It is the perfect setting for the story for it is resplendent and remote-a wild area of mountains, causses (plateaus), and dramatic river gorges. The Cévennes mountains region of Southern France was the homeland of Jean Pierre Bondurant. What made you choose the setting for this book? I wrote it as an adventure to transport the reader into a thrilling and obscure slice of French history. I blended it with Cévenole magic lore into a coming-of-age story and family saga of courage, tenacity, and the power of love. Once I dove into the research, I became utterly fascinated with this overlooked period in the late 17th century that led up to the Camisard War. I have felt a calling for over twenty years to write a story inspired by Jean Pierre Bondurant dit Cougoussac, a French Huguenot ancestor-my 7th great grandfather. I’ve always had a love for the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Why did you choose this period of history? But when Louis XIV’s persecutions force Jehan to decide where his loyalties lie, he must make a fateful decision-recreant, rebel, or refugee?
He journeys to the Gorges du Tarn where he discovers his muse, a free-spirited, mystic, holy woman who reveals ancient healing practices and spiritual mysteries, inspiring his quest for freedom. In the mysterious Cévennes mountains of Languedoc, France, 1695, a dangerous legacy of secrets torments Jehan Bondurant, a young noble apothecary stolen as a child from Huguenot parents. How would you describe this book and its themes in a couple of sentences?
We are now part of an authors’ collaboration on Facebook, France’s Splendid Centuries, where she shares more about her passion for this period and era. Our shared fascination with France’s medieval and Renaissance past drew us together. Jules and I met at a Historical Novel Society conference. Its lush language and rich setting will carry readers to a little-known time-period and area of France-the 17 th-century Cévennes mountains of Languedoc. The Muse of Freedom, which deals with a character and locale close to her heart, is her first published novel. Jules Larimore has been writing nonfiction for over 15 years. Launch: Jules Larimore’s The Muse of Freedom
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