We are very excited about this praise for Linen Shroud just received from Peter Coyote
"Poet and classics scholar Robert Graves asserted that the epochal event in Western History was the overthrow of the Earth-worshiping, matriarchal, Cretan culture, by the patriarchal, sky-God worshipping Achaeans. Fortunately for them, the Cretan priestesses had sufficient fertility magic and ceremony to insure good crops so that the Achaens were forced into political compromise with them. Hence, in their mythology, Athena, the feminine Goddess of Wisdom was born from Zeus’s forehead, not from intercourse.
"Unfortunately, the magic and wisdom of Native Americans’ was not appreciated by the invaders, and that is where Destiny Kinal’s ambitious, engaging, and profound book begins. A European family of silk merchants, patriarchal Christians of Good will, land in the center of the matriarchal Haudenosaunee people—we call the Iroquois. The cultural collision is complicated by intermarriage and mixed breed children and the book, Linen Shroud, the second of a trilogy, begins to replicate the complex weave of silk made of cultural, emotional, and different spiritual traditions. The scholarship is extraordinary and the reader will be thrilled to incidentally learn about the Wolf Clan ceremony and the ways of treating Flax to make linen. These are integral parts to a story of rich, complex characters, fulfilling their own destinies while they are caught in the great Web of history and born of the mind of Destiny Kinal. A fine and compelling book.”
Peter Coyote, actor, author, Zen Buddhist priest.
The Queens Quill Review
April 2, 2012 -
"I hardly know where to start to describe the complex and sensual tale that is Burning Silk. Layer upon layer of themes are explored, but the overarching theme is that of a young woman’s journey, her metamorphosis, from uninitiated naiveté into maturity in her profession of maitresse of her family’s magnanerie (the sacred facility in which silkworms are nurtured as they mature toward their final purpose), which is inextricably linked to her own sexual and personal awakening."
Historical Novels Review Online
February 2011 issue -
"The writing is rich and vivid, almost as though you are watching it on a movie screen. Burning Silk is also is very sensual, much like the silk that the Duladiers are creating. Destiny Kinal has woven an intriguing story that can be likened to a metamorphosis. Laced with secrets, history, and sensuality, this novel offers what most historical romances lack. I also have to say that the artwork on the cover practically screams 'pick me up and read me.'"
Historical Novel Review
November 26, 2010 -
"Burning Silk is an erotic novel not for the faint of heart. The novel delves deep into the topics of sexuality and the journey into womanhood. It is a rich, complex story that is not to be rushed when reading it."
Midwest Book Review
November, 2010 -
"Exquisitely written, Burning Silk is a fine piece of literary historical fiction."
The Cross of Languedoc, National Huguenot Society
Fall 2010 -
"The author was inspired to investigate her own maternal line when her grandmother told her they were Irish, German, Welsh, Scots and French. Fascinated by the possible French connection, she spent fifteen years researching the Huguenots and the European sites of their industry and persecution. The result is the first in a trilogy of novels about a Huguenot family which fled from France to Hesse, Germany in 1685, and re-established their reputation for making fine silk…."
The Crowded Leaf
August 25, 2010 -
"...an epic work of fiction, doused in rich historical language and time, exploring the role of woman as mother, daughter, sister, lover, and self. A complex, multilayered book, Burning Silk tells a story with power and identity, letting the characters develop into themselves. It exposes given certainties and changes them; a child becoming a woman, the first experience of sexuality, confronting ones innermost desires, the voices used to speak to ourselves and others. It is truly unlike any book I’ve ever read."
"Poet and classics scholar Robert Graves asserted that the epochal event in Western History was the overthrow of the Earth-worshiping, matriarchal, Cretan culture, by the patriarchal, sky-God worshipping Achaeans. Fortunately for them, the Cretan priestesses had sufficient fertility magic and ceremony to insure good crops so that the Achaens were forced into political compromise with them. Hence, in their mythology, Athena, the feminine Goddess of Wisdom was born from Zeus’s forehead, not from intercourse.
"Unfortunately, the magic and wisdom of Native Americans’ was not appreciated by the invaders, and that is where Destiny Kinal’s ambitious, engaging, and profound book begins. A European family of silk merchants, patriarchal Christians of Good will, land in the center of the matriarchal Haudenosaunee people—we call the Iroquois. The cultural collision is complicated by intermarriage and mixed breed children and the book, Linen Shroud, the second of a trilogy, begins to replicate the complex weave of silk made of cultural, emotional, and different spiritual traditions. The scholarship is extraordinary and the reader will be thrilled to incidentally learn about the Wolf Clan ceremony and the ways of treating Flax to make linen. These are integral parts to a story of rich, complex characters, fulfilling their own destinies while they are caught in the great Web of history and born of the mind of Destiny Kinal. A fine and compelling book.”
Peter Coyote, actor, author, Zen Buddhist priest.
Reviews of Burning Silk
The Queens Quill Review
April 2, 2012 -
"I hardly know where to start to describe the complex and sensual tale that is Burning Silk. Layer upon layer of themes are explored, but the overarching theme is that of a young woman’s journey, her metamorphosis, from uninitiated naiveté into maturity in her profession of maitresse of her family’s magnanerie (the sacred facility in which silkworms are nurtured as they mature toward their final purpose), which is inextricably linked to her own sexual and personal awakening."
Historical Novels Review Online
February 2011 issue -
"The writing is rich and vivid, almost as though you are watching it on a movie screen. Burning Silk is also is very sensual, much like the silk that the Duladiers are creating. Destiny Kinal has woven an intriguing story that can be likened to a metamorphosis. Laced with secrets, history, and sensuality, this novel offers what most historical romances lack. I also have to say that the artwork on the cover practically screams 'pick me up and read me.'"
Historical Novel Review
November 26, 2010 -
"Burning Silk is an erotic novel not for the faint of heart. The novel delves deep into the topics of sexuality and the journey into womanhood. It is a rich, complex story that is not to be rushed when reading it."
Midwest Book Review
November, 2010 -
"Exquisitely written, Burning Silk is a fine piece of literary historical fiction."
The Cross of Languedoc, National Huguenot Society
Fall 2010 -
"The author was inspired to investigate her own maternal line when her grandmother told her they were Irish, German, Welsh, Scots and French. Fascinated by the possible French connection, she spent fifteen years researching the Huguenots and the European sites of their industry and persecution. The result is the first in a trilogy of novels about a Huguenot family which fled from France to Hesse, Germany in 1685, and re-established their reputation for making fine silk…."
The Crowded Leaf
August 25, 2010 -
"...an epic work of fiction, doused in rich historical language and time, exploring the role of woman as mother, daughter, sister, lover, and self. A complex, multilayered book, Burning Silk tells a story with power and identity, letting the characters develop into themselves. It exposes given certainties and changes them; a child becoming a woman, the first experience of sexuality, confronting ones innermost desires, the voices used to speak to ourselves and others. It is truly unlike any book I’ve ever read."
