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Nechtan Cameron Chronicles Blog
Updates, lore, and field notes from the world of Nechtan Cameron.
Beyond the Cookbook: A New Chapter in My Writing Journey
For a while now, many of you have been following along as I work toward becoming a published author. My first step into that world has been through something incredibly close to my heart—food. Writing my cookbook gave me a way to put pieces of my life onto paper: recipes made in my kitchen, meals shared with my family, traditions I want to preserve, and the simple belief that some of life's best moments happen gathered around a table. But I've realized something during this j

Jay D Evans
Sep 53 min read
What's happening in the Cameron World
Here's the first real update on what's going on in the Nechtan Cameron world. Cage of the Pawn is the first book. It tells the journey of Cam, Caoimhe, Iain, Owen, Ailsa, Eilidh, and the infamous Dark Druid - Diarmad Mag Uidhir. With it, you, the reader, are introduced to the main characters of the series, the world in which Nechtan Cameron resides, and how things work in that world. All the locations are actual places in Scotland, from 1 Milton St. to Loch Doon, the Isle of

Jay D Evans
Sep 32 min read
Enchanted Echoes 1-3 Now Available
Series Series title: Enchanted Echoes Author: Sorcha MacLeod Imprint: Thistle and Rowan Press, Leon, Iowa Genre: Historical fantasy / Celtic folklore / coming-of-age / generational saga Setting: Scottish Highlands, early-to-mid 16th century In the glens above Loch Shiel, the old ways have not quite died. They live in rowan at the threshold, in standing stones half-swallowed by ivy, and in the blood of those the land still calls. Enchanted Echoes follows the MacGregors wh

Jay D Evans
Sep 13 min read
Enchanted Echoes: Threads of the Old Blood
The long awaited debut of the Enchanted Echoes series has happened! Book One - Threads of the Old Blood is now live on Amazon as paperback and ebook. The mist clings to Loch Shiel like a widow’s shroud. Ten-year-old Alaric MacGregor sits at the water’s edge with his bare feet in the peat-dark shallows and feels something older than the kirk stones pulling at his ribs. His grandmother’s tales of selkies, kelpies, and keepers of the old blood no longer sound like stories told t

Jay D Evans
Aug 312 min read
Featured Author: Colin R Parsons
Colin R Parsons lives in South Wales UK. I met him on MySpace many years ago before either of us had actually published anything. We were just getting started. No, Colin is not a Thistle And Rowan author. He's grown into a traditionally published author, which is the dream of a lot of us indie people. He's come a long way since those days of discussing plots and characters and how/where to publish. Since then his catalogue has grown substantially: Wizards' Kingdom book 1 The

Jay D Evans
Aug 291 min read
From My Home to Your Table: The Story Behind Homestead Farmhouse Recipes
My name is Maria, and I am a 29-year-old wife, stay-at-home mom, homemaker, and home cook. I am a mother of three children, and my family is at the very center of everything I do. Our home is built around family, faith, hard work, and a love for the simple things in life. I have always believed that some of life's greatest blessings can be found in the ordinary moments: a homemade meal on the table, fresh bread cooling in the kitchen, children gathered around for dinner, and

Jay D Evans
Aug 235 min read
Not Exactly a Review - Better
I got this email from Geraldine W. regarding Cage of the Pawn. She hasn't read the book, just the description. I couldn't make this up if I tried. If she got all of this just from the description of the book, then she's quite perceptive because it is EXACTLY what the book is. From Geraldine W.: I have a confession. I read the description for CAGE OF THE PAWN three times. Each time, something new stopped me. Here is what I could not shake: In the grey heart of modern Edinburgh

Jay D Evans
Aug 232 min read
New Website Organization
I decided that, even though it's new, the Thistle and Rowan Press website needed a little revamping. I had some comments that it was hard to navigate and read so, I've spent quite a few hours in trying to get it a little more organized and user-friendly. I took the first chapters of Cage of the Pawn, Enchanted Echoes, and Shadows in the Frame and set them below the book descriptions on their respective pages then removed them from the Blog page. Hopefully this will be a littl

Jay D Evans
Aug 221 min read
My Inspiration
My Heritage and Research People sometimes ask where the world of Nechtan Cameron comes from. The honest answer is that it grew out of a long, quiet looking backward. I carry Scottish ancestry that reaches, through an ancient aunt, to Malcolm Wallace—father of the more famous William. I have never set foot on Scottish soil in person. What I know of the land has come through years of reading, through historical texts and folklore collections, and through long hours spent d

Jay D Evans
Aug 62 min read
Enchanted Echoes, an Origin Story
Coming Soon: Enchanted Echoes The old blood does not die easily. Long before Nechtan Cameron walked the modern world carrying the weight of ancient gifts, there were others who kept the thread alive in far harder times. In the shadowed glens of 16th-century Scotland, when the Kirk’s reach grew longer and the old ways were driven deeper into silence, one man stood at the heart of that quiet resistance. His name was Alaric MacGregor. Enchanted Echoes is the three-book origin st

Jay D Evans
Aug 52 min read
Welcome to the Nechtan Cameron Chronicles Blog
Welcome to the Nechtan Cameron Chronicles blog. If you’ve found your way here, you’re probably curious about three things: Scotland, stories, and the strange places where myth and modern life overlap. This space is where all of that comes together. Here you’ll find: Lore and worldbuilding from the Nechtan Cameron universe Behind‑the‑scenes notes from 1 Milton Street and beyond The occasional short story or character moment that doesn’t quite fit inside a book, but still belon

Jay D Evans
Aug 52 min read
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