37 ratings | 8 reviews | avg rating:4.86

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Celyn Kendrick

Goodreads Author

Website

https://celynkendrick.com

Twitter

CelynKendrick

Genre

Fantastique, Low Fantasy, Upmarket Fiction

Influences

Member Since

November 2022

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Celyn Kendrick is a non-binary Aspergian who lives with two dogs and thousands of toy robots belonging to the resident hoarder. The icy stares of two creepy mannequins named Keanu and Ashton keep Celyn in check, reminding the author of the reception books will get if half of what's written is published. ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

What genre are your books?

Celyn Kendrick I have been picking everyone's brains trying to figure out how to "pigeonhole" this series into a genre, only to find it doesn't fit anything, yet fit…moreI have been picking everyone's brains trying to figure out how to "pigeonhole" this series into a genre, only to find it doesn't fit anything, yet fits everything. But today, I have an answer! It's... *drumroll*

"Fantastique"

That's right, it's not an English literary genre, it is French... and goes back to the middle ages. According to wikipedia: "What is distinctive about the fantastique is the intrusion of supernatural phenomena into an otherwise realist narrative."

Yes. People have called it fantasy, magical-realism, sci-fi, and everything in-between because... it is. And this is very much a part of "fantastique" yet not so much a part of "fantasy."

"Instead, characters in a work of fantastique are, just like the readers, unwilling to accept the supernatural events that occur."

Also very much a premise in my book. There are reasonable, rational people in a modern world who keep getting poked by the "other" side and they question their own sanity when they keep getting poked by the "other" side. I mean, who's born an immortal dragon? Seriously?

"The fantastique began to become defined in the Middle Ages. The old Celtic and Germanic myths were translated from religion (implying belief and worship) into popular folklore (implying belief but not worship)."

Celtic and Germanic myths, check. Religion, check. Folklore, check. Middle Ages, check.

"The root of modern thought about, and artistic depiction of, many things which are today often termed 'supernatural' (such as angels, demons, fairies, witches, etc.) has its beginnings in this period, often called the Middle Ages."

Check, check, check, check...

King Arthur, Reynard the Fox, Aesop's fables... this list could pretty much describe my reading history in one Wikipedia article...

So yeah. I suppose I've felt rather insecure releasing this series when nobody knows what "it" is, and I feel like it's obvious and has been done a million times before, yet readers say it's completely new to them. Certainly, the execution is my own, but I feel like the tapestry of the books/series is genre fiction at its core... it's just not modern genre fiction that can be pigeonholed as high-fantasy, shifter, vampire, contemporary, etc. But you will feel very comfortable when you settle into the series, as it's all stories that have been told a million times before. It's Jesus, it's King Arthur, it's Reynard the Fox, it's Grimm's Fairy Tales, it's Aesop's Fables... but it's definitely rated 18+ ;-)(less)

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I find the covers misleading... why are there swans on a story about dragons?

Celyn Kendrick I'd be happy to take suggestions, but as the series doesn't follow any sort of genre formula, it was difficult to come up with a "cover story" that wo…moreI'd be happy to take suggestions, but as the series doesn't follow any sort of genre formula, it was difficult to come up with a "cover story" that would convey what's inside... because there are too many ideas that don't subscribe to a set model.

Every cover has dragons on it in an ouroboros—reflecting the cyclic nature of the universe and the series. The dragons form a frame around a window into a fantasy world... where there is a reflected 'real' world and 'shadow' world.

Why swans? Swans often mate for life. They're known homosexuals of the animal kingdom. The dragon mating dance is directly taken from a swan mating dance. There's the reflection of the true-self looking at the shadow-self (the humans vs. spiritual dragon within, or Michael and Stewart being two halves of a whole). Stewart and Michael fight/argue with the local swans in-story. The "swan maiden" is a story/mythology about a human who shapeshifts into a swan with a feather coat (also similar to the selkie story within Dragon Tales).

Perhaps it's all too meta for effective marketing, but there was definite thought behind the covers from a story-perspective.(less)

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Combine Editions
Celyn Kendrick’s books

Average rating: 4.49 · 160 ratings · 125 reviews · 8 distinct works • Similar authors

	Green Hills and Daffodils (The Green Hills Series #1) 4.03 avg rating — 39 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Green Hills and Prison Cells (The Green Hills Series #7) 4.86 avg rating — 21 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Green Hills and Dragon Tales (The Green Hills Series #2) 4.43 avg rating — 21 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Green Hills and Whippoorwills (The Green Hills Series #6) 4.65 avg rating — 20 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Green Hills and Fairy Bells (The Green Hills Series #3) 4.60 avg rating — 20 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Green Hills and Holy Wells (The Green Hills Series #4) 4.68 avg rating — 19 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Green Hills and Battlefields (The Green Hills Series #5) 4.58 avg rating — 19 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The DogStar Paradox it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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8 posts
Celyn Kendrick's Blog

Nominated for 5 Queer Indie Awards

Vote Here!: https://qiawards.wordpress.com/voting...

Excited to announce I've been nominated for the following:

Best Supporting Character - Jean-Michel Dùghall / Green Hills and Prison Cells by Celyn Kendrick
Best Villain - Mick Dougal / Green Hills and Battlefields by Celyn Kendrick
Best Romantic Relationship - Stewart & Michael / Green Hills and Prison Cells by Celyn Kendrick Read more of this blog post »

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Published on January 24, 2024 00:18 • Tags: queer-indie-awards

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Series by Celyn Kendrick

The Green Hills Series (7 books)
by

Celyn Kendrick (Goodreads Author)

4.48 avg rating — 159 ratings

Celyn is Currently Reading

Celyn is currently reading

The Works Of Rabelais Faithfully Translated From The French With Variorum Notes, and Numerous Illustrations

by François Rabelais

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jan 19, 2024 08:45PM

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Celyn’s Recent Updates

Celyn is now following Kenneth Udut Author of The Possibilities Are Overwhelming
Feb 03, 2026 01:24PM · like
Celyn liked Iain Benson's review of The DogStar Paradox: "This book is something else. Truly. It's told (mainly) from the point of view of two AIs who just want humanity to thrive in a. Dystopian world caused by human ingenuity, laziness and apathy. Think even lazier than the humans in Wall-E. Our eponymous" Read more of this review »
Jan 31, 2026 08:49PM · see review
Celyn liked a quote “The moral sense perhaps affords the best and highest distinction between man and the lower animals” Charles Darwin
Oct 06, 2024 01:34PM · like · more quotes by Charles Darwin · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Celyn liked a quote “The upper lip during the act of grinning is retracted, as in snarling, so that the canines are exposed, and the ears are drawn backwards; but the general appearance of the animal clearly shows that anger is not felt. Sir C. Bell[3] remarks "Dogs, in their expression of fondness, have a slight eversion of the lips, and grin and sniff amidst their gambols, in a way that resembles laughter." Some persons speak of the grin as a smile, but if it had been really a smile, we should see a similar, though more pronounced, movement of the lips and ears, when dogs utter their bark of joy; but this is not the case, although a bark of joy often follows a grin.” ...more Charles Darwin
Oct 06, 2024 01:19PM · like · more quotes by Charles Darwin · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Celyn liked Helen Salsbury's review of Green Hills and Whippoorwills (The Green Hills Series #6): "There's almost too much to say about this book. It's very imaginative and complex with three different worlds, a dynamic mix of influences, and two different styles of English: USA and UK. Plus there's even the odd smattering of Welsh. I read it as a" Read more of this review »
Jun 25, 2024 01:48PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Green Hills and Whippoorwills by Celyn Kendrick. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Green Hills and Whippoorwills by Celyn Kendrick <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Celyn liked Nikki Elizabeth's review of Green Hills and Battlefields: "Dragons. Half-fairies. Pokey spears. Buddy Holly glasses and sad comb-overs. LFG. Picking up my copy of this book, I found myself instantly immersed in a descriptive and visual scene of a war-torn battlefield. As soon as I saw mention of the ginger V" Read more of this review »
May 31, 2024 06:07PM · see review
Celyn made a comment on Alex Smith’s review of Green Hills and Fairy Bells (The Green Hills Series #3) " Curious where you saw the entire series was "historical" so I can fix it. There are several books in the series with some historical fiction past-memo ...more "
Mar 06, 2024 09:29PM · see review

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Quotes by Celyn Kendrick (?)

“what was life, if not a certain kind of madness,
which lay in the grey areas between order and chaos?”
― Celyn Kendrick, Green Hills and Holy Wells

tags: chaos, life, madness, order, sanity

1 likes

“I don’t care for labels because far too often, too many apply, and none of them is precisely right.”
― Celyn Kendrick, Green Hills and Dragon Tales

tags: lgbtq-literature

0 likes

“He suspected that copious amounts of alcohol were required for fun because it was the cheapest and most readily-available ancient form of self-medication for social anxiety rather than a true joy derived from drinking. Either that, or it was a passive and inefficient quest for self-termination via liver damage among his adolescent peers. Otherwise, was there really a point to large groups of people gathering to get drunk with no common goal?”
― Celyn Kendrick, Green Hills and Daffodils

tags: adolescence, alcohol, partying, suicide

0 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Review Group: * Group 318. 18+ - Mod. Kat	157	82	Jan 22, 2023 11:59AM
FREE Books, Givea...: $0.99 Pride Sale! Gay Dragon Jesus & Michael the Archangel!	1	3	Jun 08, 2023 11:36AM
Queereaders: $0.99 - Gay Dragon Jesus & Michael the Archangel	2	24	Jun 08, 2023 11:45AM
Queereaders: $0.99 - Dog Weddings and Crazy Mom	1	14	Jun 09, 2023 09:25AM
FREE Books, Givea...: $0.99 - Pride Sale - Dog Weddings and Crazy Mom!	1	2	Jun 09, 2023 09:32AM
Queereaders: $0.99 Monks and Wedding Chickens!	1	14	Jun 15, 2023 02:43PM
FREE Books, Givea...: $0.99 Monks and Wedding Chickens!	1	3	Jun 15, 2023 02:44PM

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Celyn’s Quotes

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

tags: inspirational, optimism, perception, pessimism

46535 likes

“People are tired of living in shadows like they should be ashamed of something like love while there are bigger problems in the world like murder and underground drug operations.”
― Celyn Kendrick, Green Hills and Dragon Tales

tags: bigotry, gun-violence, lgbtq

0 likes

“I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me, and my enquiry is as to their working, and my problem is their subjugation and victory, down throw and upheaval, and my effort is their self-expression.”
― Dylan Thomas

320 likes

“I know we're not saints or virgins or lunatics; we know all the lust and lavatory jokes, and most of the dirty people; we can catch buses and count our change and cross the roads and talk real sentences. But our innocence goes awfully deep, and our discreditable secret is that we don't know anything at all, and our horrid inner secret is that we don't care that we don't.”
― Dylan Thomas

289 likes

“The only sea I saw Was the seesaw sea With you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy. Let me shipwreck in your thighs.”
― Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood