NBTM: The White Deer of Kildare by Christy Matheson

 

THE WHITE DEER OF KILDARE 

Christy Matheson

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GENRE:  Time-slip Fantasy

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BLURB:

There's a deer sorting Christmas decorations in Maura's kitchen...

All Maura wants is a peaceful winter holidays in her dilapidated Irish castle, but her ex is threatening her with family court, and her second grader has invited a strange--completely unclothed--friend, to spend the holidays with them. Oh. And the friend’s dog, which is not actually a dog but probably one of the white deer of Celtic myth.

Maura distracts herself from her husband’s threats by trying to discover why a Fae deer is in her kitchen, when the two women accidentally end up in the Ireland of ancient myth. The White Deer was the human queen of this castle, but it appears she has husband trouble too. Perhaps...the deadly sort of trouble.

Can Maura rescue her new friend — or is Maura herself so tangled in the White Deer's fate that she won't make it home to her children alive?

This novella will appeal to readers who enjoy cozy fantasy, ancient history, Irish folklore, and uplifting stories about motherhood and found family.

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Excerpt:

Raindrops slide down the windscreen of the Peugeot, and condensation creeps up the windows as we let the minutes tick by. We got to Cork airport early, but Aiden and Kaylee haven’t changed their minds. No way, no how are they getting on that plane back to America. 

Aiden lifts his phone and snaps a picture of the distinctive swoop of the departures building, then turns and gets me in the frame. Ca-tip. Ca-tip. He hunches and his thumbs fly over the screen.

“Okay,” Aiden says. “Done. It’s official now.”

He’s trying to prove that I did my best to drop them off, but I know it won’t be enough. The teens’ biological parents are both going to blame me for violating the custody agreement.

Within seconds, my phone buzzes against my leg. In the back seat, Kaylee’s pings, then dings, then chirps. Aiden, who at 16 always plans ahead, switched his to silent mode before unleashing the storm of recriminations. I should have done the same. I close my eyes and lean my head against the cold window. Buzz, buzz, chirp, ding. 

“Are you sure you won’t get out…” My voice can’t turn this into a question. 

“Have we missed the plane yet?” Kaylee demands.

“No,” Aiden and I say together. 

We sit without talking. More pings. 

Amber: Please.  

Please please please please please. 

One mother to another. Please. 

In my heart of hearts, I sympathize with Amber. I’d want to see my children for Christmas, too.

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Author Interview

Tell me about yourself. Where are you from? 

CM: I am from Alaska, and that will always define who I am! I have also lived in Italy, Uganda, and Massachusetts, but I did that thing of “meet a man and end up marrying him and living there the rest of your life” and I’ve been in Oregon for a long time now. 

 What genre do you read? Who's an author you read? Name your top 5 authors. 

CM: I want books that are fun to read but make me think, where I am connected to the characters. The best books are the ones that I have to tumble to the finish and then feel all fizzy and ecstatic when I finish!

I can’t possibly promise these are my top-5 of all time, but five authors I have gotten that fizzy feeling lately include:


Courtney Milan

Sangu Mandanna

Olivia Atwater

Mercedes Lackey

Gail Carriger

I’m always on the lookout for more of those emotional-but-thoughtful books, and I hope
that my stories hit that sweet spot for you!

What is your writing process like? Are you more of a plotter or a pantser?

CM: I am a….pantser-ahead-of-time. I always think out my entire story before I write anything, but I very much feel my way through by instinct. 

I always start with the opening problem. Usually that comes to me in a burst. I just sit on the idea until there’s enough momentum and conflict that it starts to feel like a story. 

Then I start to tell the story in my head, re-telling scenes until they are vibrant and I come up with good twists. When I can see the whole shape in my head, then I can start writing. (But usually, I’m working on something else and have to wait!) It changes and clarifies during the writing process, but I know the feel of it.

 How did you come up with the ideas for your series? 

CM: We took a family trip to Ireland this summer, and brought back some books of fairy tales. I read all the children’s ones to the children, but my 7-year-old was fascinated so we started working through the big book of adult stories, many collected in the 19th century. So I was immersed in those, both reading them and discussing them with my kids. 

One night, I found “The Horned Women” fascinating because it centered entirely on
women, with an ordinary housewife outwitting crones. The original tale was quite
short, with lots of action but no thoughts, feelings, or setting, and I started
thinking how I would re-tell it (since I love thoughts, feelings, and setting!). But it
didn’t get that fizzy feeling until I thought of making the main character a
modern American divorcee who is just trying to start her new life in Ireland…
and then the witches arrive. Then I created the world. I developed the other
characters and figured out the rules of the fairy tale magic so that the idea
had enough structure to hold up multiple conflicts and develop through more books.

 How do you organize everything and finding the time to sit down and write? 

CM: I have five kids, so that’s a lot of organization! I usually put things into blocks, and go from the most urgent tasks in each block, and move on when the next block comes. I usually feel too distracted to focus on writing until I have gotten other things done, so I usually start the day with family tasks, household, answering emails, etc. I assign a block for marketing a couple days a week, Tuesdays has a block for anthology/editorial work, every other Wednesday is newsletter, etc. 

But then in the afternoon, what’s done has been done, and it’s time to write.
Sometimes it’s editing someone else, or writing a Substack post, or fixing
problems in a draft. My absolute favorite is when I can just open a new folder
and start writing the characters and scenes in my head!

How do you name your characters? 

CM: This is a fun one! Often times my main character names just sound right for their personalities, and when I’m using mythology I have to use the original names, but I spend a lot of energy on the rest of the cast.

First of all, I look at name lists. For this series, I’ve found a few lists of names used in ancient and medieval Ireland—female names are super limited, especially once I take out all the ones that don’t look pronounceable to the modern English-speaking eye! They also tend to use the same letters over and over again (names that begin with M, S, and vowels) and I try to not use the same starting letter for multiple characters. 

I had fun naming the kids. For the older two, Aiden and Kaylee, I figured their parents would both be concerned with having names that felt popular and successful, so I looked at top names in the US around the time they would have been born, and Reddit threads where people expressed opinions about their names. For the younger two, they still had their dad’s desire to be socially desirable, but also Maura’s fascination with her own Irish background. So I found Irish-derived names that were popular in the US around that time, and we have Oona and Oliver. 

Thank you for hosting me on your blog! I hope that your readers find that The
White Deer of Kildare provides a much-needed escape, and a couple hours
transported to a fairy-tale world!

M @AR: You're welcome. Anytime!!

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Christy Matheson writes award-winning fiction about friends, family, and finding one’s place in an ever-changing world. 

She is the author of "The Castle in Kilkenny: Fairy Tales" novella series. Each one sets a traditional Irish fairy tale within a modern blended family, perfect for readers wanting a cozy family adventure. 

Christy's regular historical work (sans fantasy elements) can be found in the award-winning "Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women," of which she is also an editor. Her Regency novels are represented by Kristina Sutton-Lennon and have won pre-publication awards for women’s fiction. 

Christy is also an embroidery artist, classically trained pianist, and sews all of her own clothes. She lives in Oregon, on a country property that fondly reminds her of a Regency estate (except with a swing set instead of faux Greek ruins), with her husband, five children, three Shelties, one bunny, and an improbable quantity of art supplies.

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Universal Buy Link: includes Amazon (different countries), Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play, Barnes & Noble:

https://buy.bookfunnel.com/exmh6b6hgx

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DPSGKQ5H

Kobo —book available on Kobo Plus

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