I do... Just a bit. When I read about C.L. Talmadge, I knew that we had more than one thing in common.
Can you guess or deduce what it is? Read on...
POLITICS, TYRANNY, AND ROMANCE, by C.L. Talmadge
History is littered with tyrants’ blood-stained efforts to obtain ever more political power.
The ultimate power grab, however, is spiritual. It is the absolute height of presumption for any person or institution to stand between individuals and the divine and lay claim to the only path to heaven.
Even more menacing is the clash of piety, politics, and passion. This combustible collision is the backdrop of a heretofore unknown history, a vanished past chronicled in the Green Stone of Healing® speculative epic.
This hidden tale is really herstory. Four generations of protagonists are strong-willed females whose lives are at the epicenter of the power struggles of their theocratic island nation, known as Azgard. So are their loves.
Azgard is the perfect setting for politics, tyranny, and romance. The priests of the state-sponsored Temple of Kronos have far-reaching power. They preach the superiority of the island’s dominant Toltecs — a tall, red-skinned people with black hair and eyes — and forbid sexual contact with the subservient race, the pale, golden-haired Turanians. They do not hesitate to mete out severe punishment for any infraction of their religious edicts.
The stated reasons for such laws are only half the story. The Temple also fears the strange, legendary abilities of half-breeds as a threat to its status and spiritual legitimacy. Half-breeds display the paranormal abilities that the priests used to possess but lost, and are trying desperately to reclaim to maintain their hold on power.
Along comes a romance, however, that defies this cruel social order. One of the highest-ranked, most powerful Toltec lords falls deeply in love with a Turanian woman. She refuses to marry him, but of their secret liaison is born, in a nation far to the east, a half-breed child, a daughter named Helen Andros.
Thirty-one years later, after Helen has returned to Azgard motherless and grown into an adult, her full parentage becomes public, igniting a political firestorm and launching the tale of the stone.
The revelation that Helen is the child of this powerful Toltec lord shakes the foundations of power. The top ranks of the Temple are divided on how to deal with her, as her very existence flouts their rules. One faction wants to slay her, and strives to bring about her death. Another group, however, wants to use Helen and create more half-breeds as tools in a tyrannical quest for absolute power.
The latter bloc eventually assumes control of the Temple and its leader launches his hidden agenda. The consequences are ever greater brutality and chaos. The Temple and its supporters eventually splinter into many groups that fight each other and prey on the vulnerable populace. Goons patrol Azgard armed with guns and motivated by murderous righteousness, waving holy writ as their justification for violence and greater repression.
Throughout this descent into madness, Helen and her descendents learn to use their green gem to offer a loving, inclusive alternative to theocrats and other wannabe tyrants, whose lust for absolute power destroys them and almost annihilates the rest of the world, too.
Even in the darkest hours, however, the heroines find love and romance to sustain them to a new beginning, where they hope their experiences will stand as a sharp reminder about the dangers of tyranny and the limits of power.
C.L. Talmadge is the author of the Green Stone of Healing® speculative epic. The fourth in the series, Outcast, will be published Oct. 1. Vote for the first book, The Vision, through Sept. 25 and get a free e-book on healing, love, and spirituality. Details at her blog: http://www.healingstonebooks.com/stonescribe
The series features four generations of strong-willed female characters who inherit a mysterious green gem ultimately revealed to mend broken bones and broken hearts, protect against missiles, and render its wearers undetectable.
For more information about each book, please visit http://www.greenstoneofhealing.com/
C.L. Talmadge's blog tour stops can be found here:
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2009/08/virtual-series-tour-green-stone-of.html
Tour/book one
I'm delighted not only to be able to share C.L. Talmadge's guest blog post about politics, tyranny and romance with my readers, but to offer a prize of my own to one commentator (of my chosing): a rare, printed copy of my short story, Mating Net.
So, please weigh in on politics, tyranny, and romance!
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