I am pleased to welcome Chris Tomasini to my blog today to share an excerpt from his novel, “Close Your Eyes- A Fairy Tale.” I would like to thank Chris Tomasini and The Coffee Pot Book Club for allowing me to be part of this tour.
Tycho
The first year Tycho spent with us at Gora, he was like a child running frenzied through a kitchen full of Christmas delicacies. The gossip which arose about him was voluminous. I often sat in the castle kitchen, a mug of beer in my hand, listening to what the women said about the boy. What amused me most, as I watched them roll their eyes when his name was again mentioned in a less than lustrous light, was that they adored Tycho. They pretended they didn’t, not wishing to be teased, but I could see it in their eyes, in their rapt attention when the boy walked into a room, in their troubled breathing when he touched his hands to their shoulders or hair.
I don’t know what drew them to him, but it was much more than his youth and good looks. He was playful and irreverent, and the aura of foreign lands hung about him. Tycho could speak a dozen languages fluently, he could tell those magical stories, twinkle his eyes seemingly at will, and when they twinkled for you, it felt like you were sharing something with him, a sort of blissful astonishment at being alive.
It was also in the way he moved. Tycho eased through a room like a breeze across a field. He was around you; you raised your face to allow the wind to sweep close, and then he was gone, around a table, talking to someone else. He was here and there, here and gone, coming and going, a smile for you, a smile for someone else, and from watching him in the kitchen, in the dining hall, amongst crowds, I think what made him so sought after was that people felt a need to be alone with him, to possess him unreservedly, if only for a few short moments.
I have spoken, in the years since he left, to many people about Tycho. I asked the women why they chased him, why they desired him when he was unabashedly a scamp who was sleeping with every woman in the castle. I asked other of our friends why it felt such a privilege to be alone with him, and I think we all knew, unconsciously, that the road was not yet done with Tycho and that he had only been given to us for a short time.
Ahab has spoken to me of a Greek historian named Herodotus and of his fascination with a people named the Scythians, who lived around the Black Sea. Ahab thought that Tycho resembled these people, who did not live in cities or settle farms, but rather followed their herds of cattle across endless prairies, riding on wagons, carrying their tents with them. The Greek word for this way of life was aporia – to be a nomad, to be without a home, to be inaccessible to others.
I have been a child of the road. I lived that life for three years, and Ahab, with his delight in things ancient, things intellectual, did not grasp the fundamental difference between Tycho and the Scythians. To be a Scythian, I imagine, was to carry your life with you – your family, your belongings, your past, your history. But Tycho was a single boy, an orphan, alone upon a road.
The road forces you to decide if your destination is worth the hardship – making this decision is the traveler’s burden. But Tycho was more than a traveler. He was a wanderer who did not even have a destination. I think it was this sadness which many of us saw in the boy beneath the charm and the winning smile. We saw the sadness of a soul which would forever be in transit, which would never know a home, and which would forever be apart.
Blurb:
Set in early 1400s Europe, Close Your Eyes is a sincere yet light-hearted and lustful ode to love. As Samuel, the court jester, struggles to describe why his friends, Agnieszka, the cook, and Tycho, the storyteller, fled the King of Gora’s service, he learns that love was the beating heart behind everything that happened in the castle.
He learns as well that more ghosts than he knew of walked the midnight halls and that the spirit of Jeanne d’Arc haunted his friend and once slid into bed with Tycho, daring him to leave – to take to the cold roads of Europe, where he had once wandered orphaned and alone, and find his destiny there.
Buy Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/4DJN6g
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NRYXDM9
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NRYXDM9
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Close-Your-Eyes-Fairy-Tale/dp/B09NRK3ZQH
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Close-Your-Eyes-Fairy-Tale/dp/B09NRK3ZQH
Author Bio:
Chris Tomasini lives in Ontario, Canada. He has studied creative writing via Humber College’s “Correspondence Program in Creative Writing” and through the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
In the 1990s, Chris taught English as a Second Language and had stops in England, Poland, and Japan.
Since 2000, Chris has worked in bookstores, publishing, and libraries.
Chris is married with two children and can often be found (though not very easily) on a bicycle on country roads in central Ontario.
Social Media Links:
Website: http://www.christomasini.ca/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisfindsthelight/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chrisfindsthelight
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/chris-tomasini
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B019NO9NO2
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14814659.Chris_Tomasini
What was the first book you read that excited you so much about the historical figure that you wanted to continue studying history? You would read any text you could get ahold of that mentioned their name, including encyclopedia entries. You have fond memories of that book and wish to reread it as an adult to see if it is still a great book with all its charms. I have noted numerous times that the book series that enticed me to study history was The Royal Diaries Series. The book that started my fascination with the Tudors was “The Royal Diaries- Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor” by Kathryn Lasky.
When we think of the phrase “middle ages,” we think of a time of bloody battles and deadly plagues, full of warriors and kings, and a more patriarchal society where women sat on the sidelines. Only the highly pious women or women who tore down barriers genuinely stood out in the history books. At least, that is what we have been told for centuries, but what does archeological research tell us? How about the newly discovered historical records? In her latest book, “Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It,” Janina Ramirez tells the story of the Middle Ages innovatively; through the stories of women who, until recently, were hidden voices from the past.
Today, I am pleased to welcome MJ Porter to my blog to share the blurb for her book, “Pagan King.” I would like to thank MJ Porter and The Coffee Pot Book Club for allowing me to be part of this blog tour. 
Blurb:
Author Bio:
A nautical disaster has left Henry I of England in a bind. His only legitimate child is his daughter Matilda, the former Holy Roman Empress. Matilda’s path to the throne may seem straightforward as she has the oaths of all the leading men in the kingdom and a new younger husband named Geoffrey of Anjou, but things take a drastic turn when Henry I dies. Chaos reigns supreme as her cousin, Stephen of Blois, is declared King of England. Matilda knows that the throne is rightfully hers, and she will fight tooth and nail to recover what has been lost. Her story is told in Carol McGrath’s latest novel, “The Stolen Crown.”
I am pleased to welcome Mercedes Rochelle to my blog today to discuss Viking England during the life of Earl Godwine, as part of the blog tour for her novel, “Godwine Kingmaker” of The Last Great Saxon Earls series. I would like to thank Mercedes Rochelle and The Coffer Pot Book Club, for allowing me to be part of this tour.
Blurb:
Author Bio
Two independent women separated by time but united over two compelling portraits and the secrets hidden behind the paint. Mira (Miramonde) is a nun from a Renaissance convent in the Pyrenees who believes she is an orphan who wants to escape her small community and explore the world. Five hundred years later, Zari, an art scholar, begins the journey to discover who Mira is by using the clues she left behind in her works of art that will take her on a journey that will change her life forever. These two tales are woven together in the first book of the Miramonde series, “The Girl From Oto” by Amy Maroney.
The tale is as old as time, of beauty and the beast. We know the story from either Disney or retellings. A peasant girl finds herself locked in a castle with a prince who is transformed into a hideous beast. He can only change back into a human if he can learn to love another person. Like many fairy tales, we often ask ourselves whether this story can be based on historical facts. Molly Greeley believes that Beauty and the Beast’s origins could be found in the true story of Pedro and Catherine Gonzales, who lived in the court of Catherine de Medici. She has chosen to tell their love story in her latest novel, “Marvelous.”
I appreciate all the love and support you have all given me over the past five years. I started Adventures of a Tudor Nerd after writing a guest article for Tudors Dynasty. I have always been nervous about sharing my writing with others, but I have always loved history and wanted to share my passion. I took a chance, and I am so glad that I did.
A young Spanish princess sits with her close friend, sisters, and brother as their beloved tutor, Dona Beatriz Galindo, tells them a story. As the children of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile, they must marry and create alliances to strengthen their kingdoms, while Beatriz must ensure they are ready for the challenge. Childhood ends rather quickly with a holy war against the Moors, the expulsion of the Jews from the kingdom, and death around every corner. In her novel, “Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters,” Wendy Dunn transports readers into a world of hope and sorrow, life and death.
Adventures of a Tudor Nerd 