avg_rating: 4.4
name: Jules Larimore
about: As an author of emotive, literary-leaning historical fiction bringing past cultures to life, Jules Larimore’s mantra is to impart hopeful human stories that are not only entertaining, but also inspire positive change and encourage an intimate relationship with the natural environment.Influenced by a love for history and anthropology—from ancient times through the Renaissance and Enlightenment—Jules uses captivating historical settings, then distills and blends them with a dose of magic, myth, and romance to bring to life hopeful human stories where courage, tenacity, transcendent vision, and the power of love are called upon to overcome oppression and dangerous divisions. “She is an alchemist, drawing on the poetic power of words, assemblin As an author of emotive, literary-leaning historical fiction bringing past cultures to life, Jules Larimore’s mantra is to impart hopeful human stories that are not only entertaining, but also inspire positive change and encourage an intimate relationship with the natural environment.Influenced by a love for history and anthropology—from ancient times through the Renaissance and Enlightenment—Jules uses captivating historical settings, then distills and blends them with a dose of magic, myth, and romance to bring to life hopeful human stories where courage, tenacity, transcendent vision, and the power of love are called upon to overcome oppression and dangerous divisions. “She is an alchemist, drawing on the poetic power of words, assembling a colorful combination of characters to authentically explore the landscape of the human heart; its yearnings, boundaries, expectations and limitations” ~ Elijah Alexander, actor (Atticus Aemilius in "The Chosen").Though her career path has taken a crooked road, it seems she was preparing for writing her debut novel, The Muse of Freedom, all along the way. At University, she studied medieval history, ancient Greek culture, anthropology, folklore, narrative composition, and architectural design. Her years in the design field taught principles of balance, proportion, rhythm, emphasis, and unity—all important aspects of writing a novel. She also spent many years in marketing—an early outlet for creative writing, romancing brands with mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life—and writing freelance narrative non-fiction for print and online publications. But over twenty years ago she decided, someday, she would write about her 8th great-grandfather, French Huguenot Jean Pierre Bondurant dit Cougoussac, (Jehan BonDurant as he is called in the novel), a nobleman and descendant of many royal European bloodlines. Jean Pierre’s motivation to give everything up and flee France always intrigued her, and she knew there were many sides to the story during this divisive period that needed to find a voice. She began two years of intensive training in novel writing, including under writing geniuses Libbie Hawker / Olivia Hawker and Roz Morris, all while studying late 17th century Languedoc customs and politics with a deep dive into research on the Bondurants. She found many surprising details along the way, including old recipe books (grimoires) in Occitan commonly used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance with recipes for herbal cures and word amulets.Jules is a board member of the Historical Novel Society of Southern California and of France’s Splendid Centuries French History Writers’ Collaborative. She lives primarily in Ojai, California, (where she is better known as Cynthia Louise), with time spent around the U.S. and in various countries in Europe gathering more treasures in a continued search for authenticity.Visit her website and sign up for a Reader Membership to access exclusive bonus materials. https://juleslarimore.com/ ...more