Breaking News
*
Breaking News *
While I update my blog when I have big news, you will find more up-to-date information on my socials. Click here to follow my accounts on the your preferred social site.
...Gang aft agley (But it's really good news. I promise.)
Remember on May 5th when I said that Cauldron was 81% drafted and I laid out my writing/publishing plans for the coming months. Well, there comes a time in almost every writing project longer than a short story that a writer starts to question EVERYTHING about the project. Is this the best way to tell the story? Is that action true to the character? What is this character's motivation? Why did he say that? Where did this character come from? Have I really written THAT many words on this project? How much more of this story is there to tell? What the hell am I doing? Who's going to read this crap? Why am I here? Why are any of us here?
So that's what they're for...
I only watch television a couple of nights out of the week. I detest reality shows, and find very little to attract me to network dramas or comedies. In fact the only two network shows that I like got cancelled last week, so I see even less in my future. Nope, cable is where the real TV game is, and right now, my television week mostly consists of Outlander, Game of Thrones. I might slip in an episode of Daredevil or Turn during the week, but that’s only as writing time allows. This weekend provided a very interesting juxtaposition.
Best laid plans...
Well, Scotland is in my rear view mirror. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you have likely seen many of our pictures. Eric liked it so much we're trying to figure out how fast we can go back.
Of course, I came home to the realization that the kids are out of school on the 19th of May. So i set myself a mental deadline of finishing the draft for Cauldron by then.
Oh, Drumossie...
I have to be honest. I didn’t think I would go. I know, for a Scotia-phile on her first trip to Scotland that sounds like sacrilege. Madness. How could I not visit the site of the final battle that sent my Highlander ancestors from Scotland to North Carolina? How can an Outlander fan not go to Culloden? But the thing is, I’ve seen so many battlefields.
I grew up at the nexus of the Civil War. My childhood home was just a few miles from the Chancellorsville battlefield where my own three times great grandfather was killed. My first apartment was on Hanover Street in Fredericksburg just blocks away from Marye's Heights and the Sunken Road. My family's favorite vacation spot when I was young was within sight of Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Even today, I can't go to town without driving past the Stonewall Jackson Shrine (not memorial, SHRINE). After about the hundredth time visiting flat empty fields marked by plaques declaring which general did what and how many senseless deaths happened right where you're standing, a person can become inured to that kind of thing.
Always leave 'em wanting more
A young boy discovers a time portal inside a hydroelectric dam. A car full of refugees drives into an impenetrable fog. A young woman wakes up to find herself the poster girl for a revolution. Another young woman walks away from the only life she’s ever known.
They all sound like great starts to stories, don’t they? There’s just one hitch. They’re all endings. I won’t spoil them all by identifying the books, but with the exception of the last one, they’re all well-known books by bestselling authors. The last one, of course, is mine (2 points if you know which), but it’s an ending too; an ending and a beginning. And that’s just how I like to end my stories.
Stalling tactics
My daughter (8) is a pro at stalling bedtime. She will wait until right before bedtime to say, "But I need to take a bath." She will think of a dozen things that she simply must do on the way to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She can never find her pajamas and has to tear up her room in search of them. She's a pretty sharp cookie and has figured out that her folks almost never say no to reading, so she'll ask if he can read for a little while. And heaven forbid she not be able to find her Stitch plushie. It's her favorite thing to cuddle with next to her cat and if she can't find it, all bets are off.
We're all mad here
I think I've finally recovered from the madness of last weekend only to be plunged into a whole different brand of crazy. No, last weekend wasn't a whisky fueled bender (Really, I only had the one glass.) It was the Outlander Odyssey's gathering in Williamsburg, VA, and it was fantastic. For Scotia-phile history nerds like me, this was paradise, but what made it even better was getting to connect with so many readers both the ones who bought my book at the gathering and those who had read it before. There were even a couple of fans (I'm looking at you Wendy & Diane).
Gaelic Songs & Influence
This Saturday, I will be speaking at the Outlander Odysseys Gathering in Williamsburg, Virginia about Puirt a beul. In advance of that I put together a public playlist on Spotify that is made up of Gaelic and English songs.
These songs show the most common types of Gaelic music and the Gaelic influence on Appalachian music. The latter of course is the topic of Sarah MacAlpin's dissertation in The River Maiden.
If you don't currently have Spotify, there is a free version with ads, but I am also listing these songs below. I'll group them according to type and provide links to the lyrics where possible.