magic place at Stonehenge.  I know it's been used before by some great authors and  I did take some ‘poetic’ license. The great stones now stand protected behind a fence. Visitors can't walk up and around them.  One judge noted that she lived near some great stones that were older than Stonehenge and didn't gave any barriers. The stones stand proudly amidst the village of Avebury, Wiltshire County in southern England.

 Avebury is impressive. While erosion and vandalism, to say nothing of religious persecution, has reduced the henge, it is breathtaking. Like other henges, construction at Avebury started with deforesting the area somewhere about 3700 B.C. Archaeologists estimate the actually setting of the stones began about 3000 B.C. when the central Cove, the early part of the Sanctuary, was built. Construction moved outward and lasted for several centuries. The circle covers almost 29 acres with a circumference of almost 1 mile. Concentric circles of stones defined the borders of the circle. These circles are much larger than the more famous Stonehenge. As a matter of fact, Stonehenge would fit into the outer stone circle at Avebury around 130 times.

 A large portion of village resides inside the Avebury circle.

The Cove is the area of the henge where Rebeka, my heroine, is drawn into the time portal.  Like the rest of the henge, it’s been a long held belief that the stones represent male and female characteristics. A male scientist must have done this designation as male stones are long and thin while the female is short and square. The two surviving primary stones at the Cove are perfect examples.  I thought the Cove the perfect place for Rebeka’s adventure to begin.

Runes

Have I got your attention?

This is the cover of my book, Knight of Runes. *Heavy sigh*  Runes, the writing down Lord Arik’s chest, play a large part in this story. Runes hold both the family secret and magic that the heroine, Rebeka, must decipher to finish her quest and win her man.

Runes are an alphabetic script used in Northern Europe from the first century c.e. until well into the Middle Ages. In addition to their use as a written alphabet, the runes also served as a system of symbols used for magic and divination. Runes fell into disuse as the Roman alphabets became the preferred script throughout most of Europe, but their forms and meanings were preserved in inscriptions and manuscripts. 

The primary characteristic differentiating a runic alphabet from other alphabets is each letter, or rune, has a meaning. For example, "ay", "bee", and "cee" are meaningless sounds. They represent the first three letters in our alphabet. The names of the first three runes, "fehu", "uruz", and "þurisaz" are actual words in the Germanic language, meaning "cattle", "aurochs" (ancestor of domestic cattle), and "giant", respectively. Runes also have magical and religious significance and transform the simple process of writing into something magical. Runes are also used for divinatory readings and creating magical spells.

In our popular culture, runes are associated with mystical properties. The etymology of the word rune may be a driving factor. The Germanic root of the word, run, means "to conceal", "a secret". There’s another way to explain its mystical context.

At first runes were used as a sacred writing system and later became not only the magic, but also the civilian script. The first runic inscriptions appeared around 200 AD, but its origins may lie much deeper in the pre-history of Northern Europe. For the next thousand years it was used in Germany, Scandinavia, England, and Lowlands. In the late Middle Ages it was replaced by the Roman script everywhere in Northern Europe.

The strange sharp forms we recognize today result from rune inscription on metal, stone, or wood boards. When the alphabet, suspected of originating in Scandinavia, spread to the British Isles and to continental Europe, its symbols somehow changed, as well as the number of them. Modern science makes a distinction between the Elder Runes (up to the 9th century), and the later Younger or Scandinavian Runes, a special variety that existed in Anglo-Saxon England from the 7th to the 10th century.

Fathark Runes

The Elder Runes, used mostly for magic purposes, contain many personal names and their lexicon is sometimes hard to understand, though the language is clear. There are about 150 runic inscriptions and some of them contain just one or two symbols. The Younger inscriptions are more numerous (about 3500), and are mostly documents written in particular Germanic languages.

Though the origin of Futhark is unknown, there is no doubt that the alphabet is connected with the alphabets of Southern Europe and the Mediterranean (Greek and Italic).

My next task is to study my cover, really hard, and see if I can decode the runes. It may take me a very long time. Oh, the things I do for history!

Hi! I'm Ruth A. Casie. I'm a new author on Romancing the Past. I've always had stories in my head. I was encouraged by my family and friends to give way to my inner muse and write from my heart. I write historical fantasies about strong men and empowered women and how they cope with unexpected challenges. I hope their stories become your favorite adventures!