April 2026 — Forgotten Rites Publishing
May 1 is thirty days out. I’ve been watching it approach the way you watch a fire being lit at a distance, the glow visible before you can feel the heat.
Blade and Bone: Oath of Steel and Shadow launches on Beltane. That date wasn’t chosen for the branding. It was chosen because Beltane is what the book is actually about, underneath the soul bond and the Norse mythology and the enemies-to-lovers tension: the threshold you don’t get to choose whether or not to cross. Astrid gets shoved through hers. Most of us do.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here’s what’s happening this month.
Blade and Bone — ARC copies on NetGalley right now
If you review books anywhere (Goodreads, BookTok, Bookstagram, your own blog, doesn’t matter how big), the ARC is available on NetGalley right now and I’d genuinely love to get it into your hands before launch day.
This is D.R. Quill’s debut. An indie launch lives or dies by early reviews. If you’ve been looking for a Viking romantasy with a soul bond, morally gray leads, and Norse mythology that actually does something, this is the one.
Request your ARC on NetGalley →
Launch day is May 1. Kindle pre-orders are live now.
First faire of the season — April 25
Three weeks before Beltane, the season opens at the Fairy & Renaissance Festival at Veterans Memorial Park in Clarksburg, WV. I’ll have the full table: both Donald Quill and D.R. Quill titles, including advance copies of Blade and Bone ahead of the official launch.
If you’re in the area, come find the table. I’m easy to spot: the one with too many books and strong opinions about Irish mythology.
April 25 · 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Veterans Memorial Park, Clarksburg, WV
Then the week after: Cape May Renaissance Faire, May 2–3. First public event after the Blade and Bone launch. Signed copies will be there.
See the full 2026 event schedule →
What’s coming in May
The Beltane newsletter will go deep on why I chose May 1 as the launch date: the mythology behind the festival, what thirty years of Beltane practice actually looks like, and how a Viking romantasy ended up being a Beltane story. That one goes out launch week.
If you’re not already on the list, forward this to someone who’d want it. The subscribe link is below.
A note on The Waking Ground
I know some of you are here for the Irish mythology fantasy, not the romantasy. Book 1 of The Waking Ground is in progress. I’ll have a proper update in the coming months. What I can say: the story is intact, Corra is intact, and the land is very much paying attention.
Thirty days. The fire’s coming.
— Donald
Forgotten Rites Publishing
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BookTok: @ForgottenRitesPublishing
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