You should all know almost as much about Phooka Tales as you do about Fie Eoin by now, since it deals very closely with my own past work situation and the main character is probably as close to me as you can get. Self insertion? Yes. Mary Sue? Not by a mile.
Holly Thompson has been sent to Inverness, Scotland to manage a start-up satellite laboratory for her company. She’s also trying to plan a wedding in Michigan. She’s stressed out with work, with the wedding, and with her relationship succumbing to the stress and distance when her boss tells her she has to stay longer than planned and her fiancé cheats on her and then calls off the wedding. Holly, of course, is devastated, and her overtaxed mind begins to play tricks on her. She begins to see creatures – at first benign creatures that only confuse her, but as her stress grows and she thinks she’s going crazy the creatures become much more malicious and real. She’s trying to figure out what they are with the help of a mythology professor while trying to fight them off with the help of Phooka the Dog, who talks to her. Her internal struggle is mirrored in her outer world, and is only compounded when one of the monsters attacks and almost kills Phooka. And to top it all off, her budding relationship with a Scottish guy is thrown off course when her ex-fiancé suddenly asks her to come back to him. If everything goes back to the way it was will the creatures stop attacking her?
As her sister says, nothing’s ever simple with faeries.