Mornings With Marie: Summer Solstice Edition
New Short Stories, Audiobooks, and Prometheus' Priestess by Gwyneth Lesley
Lovely morning to you, friends. Today is the 21st of June, which means it’s officially summer! 🌞 The weather this morning here in England is at least showing some signs of adherence to the season, though whether or not this lasts remains to be seen 😂
Today is also the summer solstice up here in the Northern hemisphere. Alternatively known as estival solstice or midsummer, this occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun and is the day with the longest period of daylight. Sunrise in our area was at 4:35am today, while sunset’s forecasted at 9:33pm.
The word solstice comes from the Latin words sol (sun) and stitium (still or stopped). The ancients noticed that as summer progressed, the sun stopped moving northward in the sky, then begin tracking southward again as summer turned to autumn. Humans may have observed the summer solstice as early as the Stone Age. According to some ancient Greek calendars, the summer solstice marked the start of the new year. The summer solstice also marked the one-month countdown to the opening of the Olympic games.
Since it’s a special day, I’m bringing you loads of fun stuff to celebrate! 🥳
New Short Stories
The Crown of Flame
The widowed queen of a vanquished kingdom seeks to reclaim what her family has lost and put an end to a prophesied war against the gods. Written in response to Vocal’s fantasy prologue challenge.How To Be A Dragon
A teenage girl discovers that she's a dragon - a creature of emotion - and has to deal with growing pains on top of saving the world. Written in response to Vocal’s fantasy prologue challenge and rebranded for a full novel version as Broken Wings.A woman is stranded on a deserted island with a man she says she doesn't care about. Or does she? Written in response to a TikTok prompt challenge.
Audiobooks
If audio is your preferred mode of reading, then I have just the treat for you 🥳 My short stories and flash fiction pieces will now be coming to you every Tuesday as audiobooks, entirely for free on my YouTube channel!
First up is Firestarter, our fantasy short about a boy and a santelmo, a popular creature in Filipino myths and folklore.
We also have Tactics, a cutesy office romance story told in two perspectives. 💕
Special thanks to my brother Michael and his team of narrators for putting these together! 🥰 And if you’d like to be updated with our new releases, just please subscribe to our channel, or follow our announcements on social media. 👍
Featured Book: Prometheus' Priestess by Gwyneth Lesley
Of course, we can’t let this summer solstice pass without throwing in something related to mythology! 😉 (Even if the author I’m about to introduce to you is actually rolling towards the opposite direction, into winter ☃️😂)
Gwyneth Lesley was born in Poole, United Kingdom but spent her childhood split between England and New Zealand. Her mother, Robyn, an avid golfer and proud Kiwi woman, always made sure she had a book in her hand. To this day, Gwyneth cannot enter a bookstore without buying a book.
During her school years, Gwyneth ironically almost failed English in her second year of exams. Instead she was a keen drama student, and came second place in regional speech competitions every year. While she worked as a publishing assistant at 17, Gwyneth wrote a series of YA science fiction novels under a different name. They have been unpublished and she has plans to rewrite them with more depth in the coming years to do them justice.
After 8 years in the industry as a publishing assistant, writer & editor, Gwen was exhausted and her creativity burnt out. Taking a break and working in other fields allowed her to reconnect with her humanity, and ironically, this is what sparked her creativity again. Prometheus’ Priestess was born from a meditation session with a collection of sisters she connected with during these years away from writing. And from there, the other books — and the love of writing — returned.
Gwyneth's books are "fantasy romance that will sweep you off your feet before crashing back down to Earth as it delves into the human condition with staggering accuracy." Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Madeline Miller, and Scarlett St. Clair. For a FREE prologue of Gwyneth's latest book, A Lifetime Kind of Love visit: https://rb.gy/ckk5iy
You can find Gwyneth on BookBub, Amazon, Goodreads, Instagram (where she hangs out the most), and TikTok!
What if Prometheus was never punished for giving the humans fire? What if Prometheus was punished for something else entirely? And what would cause a god, with foresight no less, to make such a catastrophic error? Oh, of course. Love.
In this modern retelling of Prometheus' myth, discover the relationship between the Fates, Aphrodite (Goddess of Love), Athena (Goddess of Wisdom), Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt), Tyche (The Goddess of Fortune) and how they all tie together for an immortal priestess sent to Earth - Amara. And how Prometheus' fate ties to hers in this retelling.
I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to write me back. 💕 Thanks for reading and talk to you again soon! 😘
xoxo, Marie