Tag Archives: Yuletide

Spend this holiday season in Ireland by reading THE STONE AWAKENED!

21 Wednesday Nov 2018

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The countdown has begun!  Only 4 weeks to go until The Stone Awakened, the sequel to The Cauldron Stirred, has its worldwide release.  I’m so excited to share the continuing story with you!  The holiday release date is perfect because a good portion of the book takes place during Christmastime.  Of course, I had to include a number of Irish yuletide traditions!

Have you read the first book yet?  Have you preordered your copy of the second?

Here’s a sneak peek at The Stone Awakened:

Thunder shook the night as the Dullahan’s black stallion reared beneath him on the sweeping lawn below. The horseman thrust his severed head toward the sky and called out the names of those he hunted.

“Dylan Donoghue! Maeve Donoghue!”

Powerless to stop him, I watched from the bedroom window. The glass panes infused my palms with the chill of death itself. Out of sight, my parents screamed, then fell silent. The sound of laughter followed.

Exultant. Spiteful. Malignant.

Aoife! The wind demon whose foul plot shattered my family with a single blow.

Hate and despair welled inside me. “No!”

“Ashling, wake up!” My sister shook me awake.

She switched on the lamp between our beds, and I scanned the room. The same sash windows as in the dream. The same luxurious décor in shades of periwinkle, white, and gray. Even my slippers beside the bed were the same. But the night was quiet, and there was no immediate danger.

Deirdre tucked her long, blonde hair behind her ears and gave me a knowing look. “Another nightmare about the Dullahan?”

Nodding, I wiped the sweat from my brow. “And Aoife.”

“Sounds almost as bad as my dream the night he took Mom and Dad.”

“We don’t know he took them.”

“We don’t know he didn’t.”

“They’re not dead!” Dread clutched my heart, and I pushed out a long breath to calm myself. “They can’t be.”

Preorder your copy here:

Amazon https://www.amzn.com/B07K4Y7QV6

Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-stone-awakened-judith-sterling/1129823740

The Wild Rose Press https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/6385-the-stone-awakened.html

Hope you’ll join me and my characters for an Irish holiday!  And for everyone celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, have a great one!  🙂

Phantasmic Friday ~ Week Four

27 Friday Oct 2017

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Welcome to the last Phantasmic Friday of October. Halloween is less than a week away, and I’m loving it! I love the Yuletide too, which is probably why my second medieval romance, Soul of the Wolf, is set in December of 1101. It’s also the season in which today’s true ghost story begins.

Christmas of 1992 found me packing for Sweden, where I would study for the next six months under a Swedish Institute scholarship. At the time, which was long before I met my husband, my Swedish-American boyfriend arranged for me to stay in his grandmother’s empty house in Stockholm for the week leading up to nyårsafton (New Year’s Eve). It was a small, quaint dwelling with numerous knick-knacks and—as I would soon discover—a tragic past.

The bedroom where I slept opened onto an alcove, above which the trap door to the attic was poised. My first night, I woke with a start…to darkness and an acute sense of someone hovering in the alcove. The space was alive with creaking floorboards and a bluish light.

A flashlight? An intruder?

My heart pounded. I shifted in bed to gain a better view.

No one was there. Or so it seemed.

I slid out of bed and tiptoed around the house, just to be sure I was alone. The doors were locked, and by the time I climbed back into bed, the strange light was gone. I fluffed up my pillow and rearranged the bedcovers.

Then a scraping, scratching sound filled the alcove. Had rats infested the attic?

A sudden rush of emotions slammed into me. Despair. Dread. Distress. Not mine but another’s.

Every night brought the same experience: the light, the sounds, and the mood. When the phenomena ceased, I sought sleep again, but as you can imagine, it took a while before I drifted off.

Months later, I learned the truth. My boyfriend’s uncle had committed suicide years before. He’d hung himself in the alcove, not ten feet from where I slept. If I’d known that at the time, I would’ve tried to help him move on. I hope he has since found peace.

I’ve enjoyed sharing some of my paranormal experiences with you this month. Believe it or not, they’re just the tip of the iceberg! Not surprisingly, the supernatural finds its way into almost everything I write. Check out My Books for more information.

Wishing everyone a safe and fun Halloween!