The Lady Raven: A Dark Cinderella Tale
Rebecca Henry
Publication date: December 5th 2017
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
In The Lady Raven, Rebecca Henry tells the tale of Zezolla, a little princess abandoned by her father into the hands of her evil stepmother and wicked stepsisters. A familiar fairy tale you may think but all is not as it appears. The reader is soon drawn into a web of witchcraft, lies and deceit, and gradually realises that this is no typical fairy tale but a dark and macabre take on one. Zezolla is treated with the utmost cruelty, neglected and vilified, and left to live in the damp cellars of the castle. The only friends Zezolla has are her beloved raven and her pet wolf. Her only comfort lies in the loyalty of the creatures of the forest and her mother’s hazel tree. Will Zezolla have the power to escape her torment and ultimately save herself from the unscrupulous clutches of the king? The Lady Raven is a compelling tale and one that is not for the faint-hearted.
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EXCERPT:
Baldric bent down, whispering into his wife’s ear. “I am going to drown you in the river, my love. I want you to hear my words and know that it is I who will kill you. Do not think that I do not know what you did.” Before Avelina could protest, her face was plunged into the icy water. She tried pulling her head up, but Baldric was too strong. She began to buck her legs around like a mule, desperate to make contact with Baldric, anything to weaken his grip. Baldric climbed on top of her and pinned her body beneath his. “Die, Avelina.” he growled. Hands were flying all around him as he drowned his wife, the only woman he ever loved. Princess Avelina was a fighter and she determined to stay alive, but it was to no avail.
Baldric kept her head under the water well after her body stopped moving. Avelina’s betrayal caused Baldric’s love to turn to hate, just as water turns to ice in the frozen kiss of winter.
“Die, you lying witch. Die! You do not deserve the life you have. You do not deserve me. You have taken everything I’ve loved away and now I will take everything from you.” Baldric’s hands trembled with rage as he dismounted his wife’s limp body. Baldric arose, looking around the grounds to ensure that no witnesses could testify to his crime. Still, he would not suffer the consequence of murdering his wife. To seal his innocence, he gathered heavy rocks from the bank and shoved them in Avelina’s robes.
“They will think it a suicide and my hands will never be traced to her death.” He bent down to see her face one last time before kicking her corpse into the lake.
“I loved you mind, body, and soul. I would have loved you until my dying breath, but I will never think of you again. From this day forth, you no longer consume my heart. May you rest in hell, my love.” He watched her body sink; he was triumphant, sentencing her to the punishment that fitted the crime: death.
Before her body disappeared into the ultramarine water, he spat on her. One final act of defiance.
Author Bio:
Rebecca Henry is a newly published author. Her debut novel is The Lady Raven, A Dark Cinderella Tale, which was published in 2017. The Lady Raven, is for those who have an affinity for fairy tales retold with a link to witches, magic and the macabre. Her second novel, Louisiana Latte, a chick lit comedy was released February 28th 2019. Louisiana Latte, is a feel good comedy that focuses on the bonds of sisters, and how audacious life can be when you have a diva for one! Both books are available on amazon as well as Barnes & Noble.
Rebecca Henry is a world traveler living abroad in England. Besides being an author of two published books, Rebecca is also a podcast talk host on the show The Latte Talk. The podcast was inspired by her latest novel, Louisiana Latte and her diva sister Deb. She is a serious vegan, gardener, crafter, wife and mom who practices yoga. She loves to laugh, her drug of choice and loves all things witchy with a hint of the macabre. Her favorite holiday is Halloween and her favorite movie of all time is Practical Magic.
-Write a letter to your teen self
Dear Teenage Me,
They say your teen years are your golden years. The best time of your life. For you, it’s a struggle. You see life with the eyes of an adult not a sixteen-year-old. You want to fast forward, jump into the future. You know the best part of your life is yet to come, waiting around the corner of time. I’m writing you to say, you’re exactly right.
Keep believing, keep dreaming and reaching because you will have it all…
Love Always,
Your future self xx
-Handling negative reviews
This is such a great topic, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write about it. Negative reviews are rejections against our soul. When an author writes, or a painter paints, or a musician plays her song…it is an extension of our inner self bleeding out onto our canvas. A piece of our soul gets transferred onto the page, preserving a bit of ourselves for all time. It’s too easy to inhale negative reviews like air, like oxygen. But they are not our oxygen they are just a passing whisper in the breeze. Nothing more. Negative reviews are opinions we hear louder than the positive ones. I choose to silence that noise and open my ears to the positives. I do, however listen to negative reviews as constructive criticism, hoping to always improve and better my writing. I’m an extremely sensitive person so this mind-set has taken me time to form and learn but once you do, you will be able to blink out the negative and focus on the positives. The reality is not everyone will like your work and that’s OK. Not everyone has to. Write for yourself and you cannot fail.
-Behind the scenes (this can be anything to do with the writing process–habits, research process, inspiration, etc)
My behind the scenes takes place in my head. I see something that interests me. Maybe a bride trying on her wedding dress in a clothing store window, or a woman working behind a jewelry counter or a lonely old man walking out of his cottage door. Then something inside me clicks and I’m imagining what their life is like. What their day will be like and all-of-a-sudden, they are characters in a book I am going to create. From there I take picture of images, places anything that coordinates with those future characters. I usually take three weeks to write a book, once I have the idea it pours out of me like water from a tap. It just comes and the deeper I get into my writing the more alive the characters become. I enjoy writing with my computer facing my garden so I can see my cats and dog outside sunbathing as I type. My kids and husband are so wonderful when I write. They give me the quiet and space I need as I compose my story, but they always come up to take a peek at the progress, adding their comments.
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