New Gift Book - The Horse Thief (Patreon)

Hey guys, as promised, I'm offering you a new gift book this month! I was a bit afraid that I would not be able to finish the final version by the end of July, but I managed, yay!

This one is a bit special for me in the sense that I chose a location I knew as a child. The events in the story take place in the southern region of my country, Romania, and it was there that I went to visit my grandparents when I was little.

There I witnessed the ritual described in the first chapter of the book, Paparude, which is a ceremony for calling the rain. The summers there, when I was a child, could be unbearably hot, so unlike now when I guess we all notice and experience the climate change.

Just like in the book, the ritual I saw was performed by a group of gypsies, and my grandmother knew exactly what to do, and it was pretty much intense for me, a girl born and raised in an urban environment. Maybe that's why it got stuck in my brain.

The time for the story is somewhere toward the end of the 19th century, but by no means, I intended to make it into a history lesson. I just wanted to be a little accurate, in the sense that the Rroma population was no longer bought and sold as slaves, and for the memory of those times to be still present in the minds of some of the characters, but not the younger ones.

All the phrases in Rromanes you will find in the book are explained by yours truly at the end of their respective chapters, and they come mainly from my knowledge of those words and not an official dictionary or anything like that. The thing is this language can be quite atomized, and you can have people talking in one way in one part of the country, and in another way, in another part.

Without further ado, here is the summary and the cover, and of course, as always, I hope you will enjoy my gift! Thank you for all your support! You truly help me become a better writer.  

(Please click on the attachment link to have the book downloaded to your device)

Summary:

Cezar Cozman is resigned with the fate drawn for him by his parents. Pulled from his never-ending abroad studies in which he has never excelled, duels, gambling, and scandalous affairs aside, he is to be married within a few months’ time to a woman he has no feelings for. 

There is little comfort in knowing what the future holds. Cezar also knows well that he will never have what his heart truly desires, but he sees no other way. That, until one unbearably hot day, a beautiful horse thief enters his life, impetuous and unexpected like a summer storm, and powerful like a force of nature, bent on stealing his heart away.