The Druid Stone is now available!

In the spring of 2011, I was a few months pregnant, mourning the somewhat sudden death of my grandmother, and dealing with a lot of mental health issues. Not surprisingly, my stressful job as a substitute teacher wasn't going so well. Basically, I was a wreck.

The one bright spot in my life was fandom, where I argued over favourite episodes, shared my love for characters, and wrote a whole pile of fanfic, which was the first time anybody had ever really read my writing. Violetta and I met each other through fandom; we edited one another's fanfic and even dabbled in co-writing. In May, she came to me with the idea that we try and take our enjoyment of co-writing and turn it into an original novel. We brainstormed, planned, argued a bit, and after months of work with the help and support of our fandom friends--especially April L'Orange and Emma (also known in cen_sceal), who edited our first draft--we wound up with a manuscript that would one day become The Druid Stone.

I don't want to get too terribly emotional about things, but this novel means a lot to me. I mean, I'm proud of everything I've written, and I've put all my heart into all of it every single time, but this novel is particularly special. Not only was it my first (that was finished, and saw the light of day, anyway), it kept me going during a rough spot in my life, kept me hoping, gave me something new to look forward to and explore. Opened up opportunities to me that I always thought were impossible. Getting accepted for publication by Carina Press out of the slush was a dream come true. Every day since has just gotten better and better.

So thank you. Thank you to the people who helped me realize this dream, my cheerleaders and editors and marketing people and reviewers and my readers, of course, who are the reason for it all. But thank you especially to Violetta for helping me make my dream come true.

(tears, flailing)

And now, without further ado, here's...

 Five Facts about The Druid Stone

1. Since Violetta and I first met in Torchwood fandom, and because that fandom gave us so much support and joy, we left a few Torchwood-related Easter eggs throughout The Druid Stone, including a cameo by a well-loved character. (The scar on his face should be a clue!)

2. Violetta is a massive David Bowie fangirl. We channeled him when we wrote King Finnbheara, both the real life glam rock version and the King Jared one. We didn't manage to work in a reference to "the area", but I'm sure Sean noticed.

3. A specific scene from near the end of the novel, set in the mound, originally featured lyrics from the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis. In a later draft, those lyrics were replaced with less legally-dubious ones from a song in the public domain.

4. Muff, in County Donegal, is a real town. It really does have a Muff Diving Club. We included it thanks to my Irish husband, who suggested it after I asked if he knew any Irish towns with ridiculous names.

5. The model for Sean used on the cover is almost a perfect representation. When we wrote Cormac, however, we had someone else in mind: specifically, a young Paul Newman.

♔

The Druid Stone is now available from the following retailers:

Carina Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance eBooks

It is also available as an audiobook from Audible (with an Irish reader!) 

For more information, including reviews, pronunciation guide, a soundtrack, and info on our upcoming Blog Tour, check our dedicated website at KnockmaNovel.com.