Susanna Kearsley Guest Blog, Author of The Winter Sea with Review and Giveaway...

 I am pleased to have Susanna Kearsley, the author of Winter Sea as a guest today on Celtic Lady’s Reviews;

Hello Susanna,
What’s next for you? What are you working on?
Well, in the two years since The Winter Sea was first published in Great Britain, I’ve written a new book that’s coming out there in the spring, called The Rose Garden (Sourcebooks will bring it out here in the U.S. in Fall 2011).
 
It’s an actual time travel story – something I never expected I’d write! – about a woman who comes to the south coast of Cornwall to visit the house by the sea where she spent all her childhood summers, and finds herself sharing the rooms with the people who lived there three hundred years earlier. The book was inspired by a woman I heard on the radio while I was living in Wales. She was saying that, when she was young, she would sometimes hear whispers that came from the walls, and her mother explained it was only the people who’d lived in that house a long time ago, and who were living there still, in another time.
It’s a very Celtic concept, this notion that present and past can exist side by side and that people can cross from the one to the other. As one of the characters in the past – an Irishman who’s best friend and protector to the hero – attempts to explain things to my sceptical heroine:
‘Well, the oak is more sacred again than the rowan,’ said Fergal. ‘Legend says that its roots are well bound in the other world, and that the tree itself serves as a doorway between the two realms of the shadows and light. Never fall asleep under a lone oak, they say, else you’ll wake…’ He broke off.
‘Where?’ I prompted him.
‘Somewhere you never were meant to be.’
 
You can learn more about The Rose Garden and read the first two chapters at my web site, here: http://www.susannakearsley.com/therosegarden.html
And right now I’m at work on a book that continues the story of the 18th-century characters from The Winter Sea, who appear not to have finished with me yet. This new story will take them through France into Russia in the wake of the disastrous 1715 Jacobite rebellion, with a new pair of modern-day characters tracing their tale.
I hope to have that book completed by this time next year, meaning it might be on the shelves sometime in 2012.
In the meantime, Kathleen, I hope that the New Year brings you and your family the very best, and that the kindness you give returns many times over to you. Thanks for having me here.

Thank you Susanna and I look forward to reading your upcoming books and Happy Holidays to you!!
 

THE WINTER SEA BY SUSANNA KEARSLEY – IN STORES DECEMBER 2010
History has all but forgotten…
In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.
But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth—the ultimate betrayal—that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…
About the Author
After studying politics and international development at University, Susanna Kearsley worked as a museum curator before turning her hand to writing. Winner of the UK’s Catherine Cookson Fiction prize, Susanna Kearsley’s writing has been compared to Mary Stewart, Daphne DuMaurier, and Diana Gabaldon. Her books have been translated into several languages, selected for the Mystery Guild, condensed for Reader's Digest, and optioned for film. The Winter Sea was a finalist for both a RITA award and the UK's Romantic Novel of the Year Award, and is a nominee for Best Historical Fiction in the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Awareds. She lives in Canada, near the shores of Lake Ontario.  
For more information, please visit http://www.susannakearsley.com/. 

My Thoughts:

This story is about a modern day writer who goes to Scotland to Crudden Bay, near Slain Castle, the same castle that Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, to research the Jacobite uprising of 1708 , the return of James Stuart to the throne, for her novel that she is writing. As she and a friend are heading to a christining, she is intriqued by Slain Castle as she had an ancestor who had lived there.

This is a historical romantic story which also has a bit of supernatural to it and told as a story within a story with engaging characters and the descriptions of the area are perfectly described.

I loved this book so much I had to go and scour the internet to obtain her other books. If you are a fan of Mary Stewart and Barbara Erskine, this is a must for your bookcase. It was also published in the UK as Sophia'sSecret.

To enter Giveaway: Starts 12/27/10 and ends 1/15/11
 Danielle from Sourcebooks has graciously offered to have 2 copies of Winter Sea for my giveaway. (US and Canada entrants only)
~ You need to be a follower of CelticLady's Reviews 
~ Spread the word about this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter or both
~ You can also post on you blog if you have one but it is not necessary to have a blog to enter
~ Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win. 
Good luck and Happy New Years!!