Leave Message Via Our Clan Herald
For Media, Press, & Event Inquiries
Contact Melissa Stroh at: mnstroh@mnstroh.com
Connect with M.N. Stroh on Social Media
6 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- 2020 Writers Chat Recap - M.N. Stroh - […] Contact […]
- The Christian Fiction Class of 2021 - M.N. Stroh - […] Contact […]
- Introducing Tale of the Clans Episodes! – M.N. Stroh - […] Join the M.N. Stroh Clan newsletter and you’ll receive first-time access to Episode 1 this month, before it airs…
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Dear M.N.,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Kate. I’m part of a BookTok community on Goodreads, where we choose a small set of books each season, read them together, and talk about them in depth.
Your book stopped me at one line: Would God command a devout monk to wed a shepherdess?
That is such a bold, impossible question to open a story with, and I mean that as a compliment. You did not just set up a romance. You set up a theological crisis. A monk who has devoted his life to penance and devotion, trying to blot out the burdens of his past and attain righteousness. A shepherdess who hears voices and sees mysterious visitors that no one else in her Clan can hear or see. And then an angelic being proclaims that she will marry a man meant to bring Scriptural truth to their Clan, and that man is Marcan. That is so specific and so tense. It made me feel the weight of both their callings before I even opened the book.
What really stayed with me, honestly, was Mara’s position. Others think she is fey. No one else hears the voices or sees the visitors. But she knows the messengers come from God, and she commits to keep silent about them until one proclaims she will marry. That is such a lonely and specific burden. She is not a prophet with a following. She is a young woman with a secret, and the one person she needs to convince is a monk who has spent his life denying the vices of the flesh. I have to say, that stayed with me.
I also noticed the tragedy in Marcan’s arc. You wrote that every attempt to escape drives him further from those he loves and from God. That is such a painful and human thing to write. He is not a villain. He is a devout man trying to do the right thing, and his devotion is pulling him apart. And Mara’s misguided beliefs cast new stumbling blocks in his path. So neither of them is entirely right or entirely wrong. They are both trying to follow God, and they are hurting each other in the process. That is so rich and so real.
And then there is the setting. Ireland, 940 AD. Cill Dálua’s monastic community. Illuminated manuscripts. That is such a specific and textured world. Marcan is not just a monk. He is a scribe who labours over illuminated manuscripts, and that detail tells me he is an artist as well as a man of faith. It made me want to see the pages he was working on.
We’re running a six month reading challenge, featuring a new book each month. For a featured author, we arrange a spotlight to open the month, a discussion thread that stays open for four weeks, and posts across our channels during the month.
If you’d like to take part, just reply and I’ll send the full schedule with dates and details.
One thing worth saying: our members read a lot of historical fiction and inspirational fiction, and they are quick to notice when faith is just a backdrop for romance or romance is just a reward for faith. What makes yours different is that the two are built into each other. The calling is already proclaimed. The vow is already in conflict. The penance is already failing. So when Mara and Marcan are drawn together, it feels like the next turn of a screw rather than a different book entirely. That is a much harder thing to pull off than it sounds.
A novel like this also suits a group read well, because the impossible question gives the thread something to chase. Members can argue about whether Mara’s voices are truly from God, compare theories about what Marcan is running from, and disagree about whether a monk can ever be the man God intended for her.
One Q and A question I’d love to ask: you opened with the question of whether God would command a devout monk to wed a shepherdess. Did you always know that question would be the first thing the reader sees, or did it grow once Mara and Marcan were already on the page? And when you wrote that every attempt Marcan makes to escape drives him further from those he loves and from God, did you know from the start that his devotion would be the thing that undoes him, or did that tragedy reveal itself as you wrote?
Warm regards,
Kate
contact.katedarbeebokshelves@gmail.com
Hello Melissa,
The premise of a young shepherdess trying to convince a devout monk to break his vows because of a divine vision in Man of Sorrows is incredibly compelling. The intense research you have done into tenth-century Ireland really shines through your world-building and character descriptions. It is wonderful to see an independent series that balances deep spiritual themes with such a gritty, realistic historical setting.
Looking at your current digital catalog transition, your website notes mention that your prequel novella is currently pulled for an exciting cover update and republication. However, the existing book pages on major database platforms like Goodreads still show the old version as permanently out of print without linking to your updates. When new readers look up your work after seeing your guest blog features, this missing detail makes it hard for them to follow your progress.
You might want to consider logging into your author dashboards on those tracking databases to mark the legacy listing as a forthcoming revised edition. You can easily add a quick line to the description field routing interested readers straight to your main website newsletter sign-up. This small digital adjustment keeps your incoming audience engaged during the transition and helps build a waiting list of buyers right before your new covers launch.
How do you approach managing your digital store updates across multiple review platforms when a series is going through a major republication process?
I think there needs to be more cows in your books.
You are so right! I am working on putting more bovine in future books. I say “bovine” because there are oxen too.
Thanks, Dana!
The site looks great! You did a fantastic job <3