Stand in your sovereignty and write your own story through an overlooked Arthurian legend retold…
This book is for those who love:
- Fairytale and mythic retellings
- Stories from the female protagonist’s point of view
- Stories of empowerment, healing, hope and authenticity
- Exploring the Celtic and pre-Christian roots written in-between the lines, and buried within, Arthurian legends
- Retelling old myths & legends through a contemporary lens
- Stories with both heart and humor
Learn the inspiration behind Laurel’s upcoming debut novel
In the winter of 2023, I walked into the snowy woods of the Sierra mountains and called in a new book to write, having set aside my writing for several years and having struggled to get back into my earlier books or find new inspiration. I made the call and I asked a question, and what happened next is one of those moments when magic lands, embodied, in your physical reality, and the path of your life moving forward completely alters…
A few months after the incident in the snowy woods, my friend recited a story from When Women Rise Rooted by Sharon Blackie and then placed the book into my hand. I opened it to a page at random, and discovered ‘The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Ragnelle.’ The story fascinated me. This Arthurian legend shows a positive example of masculinity, one who is in a relationship of respect and honor with the feminine. It was written in the 15th century and yet models a man honoring a woman’s choices about her body, a lesson our world is still struggling with today.
I became obsessed with this story and amassed a massive amount of books on Arthurian and Celtic legends. One day I started rewriting ‘Gawain and Ragnelle’ in my own words, not really thinking it would become a book. Scenes just landed in my head and so I would write them. The more I wrote and the deeper I got into the loathsome ladies’ back story and her and her brother’s motivations, the more the original stories’ plot holes tripped me up. I unraveled those knots, pulled those threads out, then pulled them apart more and more, and began weaving in threads from other myths, such as that of the well maidens and the breaking of the faerie accords, one of the grail origin stories.
I didn’t know it at the time, but a long and winding journey had begun to unfold that would lead me to my lifelong dream of becoming a published author as well as a pilgrimage to the UK, to visit Inglewood Forest, the site of the original legend. This new retelling is a story about personal power, making choices, authenticity and being in integrity with the earth, yourself, and those around you.
