This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Marie Judson will award an epub copy of one of her books to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Boldo: What d’ ye mean by Traveler? And what’s this medieval time ye speak of?”
Me: Well, you happen to be visiting the 21st century, which is a millennium after your time.
Boldo: Am I, now? That’s new t’ me.
Me: You came to this time to visit Kay, bring her boots, and get the cloth she wove.
Boldo: Is that where I be? I followed a spirit path, not knowin’ the exact…ye know…year. Kay be a most enchanting woman. And she saved me. Did ye know that?
Me: I did. As a matter of fact, I wrote that.
Boldo: Wrote it? [His face quirks into a crooked smile, doubt in his eyes.]
Me: Let’s set that aside. So Kay is enchanting and she saved you from a Jutland dungeon. Has she visited you lately?
Boldo: Oh, aye. ‘Course, the boots keep us connected. But she likes to come to our camp. I suspect you’re Kay’s sister, aren’t you, because you tend to write down what happens in her life.
Me: Yes, that’s sort of true. Like Kyna and Talaith are nearly sisters.
Boldo: That they be. You recently wrote down what happened with Kay’s daughter, Sophie. She must be your niece. You called the story, “Sophie the Sylph.” I actually saw some o’ what happened. We’re tellin’ that fine tale around the fire, ye know. She did indeed come to the forest where we were dinin’, for the summer solstice.
Me: You were there at that dinner? Oh, yes, I saw you, playing your fiddle. And did you see Hamelyn walk away into the trees?
Boldo: I did. He followed Bedw and the other sylphs. I was certain Sophie’s spirit was among them and it turns out, I was right. What a treat, Hamelyn carried off by the sylphs. They won’t absorb just anyone, you know.
Me: I suspected that. Well, it’s been wonderful talking with you. Stay out of trouble.
Boldo: I can try. [He winked and stood to leave, giving me a bow.]
Celtic mythology, medieval history, and modern-day mystery blend in this story where past and present collide.
Kay, a professor of ancient languages, finds herself drawn into a hidden realm of magic and danger. Transported to a medieval world on Halloween night, she meets Baird, an enchanging stranger who claims to know her spirit, and Duff, a burly silversmith who welcomes her as Kyna, long-lost kin. Kay joins them in a festive celebration where she discovers she can understand their arcane tongue, as ghostly figures haunt the night.
When dawn comes, she is in her own time, still holding a silver pendant that connects her to Baird and his world. She struggles to return to that time even as Baird is endeavoring to find her and unravel the secret of their connection. Follow Kay and Baird on their journey across dimensions in this novel of intrigue, adventure, and magic.
Enjoy an Excerpt
Franklin Street Café had a lively crowd bathed in the lurid orange glow of gauze-covered lights. A projector flashed images of old Celtic stones onto the wall. A fabric forest hung across the entrance to the next room, the air permeated by yeasty aromas of pizza crust and ale. Shouts of conversations battled to be heard over haunting music and the clatter of dishes.
Where were the nyads and faeries? In place of the figures of enchantment in the email invitation, Kay saw a faux belly dancer who never should have revealed her midriff, and men dressed in bathrobes and tennis shoes attempting, she supposed, to convey Druidic high priests. With absurd disappointment at seeing no apparent magic, she thought she wouldn’t stay long. Then her attention was drawn by a hand-printed sign offering homemade organic mead, and pressed through to the bar. A young waitress, her peachy complexion disturbingly pierced with lead posts, asked for her order.
“Could I taste the Moonlight Mead?” she requested.
“Certainly.” The young woman behind the bar handed over a sample.
Pushing aside glued-on mustache hairs, Kay sipped the tasty brew, then ordered a twelve-ounce, and again surveyed the crowd. She considered making the glass of mead a solo act when she noticed a birdlike creature, tall and hunched like a heron, tattered feathers splaying from head and neck. It stalked, with wild-bird grace, across the projection of ancient stones, through the cloth trees, into the next room. Kay’s drink arrived, and she followed the strange apparition.
About the Author:
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They kept to the shadows so no one would know they existed, and preyed on the nameless who no one would miss. Where did they come from, and who was protecting them? In a city that had seen every kind of savagery, they were something new, something more than murderous. And one woman who had thought she had lost everything there was to lose in life would soon find that nothing could possibly prepare her for what would come when she entered their world.
A retired high-school teacher and former college instructor, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of four novels in the Sam Quinton mystery series, all published by Camel Press. He’s also written four crime thrillers, including And the Devil Walks Away and The Anchor, and one horror novel, The Litter, along with numerous short horror stories published in small magazines over the years. The first Quinton book, Squatter’s Rights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award for Best First PI Novel. A lifelong Midwesterner, Doyle currently resides in Missouri and has loosely based the city of Providence in the Quinton books on Columbia. 
Seeker: As societies grow increasingly fragmented, hopelessness, nihilism, and division are on the rise. But there is another way—a way of mystery and magic, of wholeness and transformation. Do you dare take the first step? Our path is not for the faint-hearted, but for seekers of ancient truths…
I believe in free-will, and that we all can make a difference. I believe that beauty blossoms in the conscious life, particularly with friends, family, and strangers. I believe that genre fiction has become generic, and it doesn’t have to be.
As the star quarterback for his high school football team and local celebrity in the quaint town of Boulder City, Luke Jacob enjoys a charmed life. Everything’s going according to plan, that is until the night he spots a mysterious and alluring girl in the crowd. Despite his father’s cryptic warning to keep away from her, he’s instantly drawn to Mary.
Obsessed with learning the origins of the cosmos, the actual meaning of life, and the true purpose of civilization, a fine Scotsman named Fingal T. Smyth dedicates himself to the study of Plato’s most extraordinary ideas. Convinced of Plato’s belief that humankind possesses any and all innate knowledge deep within the collective unconscious mind, Fingal soon conducts a series of bold, pioneering occult-science experiments by which to resolve the riddle of the universe once and for all. However, Fingal forgets how violent and perilous the animal impulses that reside in the deepest recesses of the unconscious mind. And when Fingal unleashes a mysterious avatar of his innate knowledge, the entity appears as a burning man and immediately seeks to manipulate innocent and unsuspecting people everywhere into immolating themselves. Now, with little hope of returning the fiery figure into his being, Fingal must capture his nemesis before it destroys the world.
A dead body in the parking lot of her family’s business, a killer on the loose, and a handsome detective asking a lot of questions…
The author is a doctor and editor who lives in Texas with her husband and children. She enjoys trying to stay in shape, sporadically cooking, reading (still), writing, and working on her blog. She is eternally grateful to the woman who donated a kidney to her over 5 years ago and continues to advocate for organ donation as much as she can.
Leslie D. Soule received her M.A. in English from National University. She is a scholar, artist, citizen journalist, and martial artist. She has been an established writer for a decade, and has novels published by Melange Books, Terror House Press, Gypsy Shadow Publishing, and Nat 1 Publishing. The Fallenwood Chronicles is her 4-book fantasy series and features the novels Fallenwood, Forgetting Fallenwood, Betrayer, and Retribution.
What begins as a special trip for eleven-year-old SOPHIA FREEMAN and her billionaire father, leaves her trapped on a mysterious island with a tree boy and other fantastical creatures.
Thuan Doan is an award-winning author of the Sophia Freeman series. He conceived his first middle-grade fantasy novel, Sophia Freeman and the Mysterious Fountain, during a trip to Gabriola Island, British Columbia in the summer of 2013. Then he took his work and settled in a small town of Enderby, where it’s peaceful and quiet.
A mother defeated by anxiety. A daughter determined not to become her mother. Can one month in Europe reunite them?
Lisa Fellinger writes contemporary women’s fiction with lovably flawed, relatable characters. When she’s not writing her own stories, she’s helping others achieve their writing dreams as a book coach and developmental editor. She lives in Buffalo, New York with her husband, son, and fur babies.
