Swimming in the Rainbow

Following a devastating attack on her home that kills her only friend, young Zoë is torn from her solitary, fantasy-filled life in pastoral Germany.

With help from an extraordinary man, a man fashioned of courage and poetry, she flees deep into the Mediterranean archipelago, barely a step ahead of the soldiers pursuing her.

Magic and realism collide as she discovers why she is so important, why the world is wounded by the loss of dream and myth.

Swimming in the Rainbow dips into the “lost years,” close to the end of The Child of the Erinyes.

“It was Teófilo’s most ardent wish–to move, to fly, to soar. To shatter his bonds. But I never would allow it. I wanted him to remain my constant, and, for me, he consented. Not that he had any choice. Not even his promise to take me into the center of a rainbow, tucked on his back between his wings, would make me relent. In those days I was selfish, with the unconscious selfishness of a child who never questions the turning of the planets but assumes with tessellated arrogance that they spin simply for her amusement.”

Would you like to read an excerpt? Follow this link.

The Sixth Labyrinth

The series skips a few thousand years to take up Aridela’s story in Victorian Scotland.

Athene first clues in Aridela about what will happen in The Thinara King. Aridela doesn’t understand the message then, but she will, in time. Here’s what Athene tells her:

I have lived many lives since the beginning, and so shalt thou. I have been given many names and many faces. So shalt thou, and thou wilt follow me from reverence and worship into obscurity. In an unbroken line wilt thou return, my daughter. Thou shalt be called Eamhair of the sea, who brings them closer, and Shashi, sacrificed to deify man. Thy names are Caparina, Lilith and the sorrowful Morrigan, who drives them far apart. Thou wilt step upon the earth seven times, far into the veiled future. Seven labyrinths shalt thou wander, lost, and thou too wilt forget me. Suffering and despair shall be thy nourishment. Misery shall poison thy blood. Thou wilt breathe the air of slavery for as long as thou art blinded. For thou art the earth, blessed and eternal, yet thou shalt be pierced, defiled, broken and wounded, even as I have been. Thou wilt generate inexhaustible adoration and contempt. Until these opposites are united, all will strangle within the void.

 

The Sixth Labyrinth

Winter, 1853. Every cottage in the village of Glenelg is deliberately burned, the residents deported or left to starve so landowners can repopulate the area with sheep.

Douglas Lawton won’t put his family on the refugee ship, though his wife is in labor. As night falls, they make their way into the meager shelter of the forest.

His wife dies in the snow after giving birth to a daughter whose paternity will always be questioned.

Chivalry, by Frances Bernard Dicksee, representing Morrigan Lawton

These mountains in the remote West Highlands of Scotland offer a backdrop to the continuing story of three lives linked through time. A silenced but enduring Goddess has seen her place in the souls of humans systematically destroyed, but she bides her time. For Athene, thousands of years mean nothing.

Framed within the Clearances that ravaged the Highlands, one woman struggles against the confines of iron-fisted patriarchy. Her buried psyche is that of a queen who possessed unlimited power, yet in this life she exists as little more than serving maid, sex object, and baby maker.

For thousands of years two men have fought for the heart of Athene’s daughter. Will either triumph? What are the consequences of winning? Ancient prophecy is unfolding, leading our triad into the shadowed corridors of The Sixth Labyrinth.

Would you like to read an excerpt? Follow this link.

Daniel Day Lewis, representing the fisherman with a mysterious past.

Jude Law, representing the laird of Kilgarry.

Reviews for Swimming in the Rainbow

Swimming in the Rainbow achieved semi-finalist status in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. Here are some reviews it garnered from readers:

“The writing here is dreamily beautiful; I am reminded of Patricia A McKillip’s marvelous book The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.“      Miz Ellen

“Swimming in the Rainbow is poetic prose at its best.”      Elise Abram

“Rebecca Lochlann’s Swimming in the Rainbow is among the most beautifully written novels I’ve ever encountered. The content lives up to the magic of the name.”      Dora McAlpin

“The lively imagination and intelligence of the girl with a backdrop to the darker events around her reminded me of the deliciously dark tale of Pan’s Labyrinth.”         Jarucia Jaycox Nirula

Painting by Michael Parkes: "Gargoyles," the insipiration for Swimming

“This is so wonderful I’ll have very little to say about it, I’m afraid. It reminds me of Cornelia Funke, but darker and more mature. Definitely the best-written piece I’ve found here. Unconventional, sure, but organically unusual, not contrived to impress or shock. I can’t pick out anything to praise in particular, because it’s all praiseworthy. Truly original ideas, beautifully executed. Some readers might not get it, but those who do will treasure the experience. Five stars, unreservedly, and a vote for the Grand Prize, when the time comes.”      Leah Davidson

“What appears to be an effortless flow of detail, imagery, and pathos captivated me from the start. Engaged by the author’s romantic writing, lyrical flow, and emotionally-packed action, I was brought in close to the empathetic characters and primed for the tragic loss, which I felt intensely. I was hypnotized by the writing. Here, the author describes the moon: “How shyly that orb moved, like a bright wonderful girl who believed herself hidden, but, drifting behind the trees as she did, she merely accentuated her presence.” How desperate the last scene, how tragic the loss of a dear friend. “I felt that Teófilo himself caused the wind to flutter those leaves in farewell.” The sadness lingers even after the excerpt is done. Bravo!”   Ann Keeling