Have you dreamed of Scottish islands?
Welcome to the home of Scottish Island Novels
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O'Leary is here and ready for adoption!
My newest book, released in February 2010, is O'Leary, Kat and Cary Grant, a story about a psychic Burmese cat named O'Leary who leads his newly-adopted human into alternative realities filled with everything from giant rats to vampires to ancient Roman assassins to a two-headed fire-breathing Etruscan monster. It is funny, scary and romantic.
Kat Hennessey, a writer, is the heroine. She is looking for the right cat and the right man and finds both, O'Leary, a rescue cat, and Cary Rodrigo Grant, a handsome philosophy professor. The three and Cary's fluffy white kitty Blanche move to a Victorian house in Southmeadow, Minnesota, where O'Leary makes an amazing discovery in the basement.
The character of O'Leary is based on a real cat, a rescue Burmese named MacDougall who lived with us for two and one-half years until he died of cancer in September 2007. He was very special and we still love and miss him very much. O'Leary accurately describes his adoption, his quirks and his character with two exceptions: MacDougall didn't speak English and he did not discover a crack in our basement walls leading to alternative realities. It wasn't for lack of trying, though; he made a break for the basement every time he could evade our clutching hands and exasperated shouts.
MacDougall, this one's for you.
O'Leary, Kat and Cary Grant is published by Amber Skye Publishing, my dear friend Judith Palmateer's new company. It is softcover, 233 pages, and retails for $15.95.
Mike and I are setting up our summer Scottish festival schedule and look forward to seeing readers in Minnesota, Kentucky, Tennessee, Kansas City, Chicago, Wisconsin, Indiana, Charleston and Maryland. Along the way we hope to do fundraisers and book signings for feline rescue organizations; if you live in one of these areas and are interested in having me appear for you, please e-mail me.
Rosie’s Cèilidh
Rosie’s Cèilidh is set on Eilean Dubh, and it's the story of a nine-year-old girl, a corgi, a Dandie Dinmont terrier and a mountain, a tale of courage, perseverance and patience. It's a book for the "inner child" in everyone.
Rosamond Mòrag Mac an Rìgh, Jean and Darroch's daughter, loves dogs, her Island, music and her honorary uncle, Bonnie Prince Jamie MacDonald, and she wants to be a princess, or, failing that, the Lady of Eilean Dubh, when she grows up.
The story is illustrated. It's suitable for ages 12 and up, especially nice for a parent or grandparent to read with a favorite young one.
This is not the book I intended to write . . . it took on its own identity, and at last had to be freed from another manuscript so that it could stand alone. But it's a good story, I think, and I hope you will like it.
The Scottish Island Novels are published by Beaver's Pond Press, Edina, Minnesota, and distributed by Ingram. They are:
Westering Home
The White Rose of Scotland (sequel)
The Devil and the Dark Island (the story continues)
Magic Carpet Ride (a romantic diversion)
Rosie's Cèilidh (the fourth Eilean Dubh book)
Magic Carpet Ride won the Gold Medal for Romance Fiction in ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year competition.
The Devil and the Dark Island is the third Eilean Dubh book, and as in real life, the Devil is the one least expected.
A lot is happening on the Island, and incomers are behind much of it. A property developer with evil intentions has his eye on the beautiful coastline, and elements both real and unreal will disapprove. An archaeologist from Cornwall is looking for a Mesolithic site which he believes exists on Eilean Dubh, and he finds help and romance in the person of newspaper editor/wildflower nut Anna Wallace. Joe Munro's mother Helen comes to visit, to the delight of Minister Donald, who falls hard for her. Màiri MacDonald has a wild new scheme to finance improvements to the Gaelic Playschool. Bonnie Prince Jamie is confronted by ghostly wisps who want something from him that he's not sure he's prepared to give. And Jean is contemplating a new addition to the family, to Darroch's pleasure and Rosie's dismay. Talking seals and fairies make their appearance, too. As Jean would say, whatever next?
In their May 2006 issue Romantic Times Book Club Magazine gave The Devil four and one half stars, their highest rating, and called it "another fascinating tale in the Scottish Island Novel series . . . a book to treasure."
The White Rose of Scotland
was named a Notable
Book in the 2005 Writers' Notes Book Awards, a competition which recognizes
excellence in publishing by independent and small presses. The magazine said,
"Even if you aren’t a fan of love stories, you’ll love the backdrop.
You can almost see the heather and smell the peat."
The White Rose continues the story of Jean and
Darroch. Yes, reader, she marries him, but not until the advent of an addition
to the Mac an Rìgh clan. With Bonnie Prince Jamie and his wife Màiri, they
will take the British folk world by storm as the group Tradisean. As a
bonus, they’ll get the Gaelic Playschool roof fixed.
Westering Home won the Bronze Award in its fiction category in Foreword
Magazine’s Book of the Year 2003 Competition. Foreword Magazine is a reviewing
source for booksellers and librarians, and the competition attracted a total of
over 1200 entries in all categories. WH also received the Andrew Simon Fraser
Memorial Scholarship from the Saint Andrews Society of Minnesota.
Magic Carpet Ride, the fourth Scottish Island Novel, is a romantic spoof set
on Cape Breton Island and in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Published in 2005, it’s the story of hapless rug designer Dorcas Carrothers and her
impulsive love affair with wonderful Québécois hero Angus MacQuirter. Romantic Times gave the book four stars, and readers report that it makes them laugh out loud!
In progress are a sequel to Magic Carpet Ride, titled Down by the Salley Gardens (what would you do if you won ninety million dollars in the lottery?), and The Woman Who Loved Newfoundland, a love story set on the province nicknamed The Rock. I'm also working on O'Leary, Kat and the Fairies from Hell, a sequel to the first O'Leary story.
I’d love to hear your comments on the Scottish Island Novels. Click
to send me an e-mail!
Leis gach deagh dhùrachd – with every good wish,
Audrey McClellan
Introduction to Westering Home