Furbaby Friday with Author Hywela Lyn

I am glad to welcome fellow Wild Rose Press Author Hywela Lyn to the blog with a very touching Furbaby Friday post as she shares her beloved horse, Harri, and her wonderful sci-fi romance Beloved Enemy.

(Harri–Welsh Cob)

Lyn: I had to think long and hard when deciding which furbaby – or furbabies to feature on for my spot for Furbaby Friday. Should it be one of my beloved dogs, now gone over the Rainbow Bridge, my first dog Bob, Bonny the beagle, Hans, the most loyal of little dogs who was by my side at the lowest times of my life, Bouncer, the dear little rescue, who had been cruelly abused by his previous owner but was the most loving and gentle little dog, my current ‘rescue’ Choccy, who is a real character… Dusty the stable cat? Then there are the ‘big furbabies’, the horses. Max, my very first horse, Smokey, Flikka, who was with me for thirty years, her daughter Star, and son Mr Fifty, and Sally, my little endurance horse, who worked her socks off for me on the long distance competitive trail rides in Wales, all now sadly gone to their rest.

The decision was made for me two weeks ago on a snowy Sunday morning. I’ve never been lucky enough to have my own land and for several years, have been renting some land and buildings about twelve miles from where I live. I received a phone call to say that my lovely black Welsh Cob gelding, Harri, who’d had arthritis for several years and was on permanent medication for it, had gone down in the field and couldn’t get up. Eventually with a lot of help he was able to stand, but there was a strong possibility he might lie down again, and be unable to get up, and if he was to be out in the snow all night, would be in a lot of pain and probably suffer from hypothermia, even though both he and my other horse T’pau have warm blankets, lying on the cold ground he would obviously get chilled and I was afraid if he was in the stable he might get cast, so the sad decision was made to save him from any further suffering and let him go over the Rainbow Bridge. He was twenty eight years old, which isn’t a bad age for a horse.

(Harri and Tpau)

I first met Harri (show name Pentrepiod Sovereign) about fourteen years ago when I bought him from Marie. I changed his ‘pet name’ slightly from ‘Harry’ to the Welsh version ‘Harri’. Over the years, Marie and I have become good friends and she always remembered Harri’s birthday and visited him at Christmas several times. I’d already contacted her about a couple of weeks before his passing, to let her know that putting him to sleep was a possibility and I’m really glad she came to see him straight away and was able to say her goodbyes to him.

He was very beautiful, jet black, apart from a tiny smudge of white on his muzzle, and a narrow ring of white around each hind foot. I retrained him from English to the western way of riding, having been riding ‘western’ for many years, since it first became popular in the U.K. He took to it like a duck to water, and looked very smart in his black western saddle and bridle, and bright purple and white saddle blanket. He was very laid back and unlike my other horse, a paint Quarterhorse mare, T’pau, he never spooked or bolted, but if something scared him he would plant his feet firmly on the ground and turn his head to look at me as if to say ‘mum, get off and protect me!’ T’pau, although really sweet-natured, is quite bossy and used to herd him around the field sometimes, and shoo him away from a patch of grass she had her eye on, and he’d just amble away with the equine equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders, not in the slightest bit bothered, but you could almost hear him mutter under his breath ‘bossy mare’! They were very fond of each other really though, and would happily munch together from the same hayrack, and share the stable together.

(Hywela Lyn on Harri)

Harri was one of the stars in a fantasy novella I wrote for the Wild Rose Press, and later republished myself as an ‘indie’ release ‘Dancing With Fate.’ He shared the limelight with Sal, and I sent them both back to fifth century Wales, where they became the mounts of a legendary magician, and a Greek muse, respectively. Harri will always have a special place in my heart and I like to think of him grazing happily with the other horses in lush pastures near the Rainbow Bridge.

BELOVED ENEMY

BLURB:
Cat Kincaid is obsessed with killing the man she believes is responsible for the torture and death of her sister, but when she eventually catches up with him, survival becomes a greater priority than revenge.

Kerry Marchant, haunted by memories, regret and self-blame, shields himself from the pain of the past by committing himself totally to the starship, Destiny, of which he is part owner. However, the beautiful, red haired woman who reminds him of his lost love, and who he suspects is working for a corrupt regime, represents a possible threat not only to the ship, but to his heart.

Marooned on an inhospitable planet, they need to work together to stay alive, fighting not only unknown assailants, but their growing attraction. But how can they learn to trust each other when he has vowed never to get close to a woman again, and she made a solemn pledge to destroy him?

This is the third book in my SF romance series, the ‘Destiny Trilogy’, each book being a ‘standalone’. It is the only one of my books that doesn’t feature a horse of some description, but it does have an alien ‘furbaby’, called ‘Shifter’ because he can blend into the background.
Here’s the bit where the main male character, Kerry, meets Shifter for the first time. (She has just saved his life, after a gun battle, and realising he is the man she has been searching for in connection with the death of her sister, has relieved him of his blaster.)

EXCERPT:
They reached the rock their adversaries had used as a shield. With her finger on the trigger button Cat swung round it, prepared to fire if anyone moved. Then she froze. The area was clear. Not the bodies she expected to find, no sign anyone had ever been there at all.

She looked at Kerry. “They were here. They can’t have just vanished.”

He shook his head. “Unless they can teleport—which has been proven to be impossible by mechanical means. It is just possible they may have psionic capabilities.”

“No point in worrying about them now. Seems they’ve gone, however they did it.” Cat gave a long low whistle and one of the nearby boulders morphed into the tawny form of Shifter.

“What the hell is that?” As if acting on instinct, Kerry reached for his gun and then swore softly when his fingers failed to close upon it. His gaze flicked toward her. He cursed again and stared pointedly at his blaster thrust through her belt.

She ignored his stare and nodded toward the animal. “His name’s Shifter. He’s…well, I call him a chameleopard, and I’d kill anyone who tried to shoot him.”

Kerry favoured her with a cold look. “Delightful pets you have.”

“It’s only one, and yes, he is quite cute actually. Are you going to be able to walk?”
“It was my chest that was injured, not my legs.”

She ignored his sarcastic tone. Gratitude obviously did not feature among his finer points.

Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Enemy-Destiny-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B01BBCBYCS

And The WildRose Press: https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/3770-beloved-enemy.html

AUTHOR BIO
Hywela Lyn spent most of her life in Wales and the beautiful countryside and legends inspired her to write. Although she now lives in a small village in England, she is very proud of her Welsh heritage and background. She enjoys weaving romantic tales of the future, and distant, mysterious worlds. Her pen name is a combination of her first two names.’Hywela’ is Welsh and her first name but it was never used and she has always been called by her second Christian name, Lyn. One thing remains constant in her writing: The power of love. Love, not only between her hero and heroine, but between friends and siblings, and for their particular world and the creatures that share it.

She is crazy about all animals, especially horses. She lives with her long suffering husband, Dave, and her horse, Flying T’pau, a feral cat, Dusty, and an adopted lovable but slightly manic terrier called Choccy.

Hywela Lyn’s debut novel, ‘Starquest’, a futuristic romance is published by The Wild Rose Press who also published her second book in the Destiny Trilogy, ‘Children Of The Mist’. Beloved Enemy, the third book in this series, was shortlisted for the UK Romantic Novelist’s Association Romance Novel Of the Year Award, 2017, 2nd Runner Up in the RONEs 2017 and winner of the ‘Best Banter’ Contest 2017, run by the MMRWA.

LINKS:
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.amazon.com/Hywela-Lyn/e/B002BMBXH4/

WILD ROSE PRESS AUTHOR PAGE – http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/138_hywela-lyn
WEBSITE / BLOG – http://www.hywelalyn.co.uk
http://www.hywelalyn.blogspot.com

FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/HywelaLynAuthor?ref=hl