Petrea Burchard

For Cassandra "Casey" Clemens, her 40th birthday has been a disaster. Her Hollywood career as a product spokesperson for a well-known cleaner has just gone up in smoke and she has just discovered that her boyfriend is not divorcing his wife, since the wife is about to have a baby. Impulsively, Casey hops on a plane to England and heads to the countryside near Stonehenge to forget her troubles. After settling into a small bed and breakfast, she rents a horse for a local countryside ride, only show more to be caught in a freak rainstorm. A nearby lightning strike and a skidding car sends her off her horse and into a gap back in history where she inadvertently saves the life of King Arthur from Saxon swordsmen. Now, she finds herself as a trusted "wizard" in a sixth century court full of intrigue. Can she find a way to make her way back to her own time? This was a very enjoyable and intriguing modern version of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" with a wry gender twist of having a SoCal advertising actress be the time-traveling heroine. In addition, research has been done to create a more historically accurate version of how King Arthur and his rough culture would have been as opposed to the mythological chivalrous version known to Twain. This creates a harsher, more adventurous tale without the bitter satire but with more complex romantic conflicts. Well written and well edited. show less

I found this time-travel historical fantasy thoroughly enjoyable. There have been so many different takes on the King Arthur legend, but it never ceases to inspire and never seems to wear out. This one carves out its niche by taking us to a historical place and time: a hill fort in early post-Roman Britain - and giving us a spin on what the man who inspired the legend - and some of the other players in that tragedy - might really have been like. It's a little like Twain's "A Connecticut show more Yankee in King Arthur's Court" - but not very much. This is a character-driven story. It's a journey of discovery for the main character, Casey. This is not a glamorous or romantic Camelot. There is no magic, other than the time travel that brings a woman of our time into Arthur's world. Instead there are believable people, in a historically plausible setting, who are facing real human problems complicated by a culture and beliefs that are specific to their time. Casey is flung into this, bringing her own emotional baggage (though very little physical luggage.) The writing is solid throughout, brilliant in places. The ending satisfied the romantic in me without violating the story's historical logic. This is Burchard's first novel and I hope it won't be her last. show less

I was inspired to write "Camelot & Vine" one summer when I traveled to England to study acting at Oxford. I felt privileged to be there and to study with fine teachers in such a beautiful place. I also felt lonely.

When the Oxford course was over, I had a little time to play tourist. One place I visited was the Glastonbury Tor. From atop it, I could see a low, flat hill to the south. I asked our guide what it was. "It's Cadbury Hill," he said. "Legend says it was Camelot."

I had always been a show more writer as well as an actor, and I was chronicling my experiences and feelings about the trip in a little velvet diary. But I didn't need to write that down. The idea of Camelot as a real place would not leave me. I wanted to visit the real Camelot. And at last, I did. show less