KIDS’ BOOK SELLS OUT
BEVERLEY: WHSmith in Toll Gavel has had to restock with new copies of Molescroft author Roger Driscoll’s children’s book Echo McCool Outlaw Through Time after selling out.
The story about a magical medieval girl is set in a mythical place called Oswaldley but based on locations in and around Beverley.
It was named in the top ten best reads of 2011 by the website www.goodreads.com
http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Kids-book-sells/story-12729951-detail/story.html
By Roger K Driscoll
ISBN 978-1-908105-26-4
About the book:
Echo McCool is a magical, medieval girl with attitude. Don’t get on the wrong end of her jump kicks, flick-flaks and open-palm strikes. In her own time, Echo escapes death from a poisoned arrow and hides inside a hollow oak tree. She lies dormant for hundreds of years but in the present day she is awakened by Jason Fleeting, a twelve-year-old runaway from a children’s home. Together they set out to solve the murder of Jason’s mother and to rescue his kidnapped sister Lauren.
“Echo of the Forest”
Short Song Written and Performed by Laura Catlow:
After being made redundant by a large law firm, Roger Driscoll dusted down some half-finished manuscripts stored under his spare bed. He got to work, and ECHO McCOOL, OUTLAW THROUGH TIME was the result. Roger lives in East Yorkshire, England, in a little house near the old oak tree and disused railway line where he used to play as a boy in the 1970s. He believes that the most important part of any book is its reader. Without a reader, a book can never come alive.
Excerpt from the book:
“The bit where Echo attacks the policewoman.”
Jason had no time to run. Everything seemed to happen in a split-second. PC Knaggs lunged forward, taking hold of him, spinning him around. Now her arm was around his throat, her other hand securing him in a powerful arm-lock. They both faced Echo who took up a fighting stance.
“Let the boy go, thou meddlesome hussy.”
The policewoman twisted harder. Jason cried out. Any more and his arm would break.
“I will give thee one final chance, thou sow-faced drab.”
“Cheeky little brat,” said PC Knaggs. “Think you can fight me, eh? No chance. We do self-defence in the police.”
Echo ignored the warning, taking two careful steps backwards before sinking into a low crouch. With a sudden shriek she sprang up in a high-speed, flying kick. Jason ducked his head as Echo’s boot shot above him, the heel slamming into the policewoman’s forehead, sending her cap flying. PC Knaggs yelped, letting go of Jason as she slammed back-first into the nearest pillar. Jason crashed to the ground and began to crawl away. PC Knaggs recovered, her hair dishevelled, and she dusted down her uniform. Swearing and cursing she charged at Echo, fists flying.
Echo avoided the first punch before countering with a quick left to the policewoman’s stomach. The force knocked PC Knaggs to the ground, but she wasn’t finished. Her right leg whipped out in a wide arc to take Echo’s feet from under her. Both combatants were up and facing one other an instant later. The policewoman aimed a snap-kick at Echo who blocked it with a kick of her own. The girl-dryad then attacked in a blur of motion, landing more rapid-fire punches before her open palm struck the policewoman’s chin with a dull crunch. PC Knaggs reeled backwards into the pillar again, her knees sagging before she collapsed to the ground half-dazed. Jason scrambled to his feet and could only stare in horror.
“We’re in big trouble now!” he gasped.
Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd
For full information see the Shelfari entry: http://tinyurl.com/6eqt6ul
Copies of the book can be purchased via most retailers including WH Smith, Waterstones, Blackwells, Tesco, Alibris and here on Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/6ksysab
Also available on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/6cuv8ev
The book is further available in ebook format including ePub and Amazon Kindle.
For a free reading sample see: http://cheaplit.com/sample/42658/echo-mccool-outlaw-through-time
Email the author: echo.mccool@googlemail.co.uk
Follow the adventures of Echo, the magical, half-dryad, high-kicking stripy heroine of Wicca Forest and beyond:
http://www.twitter.com/Echo_McCool
http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Echo-McCool-Outlaw-Through-Time/132544866808255
facebook.com/RogerKDriscoll.author
In the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland, stories of mystical legends and epic battles have been passed through the generations since ancient times. Disney Pixar’s “Brave” a new tale, joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts. ”Brave” tells the story of Merida, a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the pre-publicity for E.G. (“Eddy”) Wolverson’s novel “The Tally” for a specific reason. Eddy hails from Hull, just a few miles up the road from me, and I thought the least I could do was to mention The Tally on its launch day. So without further ado here is the product description; I hope it grabs your attention as much as it did mine:
Young Tom-o wiles away his evenings in a purple drunken stupor, lost to the tender mercies of what he desperately wishes was a hopeless love affair, but in reality isn’t even that. Gristle, meanwhile, is enraged when his weak-bladdered housemate Spadge moves out, only to be replaced by a neurotic freak named Jamal, who dares not only to bring books into his house, but to read them too.
And for poor Will, matters are even worse. Women are staying in of a night! How’s he supposed to rack up his ‘tally’ of conquests if women daren’t leave their digs? They’re all terrified that they’ll be next to fall prey to the invisible menace that has started stealing students away from the streets of Hull. Will has nothing to fear though – after all, he has his recently-arrived destitute father to watch his back. And the fearsome Gristle. And the zealously neurotic Jamal. And the dangerously depressed Tom…
The Student Bubble is about to burst, and when it does, the degenerated residents of 146 Worthington Street will find themselves in a reality that they’re not equipped to comprehend, let alone survive in.”
You can give Eddy the recognition he deserves by purchasing and reviewing The Tally in the Kindle Store. Here’s the Amazon.co.uk link. Best of luck, Eddy!
The Tally – Amazon UK Link
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryad
Dryads are mentioned in Milton’s Paradise Lost, in Coleridge, and in Thackeray’s work The Virginians. Keats addresses the nightingale as ‘light-winged Dryad of the trees’, in his Ode to a Nightingale. In the poetry of Donald Davidson they illustrate the themes of tradition and the importance of the past to the present. The poet Sylvia Plath uses them to symbolize nature in her poetry in “On the Difficulty of Conjuring up a Dryad”, and “On the Plethora of Dryads”. In the ballet Don Quixote Dryads appear in a vision with Dulcinea before Don Quixote, they also appear in the classical ballet Sylvia Dryads are also featured extensively throughout The Chronicles of Narnia by British author C.S. Lewis and are shown to fight along side Aslan, son of the Emperor-Over-The-Sea, and the Pevensie Children. The same characters recur in David Eddings’ The Belgariad, where Dryads live in seclusion on the Wood of the Dryads within the Tolnedran Empire and among the most prominent in the storyline is Ce’Nedra. In the animated show Monster School, the character Rose Greendae is a dryad who can turn into a tree at will. In the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, there is a dryad named Juniper who is the girlfriend of Grover Underwood.
____________
Other dryads in fiction:
Sue Maynard – Ebon Black and the Seven Dryads
Frank Stockton – The Lost Dryad
The Dryad Project – James Moy
The Dryad by Justin Huntly McCarthy
The Oracle of the Missing Dryad – Kristin Groulx
Mr Griffin and the Dryad – Frank Stockton
This is the story of Neil, who hates zombies. One night he “shoots” a zombie called Max who turns out to be Maxine – a girl zombie! Soon dozens more zombies turn up to invade Neil’s house and Maxine decides to take his side, helping Neil and his parents to repel the attack. Cue swords, axes, shotguns, decapitations and numerous other injuries of the kind you’d associate with a zombie invasion. I don’t want to spoil the ending so you’ll have to read the book yourself to find out whether Neil and Maxine manage to save the day…Great stuff!
I love Echo! She is probably one of the coolest female leads I’ve ever read about. I think girls and women around the world are going to fall for her. Shes rough and tough and doesnt let anyone mess with her, yet she is a great friend and loyal to those she cares for…a real hero! I loved her abilities and that she isn’t fully a human at all. The storyline was epic and I enjoyed how she was introduced right in the beginning so that you really get to know her throughout the book. I’m a permanent fan of Echo McCool!!! More please 
I picked up this book after seeing some recommendations that fans of Stig of the Dump would enjoy it. So, being the Stig fanatic that I am, I decided to give it a try. Echo McCool (a twelve-year-old half dryad girl from the 13th Century) gets chased through a forest and shot by a poisoned arrow. But she has a magical card to play, she hides inside a hollow tree that, in time, will cure her of the poison. But the spell lasts a lot longer than she thought and she finds herself in the 21st century, when she is awakened by a boy called Jason Fleeting. Then the story becomes an enchanting tale of a unique friendship. Although Echo and Jason have had very different lives they learn a lot from each other. They have many adventures, some funny and some exciting. I would recommend this book to readers of all ages.
I don’t usually write reviews but the setting for Echo McCool, Outlaw Through Time is inspired by the area where I live so I decided to go ahead and give it a read. The author starts out in Medieval times when the half-dryad girl Echo McCool escapes death from a poison arrow and hides inside a magical hollow oak tree. Then there is a clever time twist when Echo awakes in the present day and teams up with Jason Fleeting, a boy with plenty of problems that Echo helps him to solve. The story builds up to a spectacular and heart-stopping climax. I don’t want to give away the ending but this book will have you glued to the pages and will keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished.
Somewhat flippantly I included in my Twitter profile the expression “Rustic Fantasy” and I’ve been surprised by the number of people asking me to explain exactly what it means. Firstly of course it was an attempt to differentiate my work from those many novels described as “Urban Fantasy.” Not that there’s anything wrong with Urban Fantasy, but anyway by Rustic Fantasy I was referring to what is primarily a British tradition of books set in a rural location with an “Otherworldly” element. I don’t mean ghost stories, or rural crime stories such as “the Famous Five”, or jolly japes like “Danny the Champion of the World.” However I do include time slip stories, and the long tradition of tales and novels in which something from an old legend is awakened. Basically, instead of being set in some kind of fantasy Middle Earth world or parallel universe, these stories are located in the British countryside, but the normal order of things is disrupted by a fantasy/magical element. I’ll finish with some examples:
Books
The Legend of King Arthur (Traditional)
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) – Alan Garner
Stig of the Dump (1963) – Clive King
Earthfasts (1966) – William Mayne
Catweazle (1970) – Richard Carpenter
The Dark is Rising (1973) – Susan Cooper
The Lyonesse Stone (1991) – Craig Weatherhill
Shadowmancer (2003) – G P Taylor
Movies
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Excalibur (1981)
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007)
TV Series
Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986)
Merlin (2008-2011)
I don’t claim any originality for this, indeed it seems the NYT bestselling author Ilona Andrews got there a couple of years before me.
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/the-edge
And in fact Robert Trow-Smith was using the expression back in 1954!
I’ve been watching Roger K. Driscoll’s, Echo McCool at Goodreads for a very specific reason. The cover caught my attention when I found it on Goodreads.com’s Best Books of 2011. Since then I kept my eye on it, because it rose so quickly up the charts. He is now #8 in Goodreads Best books of 2011 and has all 5-star ratings and there are 98 of them. Did you hear that? Roger has ninety-eight (98) 5-star ratings and not one single 4, 3, 2 or 1. Other readers questioned this, but then after reading it they admitted that it certainly was a great book.
Those ratings grabbed my interest and so I am posting Echo McCool: Outlaw Through Time as The Kindle Book Review’s second book that we recommend. This book was written for the 12-15 year old in mind and is a time traveling, adventure story that not only seems to grip the imaginations of young teens, it has also “WOW’ed” adult readers as well. What’s best…and honestly, quite amazing is that this book, with higher ratings than most bestsellers is only 99¢…for now. Better hurry and get yours before the price goes up.
Echo’s Amazon rating is low because this book has obviously been overlooked or under marketed, but with ratings like that, Roger deserves some recognition. You can give him the recognition he deserves by purchasing and reviewing Echo McCool in the Kindle store.
After you’ve read Echo McCool, be sure to report back here and tell us if it lived up to the hype. And Roger, who btw, is on facebook and Goodreads, you are welcome to guest blog here anytime and tell us how you captivated 104 readers (Amazon included). Best of Luck Roger.
Now go get out Echo McCool by Roger K. Driscoll!
You can check out the Goodreads ratings and reviews HERE
Jeff Bennington
http://thekindlebookreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/echo-mccool-has-cool-98-5-star-ratings.html
