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Hollow Bones

"In our life there is a time of wonder. Walking with the ancient ones as they share their world. And the dancing voices are carried by the wind. As I walk this sacred ground, I know I'm not alone, and I thank Mother Earth."  ~Alex Davis, Seneca Cayuga

Researching My Next Book in Scotland

6/24/2017

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     Older than Stonehenge,   the Ring of Brodegar makes an impressive landmark for miles around.  We will spend three days of our tour exploring Orkney.  
     Our Scotland visit will begin with a tour of all things Outlander.


In one week we leave for Scotland!

My heritage is Scot-Irish, so I'm looking forward to tracing my Campbell and Idol roots. I know my Campbell relatives have been in the Midwest states since the mid-1800s, but I haven't been able to trace them back further, so hopefully Scotland records will help me find when they immigrated.

And, speaking of research, Book 2 of my Ancient Magic series will be set in Scotland, and deciding on the exact site is the main purpose of this trip. The characters and plot can be written from my imagination, but an actual site visit is what "anchors" the book and gives it authenticity.

Will the story be set at the Ring of Brodgar?  With its prehistoric sun and moon temples, this is the heartland of the Neolithic North, a bleak, mysterious place that has made Orkney Island a magnet for archaeologists, historians and other researchers for decades.  We're spending three days in Orkney, including a guided tour of the archaeological excavations on the Ness of Brodgar. These sites pre-date both Stonehenge and Avebury by some 500 years.

Orkney is actually closer to Norway than to London. It's only 50 miles south of Greenland and begins where the North Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. I'm told the area feels like the end of edge of the world, and I can't wait to see it in person.

Maybe the story will journey to the Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis, a complex of megalithic stones laid out in the shape of a Celtic cross, with astronomical alignments that feature vividly in this sacred landscape. One of the stones is estimated to be three billion years old. That gives me shivers!

This landscape temple and its satellite sites makes up a lunar observatory created as an ancient power center to witness the major lunar standstill that occurs only once every 18.6 years (The next lunar standstill will take place in 2025). Two of our tour guides live in this area, so hopefully they will have many little-known tales to tell.

Or perhaps the book will originate in Iona, the home of one of the Book of Kells (circa AD 800), one of the finest illuminated manuscripts over created. When the Vikings sacked the island and its monastery in the late eighth century, the monks secreted the book off to safety in Ireland, but the rest of their entire library of knowledge went under the sea.

Iona is believed by some to be the Yew Island of the Druids, the sacred isle known as 'Tir nan Og, the land of youth, and the 'Otherworld." Such a lot of expectations to live up to!

The Inner Hebredes are separated from the Outer Hebrides by the Minch, a treacherous strait of water on the northwest coast. Famous supernatural inhabitants, called the Blue Men, are said to guard the strait. Something like 'mermen', the blue men tribe live in deep underwater caves and swim alongside ships passing the Sound of Shiant, luring sailors into the sea and creating storms to wreck ships. Some say they are fallen angels. I say they sound like the perfect subjects for a short story between novels!

I'll be posting musings and pictures of our Scotland travels for the next three weeks. I hope you will join me to learn more about our travels through Sacred Scotland.
 
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Goodbye Dear Friend

6/16/2017

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Cheryl Elliot Wilson

When I tell other friends stories about Cheryl (we all tell stories about our life-long friends, right?), "lake eggs" always come up.

For years, my parents owned a cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks. Because they were amazing parents, they let me invite gobs of my friends down for weekends of boating, water skiing, card playing, sunbathing, puzzles, reading, walks, and, best of all, food. 

Everyone attending would pair up and furnish all the groceries for one meal. The meals were epic, especially dinners after a long day on the water. I wish I had a picture of their long, drop-leaf table, situated in front of the double windows to catch the breeze, and surrounded by a crowd of laughing, sunburned friends.

On Sunday morning, Cheryl made "lake eggs," scrambled eggs with anything and everything that was left over from the previous meals. We often had the usual additions--onion, peppers, cheese, steak chunks. Sometimes the fare was more exotic. I can recall pinto beans, corn, diced pork chop, eggplant, cabbage.  If we had leftover dessert, fruit or alcohol, she'd find a way to concoct a delicious side dish. Cheesecake with powdered chocolate, cinnamon and chile pepper anyone?

Cheryl had a knack for cooking  wholesome meals, from scratch, and in  large quantities. Her first husband was an actor in a traveling theatre troupe, and she was--you guessed it--the camp cook. The husband didn't last (he was the only one of three I didn't meet during our 30-year friendship), but her love of cooking did.

Honey, you couldn't water ski, but you went out in the boat with us every time and tried. You disliked snow skiing too, but you went on every trip with the gang, bless your heart. Even when I moved away, you came out to Arizona for my 60th birthday.

You shared your daughter with us for her entire youth (hi Christy!), and you loved my kids like your own. And you were never, ever, too busy or too tired to lend me your ear and a tight, for-real hug when I needed it.

Plus, you got up EARLY at the lake to make breakfast and let the rest of us sleep in.
I raise my fork for you in love, girl. Miss you so hard.


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Diana Gabaldon talks about Writing

6/5/2017

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I have had the pleasure of listening to Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, speak twice in the last two weeks.

As the featured speaker at the Desert Dreams conference, she gave us the insider view on how the Outlander series was created, how she feels about Jamie Frasier (you'll have to wait until next week for this tidbit, sorry!), and some harsh realities on cutting for time on a TV series.

Yes, I totally fan-girled and had her sign my book.

At Phoenix ComiCon last weekend, she talked about her books and how she became a writer.

"In 1988, I decided to write a novel for "practice, just to learn how to write," she says. "I had no intention of showing it to anyone." As a research professor at Arizona State University, she decided a historical novel would be the easiest to research and write.
She had just watched a rerun of the Doctor Who TV series. He had a young 17-year-old Scots lad that he'd picked up in 1745, she explains. "He appeared in his kilt, you know. And I thought, well, that's rather fetching." It didn't matter where she set the book, she was going to have to look everything up anyway. "So I said, Scotland 18th century it is."

And the main male character, Jamie Frasier, was conceived.

"About the third day of writing, I decide I'll have to have a female character her to play off all these men in kilts. And given that we're dealing with the Jacobite rising, perhaps I should make her an Englishwoman, that way, we'll have lots of conflict built in."

Gabaldon stops to take a breath and a sip of water. She talks really fast, you have to pay close attention to her Lauren Bacall-type throaty voice. And she's articulate. No "uhs," "uhms" or pauses to choose her words, the woman is a born story-teller.

"So I introduced her, and the minute I put her in, she refused to talk like an 18th century person. She immediately started making smartass modern remarks, and she also started telling the story herself. I said, 'If you're going to fight me all through this book, go ahead and be modern and I'll figure out how you got there later." The audience laughs and she adds, "It's all her fault that there's time travel in it."

It took her about 18 months to write the Outlander. It's 850 pages in trade paperback, or about 213,000 words. So, those of you who despair of ever finishing your novel, take heart. Gabaldon, who was working full time during her first novel, with three kids and a spouse, wrote approximately 400 words a day between midnight and 3:00am, slipping in a quick nap before she began.

The thing that amazes me is that she writes without a net: no outline, character sketches or plot plan. "I don't write in a straight line at all," she says "I just write bits and pieces and then glue them together."

But, like the Outlander books, her unorthodox approach results in magic. When, during Q&A, I commented that writing without a plan would be terrifying, her reply was pure poetic Diana Gabaldon: "It's like raising new continents. You look out over this vast sea and you see volcanoes popping up here and there. As they rise and lava goes down the sides, mountains form, and then gradually it all becomes clear. You begin to see how one mountain flows down into a valley and up into another. To start with all you see are the mountains, but gradually, you can look below the surface and see the connections."

I'm re-reading the Outlander series as a "refresher" before Paul and I head to Scotland in July. In fact, we're starting our visit with an Outlander tour lead by a local guide. I can't wait!

Thank you, Diana Gabaldon, for giving us Claire and Jamie, and such a personal and readable history of my ancestral homeland.

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    Writer, witch, mother and wife. Order of importance is a continual shuffle.

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