Delphic remnants. The Oracle of Delphi was active for almost 2000 years, its Sanctuary was one of the richest of the ancient world, a small state of intricate structures and innumerable art treasures (coming from every corner of the ancient greek world) that were mostly looted during Roman and Christian times. Home of the worship of the Sun God Apollo and his mantic properties, Delphi was initially a place dedicated to Mother Earth Gaia and her holy female snake. Apollo claimed the Oracle by killing the sacred Pytho(n), a sacrilege…so he got exiled for seven years as punishment for his crime before he could come back as the ruler of Delphi, this was the only way he could become purified again after his terrible act. Even gods need purification and repentance from time to time as it seems. Herakles later on unsuccessfully demanded the Oracle for himself by trying to steal the Delphic tripod from Apollo, Herakles was a prevalent figure of ancient greek religion and not just the big muscular guy our modern times and popular culture believe. Time distorts so many things after all…
The order of the photos follows the actual path of the archaelogical site. Mount Parnassus, a symbol and an actuality, is breathtaking as well as the view from the Stadium. Photos: Vera Bousiou
Thought this might resonate with Karen Chance fans!
Apollo and Artemis – the golden twins; children of Leto and Zeus. Both defended their mother’s honour when Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, boasted of having more and better children than Leto. The twins killed Niobe’s children, leaving her to weep eternally.
Artemis and Apollo remained close to each other always. Both siblings would become associated with the skill of archery, and they enjoyed hunting together. Artemis grew to become the virgin goddess of the hunt, of wild animals, and of childbirth and Apollo was the god of music, prophecy, healing, and youth. He never married, but he was by no means a celibate. He fathered more than a dozen children by at least nine different partners (his most famous courtship was that of Daphne who, rather than submit to him, chose to transform herself into a laurel tree).
Hey, I thought this might be a little relevant #Karen Chance Fans
So, for all my fellow fans out there rereading series over and over while waiting for the next book in any of our series–here are some series you may or may not know about yet…
Lauren Dane- Goddess with a Blade series. This is an ongoing PNR with a female kickass protagonist who is a vessel for the goddess Brighid. It has all the usual suspects, but a unique take on it. Lauren Dane is working on the next book now. She has other Paranormal series that are good as well, but this is my favorite
Shiloh Walker-The Hunters Series and The Grimm Circle books. Both are unique takes on the original archetypes. She also writes a more urban series under the penname J.C. Daniels about a really cool heroine Kit Colbana who is a member of a unique species called the Aneira.
Seanan Mcguire-October Daye, Incryptid and Indexing series–This has sarcasm in spades and all 3 are incredible stories. She also writes under the penname Mira Grant.
Kelley Armstrong-Cainsville (unique story based on celtic archetypes) and Casey Duncan Series (murder mysteries, sort of)
Karen Chance- Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series…a unique take on the usual Paranormal types. Focuses on time travel and is non stop action with a humorous take
Jacqueline Carey-Kushiels series More traditional fantasy with a lot of religious imagery and a lot of sex and violence Very good, and was around before PNR was a thing
So, here’s the thing. I am a reader. And with the advent of new technology, I can have my phone read to me while I do a gazillion other things…So, due to the fact that I had a speed reading class in high school and …well I consume books. And quickly. It makes Tuesdays my favorite day. And I have a lot of series I follow. So Karen Chance is one among the many for me. And at first I was Seriously mad at the delays and changing publication dates.
But in the last year, I have come to realize that my book’s are a coping mechanism. They give me something to hold on to. Something to talk about. Something to occupy the 60% of my brain that keeps screaming this can’t be my life. And to let me be somewhat calm, and positive. At least I’m not being chased by monsters, only creditors! And yes, I am a widow with two beautiful teenage daughters. Which means that I am scared to bring any man home because I am very careful about my blue eyed, blonde haired beautiful brilliant children are exposed to. And I had a great husband which means I am not willing to settle for anything else. So I read a lot of very explicit series cause that’s my only sexual release.
So I read Laurell K Hamilton and lots of others. But here’s the thing. We have to support our authors. The publishing business is hard. And they create these amazing worlds and characters we all.love. And for them the creation process is amazingly complex with first drafts and then edit after edit. Some people get really nasty about these amazing works of creation. And I understand that, too. I love the main characters in my books. They are like friends who I visit with every time I read the book. And I hate some of the things that happen. In a way even the violently negative feedback is a compliment to the author. But why should they keep spending 6-8 hours a day writing for us if we just bitch about it. Why do the work of edit after edit?
I am making a stand. Laurell K Hamilton won’t publish when her next book will be out or which series it will be. Why should she? Her fans will wail and whimper. If she just publishes it and tells us after the last draft is finalized, she gets to bypass all the people mad when she misses a date! And poor Karen Chance, who keeps trying to put out book 8-but the book is too long for paperback. And then there’s the other stuff she writes. Freebie’s that are hard work for her but taken as though they are due to the readers. Ever since Karen published Book 7, with delays, she has been working hard to give us a good book 8. And what do the readers do? Some of us go back and reread. Look for all the nuances we keep missing in the race to find out what happened. And then another group gets vocal-and trashes Karen Chance for missing publicized release dates. Rather than doing that, I’m doing the opposite.
I am going to support my favorite authors. I don’t care how long I have to wait for the next installment. I’m going to send them messages, asking questions about the books I have. I’m going to reread, and laugh and cry and scream and yell. I’m going to write new reviews, new FAQs, new posts. I’m going to do whatever the hell I can to make sure I get to know how the stories end. I will write petitions. I will beg, plead and cajole. I will help the next Kit Colbana book be made by sending money on Patreon. And I will appreciate the freebies, the alternate POV, the deleted scenes. I am doubly supportive of the authors I love who have prepublished schedules and put out surprise books too! I love Jenna Black and Lauren Dane and Seanan Mcguire and Kelley Armstrong and Christine Feehan. But I will keep on supporting everyone…
I have long been a fan of Paranormal Romance and Jr Ward has been one of my authors. All the readers out there know what I am talking about. We each have a few authors whom we adopt. We preorder their books months in advance and wait anxiously for release day. We are at Barnes and Noble when the doors open or we order from Amazon to make sure we get the book on release day. Sometimes we buy more than one copy to make sure we have the book no matter what happens. JR Ward was one of my authors. But something happened with the Black Dagger Brotherhood right around book 8 and they changed. I wanted to love the books as they came out and with some of them I was successful, with others not so much. The characters were there but the trials they faced were just so awful. Some of it felt contrived. And some of the stories had so many storylines trying to interact, it was easy to get lost in the shuffle. In hindsight, I see that the books had to change and given the strong emotional investment we had in all the characters the jumping around was necessary. Then things got worse. The Happily Ever After endings stopped coming. Some of the characters died and it was worse than the first time around. It felt like the world in the books was every bit as bad as the real world. Tragedy dogged the steps of our favorite characters and rather than resolution we got abdication.
A lot of fans left. And they were vocal about their defections. And a lot of the fans that remained were more cautious. Yes, we wanted to read it. We wanted to see how our characters were doing. But the excitement was tempered with trepidation. What big bad thing was going to happen now? So, I was ambivalent when I got my copy of the Chosen. I have to say that after reading it I am cautiously optimistic for the series. And JR Ward is back to being one of my authors. I’m a little frightened for the next book because I think its going to be about one of my favorite couples and I don’t want anything bad to happen to them.
I could write a long review of the Chosen, but since I am releasing this review on release day I will hold my tongue. I will say this, though. The Chosen has restored my faith in the BDB. So, I will wait with bated breath for our next book and I recommend that the readers who defected recently over a certain death might be surprised by what happens in this book.
So, There are lots of Cassie Palmer fans out there who don’t understand the synergistic relationship of Cassie and Dorina. After all, the two haven’t meet yet-which let me tell you, makes me wonder about Mircea Basarab. Makes me mistrust him cause how do you keep your daughter from your wife?!?! But I am rereading Midnight’s Daughter and I Cannot imagine the Cassieverse without the insight I get from the Dorina books. The Dorina books focus on the fae, but they also turn Louis-Cesar, Mircea,Kit Marlowe, Horatieu, and Radu into relate able characters. Hell, it even turns the counsel into someone more than her position and brings ley line racing and the senates into full focus. Especially since the last few Cassie books where its all about pritkin…So, if you haven’t already, you need to read the Dorina books. Start with Zombie’s Bite, it’s free! What do you think @windsurfingthroughhell@karenchancefan?
Just an FYI–Karen Chance does things a little differently. She writes awesome books for her publisher and she also writes free stories that bridge the gap between novels. Karen Chance actually writes these novellas and works just as hard on them as the novels. While some authors might have a deleted scene or two, Karen has scenes from different POV’s and the free stories are important! She writes them as a thank you to her loyal fans and it makes her a spectacular author to interact with
It’s been a while since I entered the Chanceverse and spent time with Cassie Palmer. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her, until I saw a conversation between two fans and I couldn’t remember the details they were discussing. The Cassandra Palmer world is so complex because as Pythia she keeps going back in time and that makes things complicated. And there are so many twists as we go along. I could write a dissertation on how Pritkin goes from a one dimensional crazypants mage to the infamous Merlin and half incubus on a starvation diet and then Cassie’s staunchest supporter. And how about Cassie’s dad being the loyal hound who is always with Artemis, Rag. And then her mom being Artemis who throws down the gauntlet to the Demons via long distance generational call. Say what?!? I’m going to go back and reread again because each time I read it my perspective changes
