Guest Post & Giveaway: Through Rain and Missing Mantaurs by Jeanne Marcella

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Her past is postage due and centaurs are ready to collect.

Through Rain and Missing Mantaurs is a dark fantasy most daring and eccentric. A tale not for the faint of heart. Pony is a bipedal half-breed centaur with no desire to waste tears on a past she can't remember. She's busy enough with her mail routes and package deliveries, and of course, floundering through hot-cold love affairs with the high class courtesans Mardyth and Lullaby.

The mundane drudgery of her life shatters when Konstantine Bywater takes over as Lightfoot Delivery's new boss. He asks questions she can't possibly answer, and stirs up a tragic past better left dead and buried.

But running away is no longer an option. Not when Kon and his minions accuse Mardyth of an unspeakable crime. With her lover's life at stake, Pony won't stop until she uncovers not only the truth of Mardyth's innocence, but the truth of the past as well.

Genres: dark fantasy, epic fantasy

Pairings: MMF, MM

LGBTQ+ Identities: gay, poly, bi

Keywords/Categories: fantasy, dark fantasy, epic fantasy, gay, poly, polyamorous, bi, bisexual MM, MMF, centaurs, half-breeds, half-centaur, elves, gods, magic bow, unusual jobs in fantasy books, lost heirs, memory loss, mail carriers, only one of her kind

Guest Post

Centaurs 

By Jeanne Marcella

Half man, half horse. Creatures with the head, arms, and torso of a human, and the legs and body of an equine. Centaurs have appeared in popular literature, movies, and TV shows, but they’re mostly used for background fodder. And most especially, they’re never fully explored. That’s always frustrated me.

Because stories often depict them as uncivilized and inhuman, many readers are often horrified if they’re paired off with a human and have offspring. Especially when such a relationship is explored in detail. Except in the case of the Xena Warrior Princess TV show. That used to confuse me to no end, until I realized that technically, the show wasn’t a true dark fantasy—especially the centaur episodes. The show overall was a mesh of comedy, humor and poking fun at itself among those dark topics. Lots of stuff in those Xena centaur episodes didn’t really explore centaurs, or dive into the centaur characters in any depth or detail. It only produced more aggravation for me. 

So I decided to do something about it. On my own terms. Something that would really get a reader’s reaction, for good or bad.

Centaurs are usually considered dumb beasts. In Greek lore, they are often depicted as savage drunken monsters who kidnap women. In Through Rain and Missing Mantaurs, or TRAMM, centaurs are much more sophisticated. And so very complicated. Complicated so much that’s where the suggestion of transgressive fiction rolls in. And that’s why I say my dark fantasies aren’t for the faint of heart. 

Centaurs in my world are a little difficult to explore without giving away massive spoilers. They’re created by the shapeshifting god, Willdin. They reside in wooden houses with thick, wall-spanning windows, and they have communities of their own. Female centaurs are called the kentauroi.

The centaur culture is also quite…interesting. There’s equine herd mentality and hierarchy, with the males running and dominating their society. They wear clothing-blankets colored to proclaim their specific herds.

And as humans often do, humans have crushed and destroyed certain harmonies of the centaur culture. And those harmonies have disrupted the relationships between centaurs and kentaurs. 

Unfortunately, addressing those particular problems will have to wait until the third and final book. Ah, the joys of being an author, riling the readers and keeping plot secrets.  


Author Bio

Jeanne Marcella writes dramatic, and often character driven fantasy fiction not for the faint of heart. Quests, adventure, danger, and the grit of living are foremost, but relationships and mild romance might also share the pages.

Granted unlimited access to books at a very early age via the library, she quickly acquired a fondness for creating her own stories through word and drawing. She was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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