Spartan Myths - Apollo Hayakinthios

Apollo and the mortally wounded Hyacinthus

I haven't blogged much recently because no one wants to hear that I took the kids to school today and I think I'll do some writing before I have to go pick them up.

While researching Taming Theron and A Spartan Love, I found all kinds of, for lack of a better word, myths about Sparta. Some are just minor things, such as trying to apply a modern mindset to an ancient culture and one that even its contemporaries considered strange. Others are the result of the other Greek city-states giving them bad press. No one really liked the bullies on the block.

So I thought I would start with a real myth and explore its origins.

First the myth. Hyacinthus was a prince of Sparta. Both Apollo and Zephyrus courted the beautiful young man, but Hyacinthus preferred Apollo. One day while Apollo and Hyacinthus were throwing a discus, Zephyrus, the West Wind, blew the disc off course in a fit of jealousy. The discus struck Hyacinthus in the head, killing him.

Apollo was heartbroken. He refused to allow Hades to take the prince to the Underworld. Instead, he gathered the youth's blood to create a flower, the hyacinth. Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis carried the divine hero's body to the Elysium Fields.

Apollo mourns Hyacinthus

The likely origins. A tomb to Hyacinthus can be found near Apollo's altar and idol in the village of Amykles southwest of the modern city of Sparta and dates to the Mycenaean era. Most scholars consider Hyacinthus to be a local deity who predated the Spartan's and Apollo. His name with the suffix –nth shows him to be pre-Hellenic. (The Greeks called themselves Hellenes.)

When the Doric Spartans invaded the Peloponnesus, they brought their sky gods with them. The Spartans considered Apollo to be one of their patron gods. Since Apollo was one of the most likely to take a male lover, Hyacinthus was quickly accounted as his lover.

As is commonly the case when one god absorbs another's place and prerogatives, the older deity had to die. Hyacinthus met with an "accidental" death at another, although minor, sky god's hands. Apollo stepped in to fill the religious void, laying claim to Hyacinthus' sacred site and becoming known as Apollo Hayakinthios.

A Spartan Love

Ancient Greek Battle Prep

A Spartan Love is coming along nicely. As is the case with my stories, A Spartan Love has been growing as it goes through my editing/revision process. The original rough draft was about 86K. Now at about 25% through my second draft, it is up to 96K. I have no doubt that it will be 100K+ by the time I submit it.

Most of the growth is due to world building. I try to get as much of that in the rough draft as possible, but it's not until I get the story back from my betas that I find any holes in my descriptions and explanations. Their questions let me know what I need to clarify. Just because I know my world, doesn't mean others do.

So the story gets longer and more involved. With two tiers of betas, that can be quite a bit of additional material tucked in here and there as unobtrusively as possible.

A Spartan Love is as much an adventure as a romance. After all, I'm not going to expect my warriors to avoid battle and valor.

Andreas and Theron live in 5th century BC Sparta. I try to make the somewhat enigmatic city-state of Sparta as historically correct as possible. However, many aspects of their society and thought processes were mysterious even to their neighbors, many of whom hated them and portrayed the Spartans in as bad a light as possible when they actually wrote about them. So sources are hard to come by and often contradictory and/or suspect.

I have also decided to write about the world Andreas and Theron think they live in. So as in Homer, the gods and their lesser brethren are real. As are ghosts, known as shades or phatasma(ta). I'm hoping that the stories retain a feel not unlike Homer's works, although not as flowery and wordy. I'm not really a songsmith.

The goal is to submit A Spartan Love before Taming Theron comes out. That way there will be minimal time separating the stories.

Portland, Here I Come!

I can't believe that in less than a week I'll be in Portland at the Dreamspinner Press authors' workshop, hanging out with some of my favorite authors and friends from FaceBook. I'm getting my suitcase packed, trying not to forget anything important.

I've never been to Portland before so that should be an adventure in and of itself. I'm rooming with my good friend AB Gayle while I'm there. And my friend Sara, who shoved me into this whole author thing, lives close enough to drop by for a visit too.

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Taming Theron Has a Home

Apollo and Hyacinthus

I just signed with Dreamspinner Press for Taming Theron. The novel started life as a prequel to A Spartan Love, Apollo's Men II. However, no matter what I did, I couldn't keep it under the 7K cap for the anthology Lust in Time which contains another of my ancient Greek stories, 496 BC.

All the Apollo's Men stories take place in Greece during the early 5^th century BC. Alexios' Fate in Thrace. 496 BC on the coast of the Aegean Sea. Taming Theron and A Spartan Love on the Peloponnesus. And the final two in Delphi.

A Spartan Love is about a helot named Andreas and Theron, a kryptes. This pair is made up of natural-born enemies. Helots are a class of slave in Sparta that vastly outnumber their masters. Special elite warriors known as kryptes are set to watch and summarily execute all helots that stand out from the herd in any fashion, culling any possible rebels.

Taming Theron is the story of how Andreas, somewhat unintentionally, befriends one of the dangerous kryptes and discovers that food is the way to a man's heart.

Taming Theron is tentatively set for release at the end of the year. Hopefully, by then I will be able to announce a release date for A Spartan Love.

Taming Theron and A Spartan Love

It's taken forever, but I finally finished the first rough draft of A Spartan Love. It's much bigger than I anticipated at 82K. I've sent the MS to my first beta reader and hope to hear back soon after the new year.

I'm going through Taming Theron and doing some touching up and making sure everything still agrees with everything in A Spartan Love. Sure would be embarrassing if I missed something. I already had to change one character's name because it was too much like another character in A Spartan Love whose name could not be changed.

Then a quick pass by my final beta before subbing it.

It'll probably take a couple of months to get A Spartan Love ready to sub, but at least the two stories should only be a few months apart that way. <Crossing Fingers>

Countdown to Christmas with Lars and Deanna Wadsworth

Countdown to Christmas with Lars

19 days and counting

So I woke up this morning with a dick against my back.

Ordinarily that would've been a very pleasant way to greet the morning. I’d get one more blow job for the road then head out to start my day working in the best place in the world—Santa’s North Pole Workshop. But for some reason I knew that even a blowie wasn’t going to make my day better. Don’t get me wrong, I like sex. A LOT. I'm a Nordic elf—we’re always up for sex. I mean check out all the hot sex in the first three NAUGHTY NORTH POLE books. There’s candy flavored cum spewing everywhere!

I could blame my poor mood on all of the responsibilities of Christmas and how hectic it is right now, but the truth is, the things that always made me happy—sex, work and cookies— aren’t working anymore.

And I just don’t know what to do about it.

FYI, I’m Lars, the head of Santa’s Mail Department. If you check out my story in FUN & GAMES WITH RUDOLPH you will see why I’ve been on edge and not feeling myself lately. It’s a bit too personal to share here.

I'm not quite sure why Deanna Wadsworth named the book that. There's no way in hell I could have fun with a Rudolph! That’s what we call ugly guys—Rudolphs. It comes from an elf named Rudolph that abandoned the North Pole. A bit of an urban legend, he tried breeding reindeer with glowing noses. But that was only successful when it came to the famous Christmas jingle. Supposedly the real Rudolph also stopped eating sugar, and everyone knows what happens to an elf that stops eating sugar. They shrivel up and age! It also makes them crabby.

Maybe some cookies would improve my mood. Hmmmm, I might have to hit the kitchens after I sign off.

Enough about me, my best buddy Jorge asked me to write this blog and report what’s going on at the Workshop, not complain.

Thanks Kayla for hosting me! You got a nice blog with some decent hotties on it. Those two at the top of the page look like a creamcicle guy and a sugar cookie guy I fucked once. Do you know if they’re elves? Don’t think Santa would like any of us posing for pics like that. Then again, what Santa don’t know, ain’t gonna hurt him, right?

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to report other than we are busy, slammed and crazy up here. I had three trucks loads of ‘Dear Santa’ letters come in and they weren't on the schedule. And if that wasn't enough, the conveyor belts froze! When that happens it backs up the whole day and I usually have to end up working late. And elves wonder why I'm on edge and irritable?

So there's my report Jorge. Nothing new.

And Jorge, you owe me for writing this blog. It was sort of cathartic to bitch even though that's probably not what you wanted, but too bad. You ask a friend to do you a favor, and you get what you get, buddy.

Oh yeah, and if all of Kayla's readers would like to enter to win the first three NAUGHTY NORTH POLE books and a $20 Amazon gift card in the entry box below, go for it. Best of luck!

If you are enjoying the Countdown to Christmas blog series, catch a list of all the dates HERE. This Monday there will be a new post by the big guy, Santa Claus at Are Cafe.

I also brought along an excerpt from Deanna Wadsworth's book all about me, FUN & GAMES WITH RUDOLPH. I sure hope the book ends better than my last few days. And I’m more than curious what Rudolph has to do with any of it.

~Lars

<a id="rc-e33c450" class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e33c450/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>

<script src="//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/embed/rafl/cptr.js"></script>

FUN&GAMES WITH RUDOLPH

Naughty North Pole Book Four

By Deanna Wadsworth

Blurb:

Lars is the sarcastic elf who runs Santa’s Mail Department and he follows the dating rule of “no repeats”. But lately he's been having a romantic textlationship with another elf, via the dating app Elf4Elf. When his cyber boyfriend goes AWOL after a misunderstanding, Lars realizes too late that there is more to life than sex, work, and cookies.

On Christmas Eve, Santa asks Lars to personally deliver a gift to Rudolph—a former reindeer handler who left the North Pole because of a misunderstanding. Rudolph lives on the secluded Sugar Plum Ridge and the only way to get there is by sleigh. Lars just can’t get a break!

When a sudden blizzard forces the two elves to hole up in Rudolph's cabin, will they find a way to make their own fun and games or will one surprise ruin it all?

One thing is certain: after this night, they both will believe in the magic of the Naughty North Pole!

Excerpt:

“What were you thinking?” my rescuer growled as he put his sword away. “These damn sleigh bells are like painting a big target on your back that says ‘come eat me.’”

His crusty demeanor and bad temper irked me. “Well, how in the name of Christmas was I supposed to know that I would get attacked by a yeti?”

“Never mind,” he said with a surly grunt. “Get over here.”

Tamping down my frustrated tears—I’d almost been killed and this guy was scolding me like I was a wayward child—I joined him, having no idea how he intended to free the animals when they were thrashing about, tangling themselves even worse.

The warrior removed his gloves. To my shock, his hands appeared normal, no claws or magic sparks or anything. Without fear of the beasts or their projectile antlers, he placed one hand on each reindeer, whispering words I didn’t understand. The soothing melody of them made me think he might be speaking the ancient language of the Elven races, but I had no idea what he said.

Instantly, the beasts calmed.

I stared in shock, my adrenaline still pumping. “How did you—?”

Eyes that had first appeared to be glowing stared out from above the balaclava covering his face. Snowflakes sparkled atop heavy lashes and the slight red in his brown irises indicated he was not a god, but rather a Dökkálfar.

“No time for explanation, my young elf,” he said. “We have to get them free.”

Nodding obediently, I agreed to help.

I assisted the best I could, holding the things he told me to hold while he did all the work. Lula was the first one loose and the second she realized it, she bolted and ran up the ridge.

“Wait!” I called after her.

“She’ll be fine,” the other elf told me. “Lula knows the way to my barn. Help me with Betty. She looks hurt.”

“Lula poked her with an antler.”

“Doesn’t surprise me with that one. Lula’s a real pistol.” I could hear the smile in his voice and, when it wasn’t yelling at me, it was a very pleasant, youthful sound, one that soothed me as much as it had the beasts. Though a dead yeti lay mere feet from me, I suddenly felt safe and protected beside this elf.

“Well, Betty,” he said to the reindeer. “Let’s see if ol’ Lula got you for real this time, or if you’re fit enough to walk.”

Thankfully, once he released the harnesses, she was able to stand. After he ran his big hands over her withers and legs, he buried his face against hers, whispering more of those ancient words. She huffed a few frosty breaths and tossed her head, as if nodding.

“What’s your name, elf?” he asked me.

“Lars.”

“Well, Lars, what say you and I let Betty carry us out of this place before any more yetis show up?”

“Sure,” I said, letting out a whoosh of breath. Curious, I stared at the big, fur-covered elf but already had my suspicions about the answer. “Who are you?”

“Name’s Rudolph.”

Deanna Wadsworth might be a bestselling erotica author, but she leads a pretty vanilla life in Ohio with her wonderful husband and a couple adorable cocker spaniels. She has been spinning tales and penning stories since childhood, and her first erotic novella was published in 2010. When she isn’t writing books or brainstorming with friends, you can find her making people gorgeous in a beauty salon. She loves music and dancing, and can often be seen hanging out on the sandbar in the muddy Maumee River or chilling with her hubby and a cocktail in their basement bar. In between all that fun, Deanna cherishes the quiet times when she can let her wildly active imagination have the full run of her mind. Her fascination with people and the interworkings of their relationships have always inspired her to write romance with spice and love without boundaries.

Facebook  Twitter Blog goodreads

Buy Deanna’s books at Dreamspinner Press, Decadent Publishing or at any reputable eBook seller