Helen Scott Taylor | Celtic Symbols

I’m a great lover of all things Celtic. As I live in England, I’m surrounded by ancient ruins and other Celtic memorabilia, so I’m in the ideal place to indulge my interest. I based the fantasy world of my Magic Knot Fairies’ series on Celtic mythology and have used areas rich in Celtic myth and legend to set my stories. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Dublin and the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland where part of THE MAGIC KNOT is set, and Wales where part of THE PHOENIX CHARM is set. This summer I spent two weeks visiting castles and other historic sites in Scotland to do research for my third book, THE RUBY KISS that will be out at the end of 2010.

Two of the most beautiful aspects of Celtic heritage are the intricate symbols and designs. When I visited Ireland, I took a tour around an ancient monastery and graveyard. The place was magical, full of beautifully decorated Celtic crosses. We also have Celtic crosses on Dartmoor in South West England a few miles from where I live.

The shape of the Celtic Knot gave me the fundamental idea on which my Magic Knot Fairies’ fantasy world is based. In my series, The Magic Knot is a magical pendant similar to a Celtic Knot possessed by every person with fairy blood. The three linked rings symbolise mind, body, and spirit. Lovers give their Magic Knot into the safekeeping of their soul mate-the ultimate demonstration of trust and commitment that binds them together in mind, body, and spirit for life.

Celtic symbols also gave me story ideas in the second book, THE PHOENIX CHARM. My heroine is a water nymph. She has a sensual allure that her family were ashamed of, so they made her hide her natural gift by binding it with Celtic symbols painted on her skin. My heroine Cordelia has six Celtic symbols drawn on her back and mirrored on her front. These cover the energy centers of her body (also known as chakras in traditional Indian medicine).

The Celtic symbol of the maze traditionally marks the entrance to the Underworld, so this appears in the book marking the entrance to the Welsh Fairy King’s domain, as in Welsh Celtic mythology, he is also King of the Underworld.

My favorite piece of jewelry is a Celtic cross set with abalone shell that I bought when I visited Ireland to research my first book, before it was published. I’m convinced the cross brings me luck.

To find out more about my contemporary fantasy series and to read excerpts, please visit www.helenscotttaylor.com.

To read a free short fantasy romance story please visit the special features on the Dorchester website

Helen Scott Taylor | Mystical Countryside

Many paranormal stories are set in urban settings. The genre of Urban Fantasy even indicates in its name that stories falling into this genre should have a cityscape setting. Much as I enjoy paranormals that are set in cities, especially cities rich in history, what I really enjoy is a country setting.

Many rural areas are imbued with a mysticism that an urban setting can never hope to match. Imagine a tiny Scottish hamlet, the home to generations of families living in stone-built cottages, where the history of magical belief and violence from the past breathes with the wind whistling along the valleys between the mountains, or an ancient manor house sitting like a huge slumbering beast among the desolate windswept hills of Dartmoor. Or my favorite, a verdant Cornish valley full of wild flowers where a tiny stream trickles between the abandoned tin mines from its rocky spring on Bodmin Moor down to the Atlantic.

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