It would take two women separated by time to complete music with the power to change history. But will it be enough to save the man they care about most?
Adeena Stuart and Katharine Carnegie were born nearly three centuries apart. Yet their music and an ancient cello connect them to each other and to a man doomed by the Battle of Culloden.
In Book I of the Song for A Lost Kingdom series, Adeena receives an untitled musical score from her dying grandmother in Scotland. The music was hidden away for over two hundred and seventy years, as part of a violent family battle between siblings on different sides of the Jacobite rising of 1745.
When the score is played on the oldest surviving cello ever made in the UK, the music connects Adeena directly to the past as Katharine, struggling to find words to complete her symphonic tour-de-force in the midst of 18th Century political rebellion that is threatening to tear apart Scotland and England.
But Adeena is not a scientist or historian. What she wants more than anything is to compose music and to join the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Just as she is about to realize her wish, she’s lifted away, out of her control, and immersed in her ancient family history. As she is buffeted back and forth between the worlds, she grows to want more of the past, even though the promise of her most yearned-for musician dreams is coming true.
Not even her passionate boyfriend can keep her rooted in the present, especially when another man from the past falls for her and her music. Although unsure whether her time travel is a hallucination, she’s willing to steal a five million dollar cello to get back to the 1700’s.
With a clear voice that sets us in modern day Ottawa and old world Scotland, Song for a Lost Kingdom, Book I, begins a journey of discovery between two women who share the same musical soul and love for the same doomed man.
Genre: FICTION / HistoricalThe books in this series are doing well in Historical Fantasy and Time Travel categories, often breaking into top 100. New audiobook versions and increased advertising are helping the sales grow every month.
Ottawa, 2018
ADEENA STUART TRIED to adjust her eyes against the blinding spotlights. She sat alone with her cello on the main stage of Southam Hall, a monstrous space meant to accommodate the entire National Arts Centre Orchestra. The burning white lights felt like they were searing her corneas. Beads of sweat slid down her forehead.
Adeena had thought of nothing else but this audition since she began practicing four months ago. Now she was about to perform, almost blinded and drenched in her own perspiration. How could she possibly handle the two contrasting movements from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major if she had to look at the surface of the sun the whole time she was performing? How would she even hold the bow in her hand if she was dripping wet?
The curtain in front of her was meant to ensure she would be judged only by her music. But the six-foot high wall of opaque black cloth seemed like its real intention was to separate her from her lifelong ambition of joining the orchestra.
“How you doing, Adeena?”
The familiar voice jolted her.
It came from the silhouetted shape of the tall man who walked toward her on stage. Walter Leo was her dad’s oldest and dearest friend. He had arranged this audition for a rare opening in the cello section of the orchestra where he had worked his way up to principal cellist over the past decade.
“I can’t see anything with those lights!” Adeena whispered, not wanting to be heard by anyone on the other side of the curtain.
Walter moved closer and touched her shoulder. “Just turn your chair a little and look at me over at the side,” he said softly. “Take a deep breath and play the way we practiced. You’ll be fine Pumpkin, really!”
| Language | Status |
|---|---|
|
Portuguese
|
Translation in progress.
Translated by Ana Laura Rapado de Almeida
|
|
Spanish
|
Already translated.
Translated by Mayra Lopez
|
