Fallen Pomegranate Seeds Duology, snippet by Wendy J. Dunn

In the Falling Pomegranate Seeds Duology, readers are transported to the rich historical tapestry of 15th and 16th-century Europe, where the lives of remarkable women unfold against the backdrop of political upheaval and personal struggles.

In the first book, beginning in 1490 Castile, Doña Beatriz Galindo, a passionate and respected scholar, serves as an advisor to Queen Isabel of Castile. Beatriz yearns for a life beyond the constraints imposed on women, desiring to control her own destiny. As she witnesses the Holy War led by Queen Isabel and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, Beatriz dedicates herself to guiding Queen Isabel’s youngest child, Catalina of Aragon, on her own path. Beatriz’s role as a tutor and advisor becomes instrumental in shaping Catalina’s future as she prepares to become England’s queen.

Fast forward to the winter of 1539 in the second book, where María de Salinas, a dear friend and cousin of Catalina (now known as Katherine of Aragon), pens a heartfelt letter to her daughter, the Duchess of Suffolk. Unable to make the journey from her London home due to illness, María shares her life story, intricately woven with her experiences alongside Catalina. Their friendship has endured through exile and tumultuous times. María seeks to shed light for her daughter on the choices she has made in a story exploring themes of friendship, betrayal, hatred, and forgiveness. Through María’s narrative, the eternal question Will love ultimately triumph?

Snippet

Fingertips numbed and clumsy, she turned another page of her book, glancing yearningly towards Catalina. She wished she sat closer to the enormous fire burning with abandon in the huge hearth. But then María studied Catalina with far more attention.

Perched on the edge of her stool, Catalina kept changing her position, twisting one way and then another from the heat, the silk of her gown gleaming with the fire’s orange and red glow. They have placed her chair too close to the fire. Catalina had other causes for discomfort as well. On high backed chairs overlooking her, a queen and a king’s mother kept their eyes on the girl come to marry the heir to England’s throne. María gnawed her bottom lip. I am far better off here – even if I am freezing. I’d hate to be looked at like that.

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Meet Wendy J. Dunn

Wendy J. Dunn is an award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder.

Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.