Tag: Time Travel

Time travelling with Anna Belfrage and the golden handbag

Time travelling with Anna Belfrage and the golden handbag

This week Jena is time travelling with her golden handbag, so she delved into the wonderful world of Anna Belfrage’s novels.  She selected two novels from The Wanderer Book series and let Anna take her back in time with her characters.  If you are in the US you’ll be time ‘traveling’ but here in the UK we’re time ‘travelling’.  Have a great time wherever you are.

Time travelling with Anna Belfrage and the golden handbag

If you love to read, then author Anna Belfrage is the writer for you. She has crafted many wonderful-looking and enticing books. There are nine books in her The Graham Saga series, all Time Travel Romances. Then there’s The King’s Greatest Enemy series, four Medieval Romances. Or how about The Wanderer Book series, two so far, again more exciting Time Travel. Her storied have also appeared in several historical anthologies. The focus on historical times and time travel is not surprising as according to Anna’s bio, “Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a professional time-traveler.”

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a professional time-traveler.

I found the Two Books in The Wanderer Series in the historical area of Jessie Cahalin’s Handbag Gallery. I’ve always been intrigued by time travel, and history gets me excited too, so I knew I had found my latest Golden Chapter reads.

What are The Wanderer Books about? Here’s part of the book blurb from the first book.

“In the long-lost ancient past, two men fought over the girl with eyes like the Bosporus under a summer sky. It ended badly. She died. They died.
Since then, they have all tumbled through time, reborn over and over again. Now they are all here, in the same place, the same time and what began so long ago must finally come to an end.”

Ask the heroine Helle Madsen what she thinks about reincarnation and she’ll laugh in your face.

Well, I don’t want to be laughed at, but I was curious about reincarnation and time travel, so I found this helpful list online.

Past Lives: 11 Signs Your Soul Has Reincarnated Many Times

  1. Recurring Dreams
  2. Out-of-Place Memories
  3. Deja-vu
  4. You’re an empath
  5. You Have Strong Intuition
  6. Precognition
  7. Recognition
  8. You Feel Older Than Your Age Reflects
  9. You have a great Affinity for Certain Cultures or Time Periods
  10. Unexplainable Fears or Phobias
  11. You Feel as though this Earth is not Your Home

While we ponder the list, let’s get started on the Golden Chapter reviews. Yes, I decided to review the first Golden Chapter of each of the two books in the series, because I was so intrigued by the idea of reincarnation and time-travel.

Jena C. Henry

The first book in The Wanderer Series is A Torch in His Heart. And the first chapter starts dramatically.

“His eyes snapped open! She was here!

Jason- His lost woman…so many centuries ago….so many lives in between

And in a bed, in a room several streets away, a young woman twisted in her sleep.”Let’s meet the three souls that have tumbled through time and been born and reborn. Helle Madsen is a young American woman, in London for a new exciting financial internship. She’s smart, beautiful and sophisticated but her girlfriend thinks Helle prefers to date milksops.

Helle’s boss is Sam Woolf, a man who radiates power. We learn that he has ancient Turkish blood. He has black, black eyes that bore into people. Such as when he tells Helle, “For a moment, you reminded me of some I used to know- a long, long time ago.” Definitely not a milksop. Helle’s not sure if Sam is “hot” but she thinks he’s definitely predatory and handsome. When she’s with him, she feels like she’s being pulled into a dark vortex.

And then there’s Jason…

At the end of the first Golden Chapter, we leave the present day and get a glimpse of the ancient past. Jason is meeting a King and a young girl with hair the color of the sun. A small girl who walks into his heart.

What an exciting book and series this promises to be! Time travel, reincarnation, souls seeking each other over and over. Plenty of action and romance will enhance the unique story-line, I’m sure!!

Are you ready for a peak at the second book in the series?

Smoke in Her Eyes- The Wanderer Book 2

Amazon lists this book as Erotic Time Travel.

At the start of this Golden Chapter, we are immediately thrown into a crisis.

The successful young career woman, Helle Madsen, is dirty, and covered in blood. Jason, Sam and Helle are in the present day and have been involved in a situation with a car fire, and a shooting. Helle has attacked Sam. Jason has used his special gifts. The police don’t know what they are investigating. And they certainly don’t know that it involves 3,000 years of history.

As Helle keeps watch over Jason in the hospital, she longs for him, her eternal torch-bearer.

She  wonders-“ was it the Fates, those fickle spinners of destiny, who had decided it would be good to throw all three of them together again?”

Yes, Jason and Helle are reunited, but Sam Woolf, erstwhile Prince of Kolchis, is a hard man to kill.

Plenty of adventure and thrills in this Golden Chapter, too!

Thanks to Jessie Cahalin and author Anna Belfrage for introducing me to this adventurous Time Travel series! I hope you visit the Handbag Gallery to learn more about Anna Belfrage’s books and all the other titles there. Have you read this book series, or any of the other books by Ms. Belfrage? I’d love to talk about them with you in the comments. Here’s some questions I’d like to chat about and feel free to leave your own thoughts, too!

  1. Are you a reincarnated soul?
  2. Would you love to be a time-traveler?
  3. What do you think about the heroine, Helle? There she is, an up and coming financial wizard…and then she learns about her past lives!

 

Please see all the Golden Chapters and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.

A copy of my novel is available here.

Packing for a Trip to the Past

Anna Belfrage

What would you pack if you regularly visited the seventeenth century? On this occasion, you really wouldn’t have anything to wear. Our staple of jeans and a t-shirt would be provocative in the seventeenth century.  Author, Anna Belfrage, regularly sends her characters back in time, and I was intrigued to discover how she helps her heroine, Alex, to pack for another era.  Where does a writer start when dressing characters for another era? Alas, I would have to begin by abandoning my handbags as they didn’t exist.

I am handing over to Anna Belfrage, author of The Graham Saga, and her costume department.  Anna’s novels have allowed her to fulfil her dream of becoming a professional time traveller.

Dressed for Success in the Seventeenth Century

Frans Hals

One of my series, The Graham Saga, is set in the seventeenth century for a variety of reasons, none of which have anything to do with the prevailing fashions of the time. While others may go “ooh” and “aaah” at the paintings of dashing cavaliers adorned with lace and ribbon, I like my men in breeches and a simple linen shirt, a no-nonsense coat worn atop, which is probably why my hero, Matthew Graham, dresses like that. Well, it may have something to do with his convictions as well. After all, Matthew is a devout member of the Scottish Kirk, and he and his brethren have little liking for fripperies.

Where Matthew was born and bred in the 17th century, his beloved wife, Alex(andra) Lind, grew up in our time. In difference to many of us, she never had a hankering for living in the past, but sometimes impossible things happen, which is how she ended up in the 17th century, wearing jeans.

Cook with a Hare

“I like her djeens,” Matthew says, his gaze lingering on her legs. “But, aye, you’re right: she can’t wear them here. Seeing her thus revealed is only for me to see.” (He has a certain amount of cave-man tendencies does our Matthew. Blame it on the times…)

So instead, Alex has to start by donning a shift. This is a long linen garment that reaches halfway between knees and ankles, it has long sleeves and a neckline with a drawstring. It serves as a combined nightie and underwear. (Forget about a silky negligee when in the mood for some action which is why I recommend nudity for seduction). This shift is worn until it can almost stand on its own – laundry is a heavy task.

On top of the shift Alex wears stays. Okay, so they’re not as bad as those sported by Scarlett O’Hara but once they’re laced they have a somewhat inhibiting effect on her movements. Stockings in scratchy wool are rolled up the legs to thigh-level and gartered into place. Petticoats help keep Alex somewhat warm, ending just above the ankle. A bum roll, heavy woollen skirts, a bodice and an apron complete the outfit. Let me tell you, this weighs a lot. It is difficult to run in full skirts. Or climb a tree (which is a bad idea anyway, as women shouldn’t do something as indecorous as climb a tree).

At this point Alex stops to inspect herself – she has a small looking glass, lucky her. The collar is tied into place, the hair is braided back and coiled into a tight bun before being covered by a linen cap. A woman without a cap is a sinful thing indeed! By the door are the shoes – they might be a pair of latchet shoes, but they might just as well be clogs. Actually, maybe using clogs is the better choice – at least they keep the feet dry!

“I’m not wearing all that,” Alex told me the first time I presented her new wardrobe for her. “I’ll stick to my jeans—and my underwear.”

“No, you won’t.” Matthew shakes his head. “To go around dressed like that is to attract unwanted attention. And should anyone find out you’re from the future…” he mimes a sliced throat. Too right: either you conform, or you risk sticking out like a sore thumb and potential witch. Not good in a time and age where witches are still being executed.

Alex sighs. “Fine,” she says, throwing me an angry look. (She blames me for throwing her back in time. She rarely thanks me for gifting her with the rather wonderful Matthew.) “But just so you know, the moment I get back, I’ll be in jeans again.”
Back? I share a look with Matthew. Alex isn’t going back. After all, while time travelling is a rare occurrence, time travelling with a return ticket is even rarer!

 

Sir Anthony van Dyck and Lord Bernard Stuart

Presently, Anna is hard at work with The King’s Greatest Enemy, a series set in the 1320s featuring Adam de Guirande, his wife Kit, and their adventures and misfortunes in connection with Roger Mortimer’s rise to power.

When Anna is not stuck in the 14th century, chances are she’ll be visiting in the 17th century, more specifically with Alex and Matthew Graham, the protagonists of the acclaimed The Graham Saga. This series is the story of two people who should never have met – not when she was born three centuries after him. A ninth instalment has just been published, despite Anna having thought eight books were enough. Turns out her 17th century dreamboat and his time travelling wife didn’t agree…

Anna can be found on her website, on Facebook and on her blog. Or on twitter and Amazon.

 

Please see all my guest posts at Mail from the Creative Community and my blog and website at JessieCahalin.com.

 

Slipping back to 499 AD with Julia Ibbotson

Julia posting her guest post to Books in Handbag Blog

Julia Ibbotson contacted me and offered me the opportunity to slip into 499AD and meet the characters of her latest novel. Lady Vivianne is from 499AD and Dr Viv DuLac living in the present day. In A Shape on the Air, the worlds of these two women collide to create a fascinating narrative.  Fascinated by the concept, I asked Julia to explain more about her novel.

Dear Jessie,

My latest novel, A Shape on the Air, is about two women, divided by centuries, united by a quest for truth. Dr Viv DuLac, a medievalist, is devastated when her partner Pete walks out (and with her best friend too) and it seems that she is about to lose everything. Drunk and desperate, her world quite literally turns upside down when she finds herself in the body of the fifth century Lady Vivianne. Lady V has her own traumas; she is struggling with the shifting values of the Dark Ages and her forced betrothal to the brutish Sir Pelleas, who is implicated in the death of her parents.  Little does Viv realise that both their lives across the centuries will become so completely intertwined. Haunted by both Lady Vivianne in 499 AD and by Viv’s own parents’ death and legacy, can Viv unlock the mystery that surrounds and connects their two lives, 1500 years apart, and bring peace to them both?

Meet Lady Vivianne

As with all authors, my characters’ voices ring around my head as I write. So I’ll imagine the women speaking for themselves and this is how they might have introduced themselves to you …

Meet Lady Vivianne …

It is the year of Our Lord 499, I am fifteen and I have a problem.  I am betrothed, against my will, to the odious Sir Pelleas, yet I am not unaware of the glances of my childhood friend, Sir Roland. It was my late father, kind as he was, who took in the tattered cast-out Saxon child Pelleas, thinking him to be a potential successor as chieftain of our settlement in the midlands of England.  Back then, it was not so usual for a woman to succeed to the chieftaincy, and anyway I was not expected, my dear mother being cursed to be childless. But she had used her pagan rituals to try to conceive, and I was the result. They named me Lady Vivianne.

I will never forget the day that my parents died, burned in the fire that destroyed our sacred hall. Sir Pelleas said that it was the tallows on the altar. But yet I knew that was not so.  And as I grew towards my sixteenth year and Pelleas had already persuaded the council in the mead hall with his military prowess to confirm him as chieftain, he was appointed my ‘protector’ and my suitor.

I hate him. I hate his brutish ways and his raucous drunken friends as they feast and carouse and stink in my father’s hall that used to display rich tapestries and religious icons, a backdrop to the travelling scōps with their beautiful poetry.

I will do anything, anything at all that is in my power, to rid myself of Pelleas and this terrible betrothal. And I have powers, like my mother, Lady Nymue, the lady of the lake, believe me …

The inspiration for Dr Viv

Meet medievalist Dr Viv DuLac …

… I get home to my apartment a couple of nights ago, totally unaware of what that night would bring. I’d had a hard day at the university where I teach medieval studies. Maybe it’s tiredness but I think I hear my dead mother’s voice in my pounding head and the name ‘Lady Vivianne’.  But my mind is full of my partner Pete’s treachery. I still cannot believe that he would stoop so low. Going off with one of my best friends and then having the gall to try to sell the apartment from under me. I’d like to hate him, but it’s not so easy to dismiss those years, is it? Are there no decent men left? I’d do anything, anything at all, to keep my beloved home and to be safe. But instead I drink far too much red wine and make for the lake where something is drawing me …

A Shape on the Air

As their lives become intertwined, the quest for truth intensifies. How is Lady Vivianne connected to Dr Viv’s parents’ death and the centuries-old mystery they tried to uncover?  By the way, Jessie, my WIP (The Dragon Tree) is the sequel to A Shape on the Air, and will be published later in 2020.

With love,

Julia

Website/blog   https://www.juliaibbotsonauthor.com
Facebook          https://www.facebook.com/JuliaIbbotsonauthor
Twitter              @JuliaIbbotson
Pinterest           http://www.pinterest.co.uk/juliai1

About Dr Julia Ibbotson

Acclaimed, award-winning author Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and concepts of time travel. She read English at Keele University, England (after a turbulent but exciting gap year in Ghana, West Africa) specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. She wrote her first novel at 10 years of age, but became a school teacher, then an academic as a senior university lecturer and researcher. As well as medieval time-slip, she has published a number of books, including memoir/history of food (The Old Rectory), children’s medieval fantasy (S.C.A.R.S), a trilogy opening in 1960s Ghana (Drumbeats), and many academic works. Apart from insatiable reading, she loves travelling the world, singing in choirs, swimming, yoga and walking in the countryside in England and Madeira where she and her husband divide their time.