Goodreads asked Linnea Tanner:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Linnea Tanner The Apollo’s Raven is based on the tragic love story of Cleopatra and Mark Antony but with a Celtic twist on the political intrigue behind their downfall. The idea of setting this story in Britain was spurred by an archaeologist’s theory that the southeast area of England was under complete Roman control prior to Claudius’s invasion in 43 AD. The invasion was nothing more than a political annexation of an already ‘romanised’ region. Other seeds for this story are based on written accounts and legends of Celtic warrior queen, such as Boudicca.

From all of these sources, the story of forbidden love between a mystical warrior queen, Catrin, and the great-grandson of Mark Antony, Marcellus, was seeded. Fantastical elements were added from Celtic mythology to give the story a more mythic tone of a heroine’s odyssey.

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