Sweet like candy – a variation of authors

Have I told you I am struggling to cut back on chocolate? No, I don’t think I have, have I? Whatever the case, in my present chocolate-craving state, the cover of the Silverwood Selection Box is enough to have me salivating – and that’s before I open it to peek inside…

The Silverwood Selection Box is an anthology that introduces ten Silverwood authors, spanning everything from fiction through poetry to non-fiction. It serves as an excellent introduction to unknown authors, and seeing as it is free, it’s an opportunity to browse at length.

Yes, I am among the featured authors – and damned proud of it. At the bottom of this post, there are links to the various authors and I recommend you to do some hopping about. In celebration of this little selection box, I have been asked to contribute with a post that “relates to the matter included”, which essentially describes how the heroine of The Graham Saga, my Alex, falls three centuries through time. I must admit to having spent some time on considering just what relates to such a life-changing event. Sadly, I cannot say I have any personal experience of travelling through time.

I have recently posted about some of the downsides of time travelling – as perceived by Alex (see here). If I’m going to be quite honest I think the concept of time travelling is far more titillating than the actual doing it. I mean, how fun would it be to end up back in London in the 1340s, with the Black Death in full swing? Or to land in Krakatoa, seconds before it exploded? Or to spend the rest of your life in the dreary, damp Edinburgh of the sixteen hundreds, where sometimes the only lunch that you got was what could be scraped out of the porridge drawer? For those of you that don’t have a porridge drawer, this was a drawer (duh!) in which leftover porridge was poured and left to solidify. It could then be cut into convenient slices and used as portable lunch food. Sounds an utter delight, doesn’t it?

Now, my Alex is spared Krakatoa and the Black Death – although the plague is a definite threat in the 1660s. She never warms to the idea of the porridge drawer, and instead does her best to ensure the people she loves acquire somewhat healthier eating habits. Not that there is any risk of splurging on chocolates or cake, but all that salted fish and meat, all that over-boiled cabbage is not exactly Alex’s cup of tea. And talking of tea, this is something Alex sorely misses, as when she first lands on that Scottish moor where Matthew Graham finds her, tea is still a very long way off from being available.

However, I would argue that the truly life-changing event for Alex is not falling three hundred odd years backwards in time to land in 1658. No, what permanently alters her life is Matthew Graham. Does Alex believe in love at first sight? Not likely. (Not that it matters: this author believes in love at first sight, so Alex is struck by Cupid’s bolts whether she likes it or not). But Matthew stirs something deep inside of her, and it is as if all those little jagged holes she has inside of her – consequence of previous events in her life – heal themselves under his touch, his magical hazel eyes. The way he looks at her, how he holds her – she may be lost in time, but she is found in love. I know, it sounds almost too sweet to be palatable – which, of course, is why I’ve added the spicier ingredients of a treacherous brother, a determined avenger who follows Alex through time, the unstable political situation (Cromwell dead, Charles Stuart waiting in the wings), a rather nasty witch-hunting minister, and the general confusion Alex experiences at being jettisoned into an environment she knows nothing about.

I am a firm believer in love – not the “scorch my sheets and leave me panting for more all the time” love (although this is a nice little extra which most of us enjoy experiencing now and then), but rather the “I’m here for you whatever happens” love. The love that is so beautifully described in 1st Corinthians, Chapter 13:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

That is what Alex finds with Matthew (although they do their fair share of scorching). That is what carries them through a life filled with adventure, with joy and with grief. That, people, is a life-changing event. In comparison, falling through time is no more than a walk in the park!

The SilverWood Selection Box is available for free from:

SilverWood Books
KoboBooks
ITunes

And priced 99p from

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

And should you want to find out more about the authors (which of course you do) why not hop along to the blogs/websites of the other authors in the Selection Box?

Adrian Churchward
Alison Morton 
Harvey Black
Helen Hollick 
Edward Hancox
Michael Brown
David EbsworthLucienne Boyce