Susan Appleyard: From Diamond to Platinum - Celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee

To celebrate Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee Discovering Diamonds is hosting a series of excerpts or articles written by our wonderful review team. For our author reviewers: the theme is an excerpt from one of their novels portraying royalty - or an equivalent leader-type character. For our non-writer reviewers: a favourite monarch and/or novel about Royalty... In other words, an enjoyable mix of entertainment to acknowledge Queen Elizabeth II's longest reign in British history! 70 years! 

God Bless you Ma'am. 

(say ma'am to rhyme with 'jam' not 'farm')

Today:

Dark Spirit by Susan Appleyard

"Born into the royal Wittelsbach family of Bavaria, with its legacy of madness, depression and eccentricity, Ludwig II's extravagant and ruinously expensive building projects, coupled with increasingly aberrant behaviour caused the people of his day to wonder. Was Ludwig mad? Was he a genius? Was he just a lonely man, having looked for and given up on love, seeking for some kind of spiritual fulfilment? Even today, we wonder. What was the impetus behind his compulsion to build? And was he really insane or a victim of his own government's scheming?"

An excerpt from Dark Spirit by Susan Appleyard

When there was so much of darkness in his life, the king often thought that, but for his intercession, Wagner would not have had the means to write the great dramas that came later, the superb Tristan and Isolde and his masterpiece Der Ring des Niebelungen. If he never finished his castles, if nothing else he ever did was memorable, at least the world must be grateful to him for that.

Today was the third anniversary of Wagner’s death. 

There was no music in Ludwig's life now. He had all the pianos in his castles covered in black crepe, and he would not allow the playing of Wagner's music. It was too painful now that the Great Friend was gone.

As he moved among the paintings, the evil thing crept into his mind – a force irresistible – and he knew he would fall again. Tomorrow there would be guilt and remorse – such heartfelt, agonising remorse – and atonement. He would then swear, and mean it, never to yield to such wicked impulses again.

He was on his way to the oratory to pray for Wagner when he met Hesselschwerdt coming with the missing reports. 

“Take them to my study. I will see to them later. I have to go to the oratory now to remember the great Wagner.” He started off again, but paused, turned and fell once again. “Do you recall that young cavalryman who was here a few weeks ago? Thomas, the one with the red hair and beard. Ask him – and be very courteous – if he would be kind enough to attend me this evening as I am in need of cheering up.”

As he dashed off, La Rosee’s words echoed from days long in the past when his heart had been pure, and his soul was chaste and unsullied. ‘If evil tendencies come up again, try to suppress them. With a strong will, you can achieve anything.' 

Oh, he had tried, and tried. It was only that he was lonely and sad that made him need to break out of his protective isolation, to appease this consuming ache, if only for a moment, by seeking a soul-destroying simulacrum of love; a sensual rather than a spiritual love, the only kind he could bring himself to accept.

About the Author:

I was born in England, which is where I learned to love English history, and now live in Canada in the summer. In the winter my husband and I flee the cold for our second home in Mexico. Although writing is my first love, I also enjoy reading and oil painting. I was fortunate to have two books published traditionally. Since joining the Ebook crowd, I have published nine books, some of which have won various awards.

Susan's links

Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=%22Susan+Appleyard%22

Amazon UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=susan+appleyard&crid=1TQZ1LER37SO2

Amazon. Com

https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Appleyard/e/B00UTVMT5Y/

website

https://susanappleyardwriter.wordpress.com/

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