Uncaged welcomes Jennifer Ivy Walker
Welcome back to Uncaged! The latest book you’ve released is The Witch of Breton Woods. Can you tell readers more about this book? What was the inspiration for this book?
The Witch of the Breton Woods is the story of a reclusive young healer, traumatized by the horrors of the Nazi invasion of France, who becomes a member of the French Resistance in Brittany. When she finds a critically injured American paratrooper, she heals him in her secluded cottage, hiding him from the Gestapo and la Milice—the paramilitary organization that collaborates with the Nazis. The inspiration for the book was the study of the French Resistance in Brittany during World War II. I wanted to write a story about a courageous heroine who risks everything to save the ones she loves.
You are also releasing Dragon of Denmark in October. Is this book going to be part of a series, or is it a standalone? Can you tell us more about this book?
Dragon of Denmark is the first novel in the Valiant Vikings trilogy set in 10th century Normandy. It’s a blend of historical fiction–including the real-life characters of Richard the Fearless, the Viking Duke of Normandy, and Harald Bluetooth, the Viking King of Denmark and Norway—blended with Norse mythology, paranormal fantasy, and steamy Viking romance! Book 2, Wolf of the Nordic Seas, and book 3 (the conclusion of the trilogy), Falcon of the Faroe Islands, will be published soon.
How do you use social media as an author?
I have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest. I post information about new releases, book trailers, and reviews on social media. I also post images of my sewing creations, my family, and my golden retriever, Ziggy.
Read the rest of the interview in the issue below
Enthralled with legends of medieval knights and ladies, dark fairy tales, and fantasies about Druids, wizards and magic, Jennifer Ivy Walker always dreamed of becoming a writer. She fell in love with French in junior high school, continuing her study of the language throughout college, eventually becoming a high school teacher and college professor of French.
Many trips to France—including summers spent abroad as an undergraduate and graduate student, followed by language and cultural programs designed for French teachers—provided the inspiration for her award-winning novels. For example, Dragon of Denmark, the first novel in the Valiant Vikings series set in tenth century Normandy, was inspired by the summer she spent in that northwestern region of France.
Walker’s upcoming release, “A Celtic Yuletide Carol”, is a steamy medieval romance between a broken, battered royal knight and a solitary, mute healer and huntress who prefers the company of her wolf and falcon to humans. Both protagonists are shattered souls who slowly find solace in each other.
Readers who enjoyed Winter Solstice in the Crystal Castle and The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven trilogy—a fated mates paranormal fantasy adaptation of the medieval legend of Tristan et Yseult, interwoven with Arthurian myth, Avalon, Elves, Druids, forest fairies, and dark magic—will recognize several of the main characters in this new novel as well.
Explore Walker’s realm of Medieval French Fantasy. She hopes her novels will enchant you. jenniferivywalker.com
Enjoy an excerpt from A Celtic Yuletide Carol
A Celtic Yuletide Carol
Jennifer Ivy Walker
Medieval Romance
Once a royal Breton knight, Sir Cardin is now infamously known as Basati, the Basque Wolf. Savage and sullen, he drowns his guilt in raucous taverns, accruing enormous debt and acquiring vengeful enemies.
Ulla, widowed daughter of a Viking chieftain, is a skilled archer who lives as a recluse in a secluded woodland cottage. Rendered mute by trauma, she avoids humans, preferring the company of her wild wolf and falcon as she hunts in the Forest of Brocéliande.
When his mother’s dying wish calls Basati home, he finally meets the son he abandoned at birth and Ulla, the enigmatic priestess who is teaching the boy to hunt. As the holidays approach, Basati finds himself smitten with the beguiling beauty as he bonds with his once forsaken child.
But past enemies plot against him, and Basati is ensnared in darkness. Can music lure the savage wolf into the light of love?
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Le Château de Montmarin
The clamorous din from inside the bawdy tavern shredded the calm of the salty night air as Gaultier went into the Drunken Crow to drag his brother home. As usual, Cardin was passed out on a table in the back of the inn, a mug of ale next to his bloodied fist.
Amongst the strands of long brown hair stuck to the side of Cardin’s unconscious head, Gaultier noted the swollen eye, bruises, and dried blood smeared across the bearded face. With a broken table, chair, and shattered glass all over the nearby floor, it appeared that, once again, Cardin had been in a boisterous brawl.
Which meant that Gaultier would have to pay for the damages.
And pick up the pieces of his battered, broken brother.
As he stood at the entrance of the tavern quickly assessing the situation, female servers with platters of savory seafood and pitchers of ale scurried about, weaving through tables where sailors, knights, and fishermen celebrated in raucous revelry. Floating notes of flutes, lutes, and lyres accompanied a troubadour’s melodic voice near a crackling fire in the enormous stone hearth along a wooden side wall. The innkeeper—a stout, balding man with a soiled white apron and a scowl upon his florid face—indicated with an impatient jut of his chin the destruction that Cardin had caused.
For which the disgruntled owner expected prompt, generous compensation.
Gaultier strode over to the mahogany bar, handed the portly man a bag of silver, and headed toward the rear of the tavern to rouse his inebriated sibling.
He shook Cardin’s shoulder and grabbed hold of his arm, peeling his plastered torso from the wooden tabletop. “C’mon, let’s go home. Get you in bed to sleep it off.”
Grumbling incoherently, Cardin staggered to unsteady feet, wavy locks adhered by drool, blood, and vomit to the side of his bristled, crumpled cheek. Supported by Gaultier’s steadfast grip, he leaned against his older, taller brother’s sturdy shoulder, stumbled across the floor, and practically fell out the exit door.
“I’m sick of dragging you out of every tavern in town. I’d rather be at the Sultry Siren, bedding a beautiful wench. Like Dolssa, who’s probably waiting for me right now. By the Goddess, Cardin, you have to stop this insanity. Or your gambling, drinking, and bloody temper will get you killed!”
Moonlight reflected off the turbulent ocean as Gaultier half dragged, half carried his younger brother along the narrow cobblestone street from the center of the town of Biarritz, up the steep incline to the stone fortress of le Château de Montmarin, perched atop the peninsular promontory overlooking the savage sea.
He missed la Bretagne—Brittany—and the northern coast of France. The Celtic traditions of his Breton heritage. The craggy cliffs and delicious crêpes. The family and friends he’d left behind.
For the past six years, he and Cardin—along with a regiment of four dozen royal knights from le Château de Beaufort in the northern Breton kingdom of Finistère— had defended the Atlantic coast of Aquitaine for King Philippe le Bel of France.
Sent by their own King Guillemin, a vassal of the French King Philippe, the Breton knights simultaneously squelched uprisings by English rebels anxious to claim the coveted duchy, while maintaining political alliances with the Spanish regions of Navarra and Aragón.
Far from their beloved Celtic home.
Read the rest of the excerpt in the issue below
