I grew up loving the works of Shakespeare and the Romantic poets. Now I write romantic fantasy with a lyrical, fairy-tale vibe. The Seasons Cycle is a spin-off series from my main Lake Traveler saga. My poetry includes Poems of Myth & Magick, andSongs of Love & Longing. I compose songs and background music for key scenes in my stories. My music has been described as GoT meets LoTR with a lyrical twist and a musical theatre vibe. You can check out my songs and instrumental pieces on my youtube channel and my music website.
I wrote
Songs of Love & Longing: Poem & Songs from the Seasons Cycle
"The Forsaken Merman" is one of the most beautiful and saddest fantasy poems I have ever read. Being a songwriter, I have a keen ear for music in words. This is a lyrical poem that sings in rhyme and meter. It’s a tragic song to love lost. The longing is real. You will feel it and you will be moved by it.
"The Lady of Shalott" is a famous poem in the Romantic tradition. It’s partly inspired by Edmund Spenser’s "The Faerie Queene," and partly by the Arthurian legend. Most people have heard at least a few of the oft-quoted lines. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read it, but I still get caught up in the story-telling and the magical fantasy vibes. In my opinion, it’s right up there with the greatest fantasy poems of all time.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers, Overlook a space of flowers, And the silent isle imbowers The Lady of Shalott.
Tennyson's romantic poem, full of atmosphere and emotion, tells the story of the mysterious Lady of Shalott. In this exquisite illustrated edition, Charles Keeping's evocative pictures take us to Camelot, a fabled world of knights and castles, to witness the cursed life and tragic death of a beautiful but doomed maiden. This new edition features rescanned artwork to capture the inspiring detail of Keeping's illustrations and a striking new cover.
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" may not be Keats’ most well-known poem but it’s right up there with his best, and Keats’ best might just be the very best when it comes to romantic poetry. This is a beautiful fantasy poem that’s both hot and disturbing. It’s dark fantasy at its best. Its lyrical and sensuous beauty will give you chills and goosebumps.Other fantasy-themed poems in this collection include "Endymion," "Lamia and Hyperion," "Isabella," and "St Agnes’ Eve," all based on myths and legends.
'What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth' So wrote the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) in 1817. This collection contains all of his poetry: the early work, which is often undervalued even today, the poems on which his reputation rests including the 'Odes' and the two versions of the uncompleted epic 'Hyperion', and work which only came to light after his death including his attempts at drama and comic verse.
It all demonstrates the extent to which he tested his own dictum throughout his short creative life. That life spanned one of…
Yeats is one of my favourite poets, and while you may not associate him with fantasy, he did write some extraordinarily beautiful poems that are retellings of Irish folk tales and legends. Teeming with faeries, immortals, and other fey creatures, these are poems in the tradition of the great Romantic poets such as Byron, Shelley, Keats, and Tennyson. The titular poem is only one of many beautiful fantasy poems in this collection.
This book is a beautifully illustrated work of art. I absolutely adore the well-chosen excerpts from some of the Bard's most famous plays, including his fantasy ones (The Tempest and Midsummer Night’s Dream). This book contains some of the most beautiful passages in the English language. If you love the language of Shakespeare, you will swoon over this book. I do every single time.
An engaging introduction to Shakespeare, this lyrically llustrated anthology has been carefully edited to be accessible both to older children and teenagers. More then 200 short gems of verse, arranged in thematic sections -- heroics and love, good and evil, fun and frolic, magic and mystery -- capture the rich, powerful language and imagery of Shakespeare without overwhelming the reader who is new to Elizabethan poetry. A beautiful book that the whole family can treasure. Includes index of plays and first lines.
Songs of Love & Longing is a collection of fantasy-themed poems and songs inspired by fantasy art, beautiful music, and stories and characters from the author’s imagination. In this new collection are poems and songs of love and longing, in strangely familiar language and a cadence meant to resonate with the magic already within you. QR codes have been embedded within the text to allow you to listen to some of the songs as you read the lyrics, giving an immersive experience and adding to your enjoyment.
I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.
The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.
No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…
