Stone of Fear follows a woman working on a mosaic floor who is abducted by a fanatical priest who thinks she has the ability to produce magic and is taken back in time. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I introduce Marie and John in Book 1, Stone of Love. Since that storyline focuses on Bree and Colin, the reader doesn’t know what happens in the future while Colin and Bree travel to the eighteenth century. Marie and John are left in the future with nothing to do but spend time together. So they fell in love. Book 2 explores their story and John’s hereditary duty to find a magic Iona stone at the request of the Fae.

I enjoyed the romantic relationship between John and Marie and how it grew despite her being swept back in time. How did their relationship develop while you were writing it? Did you have an idea of where you wanted to take it, or was it organic?

I faced a challenge when I started drafting Stone of Fear, the second book I wrote. I had to start where book 1, Stone of Love ended, yet in my mind, Marie and John fell for each other during the first book while Bree and Colin traveled back in time, but I didn’t tell their story. It also became a writing challenge for me, as I had to progress in the storyline of the magic Iona stones and tell a tale seamlessly via flashbacks.

I start the book with “happily ever after,” which is after John has asked Marie to marry him. Naturally, in all tragic love stories, if I start at the end, I must tear the “happily ever after” apart so the reader experiences how the characters rebuild their relationship.

I show the character’s connections through flashbacks as the two love birds become separated by Marie’s kidnapping at the hands of a fanatical priest who thinks her talents as a historical religious building’s expert hold magic. Through John’s pursuit and Marie’s confinement, we see their love story develop via their history. From the first glance, the first touch, and yes, that first kiss, their love story is more than a kiss. It’s how they connect on a human level.

How did you balance magic and its use throughout the story to keep it believable?

I treat magic almost as if it were a character in itself. The magic occurs either at the hands of a Fae, the hands of a human, or by the will of the magic. Each magic act has a purpose. It shows something, acts upon something, or initiates something, moving the story forward. What makes it believable is the characters believe it. Even when the characters question it, the magic still proves to be a force existing within the human realm.

Can you tell us where the book goes and where we’ll see the characters in the next book?

Stone of Fear travels to Dunstaffnage Castle in the thirteenth century. Marie’s abductor forces her to search historic crosses for a magic Iona Stone as he believes the Book of Kells, he holds tells him where to look. After witnessing Marie’s abduction and travel through the Chapel portal, her love, John, follows, chasing her across the Scottish Western Isles in the thirteenth century.

What’s coming next, and where do they go?
Stones of Iona Series is a seven-book series with three Christmas companion books.

Coming next is…

Stone of Lust, book 3 in the series, will be released October 21^st. This book features Colin’s sister, Ainslie, a special ed teacher obsessed with the Viking times who gets pulled back in time while trying to save her sister-in-law, Bree, from an abduction by her ex, which an evil Fae possesses. Landing in the twelfth century, Viking times, Ainslie enlists the help of her ancestor’s lead warrior, Rannick, to rescue her sister-in-law.

The first Christmas companion book, Thistle in the Mistletoe, will be released November 4^th. It features a favored couple from the eighteenth century, Mary and Roderick, whom we met in Book 1, Stone of Love. The enemies-to-lovers holiday tale occurs before Colin and Bree travel back and tell Mary and Roderick’s courtship tale. While there’s no time travel, there is a little Fae magic.

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Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/06/17/it-started-with-happily-ever-after/