Happy release day to Sandi Layne, author of the Éire’s Viking Trilogy! Éire’s Devil King is the final book in this epic series. You can read my review here. Don’t forget to read the guest post from Ms. Layne below, and enter the giveaway before you rush off to grab your copy of the book!
PRESENTS. . .
Éire’s Devil King
Book 3 of Éire’s Viking Trilogy
by Sandi Layne
Release Date: April 2 , 2015
Genre: FICTION / Historical Fiction Time Periods/ Medieval / Viking
ISBN e-book: 978-1-61213-376-8
~~SUMMARY~~
A man of ability and ambition, Tuirgeis Erlingrson has nurtured the desire to carve a place of leadership for himself on the Green Island, Éire, that he has raided multiple times. After the death of his wife in Nordweg, he takes his surviving son to Éire. Having connections with his adopted brother, Cowan, and Agnarr, his former countryman, Tuirgeis feels he has the support he needs to make his claims strong.
Agnarr is torn. His promise to Aislinn to remain with her on Éire is still in force, and he resists Tuirgeis’s requests to join the conquering forces from Nordweg. He desires above all things to maintain a safe home for his wife and children in Dal Fíatach. Charis encourages Cowan to do the same, though this makes for tense moments between them.
After initial disastrous attempts to achieve his ambition, Tuirgeis comes to learn that there is more to claiming a kingship than merely overpowering the locals. Tuirgeis finds himself at odds with the very people he had hoped would reinforce him. In addition, he wants to establish his father-line. He has one son; he wants another to be born of Éire. Will the woman of his choice accept and support him?
At length, Agnarr and Aislinn—though she is heavy with child—sail with Cowan and Charis to join Tuirgeis as he battles over one final summer to attain the High Kingship of the island.
Tuirgeis knows he doesn’t have long to make his claims; the Danes are coming in greater numbers than before. As he wins men of Éire to his cause, he has to maintain the relationships he has already fostered with Agnarr and Cowan. Charis finds that her Otherworldly gifts are needed by a man she considers her enemy.
Guest Post
How does it feel to be coming to the end of this trilogy? What are the craziest things you have learned about Vikings along the way?
= = =
Heill, Sarah, and thank you for once again hosting me on your blog!
The first really fun thing I learned, more than a decade ago in my earliest points of researching for what is now Éire’s Captive Moon, was that the men of the North had some explicit graffiti practices, of which there is still evidence on the Orkney Islands of Scotland. One tells of a pretty widow named Ingigerd, for example. This rune is from Maeshowe and the image is credited to http://www.maeshowe.co.uk/maeshowe/runes.html.
Before I started spending time with the Northmen, I never really considered how playful they were, or what their cultural values were regarding romance. For example, a “real man” didn’t spend time alone with his betrothed before they were married. Her reputation was based largely on how honorably he treated her and a Norseman wanted all he knew to know he was marrying a woman of virtue, whether she was a virgin or a widow. They weren’t supposed to write poems to her or about her—it was considered bad form—but many men did so anyway. In the second book of my trilogy, when there is a betrothal between a man of Nordweg and a woman of Éire, he is confused because she was allowed to spend time alone with him, and they could kiss and so on without anyone saying anything. Culture shock can be fun to write!
Another interesting aspect to their culture was the Norse concept of revenge. “A wise man waits to have his vengeance,” a saying goes, “And a fool never takes revenge at all.” So the art and craft of getting back at someone for a wrong done was developed and accepted in this culture, but the offense had to be thoroughly recognized as an offense by the general populace or taking vengeance would be considered a crime.
The strangest thing that I found in my research, though, turned out to be the end goal of my trilogy: I found that a Viking became—for a time—the High King of Ireland. The first instance I found his name in a history book, it was listed as Tuirgeis and that is the way I’ve kept it throughout the trilogy. He is alternately named as Thorgest or Thorgeis. When I wrote Éire’s Captive Moon, I kept Tuirgeis’s eventual destiny in mind as I included him as a secondary character. By the time I had committed to writing the trilogy, I knew how he had to develop to be this unusually ambitious man. So I set to work on him. By Éire’s Devil King, I felt I had given him the background he needed to be the man who usurped a kingdom. I hope my readers can get a feel for him, too.
It seems strange not to be doing new research for the Norse culture of the 9th Century these days, I confess. Completing the Éire’s Viking Trilogy certainly feels good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been hard to redirect my avenues of inquiry as I work on other projects. I have an historical novel that I’m researching for at present as well as a contemporary romance, but I don’t know these people as well I as I know my Viking Trilogy characters and it’s been hard to transition.
Still, I am proud that I finished what I set out to do, for sure, and not regretful for reaching the final The End. I am really looking forward to having all three paperbacks in my hands at once, if you can believe that. It may sound silly, but it’s something I am eager to see.
~~EXCERPT~~
It was dark in the langhús, save for the glowing of the coals banked in the fire ring. Agnarr enjoyed his wife’s responsiveness to him, and when they made love, he never forgot to thank his new God for letting her live through the births of the children their bodies made together. Before the sun crept under the door and through the shutters over the new windows, they were smiling and silent and relishing the moments—he knew there would only be moments—before the children stirred in the bench-bed they shared.
Later, as their son and daughter began shifting restlessly prior to awakening, Agnarr sat up and blew out a breath. “Wife.”
“Yes, husband?” She joined him, finding his hand with hers in the shadowy enclosure of their private area.
“We need to be ready. You need to be ready. You and the children.”
She sighed and shifted on the blankets so that she was looking directly at him. As was her habit, she continued to touch him with her fingers as she spoke. “I can fight. And you gave Dow a real knife at the Christ Mass.”
Discomfort tightened his stomach as he shook his head. “You need to be able to escape, just in case.” He knew far too well what would happen if someone found his attractive wife. Someone whom he didn’t know. Someone who would find her dark hair appealing and the tatú on her cheek mysterious and alluring. Someone who would want to take her as their leman, as he had once taken Charis.
Someone who might take his son as a slave.
Jaw tightening in anger, he shook his head again. Hard. “You know what can happen to you.” Her eyes were on his face, and he met their steady gaze. “And the children. You need to be able to get away. We should find a way to make you safe.”
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~~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~~
Award winning author of short Celtic fiction, Sandi Layne is the creator of the Éire’s Viking Trilogy, as well as works of contemporary Christian romance.
She began by self-publishing her novels in 2000, garnering a loyal group of readers whom she continues to appreciate to this day.
Married for more than twenty years to a fantastic man, she has two sons, no pets, and a plethora of imaginary friends. Her interests range from ancient civilizations to science fiction. With degrees in English and Ministry, she also claims Theology’s crimson Masters collar which she has been known to don on rare occasions.
If you drive by her window before dawn, it is likely she’ll have a light on for you. Or at the very least, she’ll be alert on twitter. She invites you to visit her online space at http://sandyquill.com.
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