BLURB:
Would you give up everything, even the time in which you live, to be with your soul mate? That's what young art historian and teacher May Gold must decide when she slips through time's folds to meet the man of her dreams and the subject of her master's thesis -- fiery 17th century genius artist Gianlorenzo Bernini.
In her fantasies May is in his arms, the wildly adored partner of the man who steered Renaissance art into the Baroque. In reality, she has just landed in Rome with her stodgy boyfriend and teaching colleagues for a tour of Italy. She yearns to unleash her passion and creative spirit.
When the floor under the gilded dome of St Peter's basilica rocks under her feet, she finds herself in the year 1624, staring straight into Bernini's eyes. Their immediate and powerful attraction grows every time she meets him during the tour. Passion blossoms, but history says they have no future. Can May thread her way through time, and will she take a perilous risk to begin a magical, exciting new life?
This time travel romance is perfect for lovers of Italy, art, and love stories.
In her fantasies May is in his arms, the wildly adored partner of the man who steered Renaissance art into the Baroque. In reality, she has just landed in Rome with her stodgy boyfriend and teaching colleagues for a tour of Italy. She yearns to unleash her passion and creative spirit.
When the floor under the gilded dome of St Peter's basilica rocks under her feet, she finds herself in the year 1624, staring straight into Bernini's eyes. Their immediate and powerful attraction grows every time she meets him during the tour. Passion blossoms, but history says they have no future. Can May thread her way through time, and will she take a perilous risk to begin a magical, exciting new life?
This time travel romance is perfect for lovers of Italy, art, and love stories.
Would You Go Time Traveling for Love?
If you would, would you stay in another time for love—giving up everything, even the time in which you live, to be with your soul mate?
That’s the question my main character, May Gold must answer. As a lowly college adjunct teacher without much of a future, she often dreams about the subject of her master’s thesis – 17thcentury genius sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. In her fantasies she’s in his arms, the wildly adored partner of the man who invented the Baroque. What would she do if she were to really meet this genius in person? When she lands in Rome with a traveling group of her teaching colleagues, she gets the chance to find out.
Time travel, however, is a tricky business. In fiction, there are many ways to go, and many consequences of going. For example, in Outlander, the main complication of time traveling is forming a relationship you can’t leave behind, creating great problems for your present time life.
In other stories, the problem becomes changing history by wading through it. Little things, like the cherub May asks Bernini to add to a famous monument—what ripple effect would that have on the history of the world as we know it? Might America cease to exist, all because one little ornament was added to a famous sculpture? Or might May herself return to her own time to discover that she doesn’t exist—as herself?
For some of us, traveling through history is an internal affair. It’s as real as the butterflies that I once saw migrating in what must have been the millions, straight through our busy town thoroughfare, tumbling forward around and through their own swarm, as if the cars didn’t exist. Perhaps we have traveled through time that way, without even knowing it. In a certain sense, my heroine May travels back and forth, between her time and Bernini’s, in that way. It happens in a realm that exists within this one, and which is perceptible to us in rare, heart-swelling moments when Truth seems to warrant a capital T.
May Gold and Gianlorenzo Bernini share a present time in a way that happens between people at the most important moments. Call it timeless travel. Anyone who has ever loved has felt it—whether the love is romantic, or for a child, family member, or friend. As Lin-Manuel Miranda put it in his acceptance speech at the Tony Awards, “And love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.”
Time travel in fiction is to fold centuries together in surprising ways, to reveal how they echo or oppose each other, and to better understand our own origins. Because time travelers in fiction nearly always return to their own time, the trope implies a comparison between two eras in history, or even between our contemporary time and its potential to spin out into an imagined wonderful, or terrible, future. As in The Time Machine, the reader is meant to learn something about his or her own age and how to better live in it.
****This sounds good to me. I love time travel stories.****
Now for an excerpt...
He lowered the rod and at last, smiled. Historians had written that his smile could charm anyone, but he had never been painted smiling. What a shame.
“Why are you, a woman, studying my art?” His voice wasn’t deep but it was vibrant, with an Italian lilt. “Women only study languages, lute playing, babies, and needle work.”
“I’m a different kind of woman.” She remembered what a range of women he had known, from models to noblemen’s wives. In his era, women’s decent occupations could be listed in five lines.
“I do not wish to be rude, but because of your sex you cannot study art.”
“I’m an exception.” She enjoyed the way that startled him.
“What are you called?” he demanded.
“My name is May Gold.”
He bowed. “Signorina May Gold, Cavaliere Bernini is at your service! Your golden skin makes me think you are perhaps from Egypt, where women aren’t properly schooled in manners.”
She smiled at what he thought would be an insult. “I’m half Italian and half Jewish. And I am a student of your work, despite my sex.”
“How can that be?”
His superior certainty made the sarcasm pinch, but she knew he couldn’t easily understand. She might as well tell him what he would find unbelievable. “I’m a historian studying Baroque art, and you’re the focus of my study.”
He laughed loudly. “A woman historian? Impossible! And I know nothing of your Baroque. I am merely—” he bowed insincerely “—a genius of sculpture and architecture.”
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Rachel Dacus is a poet, essayist, and novelist who writes about love and relationships, with a touch of the supernatural. Love and history are the themes of her debut novel, The Renaissance Club, a tale of romance between a young art historian and her hero, the fiery 17th century Italian sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. Praise for her novel — “enchanting, rich, and romantic” — describes the kinds of love and adventure stories Rachel enjoys, preferably set in exotic places. She has traveled to Italy and India and plans to expand her journeys beyond countries that start with the letter “I”.
She’s the daughter of a bipolar rocket engineer who worked on missiles during the race-to-space 1950’s. He was also an accomplished painter.
Her interest in Italy was ignited by a course in Renaissance art history that culminated in tour of northern Italy. She’s been hooked on Italy ever since. Her essay on Italy, motherhood, and infertility was anthologized in Italy, a Love Story: Women Write About the Italian Experience.
Dacus shows off her versatility in four poetry collections. Her newest is Arabesque.Three other collections are: Gods of Water and Air, Femme au Chapeau, and Earth Lessons. She raises funds for arts, human service, and healthcare organizations and takes walks with her way-too-smart Silky Terrier.
Find out more about Rachel Dacus and The Renaissance Club:
Website:http://racheldacus.net
Twitter:
Giveaway:
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