I am pleased to have Julie Doherty stop in to visit. Not only is she here to discuss her recent release with Soul Mate Publishing, ‘Scent of the Soul’, she is also bringing us some of her fantastic artwork and will give one lovely piece away. Once Julie and I got to talking, it turns out we have a shared history, but let’s have Julie take this conversation over. Julie, welcome.
JD: I am glad to be here. Yes, like you just mentioned, I used to show and rescue dogs. Irish Wolfhounds and Coonhounds. Because of my love of animals, they have a way of sneaking into my writing world as well.
Bucky, a black and tan coonhound that I rescued from where he’d been shoved in a van with about 20 Dachshunds traveling from Wisconsin to Virginia. I took him to the vet for neutering and asked them to check a lump. The biopsy was cancer and they only expected him to survive 3-6 months. I was delighted he stayed with me ten long years. (Lol) Ugly Bucky grew to be one of my favorite dogs, going on to excel as a therapy dog. In fact, I grew to love him in all his ugliness so much that I sketched him. This is how he appeared looking through my back door while I prepared dinner one night.
RJS: Yes, same here with them sneaking into our writing Even if it’s just the pet cat in the corner, they always have to wiggle their way in somehow. Bucky is adorable, pleading so softly. I can almost hear a suggestive whine. I hope you ‘accidently’ slipped him a bite? Now, about your exciting book, “Scent of the Soul”?
JD: Here is my Blurb:
In twelfth century Scotland, it took a half-Gael with a Viking name to restore the clans to their rightful lands. Once an exile, Somerled the Mighty now dominates the west. He’s making alliances, expanding his territory, and proposing marriage to the Manx princess.
It’s a bad time to fall for Breagha, a torc-wearing slave with a supernatural sense of smell.
Somerled resists the intense attraction to a woman who offers no political gain, and he won’t have a mistress making demands on him while he’s negotiating a marriage his people need. Besides, Breagha belongs to a rival king, one whose fresh alliance Somerled can’t afford to lose.
It’s when Breagha vanishes that Somerled realizes just how much he needs her. He abandons his marriage plans to search for her, unprepared for the evil lurking in the shadowy recesses of Ireland—a lustful demon who will stop at nothing to keep Breagha for himself.
RJS: Do you have a short excerpt of SCENT to share? I’m intrigued by her supernatural, heightened sense of smell, as I have no sense of smell. (Nope, never have. It’s called anozmia) So can you explain to me how she smells supernaturally?
JD: Not only does shave a heightened sense of smell, but she can peel away the layers and isolate one scent from all others. Here is a little to explain:
Breagha is from “the land of birch and ice,” and a village teeming with the large dogs. She wears a torc that marks her as gifted among her people. Here’s an excerpt that might help. She’s under the care of an elderly woman, who is cleaning Breagha’s injured wrist and questioning her.
Breagha wrapped one hand around her crock and the other around her injured wrist. “I come from a village filled with tall dogs and surrounded by standing stones. We are a peaceful people, devoted to learning. I am a torc-wearer there.” She pulled her neckline down to reveal her torc.
Breagha wrapped one hand around her crock and the other around her injured wrist. “I come from a village filled with tall dogs and surrounded by standing stones. We are a peaceful people, devoted to learning. I am a torc-wearer there.” She pulled her neckline down to reveal her torc.
Elisad nearly choked on a half-chewed mouthful of porridge. She swallowed it quickly. “Where did ye get an item fine as that?”
“I have had it since birth. There are three others in my village. Those who wear them are different.”
“Different, meaning rich?”
“Different, meaning gifted. There’s Nairna, who dreams up new and better ways of doing things. She designs things, useful things that the villagers then build. Sika can see things nobody else can see. Naaja has been talking since birth; she hears even the slightest whisper and must sleep in a padded box.”
She hesitated, searching Elisad’s face for judgment. There was none.
“Ye be the fourth,” Elisad said.
“Aye.”
“What be your gift?” Elisad asked.
“I scent. Each person, each thing, has a unique scent.” She waited for the question she knew would come.
Elisad wasted no time in asking it. “What do I smell like?”
“I mean no harm in telling ye this, Elisad, as I love dogs, but ye smell a bit of that terrier ye keep close by, and there’s a hint of peat about ye, and an herb I can’t name.”
“Sage. I was bundlin’ it wi’ the blacksmith’s wife.” Elisad scrubbed her hand across her face. “Two days ago . . . at her house.”
“It is still pungent upon your apron—an altogether lovely smell.”
Elisad stared at the torc. “’Tis an incredible gift, lass.” Her expression turned serious, and she tugged Breagha’s neckline upward. “Let’s us keep that item covered, aye? Especially this week of the clan gatherin’ when there be strangers in the village. Some of them have wiped out entire clans to claim an item fine as that.”
Breagha squeezed the old woman’s hand. Elisad could be trusted.
“The scribbles on the torc look like the ones on our standing stone.”
“And on ours,” Breagha said. “The marks identify it as mine.”
“Beautiful, so it is. Are the other torcs the same?”
“Each is unique to the one who wears it. Our souls are connected to them. When we die, the torcs attract us back to where we last trod, so that we may begin our learning where we left off.”
“I should think, then, that ye would want to leave it in a good place.”
“Aye,” Breagha said, “when we die, we hope to leave our torcs with loved ones, so that in our next life, we will return to them.” She stared at the peat, which glowed orange, the color of Nairna’s unusual hair. “I don’t know where the rest are now,” she said, her chest aching, “or even if they survived. We had no weapons. Even if we had, I’m not sure they would have been effective against the men who attacked our village.” She shook her head. “Men . . . I don’t know if it’s right to call them that. Men do not have holes where their eyes and mouths should be.”
RJS: Wow, that’s pretty cool. Now, about the dogs, what can you tell us about how you got involved with hounds? A love and understanding of them shows through in your art.
JD: My coonhound story began before I was born, when two dogs wandered up to my grandparents’ door in rural Pennsylvania. My grandfather recognized the hounds as quality animals and confined them, expecting their rightful owner to come looking for them in the days or weeks that followed. Some time passed before that happened, and by then, the entire family had fallen in love with their new pets. They were devastated at having to return them to their owner, but returning them was the right thing to do. The man was, very naturally, delighted to recover the dogs he’d thought lost. He was so grateful, in fact, that in the spring, he returned to my grandparents’ place with two squirming puppies.
In 1967, I was born and we were down to the family’s last coonhound, a bitch named Lady. I remember lying next to her in a sun patch on our porch. When she died, we replaced her with an Airedale/Poodle mix that had been born wild, and my coonhound days were over . . . or so I thought.
In the late eighties, I was ready to own my own dog. I’d fallen in love with a friend’s Dachshund, so I went to a pet store and bought one, a black and tan tweenie. Yes, I can hear you gasping, and yes, it ended just as you might expect: with a genetic nightmare that cost me a fortune in vet bills and died before his fifth birthday. It was a hard lesson learned, and the next time I went shopping for a dog, I went to a responsible breeder.
I came home with a black and tan longhair that I entered in handling class and later, AKC shows. While he wasn’t a winning dog, he introduced me to a whole new world. When we walked into the show arena in Pittsburgh, he introduced me to an old one. Standing there, groomed and ready to go into the ring, was a shiny Black & Tan Coonhound.
That dog rekindled my love of the breed, and before the summer was out, I was on a breeder’s waiting list for a puppy of my own.
RJS: Ah, glad things worked out. Now, back to your story and your hero, Somerled. How does he feel about Breagha’s wolfhounds? And they for him, of course?
JD: Somerled’s men find Breagha and her dogs on a shoreline. They know that Somerled, a king, will want those dogs, and there’s little harm in picking up a girl. After all, she’s probably worth a heifer or two in the eastern markets.
When he sees her, though, he soon forgets about the dogs.
RJS: Are all your sketches of hounds? You said you have done lots of breeds? What about the other groups like terriers, toys and others?
JD: I’ve sketched a lot of them from all the groups. I even published and sold some dog breed coloring books. Hey, since coloring seems to be popular these days, that is what I would like to give away to a random reader who leaves me a comment. Does that sound good?
RJS: That sounds awesome. We’ll showcase some more of those different sketches below, just because they are beautiful, detailed and you have bragging rights. Now, what can you share personally as our visit winds down?
JD: I am a member of Romance Writers of America and Central PA Romance Writers. When not writing, I enjoy antiquing, shooting longbow, traveling, and cooking over an open fire at my cabin. I live in Pennsylvania with my Glasgow-born Irish husband, who sounds a lot like my characters. (smile)
JD: Here are a few of my links where people can connect with me and leave messages. I have more below:
SITE: www.juliedoherty.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/juliedohertywrites
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/SquareSails
Greyhound
Scottish Deerhound
Irish Wolfhound
RJS: Wow, these are just super. Julie, you have a true talent.
JD: Thank you. They bring me a lot of pleasure. Here are some more links. And don’t forget to leave a comment below. A random winner will get one of my personal coloring books of sketches like these.
AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Scent-Soul-Julie-Doherty-ebook/dp/B00SZ0SKUE
AMAZON UK: www.amazon.co.uk/Scent-Soul-Julie-Doherty-ebook/dp/B00SZ0SKUE
AMAZON CANADA: http://www.amazon.ca/Scent-Soul-Julie-Doherty-ebook/dp/B00SZ0SKUE
AMAZON AUSTRALIA: www.amazon.com.au/Scent-Soul-Julie-Doherty-ebook/dp/B00SZ0SKUE
BOOK TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBuB3WC3FGU
GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/532434.Julie_Doherty
RJS: Julie, as our visit comes to a close, I’d like to thank you for stopping by and bringing your lovely drawings. You should be swamped with comments from folks wanting that sketch book. I wish you success with Scent of the Soul. And I understand you have another book coming out soon. What can you quickly share about it?
JD: It’s called ‘Scattered Seeds’ and it releases in October with Soul Mate Publishing. Here is the summary in one line: Ulsterman Edward and Henry McConnell flee to the New World with the one valuable thing they still own–their ancestor’s gold torc.
Ryan Jo Summers 