Idyll Dreams & Nonsensical Things

The random thoughts and whimsical writings of Cari Lyn Jones

Down the Rabbit Hole

cari lyn jones

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August 17, 2022

Have you ever decided that you were going to “just take a moment” to look something up, only to emerge from your internet adventure hours later? Or, have you ever started out looking at one thing only to find yourself, again hours later, reading about something so far removed from where you started you would need a complex chart the size of a wall to trace back how you got there?

For me, the answer to those questions is a resounding YES! I have frequently fallen down the rabbit hole while looking something up for a story I am writing. And it’s usually for some small, insignificant little detail that really has almost no bearing on the story itself! I thought it might be fun to share some of these little side trips with you and what it was that led me there. So here is the first in a series of posts I’m calling Down the Rabbit Hole.

– Coffeehouses

” “Vandercroft? Not Amaris? So, your family follows the matrilineal line. How interesting,” he said as he held open the door of the coffeehouse for Devon. “That is a very old custom, and not one I often see used, even during this age of invention and enlightenment.”

The inside was much bigger than it appeared from the exterior, and surprisingly well lit by its numerous gas lamps. Tables and booths filled most the space, arranged so that one could have a small intimate conversation or a large heated debate with equal ease. “

In one of my current WIPs, Where the Angels Dream, I wanted a place where various conversations between two particular characters could take place. Some place people might naturally gather but that would still allow someone to speak privately. That led me to look up coffeehouses in the late 1800s.

Did you know that coffeehouses originated in the Middle East in the late 15th/early 16th century? They made their way to Europe, England, and the Americas in the 17th century and were immensely popular. They did indeed become gathering places where people (mostly men) went to have quiet discussions and lively debates. Of course, this led me into looking up coffee and the various methods of making it: press, pour-over, vacuum pots and percolators…

Needless to say, over half the day went by before I wrote a single word on my manuscript, but I regret nothing! 😀 Here are some (but certainly not all) of the links that led me down that rabbit hole, in case you want to follow.

A quick note – I am not affiliated with any of the sites whose links I have shared below. I make no money if you click on them, and any of the ads or opinions seen there do not necessarily reflect my own opinions or suggestions.

Coffee History

The History of Coffee Houses – Driftway Coffee

Coffeehouse -Wikipedia

How Coffee fueled Revolutions – and Influenced History

The Surprising History of Coffee Houses – Coffee Affection

English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th century – Wikipedia

Coffee Preparation through the Ages (Part I) – Comestibles

The History of Coffee Brewing

Interested in seeing out what I’m working on? Check out my WIP’s page, coming soon!

Reviews are a book’s best friend!

cari lyn jones

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July 28, 2022

It’s true, reviews are a book’s best friends. So if you have recently enjoyed a book, any book, take a moment to write a review for it. The next person who spends several enjoyable hours reading it will thank you for introducing them… and so will the starving author who wrote it 😀

Glorious block prints

cari lyn jones

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July 24, 2022

As many of you already know, I have a deep fondness for classic fairytales. That fondness extends to their illustrations as well. The bold pen and ink drawings, the intricate block prints, for me, they are part of what makes those classic tales so compelling.

“Through the night sky they flew, the stars a blanket above them. Below them rose seven high mountains, which fell into seven deep valleys with seven wide rivers winding through them like silver ribbons. On and on they flew until he saw in the distance a dark hill crowned by a house that shone like fire”
“The Swan Maiden landed in a great wide field that lay only a few miles from the king’s castle. It was there that she told the prince to open the first egg.  He did as she suggested, and what should he find inside but the most beautiful little castle, made all of gold and silver. He set the palace on the ground and it grew and grew until it covered a whole acre of land.”

When I saw fellow author and artist Anne Nydam’s block prints, I fell in love with them! Here are two she made for my retelling of Howard Pyle’s The Swan Maiden. Take a moment to check out her post about them on her blog Black and White. Or, for more wonderful art (of which I own a few) go to Nydamprints.com.

What net can catch the wind?

cari lyn jones

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July 14, 2022

Excerpt from The Broken Court, book 2 in the fantasy series Stolen Away.

This scene is very much a nod to a book I read and loved as a young girl, “A Net To Catch The Wind” by Margaret Greaves.

It was a library book, and I wanted to own a copy so much. Of course, back then (pre-internet) it was sooo much harder to find books. If it wasn’t in a book store then you were kind of out of luck, and there was really only one bookstore in my town at the time. Say what you want about Amazon, but it has made it much easier to find and buy books, even ones long out of print. I have hunted down several books I remembered from my childhood and added them to my library with great glee.

The Broken Court was definitely written for a much older audience than “A Net To Catch The Wind” but it also has a character that has to learn to love unselfishly. Want to read more about the eld woman and Hoax? You can find their story on Amazon or B&N as well as many other online retailers.

Links, free books and excerpts

cari lyn jones

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May 22, 2022

The Broken Court is now available for preorder on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! To celebrate, I posted an excerpt below. Of course, if you can’t wait for it to be released on May 30th, or if you just like to be in the know before everyone else (and you like free books) you can get an advanced reader’s copy here. I have also made a copy of Lumina and the Goblin King available here.

Reviews are a book’s best friend! So please, if you enjoy a book, any book, even just a little, take the time to write an honest review. Thank you.

And now for an excerpt. Hoax is deviling the eld woman, but not in his usual way.

Excerpt from The Broken Court, Chapter 2 – On the Breath of the Storm

The Broken Court – cover reveal

cari lyn jones

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May 10, 2022

Look for it on most online retailers, May 30th!

One story’s ending is just another’s beginning…

The Fairy Queen has fallen, doomed with a mortal heart, and the eld woman’s two dearest friends, the Lady of the Glade and the Goblin King, are now wed, whole and happy. 

But even happy endings come with consequences, and for the eld woman, life has changed irrevocably. Mortality now hangs over her like a shroud, and her entire world has been turned on its head by a broken little boy newly returned from Faerie. Ill portents fill the air, the seasons themselves seem out of step, and it might be that she has been very, very much mistaken about a certain roguish phooka she thought she knew so well.

This is a story of found family and love finally realized; a thoughtful tale of magic and choices and the consequences that come with both. It is also a story about someone often seen in fairy tales, though rarely celebrated. She is called by many different names: henwife, spaewife, wise woman, witch. 

She is the herb woman who gives the heroine just what is needed to escape her fate. The old woman in the cottage at the edge of a dark wood who advises the hero on which path to take. She is the giver of good advice and the keeper of secret knowledge. The wise crone who guides the maiden, helping her win love and happiness. She is not the one who finds love and happiness herself… but why shouldn’t she be?

“Reading the first paragraph was like slipping into a comfortable chair with a glass of good wine and relaxing with an old friend…” Kath Macfarlane, editor

Stolen away by fairies

cari lyn jones

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March 15, 2022

“Thom sat amidst the frigid beauty, barefooted and without a coat, singing to the wind and laughing at jokes only he could hear.” – excerpt from The Broken Court, Chapter 5 – The Lost Ones

Changlings, Kilmeny, Rhys ap Morgan, True Thomas, Tamlin – many a tale has been told about those who were spirited away by fairies; of the beauties and delights they saw while in fairyland and the often sad fates that awaited them upon their return to the mortal world.

“They walked through a land where there were no shadows. Where slender boles of crystalline trees rose up like pillars from a floor of malachite. Their spreading branches held aloft a sky made of lapis. The trees opened up to a great circle where the Fairy Queen’s round danced. Two rings of dancers there were, one within the other. The inner ring spun widdershins as sunwise spun the outer. In its center, rising above all, was a dais. Upon it was a throne, where sat the Fairy Queen.

She was dressed in mist and sunlight with hair like a golden waterfall, and eyes the deep blue of a winter sky. At her feet sat a boy who was as beautifully golden as she, save that he was mortal. A very strange thing indeed.” – excerpt from Lumina and the Goblin King, Chapter 5 – The Fairy Queen’s Round

When you first meet Thom in Lumina and the Goblin King, he is sitting at the feet of the Fairy Queen. A beautiful mortal boy whom she had stolen away to use as a pawn against the Goblin King. By the time The Broken Court begins, he has been returned to the mortal world and is being cared for by the eld woman. But then I asked myself, now what? What was his fate to be? How would he see the mortal world? Not as others do, for sure.

It was actually my daughter who helped me the most when it came to writing about Thom. Being on the spectrum, she also sees the world in very unique ways, and though it was never my intention, there is much of her in him. Just as the inspiration for many of the eld woman’s fears and trials come from my own concerns and experiences. (I guess that means my husband is to blame for the phooka’s incorrigible nature :D)

Photo by Julia Volk on Pexels.com

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