Category: Tales from Blackthorn Briar

Musical Accompaniment for Oak King Holly King

What’s the soundtrack for a fae Victorian romance?

The music I listen to while working on stories in this fantastical world has changed from book to book. Originally, when writing Oak King Holly King, I built a playlist of New Age, Celtic, medieval, and folk music that played on repeat for the two years it took to bring Shrike and Wren to life.

You can listen to it on Spotify here.

In between publishing Oak King Holly King and Tales from Blackthorn Briar, I learned that the dungeon synth genre existed. The soundtrack for these stories is almost entirely dungeon synth, particularly Fief, Quest Master, Inlustris, Ulk, Dim, and Dark Vestige.

II by Fief

The Twelve Temples by Quest Master

Stella Splendens by Inlustris

Shellbound by ulk

Steeped Sky, Stained Light by DIM

SONGS FROM SAINT ANDREWS CHAPEL by Dark Vestige

 

After Tales from Blackthorn Briar, and through dungeon synth, I found what would become one of my favorite bands, Obsequiae.

Obsequiae combines black metal vocals, punk rock drums, and medieval modes on their guitars to create a sound unlike anything else out there. The live recording of their performance at Fire in the Mountains in 2022 is on repeat whenever I annotate Oak King Holly King.

If you’d like your very own annotated copy of Oak King Holly King or Tales from Blackthorn Briar to enjoy alongside this musical accompaniment, all annotated books are 30% off in my Etsy shop now through the end of September.

And as always, thank you for reading.

OSRBC Authors Chat – Oak King Holly King

Over on facebook, the OSRBC Authors Chat invited me to join them to discuss Oak King Holly King (and Tales from Blackthorn Briar)!

The video is now up for all to watch. They asked some really insightful questions that allowed me to delve into detail for Wren and Shrike’s motivations and what lies ahead for the fae realms. I had a delightful time chatting with them. Check ’em out!

Happy Book Birthday to Tales from Blackthorn Briar

Happy Autumnal Equinox! Three years ago today, Shrike and Wren embarked on their second voyage out into the world – alongside Mr Grigsby, Daniel Durst, and all their other friends from Oak King Holly King, with new friends gathered along the way.

Shrike and Wren hold a special place in my memory for getting me through some rough moments, and I am so beyond grateful for every single reader who has taken their story to heart.

If you enjoy happily-ever-afters, hurt/comfort, and catching up with old friends, I wrote this book for you.

Tales from Blackthorn Briar is a collection of sequels to the fae romance Oak King Holly King – including…

Mabon

  • Wherein Shrike and Wren repay their debt to the Court of Hidden Folk.

Mr Grigsby’s Clerk

  • Wherein Mr Grigsby finds a replacement for Wren – and perhaps more than he bargained for.

Jack in the Green

  • Wherein a certain Horse Guard wanders into Blackthorn Briar.

Winter Solstice

  • Wherein the Holly King surrenders to the Oak King.

The Holly King’s Peril

  • Wherein Wren and Shrike discover danger in the wilds of the Fae Realms.

The Ballad of Daniel Durst

  • Wherein Daniel embarks on his authentic life in a bold new land.

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Sunday Snippet, 4.9.23

Sunday Snippet from my gay Victorian fae romance collection, Tales from Blackthorn Briar, a sequel to Oak King Holly King featuring hurt/comfort and many happily-ever-afters – available wherever fine books are found!

~

“I’m sorry,” said Wren as their lips parted.

Shrike furrowed his brow. “What for?”

“It’s my fault you lost your chance at the white hart.”

Shrike continued staring at him for another moment or two. Then his hand came up to brush Wren’s hair off his brow and trail down his cheek in a tender caress.

“I did almost lose my heart,” Shrike murmured. “But he is found again, and reawakened, and now all is well.”

~

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Sunday Snippet, 3.5.23

Sunday Snippet from my gay Victorian fae romance collection, Tales from Blackthorn Briar, a sequel to Oak King Holly King featuring hurt/comfort and many happily-ever-afters – available wherever fine books are found!

~

Shafts of sunlight pierced the water from the jagged hole in the ice overhead. By their illumination, Wren glimpsed a shadowy thing. It glided through the water beneath him; he knew not how many fathoms down, but not far enough. Its smooth undulating form, dappled like a leopard in shades of grey, ran some three yards long, if not longer, from head to tail. It had a maw like a hound on a skull the size of a horse’s—as long as Wren’s thigh and as broad as his shoulders. The eyes were pure black, almost human in their shape, but nothing human in the promise of cold death behind them. And as it rolled through the water, it fixed its hungry gaze on Wren.

~

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Sunday Snippet, 2.26.23

Sunday Snippet from my gay Victorian fae romance collection, Tales from Blackthorn Briar, a sequel to Oak King Holly King featuring hurt/comfort and many happily-ever-afters – available wherever fine books are found!

~

Later, when he had a moment to reflect on the incident, Wren would realise his error. He, a mortal man, weighed some ten or eleven stone. The white hart, being ethereal, weighed nothing unless it chose to.

And in that instant, it chose for its hooves to prove as hard as adamant as it struck the ice and bounded away.

A sound like a thunderclap resounded across the lake. The crack shot across the ice from the point the hart had struck, spreading from the drinking hole and shooting between Wren’s boots. He had just time to perceive it before another noise burst the air, this one like lightning cleaving an ancient oak in twain, as the ice shattered beneath him.

Wren plunged into darkness.

Cold like a thousand knives raking his skin. Cold fit to turn his very veins to ice. Cold that burned in his bones in a way he’d never realised cold could do before. He wanted to shut his eyes against it. He couldn’t.

And a very good thing that turned out to be, for he was not alone.

~

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Sunday Snippet, 12.25.22

Sunday Snippet from my gay Victorian fae romance collection, Tales from Blackthorn Briar, a sequel to Oak King Holly King featuring hurt/comfort and many happily-ever-afters – available wherever fine books are found!

~

“They say,” Mr Hull continued in a lower tone, “that those who meet beneath the mistletoe must kiss to bring good fortune.”

Ephraim cleared his throat. “Yes—well—servants often indulge in such superstitions for their own merriment.”

“Only servants?” enquired Mr Hull. His dark gaze never broke from Ephraim’s own.

“And young persons,” Ephraim conceded.

“Might gentlemen take part in the tradition, as well?” asked Mr Hull.

Ephraim hesitated. Thoughts he didn’t wish to entertain clouded his mind. Impossible notions. Dangerous ideas. Mr Hull didn’t mean to imply anything of the sort. He merely meant to ascertain, as one newly arrived to English shores and unfamiliar with their custom, whether or not he might, as a gentleman, kiss a lady beneath the mistletoe. Ephraim told himself this even as Mr Hull’s gaze flitted to his lips again.

“They might,” Ephraim conceded. After all, Mr Hull was a handsome young gentleman, and young ladies liked to be kissed by handsome young gentlemen. Or so Ephraim had been told all his life.

Mr Hull bit his lip.

~

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Sunday Snippet, 12.18.22

Sunday Snippet from my gay Victorian fae romance collection, Tales from Blackthorn Briar, a sequel to Oak King Holly King featuring hurt/comfort and many happily-ever-afters – available wherever fine books are found!

~

Fae recovered from injury far faster than mortals.

Shrike had always known this. Yet to have proof of it before him now, in the form of his beloved enduring day after day of agony, wrested his heart in twain.

The skull-crusher bite would’ve laid Shrike up, true enough, but he would have fully recovered within a few months, if not in a fortnight or two. It staggered him to hear from the chirurgeon’s own lips that his Wren would require years to regain his strength.

And for Wren to think of Shrike’s suffering when Wren himself lay overcome with pain was more than Shrike could well bear.

~

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