Fire Driven

by Tracy Palmer

“Terrwyn... Terrwyn? Come to me, my love. You must come now!” When the Goddess Brighid calls upon her favorite mortal, who is Terrwyn to disobey? Leaving behind everything she has ever known, she travels from her homeland to the Emerald Isle of Eire during a time when the old Gods and the newly arrived Christian religion are fighting for dominance. Terrwyn’s love for Brighid and the old ways are deemed wrong and considered evil by the invading authorities. Driven by visions of the Goddess, she embarks on a quest for understanding and true love. In the face of discrimination, condemnation, and violence, can she hold tight to her faith long enough to prove her loyalty to Brighid?

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 22, 2013

About the author

Tracy Palmer (1971-????) was destined from conception to have an interesting life. After all, only the unusual can attract someone that was conceived in Peculiar, MO. Tracy was obsessively involved in music, acting, and writing since she was first introduced to them in elementary school and she spent most of her scholastic life devoted to each one of the three. A young Ms. Palmer spent a majority of her childhood shuttling back and forth between her parents at the Lake of the Ozarks and Cedar Rapids, IA. After a family tragedy at the end of her Junior year in high school, Tracy left school and served a brief stint in the US Army. Upon leaving the military, Tracy then settled in southern Missouri. She has worked in several professions (accounting, retail, call centers... all mostly IT related).

The backbone and beginning of Tracy's path towards the entertainment industry includes her first printed novel: Tribrid (first published as trIIIbrid). She is also a contributing writer for the post apocalyptic zombie game "Survivor Z". Along with ongoing contributions to the Survivor Z app, Tracy is currently involved in writing the sequel to Tribrid (My Father's Daughter), "The Rage Within" (a graphic novel based on the Tribrid series), "Fire Driven" (a short story included in the anthology For the Love of the Gods printed in 2013), and an original screenplay titled "Dream Weaver". Ms. Palmer is a production assistant for the upcoming movie "The Dead Reckoning" and other future films from the House of Grimm. The world can look forward to several more exciting things from this multi-faceted individual as she dons many more hats in the film and print industries.

Reviews

[Loek Krancher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling story!

A compelling short story which takes place in Ireland, the home of an amazing goddess. I love Terrwyn, a brave and bold woman. I admire her strength, her willpower. Terrwyn's dream are filled with beautiful images. The goddess is calling her and her life is about to change forever. The journey was a real adventure and not harmless. The story keeps a good pace, with memorable strong characters and colorful surroundings. The story takes you away to another time and another place were honor is never taken lightly. A solid engaging story. Full of romance and battle scenes. It was a pleasure to read.

[Laura DeLuca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrwyn is called to service by the Goddess Brighid. She answers willingly, but her path to the temple is not an easy one. She disguises herself as a boy for part of her travels and walks so far she wears the skin away from the heels of her feet. Eventually she enlists the help of a sweet old matron who turns out to have once been a sister of the flames herself. Even if Terrwyn overcomes all the obstacles in her path, once she arrives at the temple she'll have to face the members of the new religion who want to wipe the old ways from the world completely.

Fire Driven is a beautifully written short story of one woman's strength and faith. Terrwyn lets nothing deter her from serving the Goddess she adores and who is her lover as well as her mistress. The stunning word building makes this a quick read with tons of action, a little romance, and a lot of magic.

[Calon-Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Tracy Palmer’s “Fire Driven,” Terrwyn, a young woman from the newly Christianized Wales, answers the call of the ancient goddess Brighid to her temple at Kildare in Ireland. Along the way, Terrwyn encounters a friendly former Maiden of Brighid, Bretta, who both encourages her and arms her on her way to Kildare. But all is not well in Kildare, and Terrywyn will have to fight if she is to protect Brighid’s temple.

As a long short story, “Fire Driven” provides a great amount of backstory and plot in a very compressed format. As a reader, I longed to read more in-depth portrayals of Terrwyn’s travels before she arrived in Ireland and on Bretta’s farm. The reader is given bits of her previous unsavory encounters (such as her family’s insistence that her visions of Brighid are not real, her father’s attempt to marry her off to “Old Master Bowen,” and the continual harassment from men that has forced her to disguise herself along her journey), but the story by necessity lingers on very few of these encounters. Bretta’s rescue of Terrwyn (from exhaustion and malnutrition if nothing else) feels less dramatic for the sparseness of developed tension before. Then, Terrwyn’s eventual arrival in Kildare explodes in action in a way that, although foreshadowed, still feels rushed and hurried. Furthermore (spoiler alert!), Terrwyn’s romantic relationship with the goddess Brighid feels somehow out of place and forced without the slow build up of a longer format.

All these things aside, the story is still an intriguing and worthwhile read. The moment I finished the story I immediately found myself researching Brighid in Irish mythology and as well as her ‘acquisition’ as a Christian saint. Those readers interested in pre-Christian Ireland mythologies and traditions (particularly if the reader enjoys a good LGBTQ story) will certainly enjoy “Fire Driven” as a tribute to that past. Likewise, the erotic scene between Brighid and Terrwyn is both beautiful and titillating without being overly graphic. Truly, my only real complaint is that the story feels too big for the short story format and might have worked better as a longer novella or even a novel. That being said, I will absolutely be reading more of Tracy Palmer’s work, if for no other reason than to see how her writing style and imagination play out in a bigger format. This author has large ideas and great things to say about faith and belief in the pre-Christian (and maybe even post-Christian) era, and her voice is one well worth hearing.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good!

This book was very good. But quite short and moved a little too fast. It doesn't leave you with a cliffhanger or anything. And it all makes sense and flows well together. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes short stories.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good short story about Terrwyn and the Goddess Brighid. Terrwyn proved her love for Brighid by traveling to the flame and trying to save it.

[Amy and Trisha Lee-Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!

Beautifully written. Story is complete without having to be a novel, but would certainly be good as one. Well done.