Book Spotlight & Giveaway - The Women Gather by Katalin Kennedy

 

About The Women Gather: 

Nora’s mission had been demanding. She wanted to find a way for women to rediscover their true selves, denied to them throughout the centuries ‒ and to make the world a better place. When the young girl Aideen asks Tunde if she may come to Lemuria, Ontario and learn about the beginnings of the Norean Order founded in 1998, she agrees. Tunde’s preoccupation, however, is with the smooth flow of the ‘Gathering’ symposium of 2066. Women from all the Sanctuaries throughout the world are in attendance and await the momentous event: the opening of the Portal to the Outerworld. She has little time to spend with Aideen who unravels layers and layers of stories found in letters, articles, diaries, newspaper clippings and videos about the struggles and triumphs faced by Nora’s family and by the Order itself. What Aideen also detects is something she considers to be mystical ‒ that no one wants to acknowledge.

Excerpt:  Chapter Nine,  Day if the Dark Shroud

Outside the rain had become a storm. Tumultuous thunder followed by blazing lightening tore open sinister clouds. The winds shrieked around the Temple, unwrapping the shawls and cloaks as the women rushed for shelter and to their afternoon workshops.

           

Inside was another world separated by solid stone walls. Only the echo of her footsteps could be heard on the cold marble floor. It was dark and black but comforting. Tunde was alone. She needed the escape. She needed to regain her centre of balance. She needed to find a way to draw out Veryalda’s poison which was beginning to infest her entire being. She found the pew that had been her solace on other tormented occasions. The pew was situated just under Nora's stained glass window. You had to know where the image was because the windows revealed nothing now. They were just pieces of opaque glass held together by strips of lead. Every so often there were moments of clarity. Brilliant lightning flashes brought Nora and all the other women to life. Then her face was clear and bright. That was what Nora meant to her. She glowed. She shone, just as her name ‘Fényes’ meant ‘shining’.

           

How long had it been? She thought for a moment. Sixteen years ago on April 11, 2050 was when Nora had died. Tunde remembered the day; she willed herself to feel the moment. She was in Patia’s flat at the time and there it was: a distinct awareness of a finale. There was emptiness. There was nothing. When the call came, and the heart-broken voice of Rhianna told her the news, then the darkness made sense. Ever after, that was the feeling Tunde dreaded most. It was what she sensed in her dreams, no — in her nightmares, on occasion. It was what she feared would be on the other side of the Portal.  It was the feeling within her now: a black, bottomless abyss. At times she reasoned that it was Nora trying to wedge through the obscure layers from beyond. Other times she felt that it was her own madness.

           

And so Tunde had rushed back to Lemuria. She had searched for solace in Nora’s rooms. She had wanted to handle her things. She had sought to sense her essence and perhaps, if she opened herself to the possibility, perhaps she would for an instant touch Nora’s eternal being. Tunde remembered her frantic rampage through all her belongings, including that chest filled with collections. She remembered her desperate search for anything that would reveal truths unspoken and messages of hope for the future. She had knelt by her side as she lay in state at the main house. Nora was radiant in her purple robe, hands gently clasping a sweet bouquet of lily of the valley, her birth month flower. Her face, delicate and at peace, spoke of contentment.

           

How young and innocent Tunde had been until then. If only she hadn’t opened the Nora's journal. If only she had left that page unread. It remained etched in her mind for always.

“What has this journey been all about? Were we so naïve that we actually thought we could change the world? Was it perhaps about our own selfishness, that at half a century of age we needed affirmation of our worth? Had we regressed to our early university years of innocence believing that the world was at our feet and we could change it, if we just set our minds to it? Had we in fact become middle aged female Don Quixotes living all these years in a fantasy of our own creation? Do we any longer know what is real and what is a desire? Do we any longer know what force drives us towards this goal we have set for ourselves? Do we have any control over the power of this force that binds us to this mission? And can we be certain, that this power is about goodness? If only I knew!”    

Where to Purchase:

·         Baico Publishing Inc. Contact at: baico@bellnet.ca

·         Chapters Indigo: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/The-Women-Gather-Katalin-Kennedy/9781926945873-item.html?ikwid=the+women+gather&ikwsec=Home

About Katalin Kennedy:

·         On Christmas Eve, 1956, Katalin (Kennedy) and her parents escaped from Hungary, their homeland. The following April, they arrived as refugees in Saint John, New Brunswick. She spent most of her adult life in Ottawa, Ontario. Katalin graduated from Carleton University and joined Health Canada. She managed major national projects as Program Consultant on Seniors’ and Women’s Issues. Katalin is involved in various community activities including writing her monthly Kindness column for Cornwall’s Seaway News. Her first novel “The Women Gather” has been published by Baico Publishing Inc. http://katalinkennedy.com https://www.facebook.com/EmesesDreamProduction

Social Links:

·         Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmesesDreamProduction

·         Twitter: https://twitter.com/emesesdreamprod

Giveaway:

·         First prize, second and third prize: Autographed Copy of The Women Gather

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