GHOSTS, GHOULIES AND THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE MOSCOW
NIGHTS
Privet! (That’s
Russian for “Hi!”).
I’m Nelli Rees
and my first novel “Ghost Love” is out now, published by Phaze, billed as a
‘romantic thriller with a flavoring of the supernatural’. “Ghost Love” has two
intertwined stories set twenty years apart these following the adventures of a
Russian girl, Tonia, as she discovers that true love really does conquer all …
even death.
Being Russian I
guess it’s inevitable I should be drawn to the supernatural. The Russians’ love
affair with the paranormal goes back a long way. In Norse legends there were
two races of people: the warlike Aesir and the fey Vanir. According to the
Icelandic chronicler Snorri Sturluson, the source of our knowledge of
the Norse myths, the Vanir lived in Vanaheimr that he etymologizes as the “Land
of the Don-People”, and the Don is one of Russia’s great rivers. The inference is that Russians have
Vanir blood running in their veins.
So it’s hardly
surprising that one of the major figures in the psychical ‘sciences’ is a
Russian, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Blavatsky came to prominence in the late
nineteenth century, as an occultist who claimed to possess powers enabling her
to commune with the spirits inhabiting the Summerworld, the transcendental
world beyond human consciousness. Whilst she was unmasked in later life to be
something of a charlatan there is a strong body of opinion that when she was
young Blavatsky had immense psychical abilities, these diminishing with age.
This, apparently, is why Blavatsky resorted to trickery in later life, unable
to bear the thought of being seen as “normal”. Whatever the truth, I have much
sympathy with the teachings of the Theosophical Society she founded whose
motto, “There is no Religion higher than Truth” is one all of us − scientists
included − would do well to follow.
And then, of
course, there is Rasputin. The rumor is that Rasputin was a starets – a Holy
Man – of the khlysty sect active in Russia a century ago. Deep in the Siberian
forest the dividing line between Christianity and paganism became blurred, the
peasants there following dvoeverie – dual faith – the merging of Seidr magic
(the magic of the Norse) with Christianity. The khlysty taught that sin is the
most effective means of finding God: in a righteous person sin is always
followed by great suffering, this resulting in repentance thus bringing the
soul nearer to God. This is why the khlysty indulged in radenie or group
sinning (better described as an orgy where the participants’ sexual inhibitions
are eliminated by dancing, scourging and alcohol). This ecstatic dancing is an
echo of the seething of Seidrkonas, the Vanir witches who were the most
powerful exponents of Seidr magic.
So with this sort
of cultural heritage to draw on is it any wonder I had to flavor “Ghost Love” with
a hint of the paranormal. That’s what we daughters of the Vanir are apt to do.
Isn’t it...?
Ghost Love
Nelli Rees
Genre: Romance (with a hint of the paranormal)
Publisher: Phaze
Date of Publication: 20th January 2015
ISBN: ISBN-13 978-1-60659-849-8
ASIN: B00SNYRXH8
Number of pages: 332
Word Count: 90,000
Cover Artist: Niki Browning
Book Description:
In the madcap, chaotic days when Communism crumbled in the USSR, Tonia meets and falls in love with Englishman, Peter Monroe. Despite the protests of her family and the more strenuous
objections of the KGB Tonia agrees to marry Peter only for him to mysteriously disappear.
Twenty years later a life-toughened Toni must revisit these bitter-sweet memories when she finds herself and her daughters endangered by the consequences of that love affair.
In her despair Toni comes to realise that true love really does conquer all … even death.
Excerpt: Prologue
Present Day:
Dorset, England
Excitement being
a kindred spirit to fear, Toni was undecided as to whether it was a trickle of
fear she felt shivering down her spine or a trickle of excitement.
As she sat
staring at the screen of her laptop, the darkness shrouding the room seemed to
draw in on her: her head swam, her palms became clammy. Tears welled up in her
eyes. She blinked them away, hoping that by doing so the message on her screen
would disappear. It didn’t.
Peter Monroe
wants to be friends on Facebook
Hesitantly she
maneuvered the cursor over the ‘connect’ button and pressed ‘enter.’ The screen
mutated to show the Facebook page for ‘Peter Monroe.’ It was Peter! She
recognized the profile photograph instantly. She’d taken it. She remembered
posing him in front of the bandstand in Gorki Park on that spring day back in
1990, remembered laughing at the stupid faces he pulled, remembered the way his
long chestnut hair flopped over his forehead, remembered…
How could she
forget? He had been her one true love.
Love. A word
made empty by misuse…by overuse. She wondered how many had ever endured the
touch of real love, that soul-eviscerating sensation that comes when you know
you have found your soul-mate. Very few, she decided. Perhaps this was all for
the good: true love brought anguish in equal measure to joy. As the last twenty
years had taught her, finding true love was a bitter-sweet blessing. Her
fingers trembled as she typed.
Is it really
you, Peter?
The reply was
instantaneous.
Yes…I’ve missed
you, Tonia.
She couldn’t
stop herself: the tears flowed down her cheeks.
But…
She paused, terrified
that what she would type next might cause this marvelous mirage to vanish.
But I thought
you were dead.
The seconds
ticked by, then:
I am.
About the Author:
Nelli Rees, born in Moscow, trained as a linguist and a musician. With her future husband Englishman Rod she worked and travelled around Russia, finally coming to live in England in 1998. Nelli has had several successful careers: recording a critically acclaimed nu-jazz album “Jazz Noir”, becoming an award-winning jewellery maker, writing a book “Glass Bead Jewelry Projects”, and doing all this whilst being a mother and a wife. “Ghost Love” is Nelli’s first novel and draws heavily on her own experiences as a young woman in Soviet Russia and the obstacles she and her husband-to-be faced during those difficult times.
Video of Nelli performing "Falling In Love Again":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2J5Phukc8Y
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3 comments:
Thanks for the posting! Hope the Fangtastic Books Blog followers enjoy it! :)
This looks like a fabulous read & I love the cover.
Beautiful jewellery.
Thanks, Mary, good luck in the competition! :)
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