KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH: Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench, where readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site, so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!
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LISTEN TO THE STONES
Book 1 The Awakening
BY SUSANNE MATTHEWS
BLURB
An only child raised by a secretive, single mother who forever mourned the loss of the man she loved and an Irish grandmother who espoused a strange blend of Christianity and paganism, Marina Fraser Robertson Mitchell has eschewed all beliefs in magic and fantasy that made up a great deal of her early life, but doing so hasn’t stopped the vicious nightmares about monsters and a deep water phobia that have haunted her for years.
As her thirtieth birthday approaches, changes are happening within her, alterations to her personality that lead to psychic abilities she neither wants nor understands. She’s convinced that she’s on the verge of madness, an insanity brought on by some form of physical illness or mental illness inherited from her maternal grandmother.
When her ex-husband sends over three boxes and a footlocker that were misplaced after her mother’s passing, Marina discovers that everything she knows about herself is a lie. While her mother’s letter gives her some explanations, it doesn’t explain her ESP, her sense that she doesn’t belong here, and her phantom lover. She has more questions than answers.
At the suggestion of her neighbor, a friendly, elderly woman with a cat named Rosie, Marina visits a psychic on her thirtieth birthday, but that only increases her confusion. The unusual woman greets her with the words, my lady, and exhorts her to accept herself for who and what she is. She warns her that the choices she makes from now on will determine who wins the final battle for the fate of the world. Shaken, Marina leaves, well aware of that those words are similar to those her grandmother spouted in her dying days.
As the nightmares she’s suffered so long continue, she searches for answers and a reprieve, an escape from a life in which she has lost everything that matters. Her prayers may be answered when she discovers that she has inherited property on the Isle of Lewis and Harris, the place where she suspects the standing stones from her dreams are located, stones that speak to her in the dead of night and may hold the answer to her future.
But can she accept what she’s becoming? Does she dare return to the place where she was born, a place her mother fled in fear? Everything she knows about herself is a lie. Is the truth waiting for her there? She has a choice to make. Will she make the right one? Only time will tell.
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LISTEN TO THE STONES
Book 1 The Awakening
BY SUSANNE MATTHEWS
Introducing the Listen to the Stones Saga
Hello and thank you, Karen, for having me back again. It’s always a pleasure to chat to your followers. This morning, I would like to take a few minutes to introduce my new fantasy series, the Listen to the Stones Saga.
Most authors know that the story they set out to write and the story they end up writing are never exactly the same. No matter whether you’re a plotter, a pantser, or some type of hybrid, life happens, and things change. Sometimes, the story just doesn’t work, and when that happens, you have to go back and figure out why. Writing involves putting words down, but it also means research, character development, rereading what’s been written, editing, and rewriting some more until the piece is as good as you can possibly make it.
The Listen to the Stones Saga is no different. During the summer of 2023, I had the opportunity to visit the Standing Stones of Calanais on the Isle of Lewis and Harris. If you haven’t heard of them, and I hadn’t until we booked the cruise, the stone circle is a neolithic monument on an island in the Outer Hebrides in Northern Scotland. It isn’t the only one of its kind since similar ones have been found in various places around the world including the Orkney Islands, the Brazilian rainforest, and even at the bottom of lake Michigan here in North America.
I’d visited Stonehenge a few days earlier, and as much as the site with its great stones impressed me, it paled in comparison with my reaction to the Standing Stones of Calanais. It touched a creative spark in me that I rediscovered a few years ago–my love of fantasy and paranormal.
While I have written other novels in this genre, this is by far my most complex endeavor. Looking at the stones, walking among them, and touching them set off a chain reaction within me that I hadn’t expected. The need to create not just a story but an entire mythology about the place overwhelmed me. I not only needed to write the story, but I also needed to introduce the site to my readers and transport them into a realm of possibilities while keeping one foot grounded in this time and place, but I knew this couldn’t simply be a romance. I had to find a way to explain the stones. Why were they here? What were they? Even my unimaginative husband could see faces in them. Had there been a Medusa-like creature in the mythology of this place that had turned its residents to stone? One of the myths they mention in the visitors’ centre stated that the stones could be the island’s early inhabitants turned to stone for refusing to embrace Christianity. I took that premise and ran with it, changing it into something far more ancient. I decided the focus of the Listen to the Stones Saga would be on liberating the trapped souls and undoing the curse responsible for their misery.
The first step was to create a mythology, a backstory to explain how the stones had been cursed and who and what could break the spell. I researched and drew from Celtic, Scottish, Irish, and Norse mythologies. I learned all I could about paganism, druidism, Wicca, witchcraft, and the supernatural as it pertained to Scotland. The more I discovered, the more intrigued I was.
The story flowed from my fingertips. I fleshed out Marina, the main character and the key to breaking the curse and Jerome, the hero who would need to be by her side to ensure success. I introduced the dark lord, the villain of the piece and the various secondary characters required. As I wrote, new ideas flooded me, ideas that invaded my dreams and stayed with me long after I woke. As I neared the end of the novel, I realized it would be a monster to publish. It was close to 700 pages long, and that was before final edits! What to do?
The stones kept calling to me, begging me to tell their story. In the end, instead of writing one book, I’ve written a series with each book leading to the last one, the ultimate battle between good and evil. The books are: The Awakening, The Homecoming, The Bonding, and the Reckoning.
Here is the series description:
Listen to the Stones Saga
True love is the most powerful magic in the universe. For ten millennia, the world has waited but now, the time of reckoning approaches. When it arrives, the Chosen One will have a chance to break a curse and reverse an eons old spell. The choice is hers, to be made using free will, the gift given to all by Danu, the mother of the gods. If she makes the right choice, she’ll save her world; the wrong one will doom them all. But to do so, she has to believe in herself, her psychic abilities, magic, and the power of love.
“You must fulfill your destiny, find true love, and break the curse.” Those were Marina Fraser Robertson Mitchell’s grandmother’s last words, but Nana hadn’t been well for a long time. She’d lived in a fantasy world, no doubt brought on her unusual beliefs and the recollection of the folk tales she used to read to her as a child.
But Nana’s words could well be prophetic. Her life has consisted of one overwhelming loss after another. Added to the sense of failure is the fact that she senses that she doesn’t belong here. She spends her days battling fears and phobias, trying to downplay the way she can hear and feel the thoughts of others, and her nights fighting off monsters in recurring nightmares that threaten her sanity. But these bad dreams feel more like memories than imaginings. At the heart of them, amidst the horror, are strange standing stones that speak to her in an ancient language, a faceless lover, and a red-eyed creature who terrifies her.
When she loses the last thing she holds dear and her world is crumbling beneath her, she’s distraught, convinced that she should never have been born. But things aren’t as dismal as she believes. Changes are happening within her, some as frightening as they are liberating. The answer may be within reach—an inheritance from a great-uncle she never knew existed. To claim it, she has to return to the Scottish island where she was born, but can she do so? Can she face the thought of living on an island, surrounded by deep water, the thing that terrifies her most?
A firm believer in mysticism and reincarnation, archeologist and novelist Jerome Morrison can’t deny the power of the mysterious stone circle near Fraser Hall, stones that speak to him. The last few years, a woman has haunted his dreams, a woman he loves above all others, a woman he’s convinced was his in another lifetime but was lost to him. Now, he must find her, positive that his future lies with hers. But discovering that everything he knew about himself is a lie confounds the situation. When the dreams stop and strange things begin to happen to him, there’s a sense of urgency he can’t dismiss. Discovering that his mystery woman is none other than Marina Fraser, heir to the Fraser estate and the land on which the mysterious stones sit, comes as a shock, especially when she doesn’t recognize him and there is another, one who triggers powerful feels of hatred within him, vying for her attention, her love, and her land. How can he convince her that they are meant to be together when she doesn’t trust him or recall the love they once shared?
There’s a war coming, one they must fight united. The future is at stake, and time is running out. Each side must muster their forces for the final battle. Evil has grown even stronger that the gods anticipated. Three will fight, two will survive, but which two? The answer lies with the Standing Stones on the Fraser estate.
Will these two lost souls find true love, or will the demon-demigod’s rage and power keep them apart? Only as one can they prevent him from dooming the world to a living hell.
The Awakening, Book One of the Listen to the Stones Saga has been released today. It’s my hope to release the rest of the series before the end of the year. The Awakening is available from all Amazon retailers in eBook and paperback as well as in Kindle Unlimited.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Have a wonderful day.
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About Author Susanne Matthews…
Susanne Matthews lives in Eastern Ontario, Canada with her husband. She has three grown children and five grandchildren. Of French-Canadian descent, although her ancestry includes the British Isles, Susanne is an avid reader of all types of books, but with a penchant for happily ever after stories.
A retired educator, she now spends her days writing and creating adventures for her readers in a variety of genres including contemporary, holiday, historical, fantasy, paranormal, suspense, romantic thrillers, cozy mysteries, and romantic comedies. She loves the ins and outs of complex stories and the journey it takes to get from the first word of the story to the last period of the novel. As she writes, her characters take on a life of their own, often directing the plot and leading it down paths she hadn’t envisioned. She shares their fears and agonies, joys and thrills as they travel along the road to self-discovery and love. Everyone deserves a happy ending!
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Links to Susanne’s websites, blogs, books, #ad etc.:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/41elNIY
Susanne Matthews
International Bestselling Author
Happy Reading!
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Thanks, Susanne, for sharing your book with us!
Don’t miss the chance to read this book!
Sounds & looks like a great looking forward to reading
I hope you’ll enjoy it! Susanne
This sounds like an interesting series! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you fro taking the time to read about it. Have a great day!
Good morning, Susanne, and welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench. I’m captured by the story premise and cannot wait to read this book! I love this kind of story. Thanks for sharing your book with us today!
Thank you so very much for having me. It’s always a pleasure and I hope you’ll enjoy the book.
Wow! That sounds like it would be a wild ride. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. have an awesome day!
Beginning of a great series.
Thanks to both of you.😊
Thank you. Have a wonderful day.
Good morning and welcome. Your book sounds and looks like a great read! Thank you for sharing the excerpt with us, I am looking forward to reading it. Have a great week.
Thank you so much for your support. I hope you’ll enjoy the book. Here’s hoping you have a good week, too.
This sounds like an exciting story, I look forward to reading it.