April 2024
Welcome to April’s newsletter. If you showed up by accident but want to receive monthly content, please subscribe below:
In this month’s newsletter, click the headings or scroll down to find:
- Podcast: Author Nook with Alexander James
- Dungeons and Dragons Podcast
- Captain’s Log: The UK can’t keep me away
- Review Corner
Podcast: Author Nook with Alexander James
Welcome to my Author Nook, a monthly podcast I created where I chat with authors about their upcoming releases and we nerd out over their literary brain children. Find it on Spotify here, and Youtube here.
This month I am joined by the wonderful Alexander James to talk about his debut novel, The Woodkin. We chat about hiking, finding a character’s voice, Dungeons and Dragons, and the darkness with teeth and a hair-raising giggle. So turn on all the lights, check behind the curtain, and settle in for a spooky-adjacent chat.
The Woodkin
On the trail, anything can happen.
After secrets and betrayal shatter his marriage, Josh Mallory seeks solace on the Pacific Crest Trail, in the mountains of Washington. On the trail, he’s just another hiker. On the trail, he can outrun the memories.
But this backpacking trip swiftly turns grisly when he comes across the body of another hiker who seems to have fallen to his death. Josh is forced to detour through a small mountain town, where missing hiker posters flutter in the windows, and residents show no interest in hearing about the dead hiker. Unease that something is not quite right chases him back to the trail.
But night falls too quickly and in his haste to get away, he becomes trapped on a mountain ridge beneath the light of a full moon. Feeling more and more uneasy, Josh soon realizes that he may not be alone on the mountain, and begins to fear that, like the missing hikers, he won’t make it out alive.
Dungeons and Dragons Podcast
The first three (of four) episodes of the Dungeons and Dragons podcast I was fortunate enough to be a part of are out for your viewing pleasure! Join MC, Alexander James (The Woodkin), Elijah Menchaca (The Glintchasers Series), me, and Jess as we play our leading lads and ladies and fight to restore our worlds and be the heroes we wrote about!
It was honestly an absolute blast, I’m so excited for the final episode to come out because it’s a goodie, but until then, enjoy!
Here are the Spotify links if you’d prefer to listen to the adventure. All episodes as well as audiobooks and exclusive author interviews can be found on CamCat Unwrapped’s channel.
Captain’s Log: The UK can’t keep me away
Hay-on-Wye? more like “Yay”-on Wye
As many book lovers know, there is a book town. There is. It’s in Wales, and it was established by a guy (Richard Booth) who pronounced himself King on April Fool’s day some time in the 1960s and it stuck. His Majesty ruled his Kingdom with a kind heart and trusted bookmark, and the land was peaceful. Over the years, dozens of second hand bookshops cropped up and defined this Kingdom as one land full of a thousand worlds. For, as King Richard Booth decreed:
And when I say this was a town full of bookshops, I mean it. These weren’t even all of them, nor were they all of my favourites:
The Stone of Destiny
Speaking of Kings, I visited the stone that has witnessed the crowning of Kings since biblical times.
I’d like to say I did my research, but I went up to Perth, Scotland for a night on a whim and it was a three minute walk from my hotel. Some may call it fate, others destiny I suppose. Honestly, it was the most emotional I’ve ever been about a chunk of sandstone in my life. Do I have a picture of it? No, they didn’t allow photography so you’ll have to google it to see what I’m talking about.
Otherwise just imagine a weather-worn, time-stained sandstone block with two ancient iron rings on either side.
But, what is the Stone of Destiny/Stone of Scone, I hear you ask? Well, it’s the Stone that, legend has it, John used as a pillow in the Bible. The Stone that witnessed Egyptian royalty rise and fall. The Stone that was present for the coronation of Scottish Kings of old, and ever since the 13th century is now a key participant in all English monarch coronations – having a pride of place at the recent King Charles’s crowning.
This Stone is a symbol of power, monarchy, and Scotland.
It was stolen and smuggled across the border by four university students on Christmas 1950 when trapped in England for too long. It rallied a nation.
It is what I love about the UK: the tradition, the weight and majesty given to time-honored symbols, and the community drawn together by them.
Review Corner
Reviews are so helpful in getting word of Contest of Queens and Queen’s Catacombs out there. If you have time, and if you’ve read the book, I would be eternally grateful if you could leave a star rating and/or a written review on Goodreads or Amazon.
Thank you to all the wonderful people who have left a star rating or review!
x live magically
feature image: https://steemit.com/poetry/@skyefox/a-man-in-the-woods-an-original-poem
Jordan H. Bartlett 