Hywela Lyn: Rebecca Sweeney Graf's February Author Hunt.

8:00 am · at 8:00 am

There are bloghops - and bloghops! The one I'm taking part in today, organised by Rebecca Sweeney Graf, is just a bit different. You have to find the answer to a list of questions found in the Rafflecopter contest on her site HERE

This is for one day only and every answer you get right entitles you to an entry, thanks for organising this, Rebecca.

To make it easy for you, I'm going to tell you a bit about myself and most of the answers will be in this post. If not you'll find them elsewhere on the blog, but they shouldn't be too hard to find.

So first of all, the question I get asked most often is - where did I get my name from? Is it a nickname, or my penname, or what? Well, my first two names are Hywela and Lyn. I was always called just Lyn by my family and friends since I was a baby. When I published my first novel, 'Starquest', a 292 page futuristic romance with the Wild Rose Press, I thought it was a shame not to use my first name, Hywela, so I tagged it on to my second name, rather than using my surname, and became 'Hywela Lyn'. I'm occasionally called by the nickname 'Lindylou' by people who know me well. I was born and lived most of my life in Wales until I married and moved to England because of my husband's job. Hywela is Welsh and also has Celtic and Arthurian derivations and means 'sharp sighted'

Starquest was followed by a sequel Children Of The Mist and I was also commissioned to write a novel about a Greek Muse for the Wild Rose Press series Song Of The Muses. When the print version was pulled I requested my rights back and, along with several other authors in the series, republished it myself as a stand-alone novella, Dancing With Fate, which is available on Smashwords and Amazon. (You can read the first chapter of all three stories in the sidebar on the right.)

My current WIP is another follow up to Starquest, which will make then make it a trilogy, with a working title of 'Beloved Enemy'. These three books are all 'futuristics' and although technically Science Fiction, they are very much romances and I hope people can relate to the characters and their trials and tribulations and grow to love them and root for them as much as I do. I do tend to put my heroines through the mill a bit, but they always find their h.e.a. in the end, making it all worthwhile. I love to write about distant and imaginary planets. Like Jess in Starquest, I love the stars, and can' t believe out of all those myriads of stars, there aren't planets up there supporting life. So if you were to ask me if I believe in aliens, the answer has to be 'yes'.

I'm, a chocoholic, and love anything with chocolate. I prefer a chocolate desert to the main course, in fact! I'm not going to tell you my favourite colour - but the answer should be fairly obvious, and if not, it will be mentioned a bit further down in this post. As I said, I'm originally from Wales and go back whenever I can to see my family and friends. We usually manage to spend New Year with my sister, there. She lives on top of a hill, surrounded by rolling countryside and with a view of the sea. I love it there. She has horses and a dog and a little grandson who is just gorgeous. While I was there I started the New Year off with 'No Such Thing As Immortality' by Sarah Tranter, which is the debut novel of this talented UK writer who I have also had the pleasure of meeting in person. If you like paranormals whose immortal heroes have a touch of 'Mr Darcy' about them, I think you'll enjoy this one as much as I did.

I also have another sister who lives a few miles away from there and is mad on cats. She gave me one of my favourite Christmas gifts - a gorgeous purple 'hoodie' with silver horseshoes on, which is not only smart but keeps me nice and warm when I'm out with my adopted Jack Russell terrier and my two horses, Harri and T'pau.

Bouncer

Molly

Unfortunately we don't have any land of our own the horses are kept several miles away from where we live, but we manage to visit them every day to feed and tend to them. We also have a resident rescued 'ferel' cat there, to keep down the rats and mice, and she is now as much part of the family as my dog and the horses. I am, and always have been, a country person. The one thing that really scares me is busy streets, I hate having to cross a road with streams of traffic! Give me narrow wild lanes and countryside any day!

One of the craziest things I've ever done was to try to lead a dog from my horse – something spooked horse, horse went one way, dog another and I ended up in a heap in the middle. Fortunately no-one hurt! I didn't try that one again!

As you may have gathered, I love animals, especially horses. My favourite author as a kid was Lorna Hill, who wrote a lot of 'pony' stories, and my 'imaginary friend' wasn't another child, but a black pony called Jet. I wanted to be a riding school owner when I left school, but sadly never had the financial resources to achieve that dream. I actually had to save up for five years to buy my first horse, but I am now living another dream - that of being a writer.

Harri and T'pau

Finally, three snippets of information that not everybody knows. I love films, although I tend to watch most of them these days as DVDs. My current favourite is Les Miserables, not only because it is such a wonderful story, but the music is so gorgeous too. I once saw a ghost appear in a photograph I took at a writing retreat, and I've always hated cabbage.

Ok there's more information about me in the above post than you probably ever wished to know! :) However, it's all in keeping with the instructions for this Blog hop. So enter your answers below and Good Luck. The prize I am awarding for this Blog is a copy of Starquest and a $12 Amazon Gift Certificate.

Starquest and Children of the Mist are both avalable from The Wild Rose Press (Where you can also download a FREE short fantasy romance) and

You can purchase 'Dancing with Fate' and any of my books at my Author Page on Amazon:

Amazon US
Amazon UK