If you're expanding your Ghosts of Culloden Moor library, or if you've never read a GOCM book before, don't miss this opportunity to grab Patrick's and Malcolm's stories for only 99 cents each!





Here are the links:
Malcolm: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B01AX22UPM
Patrick:  https://www.amzn.com/dp/B01NBPDMAP

Please spread the word!! Thank you!

I'm deep into wrapping up the next story in the Hardy Heroines series, and suddenly realized I needed to do a bit of research.

This series has really tested my historical knowledge, and this particular story involves the Battle of Orewin Bridge (Wales) and the state of affairs in both England and Scotland.

In 1283/4, England and Scotland were pretty much in accord. Edward Longshanks was too involved with supressing the Welsh to pay much attention to the Scots. Scotland had signed the Treaty of Perth seventeen years earlier, so they weren't butting heads with Norway any longer, and Alexander III had married his daughter Margaret to King Eric of Norway.

Things were fairly quiet at Morvern--until Birk met Carys.

That's our current book, The Highlander's Welsh Bride.

And today's research was on cursing like a Viking. I kid you not. There is more than one blog/website for that. Apparently Vikings had some pretty awful curses, ones that allowed the cursed one free shot at killing the person who spoke the curse. We're not going there.

At some point in this book, our hero Birk does something that makes his ma really angry with him. She's Hanna from The Highlander's Norse Bride, and falls into her Norse roots for a really good shot at her son.

Any idea what a 'raven-starver' is?

It's pretty cool to follow the reasoning behind this curse. Ravens were an integral part of Norse legend. They were large birds, uncannily intelligent, and carrion-feeders. Imagine being only moments away from battle and seeing the ravens gathering around the battlefield. They know what is about to happen. They seemed to have the knowledge of who would die and live--perhaps they spoke with the Valkyries and therefore had the power of gods?

The men and women who bravely went to battle stood a good chance of dying--and feeding the crows. Someone who was cowardly and chose not to fight would not end the day as carrion and feed the crows. Such a person was a raven-starver.

It's official!

The Highlander's Outlaw Bride won the 2016 RONE award in the historical/pre-medieval category!

I'm thrilled beyond words! The RONE award is a very prestigious award in the indie and small press world.


Here is the description from the InD'Tale magazine site:

​ 
RONE (Reward Of Novel Excellence) Awards
RONE Book Awards:
Each year InD’tale Magazine honors the very best books in the Indie and Small publishing industry by awarding the prestigious RONE award.  To achieve this award, a book  must go through the most comprehensive process in the industry today, with three distinct areas of focus.

1. All books in each given year (January 1st - December 31st) must have been read and reviewed by our professional staff of reviewers and be given a four star rating or higher to qualify as a nominee.
2. All nominees, with the exception of 5 star rated books which will automatically become finalists, must then be voted on by the reading public.  The books with the highest number of public votes will progress on to become finalists.
3. The finalists will then be read by a group of industry professionals consisting of editors, writers, professors etc. and be judged on a one to five scale from a specific list of requirements such as characterization, overall arc, editing etc.   Those scores will then be tallied by a professional company unrelated to InD’tale or its employees to determine the winner of the coveted RONE award, along with the honorable mentions.

All awards are announced at the annual RONE award gala event and ceremony and given the beautiful Crystal RONE award. This is a formal but extremely fun and entertaining night for all, one that truly honors all Indie and Small published authors, readers and professionals!

Other than this lovely gold star being quite an honor, The Highlander's Outlaw Bride was the first historical novel I ever wrote. It also won the Golden Claddagh award in medieval romance. Though it would be published as the fourth book in The Highlander's Bride series, it was the book that caught my heart and steered me along the writing path to Scottish romance. I'm very pleased to see my first book baby succeed so well!!