Cork author’s tongue-in-cheek take on the fantasy genre

Sat, 25 Nov, 2023 - 06:00

DONNA Shannon, a young Cork native with a head of strikingly blue hair, started the first draft of her debut book between revisions for the Leaving Cert in 2013.

Now, aged 28, she is independently publishing Rosethorn, via IngramSpark, the self-publishing imprint of worldwide book distributer Ingram Book Group.

The book was launched in Bishopstown Library in August, and Donna also works as a full-time administrator in MTU, and sells handmade notebooks online and painting pet portraits for animal lovers.

Rosethorn, Book 1 of the Raining Thorns series, follows a teenage carpentry apprentice as he’s coerced into a quest to save his king from a prophesied death.

A tongue-in-cheek take on the popular high fantasy genre, Rosethorn pokes fun at typical fantasy tropes while creating well-rounded characters the reader can root for, all in a fully rendered world featuring magic forests, intricately detailed castles, and alternate spirit realms.

Howard Rosethorn is sent on a holy quest - he thinks. Or the Creys’ dragon will destroy the world and the end of days will come… or something. He’s not sure, since the holy flying cat flew into his face and kind of interrupted the rundown on the quest…

King Samuel Horne of Stoneguard is missing and Howie has been dispatched to find him - in the oft-avoided province of Adem, no less. He’s visiting the Creys: a deranged royal family consisting of an unattainable love interest, a dead-ish prince and a king that keeps severed heads as party decorations… sometimes with bite marks in.

But that’s the least of his problems. A prophecy dictates that if King Sam dies, the end of the world is soon to follow - and with politics and casual evil at every turn, Howie’s on thin ice. Will the Creys help him? Or will King Sam die before it’s too late?