In a novel inspired by the myth popularized by Wagner's Ring Trilogy, Paxson recounts the first part of the Nibelungenlied legend. Children Brunahild and Sigfrid are raised along their fated paths, each immersed in the special knowledge that will mold them into leaders of their people. Soon they are drawn together in a union of perfect love and heroic glory. "A lovely blend of legend and realism".--Marion Zimmer Bradley.
I was brought up in southern California, but came north to attend Mills College and never left. I got my M.A. in (medieval) Comparative Literature from the University of California in 1966, the same year I put on the first tournament of what was to become the Society for Creative Anachronism. Since 1971 I've lived at Greyhaven, a hundred-year old house in Berkeley, with successive generations of family, friends, cats and dogs.
It's a literary family, including my husband, Jon DeCles, and the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, who was my mentor as a writer as well as colleague in founding Darkmoon Circle. My first published novel was Mistress of the Jewels, which began the chronicles of Westria. After I had written several historical fantasies, Marion, whose health deteriorated after she wrote Mists of Avalon, asked me to help her with The Forest House, which is how I ended up writing the Avalon series.
Much of the spiritual experience in my novels comes out of my work in the pagan community. I have now begun to publish that material in a series of non-fiction books, the most recent being Trance-Portation. My most recent novel is Sword of Avalon, set at the end of the Bronze Age, which gave me an opportunity to explore the end of the Homeric Age and the techniques of bronze- and iron-forging.
For more about my work, see:
www.westria.org
www.avalonbooks.net
www.seidh.org
