{"product_id":"2940148553175","title":"The Spider and the Stone","description":"She will crown a king. He will carry a king's heart. Both will give all for Scotland's freedom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the 14th century dawns, the brutal Edward Longshanks of England schemes to steal Scotland. But a frail, dark-skinned boy named James Douglas--inspired by a headstrong lass from Fife--defies three Plantagenet kings and champions the cause of his wavering friend, Robert the Bruce, to lead the armies to the bloody field of Bannockburn. Here is a thrilling saga of star-crossed love and heroic sacrifice set during the Scottish Wars of Independence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAwards: Chaucer Award First-Place Category Winner***Foreword Reviews Book-of-the-Year Finalist***B.R.A.G. Medallion***BTS Readers Choice Honorable Mention \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEditorial Praise for The Spider and the Stone:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The best book I've read this year. ... [It] touched my Scottish-American warrior's heart.\" --John Graham, seneschal of the Society of Creative Anachronism\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The battle scenes are detailed and vivid, giving the reader a ringside seat at Scotland's desperate fight for freedom. ... 'Spider' will hold readers in suspense.\" -- InD'tale Magazine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"As a fan of the works of Bernard Cornwell and Robert Low, I am very spoiled when it comes to novels of this genre. I was not disappointed in the least.... Well written and it is fun stuff!\" --Amazon reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Craney] has woven a well-crafted, interesting tale.\" --Historical Novel Society\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If you like Conn Iggulden, you will love this novel.\" --Goodreads reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAuthor Interview:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQ: Your first historical novel was set in medieval France. Why Scotland for your second novel?\u003cbr\u003eA: I've traveled to Scotland three times and have ancestral roots there. I often get inspiration for my books in dreams. Several years ago, I awoke from a particularly vivid dream in which I was a mounted knight fighting a duel near a stream with a black-robed hag who wielded a sickle. In the midst of this death struggle, the dream shifted to a photograph of me standing with six other knights around a seated king in a pose of celebration. Below the photograph, a caption read: \"Americans aid the King at Bannockburn.\" Baffled, I launched on a quest to decipher the dream. A few weeks later, I was walking the old battlefield around Stirling. I thought I had come to research a novel with King Robert Bruce as my protagonist. But when I boarded the plane for home, I had two new main characters returning with me: Sir James Douglas and Isabelle MacDuff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQ: What's the toughest challenge in writing historical fiction?\u003cbr\u003eA: For me, it's finding the mythic thread of the hero's journey in the maze of historical \"facts\" handed down to us. Let's be honest: history itself is a fiction. Gettysburg National Park historian Thomas DesJardin demonstrated in These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory how a skewed narrative of that battle quickly took shape in just hours after the smoke had cleared. His findings are a cautionary tale on the unreliability of eyewitness accounts and the faulty foundations of transmitted history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQ: Did anything surprise you during your research for Spider?\u003cbr\u003eA: Three discoveries: First, beneath the military struggle lay a religious conflict between ancient Culdee Christianity and the missionaries of the Roman church who tried to stamp out many of the Celtic traditions. Second, Scot women played an unsung role in Robert Bruce's miraculous triumph. Third, a spiritual thread connects the destinies of Scotland and the United States. The events of the Bruce era left echoes centuries later in the American Revolution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQ: What's the most important ingredient in your story about the Black Douglas?\u003cbr\u003eA: There's romance, mystery, adventure, betrayal, war. But the engine that drives the novel is a love triangle that is repeatedly fractured and restored.","brand":"Brigid's Fire Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47122259935472,"sku":"2940148553175","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940148553175_p0.jpg?v=1763704772","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940148553175","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}