Lisa Costantino

Typing Gothic novelettes on paperback-size sheets of paper and stapling them together: my very first "publications." I've been writing since my tween years, churning out short stories, poetry, and unfinished novels. But up until now, most of my writing has manifested in travel articles and copious amounts of content for websites.

Maiden's Veil is my first published novel, and I was thrilled to see it win 1st Place in the Women’s Fiction category, INDIE Awards, a division of the Chanticleer Blue Ribbon Awards 2013. A half-contemporary, half-historical twining of stories, Maiden's Veil was born during a trip to the UK, in which I planned to do research on a travel guide to Europe's oldest festivals. As I witnessed a number of centuries-old traditions, many of them honoring May Day, or Beltane, I became inspired to write a fictional tale that reflected the essence behind these celebrations.

I am continually fascinated by the way mythology and ancient beliefs persist in contemporary society, and my writing reflects this interest. I have three separate works in progress—one set in Ireland, one in Wales, and one in the Arizona desert—all very much different voices and genres, but all with a mythological element.

I love to read both fiction and non-fiction, and I’m always stuck into multiple books—partly because I review books for Kirkus. I also have an editing service and have worked on a number of great manuscripts, including those of my colleagues, Christine Fairchild and Kim Hornsby. For more information, visit http://www.lisacostantino.com

Years ago I fled sunny Southern California to live in the rainy but always green Northwest. I currently reside in Edmonds, Washington, with my husband Paul and my sweet dog Lucy.

Favorite Beach: I’m a walker, not a sunbather. For gorgeous, windswept sands that can go on for miles without seeing another soul, nothing beats the beaches of Cornwall. Closer to home, the tribal-owned beach north of Moclips, Washington remains an all-time fave.

BOOKS:

Maiden's Veil In the remote English countryside, tapestry weaver Clarinda Asher performs a pagan fertility ritual with a local landed man—a sacred union that ignites a firestorm and ultimately has her banished to a lonely hilltop above her village. Three hundred years later, American Jess Barlow arrives in Maidenvale as the village celebrates a diluted version of that long-ago holy day. Together with the fair’s king of the May, Jess rediscovers—and ultimately reenacts—the ancient rite, which soon rips their lives apart. But the ritual’s potency has been revived, and events take an unexpected turn. “Costantino deftly intertwines the stories of two star-crossed love affairs, building to a climax wherein the fates of all the four lovers are bound up together--making a seemingly chance encounter an event that will forever change their lives...”

AUTHOR CONTACTS:
Website: http://www.lisacostantino.com
Editorial services: http://www.lisacostantino.com/#!editing-services/cegp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LisaCostantinoAuthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lisa_costantino
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6469619.Lisa_Costantino