Our Featured Books for August 2025
Vrenessbith is the story of men and women who seeking a safe haven ventured into the mountains of northern Britannia, giving
birth to the "Highlands" through their strength, courage, and incredible spirit for survival. It is also the story of a
family today who experiences the struggles of the first Highlanders through ancient diaries arduously translated by Angus
Gregor, Laird and Seanair (grandfather) of our modern adventurers.Spanning more than 1,500 years, two books explore the loves, troubles, strengths, battles, heartbreaks . . . the lives of the first Highlanders and modern protectors of a land coming under attack by developers. In the center of both stories is Vrenessbith, a wee faerie born of the last tear of a heart broken by lost love. Through Vrenessbith's love and protection of the Highlands we discover mystical secrets of the mountains and more.
Almost too big for one volume, the legend is presented in two. Awakening is the story of coming to the Highlands and battling to make it home. Our story continues in Catharrachd with growing determination, strength, and the birth of an incredible legend. Book three, Return (currently in development), carries the story even further into today while reaching back over 1,500 years.
Story behind the book
Vrenessbith was conjured during physical therapy sessions, a feeble attempt to escape the pain and discomfort of fixing a frozen shoulder. The initial ideas were developed into two separate stories, February 1994, which were then woven together under the title "Highlanders' Way." A handful of copies of "Highlanders' Way" were printed for immediate family in 2008. The story was then taken into a writers' group in Wake Forest, NC, where we spent five years building it into the two published volumes. Awakening was published in June, 2018 and Catharrachd was released a year later, October, 2019 - 25 years after it's conception.
The cover of Vrenessbith began with a photograph of a leather vest, which belonged to my dad.
Copies of Vrenessbith - Awakening and Vrenessbith - Catharrachd can be purchased from your favorite bookstore. HOWEVER, from Aug 14 - 17 you can get Kindle copies for $0.99 each or purchase direct from Speurach Press for a few dollars less. See links below
Awakening - $9.95 (print) - $0.99 (kindle)
Catharrachd - $11.45 (print) - $0.99 (kindle)
Other conjurings from this old author
Many "would be" authors imagine writing a great novel, or other work, submitting it to Amazon and raking in royalties. Here is a touch of reality - it can happen, but it does take a bit more work. I "typically" spend almost two years on the first draft of a book. That is not a hard and fast rule and it can take a bit longer if I am working with a writers' group. Vrenessbith took over 25 years, but I wasn't working on it all the time. While developing my first draft I review and edit it as I go - a chunk at a time. Then I have my #1 fan and editor (my bride) review it - a chunk at a time. I then consider her comments / edits and read that chunk again.
Once I give a section to my bride, I push on through construction of the next block. At any point in time I may be working on sections as much as a hundred pages apart. Throw in the writers' group and you have yet another section in play. Once the "first draft" is completed, I read the entire manuscript again. This is actually my first real reading of the work, but I have been through it five or six times.
The next phase is possibly the most important. My wife / editor reads the manuscript aloud from a PDF copy while I mark edits on a paper copy. We do this in 40 - 50 page blocks. Once read, we move to the next block and I enter edits from the recently read block. NOW, we have a manuscript for publishing. Nope! Final pass is to run it through a spelling / grammar checker. This is tedious, time consuming, and essential. All this done, I prepare the document for publication (more on this later).
Here is the sad humourous part - after all this reading / review / checking there are still mistakes. I recently read "The Thirstday Cognizance Brigade," first time since publication, and found over 20 mistakes in spelling and grammar. Still a great story.
What are you working on?
Beyond Books -
If you have looked at my bookshelf - the books I have authored - you should realize that I am wear several different hats. Possibly one of my favorite, and most demanding, personalities is Santa's Woodsman. This persona also includes Santa. Yep, I wear a red suit for special occasions and sometimes a dark green suit. For more information about this, check out www.santaswoodsman.com This personality is also what drove me to writing "Lessons of Christmas," which was the subject of my presentation for the North Carolina Friends of Santa Summer Santa Seminar in Durham, NC this past weekend. It was great to catch up with men and women I had worked closely with before I moved to Virginia. Then I presented a touch of what I, as Santa's Woodsman, have learned from Christmas. While most of us consider Christmas a happy time of year, it can also be tough. Relating some tough times brought tears to the hearts of my fellow Santas, but I tried to clear the tears with a bit of laughter as well. It was a great journey for me, sharing lessons I have learned from Christmas, but now I need to get back to writing.
Tidbits of lost information
In the section above I described how we create a story, so how does that story, or manuscript, make it to book? There are numerous services out there that will format a manuscript for you and I strongly recommend you use one if you have never suffered through this process. I personally prefer to write in WordPerfect, which is why you might find it mentioned in several stories. Once the manuscript is completed, I have a template I insert into the top of file and the job is begun. Adjustments have to be made for font - each genre prefers different fonts - and margins according to the page count. Then I step through the manuscript page by page looking for "stuff that ain't right." Once the manuscript appears okay, I print it through Adobe Acrobat to create a print quality PDF. That file is now examined, one page at a time. When errors are found, and there are plenty, the process is repeated - edit manuscript / review / print / review. The finalized PDF is then sent to the printer - I AM THE PUBLISHER and prefer Ingram Spark for printing / distribution services. I'm not quite sure what they do to examine and test the file but it takes 2 - 3 days before I get an eProof. Then there is the cover, but I'll save that for another day.
So, you have an idea you want to turn into a book? My advice is to start writing and leave the technical stuff to the end, after you have a completed story.
Next month's featured book: The Thirstday Cognizance Brigade
www.woodsmanstories.com
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Copyright 2025 by E. Gale Buck
August 5,2025