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Conference Tidbits

8/25/2017

This blog could easily be titled, “A good editor is worth her weight in gold.”

I dropped (literally) down from my idyllic summer cabin, nestled in the forest pines at 6500’ to the hot Phoenix desert to attend a conference last weekend. I hate being in the 110+ degree Phoenix summers, so the conference had better be good!

It was. The Sisters in Crime WRITE NOW conference caught my interest months ago when they announced Clive Cussler as their guest speaker. I’ve been reading his Dirk Pitt adventure/suspense series for years, although I quit buying them when he started using a co-writer.

During this conference I learned quite a bit about co-authoring and how writing partners can collaborate so their writing “jells.”
Cussler, age 86, has used eight different co-authors for his five best-selling series. He paired up for several books with Grant Blackwood, who went on to co-author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series. He’s also written several books with his son, and featured his son and daughter in his novels. He says his co-writers produce a lot of the pages. While he writes also, he most often comes up with the initial plot idea and treatment.

Panel member Lee Goldberg, who wrote many episodes of the Monk TV series, is currently teaming up with Janet Evanovich to write her Fox and O’Hare series. He says he and Janet take a more collaborative approach, with both of them contributing to writing scenes. He says he’ll write a scene, “and then Janet puts her magic touch on it to finish.”

The last person on the panel was editor Holly Lorincz. Holly has been a ghostwriter for celebrities, Mafia chiefs, even a woman who escaped from the Taliban. She’s also a content editor.

I was able to book a 20-minute appointment with her to discuss my book-in-progress, Crescent Moon Crossing. I wasn’t satisfied with the opening of the book, and was struggling with how to improve the initial chapters. Well…in 20 minutes, Holly gave me a fresh idea for the book’s opening, plus she helped me decide the best order to introduce the scenes in my first three chapters. Thank you, Holly! It was money well spent. I’ll definitely be back in touch with you when I have a draft ready for content editing.

I just bought a few of Clive Cussler’s co-authored books:

Polar Shift (co-author Paul Kemprecos)
Piranha (co-author Craig Dirgo)
The Kingdom (co-author Grant Blackwood)
The Eye of Heavens (co-author Russell Blake)
Black Wind (co-authored with his son Dirk)

I think it will be interesting to read them all in sequence and see if the writing and tone vary between co-writers. I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your short list of authors you most enjoy reading. And what about co-authors—do you read co-authored books?

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Sacred Scotland Finale - Skye and Iona

8/18/2017

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We had two locations left in our Sacred Scotland tour, the Isle of Skye, probably the most famous of all the islands in Scotland. And then on to Iona, a tiny jewel in the crown of the Inner Hebrides, known as the seat of all religions worshipped in this country.

Skye has the greatest concentration of peaks in Britain, and the most challenging to climbers.

In fact, a common past time is called “Munro Bagging,” which consists of hiking (Scottish is hillwalking) to the top of all 282 Scottish summits over 3,000 feet. When you summit, you’ve bagged a Munro.

The beauty of wanting to bag all 282 is that in committing to do so, you open up the opportunity to see an incredible breadth of Scotland’s dramatic landscape, most of it away from the populated areas. Many of the Munros are located in Skye, so it’s a popular place for mountaineers.

Once you’ve bagged all the Munros, you’re considered a Munroist, and you start getting a lot of knowing nods, kudos and respect. Our laird friend, John McKenzie, told us he’d bagged the Munros when we visited him at the beginning of our trip, but I didn’t know just what an accomplishment that was until I saw the rugged landscape at Isle of Skye!

We took a relaxing hike to the magical Fairy Pools at the foot of the Black Cuillins, complete with stepping stone water crossings, and crystal clear, icy cold water for those who wanted to swim. I put my feet in, and they were tingling with cold in less than 30 seconds, but three women in our party were much braver and actually swam!

Linda, our (Tarot reading hostess extraordinaire) and Anne, a tour participant, brave the frigid water at the Fairy Pool.
Sorry, Crissy, I know how much you wanted to be publically captioned...not!

We traveled next to sacred Iona. This little island is so small (only three miles long and one-and-a-half wide) that its ferry doesn’t transport cars and none are allowed on the island. When we disembarked we had to haul ourselves and our luggage from the ferry to our hotel in a light drizzle. No worries, the village was enchanting and our cottage, the Finlay Ross, was warm, dry and welcoming.

One of several small islands off the western coast of Scotland, Iona can seem remote from mainland life. But in the old days when most people traveled by sea, Iona was central to life on the entire west coast.

It’s known as a ‘sacred isle’ because of its pagan and then Christian spiritual activity through the ages. Persecuted druid priests came here for sanctuary to escape the persecution of Rome. Iona’s Gaelic name, Innis-nam Druidbneach means ‘Island of the Druids. Unlike so many of the other western islands, however, Iona shows no trace of megalithic structures. This may indicate that the island was indeed considered sacred.

Iona feels old. The air, the ground, the contours of the land seem saturated with ancient memories. It’s said the island is made of quartz and marble, formed under vast heat and pressure when the first oceans were condensing on the blistering hot surface of the earth. The land contains no fossils, for, as far as is known, no living creatures yet existed in the waters of this primeval land.

There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. The veil is definitely thin on Iona, and this ‘otherworld’ has a soft doorway, so everyone treads lightly.

The mystical druids were said to have founded a library here.

But the displaced Irish priest, St. Columba, fought off the powerful druid elders in 563 AD to claim Iona as his own, and converted most of Scotland and northern England to Christianity.

Not much is left of St. Columba’s original compound, but there is part of a 13th century Nunnery and a beautiful abbey.

A lintel over one arched window on the Nunnery has a worn ancient carving of Sheela-na-Gig, a fertility Mother Goddess.

Considering the site, I wonder if maybe this figure was moved from an older structure to the nunnery.

I had a wonderful time leafing through the bibles displayed inside the Abbey, collected from at least 80 different countries and languages.

The Abbey Museum houses impressive remains from the early Celtic period, include 14-foot-tall crosses dating from the middle or late 8th century.

photo by fotomanisch.deviantart.com

The most impressive of these is the 14-foot-tall St. Martin's Cross, which still stands outside.

When Columba first settled in Iona, he and his followers created a scriptorium. Imagine hooded monks sitting in rows copying ancient manuscripts and creating new sacred texts. The best surviving example is the famed Book of Kells.

The island became a place of pilgrimage and royal burial as its fame as a center of learning spread.

When the Vikings invaded Iona in the eighth century, the Book of Kells was secreted off the Iona and to Ireland. It’s now housed at Trinity College Library in Dublin.

Known graves on Iona include 48 Scottish kings including Macbeth, 8 Norwegian, 1 French and 4 Irish, as well as numerous clan chiefs. Templar knight gravestones reveal their presence on the island.

Megalithic remains suggest it was a prehistoric burial site too. But why? Why did so many royal people come here, to this tiny island, to prepare for their final journey?

Some say it’s because Iona is a borderland between life and death.

There is no denying that Iona is mysterious. The light is more translucent, more heavenly and less earthly, often filled with swirling mist. The water is blue, unlike the black waters in most of Scotland.

And the beaches are littered with beautiful green stones, Iona green marble.

The island is famous for it, and the crystals have been collected as talismans for centuries.

Legend tells of a lonely monk who fell in love with a mermaid. When she was banished, she shed tears that can be found today, the small green tear-shaped crystals strewn along Iona’s beaches.
There are also legends about magical “green eggs,” called Druid’s Eggs or Serpent’s Eggs. Which brings me around to that other tantalizing legend – the Druid’s library.

Could it be that Columba’s monks copied not only old Christian manuscripts, but also the Druid writings they found on Iona? What happened to all that work?

It’s never been found, although modern historian Ashley Cowie, host of the TV series Legend Quest, swears he’s found the entrance to the lost library in a secret chamber under Iona Abbey.

Yes, Iona is chock-full of intriguing questions and mystery. And you can be sure I’ll be following Cowie’s investigation with interest. Wouldn’t an ancient Druid Chamber of Secrets would be an exciting way to conclude my Ancient Magic series?

Thanks to each of you for following my Sacred Scotland blogs. The Scotland series is complete, but come back next weekend for another topic.

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Sacred Scotland - Strong Feelings at Callanish Stones

8/11/2017

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Continuing our islands investigation, we ferried to the Outer Hebrides and onto the island of Lewis.

Mythological creatures called the Blue Men of the Minch are said to inhabit these dark waters off the western coast of Scotland.

They’re storm kelpies, or in Scottish Gaelic, na fir ghorma. The word gorm refers to any shade of blue, and na fir can be translated as “the men.”

Folk tales say the mythical blue men may have been part of a tribe of “fallen angels” that split into three. The first became the ground dwelling fairies, the second evolved to become the sea inhabiting blue men, and the remainder the “Merry Dancers” of the Northern Lights in the sky. I love this legend!

The Blue Men have the power to create storms, but when the weather is fine they sleep or float just under the surface of the water. They swim with their torso from the waist up raised out of the sea, twisting and diving like a porpoise. They are able to converse with mariners are said to shout two lines of poetry to a skipper in a rhyming duel before capsizing their boat. Unless the captain can complete the verse, they will seize his boat. Uh-huh. Tell legends like this to a writer, and you can be sure it’ll end up as a short story supplement to her novel series eventually!

I marveled at the empty distances between the few small villages, and how the sheep were allowed to graze anywhere.

You could round a bend in the road and find one right in the middle. Our driver called them “Harris Tweed on the hoof”.

Our major site visit in the Outer Hebrides was Calanais, referred to as the “Stonehenge of the Hebrides.” The main Calanais, site is part of a wider landscape temple embracing satellite sites of stone settings and circles.

This is a lunar observatory created as an ancient power center to witness the major lunar standstill that occurs only once every 18.9 years. (The next lunar standstill will be stages by the moon in 2025.)

Calanais I site includes a central monolith, an inner chambered cairn, a circle of 13 stones, and avenues that run north, south, east and west and make up the stone heart of the site, laid out in the shape of a Celtic cross.

The stones are gneiss rock, black metamorphic rock banded with quartz and mica, and nearly three million years old.

The Pixar film Brave features several scenes set in and around the stones. And The Starz TV series, Outlander, based on a series of books by Diana Gabaldon, has used the stones as a model for a fictional circle near Culloden called Craigh na Dun.

Maybe the site has become too popular. Or, maybe the stones have absorbed the negative emotions of the people who now trek out to this secluded site to visit. Maybe they even resent the renewed attention? After all, its own people abandoned the site around 800 BC and let the peat reclaim it until farmers re-cleared the area in 1857.

Whatever the reason, this site ignited an overpowering feeling of anger and resentment in me, a feeling that lingered long after we left the stones. Part of the issue was a pre-teen boy who stood in the middle of this sacred sit, acting stupid and making gang signs while his mom tried to take his picture.

Nevertheless, the only place I felt comfortable was in the inner circle of the structure, said to be where the Druid leaders would stand to address their followers. I couldn’t wait to leave.

I wasn’t the only one to feel strong negative emotions this day, enough, in fact, that Linda, our co-leader, met with us before dinner to discuss our feelings.

We’d been drawing a tarot card each day, and during the meeting, I drew the Moon card, after hesitating, and emphatically rejecting, a different card.

The rejected card, as it turned out, was the Devil.

Linda’s interpretation was that the Moon card reminds me that the sacred and true is always there, no matter what else is going on. Meanwhile, the Devil is trying to get my attention, saying, “Hey, look at these distractions, pay attention to them, let me ruin your day!”

She also pointed out that I’d been dragging my red scarf on the ground much of the day, and its color was a perfect match to the red cape on the Death card. She gave me a lot to think about.

The next morning we visited the Calanais III site, and it was completely different. This double-ring site includes a grouping of three stones named “Mother, Maiden and Crone,” and it had a remarkable atmosphere, as quiet as the wind. It also has less visitors than its better-well-known sister site. Our group went early, winding into the rocks holding hands. We held a short ritual circle, undisturbed by any other visitors.

It was the perfect way to end our time on Lewis, before driving across the isthmus to catch our ferry to the Isle of Skye. I’ll tell you about Skye and our last island, magical Iona, when I conclude my Scotland tour blog next weekend.

Until then, Blessed Be. And pay attention to the signs you are presented in your daily life!

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Sacred Scotland -Part 3

8/5/2017

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On Day 5 we traveled north up the rugged north-east coast to Thurso, in preparation for boarding a ferry to the Orkney Islands. The journey itself was beautiful.

We saw so many sheep, and this fellow, a Highland cow.

Jamie, our guide played an eerie, atmospheric music soundtrack as we wound our way up and up into the mist and clouds. I wondered what it would be like to be a sheep living in a pasture that dropped off into the sea. I’ve never had such an enjoyable bus ride.

We stayed on Orkney for the next 3 days. There was so much to see!

“Beyond Britannia in the endless ocean…” is how a fifth century scribe wrote of Orkney. The islands are mysterious, remote, and mostly left untouched from modern development.

You feel as though you’re on the edge of the world in Orkney. Closer to Norway than to London, Orkney is only 50 miles south of Greenland, and begins where the North Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. (Be prepared for a rough ferry crossing at the point where the two waters meet. Go above decks and chew your ginger gum.)

This fiercely independent “nation state” has a personality that is charmingly Orcadian. They speak their own version of the Norse dialect, and, since they were settled by the Norse, the villages have a Scandinavian flavor that mixes with a Scottish “topping.” The landscape is treeless, elemental, sea-locked, and deeply vibrational.

Even the light is different. We noticed that the satellite dishes at all the buildings were nearly horizontal because of our far northern location, and there was no darkness until nearly midnight, and a lot of the residents fly the Norwegian flag. After all, Orkney only became part of Scotland by accident. It was pawned to Scotland through a royal marriage agreement, along with Shetland.

The relic sites at Orkney date from the late Stone Age. There are so many that we must assume there was a prosperous and advanced civilization on the islands.

We visited Maes How for an insight into prehistoric living. This chambered stone tomb is built so that the winter solstice sun shines all the way into the center of its gathering room.

From there we went to the Stones of Stenness, part of a megalithic walkway from Maes Howe to the Ring of Brodgar, located on a narrow isthmus between saltwater and freshwater lochs.

The Ring of Brodgar is among the largest stone circles in all or Britain (beaten only by the outer circle of Avebury and the circle of Stanton Drew). There are 27 standing stones still in position, although originally there were 60. Built as a henge (a Neolithic Earthwork) with a deep rock-cut ditch around the perfect circle, two entrances are located in the northwest and southeast. The site sits on a great bed of heather. Bet it’s amazing when those plants bloom in the late summer! Legend called Brodgar the sun temple and Stenness the moon temple.

It is now known that the Ring was part of an enormous prehistoric ritual complex, from Maes Howe to the Stones of Stenness and Barnhouse to the south, Ring o’ Bookan to the northwest, the Comet Stone to the east, the Ness of Brodgar on the west, and beyond to Skara Brae, all in about a three mile radius.

I’ll come back to Ness of Brodgar, but first, here’s a picture of Skara Brae, a superbly preserved Neolithic hut settlement.

These enormous assembly areas, so close together, hint tantalizingly at a great cult center—the greatest in the UK. But hints are all we had, until recently.

Now, there is hope we will learn more in the near future from the excavations currently taking place at the Ness of Brodgar.

Photo by Nick Card

It’s a peninsula between two lochs linking the great stone circles of Brodgar and Stenness. The site has been under intense excavation since 2004, revealing what is believed to be a grand temple at the heart of this monumental Neolithic complex. The warren of interconnected stone buildings remains unique in Europe in both size and construction.

Archeologists, including our site guides Helen and Mark Woodeford, have excavated about 10% of the site’s nearly 30,000 square yards. So far, it’s been an archaeologist’s dream, filled with walls of structures, paved walkways, slate roofs, painted walls and decorated stonework.

Walls are up to 13 feet thick and internal divisions of stones are incised with a mysterious butterfly pattern. The whole complex is surrounded by an outer stone wall spanning nearly the entire isthmus the site sits on.

What did people do here 5,000 years ago?

Those studying the site estimate the complex was in use for a thousand years. They are saying it seems Ness was the ‘center of the universe’ for all of Orkney and beyond, it seems, a major ceremonial and ritual center to serve the entire Neolithic population of the Northern Isles. With a salty sea loch to the right, a freshwater loch to the left, and standing stones in front of and behind, I can perfectly imagine why in 3,300 BC people might have flocked to this unique spot—this vast complex of building that was used for 1,000 years.

Excavation season for the site is only eight weeks, July and August. Why? Funding, according to Nick Card, the dig director for the Archaeology Institute at the University of the Highlands and Islands. It costs $3,100 a day to run the site. Some funding is local, and a bit more from Historic Scotland, but the bulk of the money comes from public donations and charities, including the American Friends of Ness of Brodgar.

They welcome visitors during dig months, and they accept amateur volunteers. In fact, Paul and I are discussing the possibility of applying to join the dig in future years. We figure it would be a way to contribute to unraveling the mysteries of the world. Wow!

You can find out more about dig-in-progress at www.orkneyjar.com.

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Conference Tidbits

Sacred Scotland Finale - Skye and Iona

Sacred Scotland - Strong Feelings at Callanish Stones

Sacred Scotland -Part 3

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