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I started this little rampage of flower posts with a blossom: apple. I’m ending with cherry. And a geranium. A pink and pretty celebration of summer and wellness.
Wellness
I used a blue to pink metaphor previously when writing about health. That seems like a really long time ago now. Lots has happened. Time has passed.
It’s great being out in the garden this year, managing to stay relatively well and do more. I’ve learned a lot about what triggers my body to have an immune response since my last hospital stay. Sometimes it’s odd things, things that should be healthy but, to me, they’re not. Sometimes it’s emotional, other times physical. Clichés spring to mind: knowing your limits; protecting your space. I’m better at those now.
And today, I’m off out into the garden again to plant sunflower and marigold seeds. No doubt they’ll appear here if successful!
Castle Dancers Series
Alexander’s Blurb
When Alexander turns eighteen, he learns that he has inherited a castle, the one that houses the dance school he attends, to be exact. He’s always wanted a do-over, a chance to fix the broken parts of himself and his life. Could this be it?
Instead of allowing the school to continue on as normal, Alexander throws the students and teachers out and claims the castle as his own.
At first he’s lonely. At first he’s hesitant. Will he have any friends left after this? The events of his uncle’s televised wedding at the castle prove that, while Alexander definitely still has friends, his broken ankle is actually the least damaged part of him.
Within the ancient castle walls, a world of dark family secrets is revealed. Join Alexander as he dances on the edge of sanity and survival, navigating through the flames of his turbulent past to forge a new future.
Latest review here on the Wee Writing Lassie’s blog: Yes finally!!! After years of stealing the spotlight in other people’s books, the great bad boy of ballet finally gets his own. Inheriting your own castle? Kicking your Dad out of his job? Just another day living the rebel son’s dream. What could possibly go wrong? [One book read later] And the answer is … everything. Everything could go wrong 😀
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
The first of the fire and elephants is euphorbia fireglow. This stunning red plant remains fiery every year regardless of weeds and weather conditions. I usually misremember its name as euphoria, but that feels quite appropriate.
The elephant’s ears bergenia is at the other side of the pond.
Lush and lovely, this plant is also a hardy perennial, named for the shape of its leaves.
Fountain off for a reflective view:
A Dancer’s Journey
Scotland’s all misty lochs and magical forests and perfect boyfriends, right?
My dance background and love of history and spicy stories are what inspired this dark mix of contemporary romance and ballet set in a castle. Readers of my historical fiction will recognise the castle and stone circle that feature in these books.
A Dancer’s Journey is available in paperback, Kindle and on Kindle Unlimited.
There are no cliffhanger endings in this series; each book completes a story, but then there is more. So much more.
#CapCut A Dancer’s Journey Series: complete, shocking, unique. When dance student Amalphia Treadwell embarks on a secret relationship with her rich, handsome teacher, she has no idea of the danger that lurks in his school in Scotland… #booktok#kindleunlimited#romanticsuspense#ballettok#booktokseries
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
Despite being called purple gromwell, this flower is clearly bright blue.
It’s a wonderfully medieval name, though, gromwell, isn’t it? I recall mention of the plant in the Cadfael series – books and TV show (affiliate links) – where its presence helps in a murder investigation. Perhaps if I grow enough gromwell in my garden, I can also solve mysteries and fight crime. It comes in a white variety, so I’m on the lookout for that.
Growing nearby, and undeniably purple, is a small rhododendron.
Fireflies and Chocolate
Torn out of an isolated life in a Scottish castle, Elizabeth embarks on a determined quest to return home. Exhilarating adventures unfold on the high seas, love blossoms, and the chocolate, purchased in Benjamin Franklin’s printing shop, is delicious!
FIREFLIES AND CHOCOLATE was inspired by the 600 children and young people who were kidnapped from Aberdeen during the 1740s and sold into indentured servitude in the American Colonies.
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
This ivy-leaved toadflax is growing in a drain at Broadsea just now. It’s a tough little plant, preferring to make its home in rocky, stony places. It was introduced to Britain as a garden flower hundreds of years ago, and was first recorded in the wild in 1640.
This lovely toadflax was spread all along the back garden wall of one house I lived in, and I was sad to leave it behind when I moved. These flower posts are becoming rather nostalgic!
The Mermaid and the Bear
Isobell needs to escape. She has to. Her life depends on it.
Set in a fictional castle in Aberdeenshire, Ailish’s debut novel, THE MERMAID AND THE BEAR, blends an often overlooked period of history, the Scottish witchcraft accusations, in particular the 1597 Aberdeen witchcraft panic, with a love story.
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
They’re everywhere through the woods, and all over the garden too. Beautiful bluebells. Blue, pink, and sometimes even white. Their heady aroma fills the air as they herald the arrival of summer.
My Latest Series
Meet Ariel and her classmates, Bubbles and Alexander, along with a whole cast of vibrant characters, as they experience love, life and adventure at the most prestigious dance school in Scotland.
Each book in this coming-of-age series delves into the personal struggles and heartfelt romances of a different student over the course of a school year. As the spotlight shifts its focus within the old walls of the castle, there are television shows to be made and dark truths to be faced.
Join these young dancers as they whirl through their challenges, forge unbreakable bonds, and discover the power within themselves. Are you ready to travel to Northern Scotland, step into the castle school and dance through the deep dark of the dungeon?
Latest review: I’ve just finished Alexander, the last instalment of the whole sequence. What a ride! Great characters, plenty of good storylines and a magical setting. Highly recommended! On Instagram.
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
Hawthorn, according to folklore, is the most likely tree to be inhabited by fairies or the Wee Folk… It flowers in May, mainly in hedgerows and wild places. The scent of hawthorn is wild too, earthy and spicy, calling to mind rites of spring and naughty pixies. It feels like that to me anyway 🙂
A Dancer’s Journey Series by Ailish Sinclair Scotland’s all misty lochs and magical forests and perfect boyfriends, right? When dance student Amalphia Treadwell embarks on a secret relationship with her rich, handsome teacher, she has no idea of the danger that lurks in his new school in Scotland. She’s soon dealing with her boyfriend’s beautiful and obsessive ex, the sinister research taking place at the castle school and her own ever-evolving relationship issues. Amalphia works hard to be the best dancer she can be, but as tension builds within the old walls of the castle, she begins to wonder if she will ever escape the deep dark of the dungeon… #booktok#balletbooks#romanticsuspense#contemporaryromance#bookboyfriendsdoitbetter
TENDU: Dancing in the Castle – book 1 of A Dancer’s Journey
Scotland’s all misty lochs and magical forests and perfect boyfriends, right?
When dance student Amalphia Treadwell embarks on a secret relationship with her rich, handsome teacher, she has no idea of the danger that lurks in his new school in Scotland.
She’s soon dealing with her boyfriend’s beautiful and obsessive ex, the sinister research taking place at the castle school and her own ever-evolving relationship issues.
Amalphia works hard to be the best dancer she can be, but as tension builds within the old walls of the castle, she begins to wonder if she will ever escape the deep dark of the dungeon…
Dark, witty, sexy and fun, Tendu is a seductive story of love, dance and obsession. Get your copy today.
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
Apple blossom has such a sweet and delicate scent. It was my Grandmother’s favourite flower, and it always makes me feel happy when it blooms. This particular tree produces small yellow fruits that are waxy and intensely fragrant.
Today’s apple blossom is the first in a series of tiny flower-based blog posts. I’ll do them daily for a while.
Historical Fiction
Video
I write unconventional romance and historical fiction, often set in Aberdeenshire, the area of Scotland where I live. My historical novels combine little-known dark events with love stories. There are witches, bears and Romans to be found in them, detailed here.
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
The garden is all pretty in pink just now. There are polyanthus all through the grass.
And the flowering currant is, well, flowering… as the pink bench glows in the distance.
FOUETTÉ: Dancing with the Past
FOUETTÉ goes nicely with the ‘pretty in pink’ theme of this little post, but it’s also the book where Alexander, the titular character of my latest release, first shows up. He’s still very much on mind. Is he looking after that castle properly?
Amalphia Treadwell thinks she’s living her happily ever after.
She’s achieved fame, fortune and notoriety. She’s blissfully happy in her unconventional marriage and is very excited about the plan she’s just made with her best friend Justin.
When she encounters a mysterious child, a child who desperately needs her help, she knows that life will never be the same again.
Amalphia explores the deeper, darker places of her world, encountering long-forgotten danger and uncovering truths that might have been better left unknown.
Beginning six years after the end of the previous book in the series, the third and final part of Amalphia’s journey is a steamy tale of love, dance, obsession and forgiveness.
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
Daffodils are popping up all over the woods here in Aberdeenshire. How pretty they would be in a vase, but no, Scottish daffodil folklore warns against this.
A little daffodil folklore
It’s bad luck to pick wild daffodils in Scotland. The reason? Fairies might be sleeping in the trumpets. Scottish fairies do tend to be quite fierce beasties with a habit of spiriting people off to Fairyland, or Elfhame, to answer for their flower-picking crimes. So, it’s probably not a good idea to wake them.
It’s said that it was the Romans who introduced daffodils to Scotland. Soldiers would chew on the bulbs to alleviate pain after being wounded in battle.
Daffodils in Greek Myth
Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, Goddess of the harvest, was innocently picking daffodils when she was carried off to the underworld by Hades to become his wife.
And while I did chance picking a cultivated bloom from the garden…
I think we’re safer with a nice primrose. Also known as ‘fairy cups,’ eating the flowers (as I mention doing here in this article on writing historical fiction) is said to help you see fairies, and placing them on your doorstep brings blessings.
Ariel: Dancing on TV
The night before Ariel, a sixteen-year-old girl with a deformed hand, starts at the most prestigious dance school in Scotland, her mother tries to kill her.
Torn from a life where she never fitted in, Ariel quickly becomes the focus of a reality TV show. In the castle school, she forms deep friendships and meets Alexander, the best looking boy she’s ever seen. Together, they unravel the mysteries of the castle’s shadows and confront the demons of Ariel’s past.
Can she rise above a lifetime of pain and embrace the possibilities of fame and love that beckon to her?
‘Ariel: Dancing on TV’ is a mesmerising tale of resilience and the pursuit of a brighter future against all odds.
Sisters at the Edge of the World – historical fiction from Ailish Sinclair From the misty hills of ancient Scotland emerges a tale of love, betrayal, and the fight for freedom. Join Morragh in SISTERS AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD for an unforgettable journey. Set in the 1st century, the story includes the battle of Mons Graupius between the Romans and the Caledonian tribes. There’s a neurodivergent main character and some rather complicated romance! #booktok#kindleunlimited#womensstories#ancientworld#historicalromance
The Performance: sometimes going home for Christmas is just one huge performance…
When Ariel returns home from dance college, her mother expects her to perform the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in a pink, sequined tutu in front of many, many party guests. Ariel adjusts the costume and choreography to expose dark truths about her life, but, as it turns out, this is not the biggest performance of the night…
New Books and Special Offers
If you would like to hear about new books and special offers, you can follow my Amazon author page.
