Cathie Dunn writes...

After having had keyhole surgery to remove an inflamed gallbladder, followed by an overnight stay in hospital where I remained hooked up to a drain for the blood caused by the operation (ouch!), I've been rather dopey the least six days. The first three days I just rested, my intake of high-dose painkillers making sure I didn't do anything but eat soup and sleep. Then I slowly started to lower the tablets I'm taking, and I'm now down to two. One strong one and a weaker one. Hopefully by the weekend, it'll just be the weak ones left... So it came to no surprise that I didn't access my laptop for half a week. I know! Unheard of!  And when I did, a wonderful email awaited me: A Highland Captive has received the Chill with a Book Readers Award ! 😍 What a boost to my muddled brain! I'm so delighted the Chill with a Book readers have thought so highly of A Highland Captive for it to be included in their awards. Thank you so much for your time and your ...

Join me on a little journey to my favourite country –  Scotland .  Despite my love for warmth and sunshine, my heart will always stay in the Scotland. I lived there for around 16 years, and I still miss it. The breathtaking beauty of the scenery and the fascinating history over many centuries combine to provide us with intriguing ruins and riveting tales. Buachaille Etive Mòr, Scottish Highlands Now you know why I – now that I live in France – still write fiction set in my previous home, my spiritual home. I think you can see why... Hut near Culloden field My  Highland Chronicles series is currently made up of Highland Arms , and A Highland Captive , but I currently have another two stories in the pipeline. All Highland Chronicles tales are standalone, set in different times, so can be read independently from each other. Watch this space...  Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness Highland Arms is a tale set on the shores of Loch Linnhe, my favou...

Oooh, my favourite landscape is featured on My Place today: the Scottish Highlands! I love the sweeping valleys and steep hills, the open lochs, the absolute silence and those four-seasons-in-one days. I've not been back since I moved to France nearly three years ago, so having guests on my blog who write about them helps a little... In my view, you can never have enough of the Highlands, and therefore I'm thrilled to welcome historical romance author Emily Royal to My Place. I have downloaded her debut novel, Sins of the Sire, and I can't wait to get reading.  Over to Emily... ~~~ Living in Scotland I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded by stunning landscapes. Even more fortunately, I live in the shadow of a prominent hill. It’s not a mountain, but you can see it from the aeroplane window on the flight into Edinburgh Airport. My debut novel  The Sins of the Sire is set in the Highlands; a little further north from where I live, but a lot of the landscape aro...

It’s March. The sun is shining and daffodils are coming out of hiding (unless you have a husband who mows them down in his attempt at tidying the garden...), and where am I taking you? To the wild, windswept Scottish Highlands!  Sunday, 3rd March sees the release of A Highland Captive , the second tale in my Highland Chronicles series of standalone novels.  Like Highland Arms , A Highland Captive is a fast-paced historical adventure romance. But instead of the Jacobite rebellion setting, this second instalment is set in medieval Scotland during the Wars of Independence in the late 13th century.   Island of Eorsa So, to celebrate the upcoming release of the second tale, Highland Arms is free on Amazon for three days!  And if you like what you read, feel free to download A Highland Captive , too. It’s currently on pre-order at the reduced price of 99p / 99c , but not for long after release! So allow me to take you to the beautiful Scottish Highl...

The countdown is on!  Only four more days to go until A Highland Captive is let loose! I’m very excited, but also terrified. My first completely new release in nearly seven years. Gulp! A Highland Captive is the second tale in my Highland Chronicles series set in the beautiful Scottish Highlands, a region I miss very much. Books in the series are standalone, but that doesn’t mean that characters within them may not feature in another story in future. Watch this space! It’s already available on pre-order at Amazon , so if you fancy, feel free to grab it whilst it’s only 99p / 99c. On Sunday, the story will then magically appear on your Kindle, and you can dive straight in... I hope you'll enjoy it. My beta-readers have helped me immensely in the final stages of preparation, and it now reads much better. My thanks goes to them. You know who you are! But for now, enjoy the blurb, and an exclusive excerpt of the beginning of A Highland Captive . The small island...

In light of expanding my  Highland Chronicles  series of historical romantic adventure tales set in different eras across the beautiful Highlands and islands of Scotland, I have decided to adjust the cover of  Highland Arms  to match the theme, the atmosphere, of my upcoming release,  A Highland Captive . So I’m excited to share it here for the first time! Published through Ocelot Press ,  Highland Arms  is now available exclusively on  Amazon , and is free to read to subscribers of Amazon Prime. "Exciting blend of danger and romance" "The author has a wonderful way of describing the highlands." ~ Booked Up Reviews Escape to the Highlands! Betrayed by her brother’s lies, Catriona MacKenzie is banished from her home to her godmother’s manor in the remote Scottish Highlands. While her father ponders her fate, Catriona’s insatiable curiosity leads her straight into trouble – and into the arms of a notorious Highlander. Five years afte...

It's finally time for some fantastic news: I'm so thrilled to share that  A Highland Captive  is now online, on pre-order at Amazon, for only 99p / 99c. So head over there now and reserve your copy:  http://mybook.to/HighlandCaptive It will be released into the wild on  3rd March 2019 ! Blurb: 1298 Scotland Cailean MacDubhgaill, a knight from a small western island fighting for the Scottish cause, joins the battle at Falkirk but is wounded when he takes a blow to the thigh by an axe. Sir Eoín de Moray, uncle to his late friend, the former guardian, Andrew, helps him escape the carnage and takes him into a nearby forest, but is killed whilst fighting off pursuers. Once Cailean has recovered from his injuries with the help of the healer Eithne, he rushes to de Moray’s manor on the northern shores of Loch Ness to convey the news to de Moray’s daughter, Isobel, but he is too late. He finds the manor burnt down, its people displaced, and Isobel abducted. ...

I'm thrilled to share the new cover for my upcoming novel,  A Highland Captive . Set in the west of Scotland in 1298, it tells the tale of Isobel de Moray, abducted to be married off due to the importance of her family, only to find herself abducted a second time, and taken to the remote isle of Eorsa in the Inner Hebrides... And here it is: Blurb: 1298 Scotland Cailean MacDubhgaill is only interested in fighting for the Scottish cause. He joins the battle at Falkirk, but is wounded when he takes a blow to the thigh by an axe. Sir Eoín de Moray, uncle to the late guardian, Andrew, helps him and takes him into a nearby forest, but is killed whilst fighting off pursuers. When Cailean recovers from his injuries with the help of the healer Eithne, he rushes to de Moray’s manor on the shores of Loch Ness to convey the news to de Moray’s daughter, Isobel, but he finds the manor burnt down and Isobel abducted. Finding herself taken away from her home against her will, to b...

Time for a treat! Highland Arms is part of a brilliant selection in the Rogues of Winter giveaway by BookSweeps. Yes, readers have a chance to win some fabulous reads by bestselling romance authors, amongst us Glynnis Campbell, Michelle Styles and Samantha Holt, and a few other ’tasty’ treats to boot! So, hurry over to sign up to some brilliant author newsletters and get yourself into the draw for the big prizes! Just follow the link here: https://booksweeps.com/book-giveaway/medieval-scottish-old-world-romance-november-2018/  

Today, I’m reviving my popular My Place series of posts, where I invite fellow authors of historical fiction / romance / mystery to share a little about the setting of their novels. This can be a place, a town, a fictional village, or a castle. I’m kicking off with a beautiful place in Scotland. Imagine a tiny outcrop off the Scottish isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. Facing westward, the small island of Eorsa is the location of my current work in progress, a Scottish medieval romance, as yet untitled. Set in the aftermath of the battle at Falkirk in 1298, it tells the tale of Isobel de Moray, whose father was killed when he helped fellow knight Cailean MacDubhgaill escape.  Eorsa – (c) Yvonne Marjot Following her father’s death, Isobel is abducted from her manor on the shores of Loch Ness by Scottish henchmen to marry her off to an English lord, her being a cousin of the late guardian, Andrew de Moray. During their journey along the great glen, she is freed by Cailean,...