A Scottish Love – In a Nutshell

On 11/29/11, A Scottish Love will be released by HarperCollins/Avon. I’ve received some lovely emails with the following questions, and thought I’d list them here – along with the answers.

Q – Do I have to read your other books before reading A Scottish Love?

A – No, A Scottish Love is a standalone book, not connected to any other book.

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Q – Is it available as an ebook?

A – Ebook, paper book, and hardback available through the three major book clubs.

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Q – I’ve heard you say you love this book. Why?

A – The first reason, I think, is the humor. Shona has a rather sardonic sense of humor and I like that about her. Secondly, I loved that she’s genuinely flawed. No perfect young miss here.

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Q – What’s the time frame?

A – It takes place in a turbulent time in the world, right after the Crimean War and the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The locales are Inverness (fleetingly), but mainly the Imrie castle of Gairloch.

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Q – What’s the book about?

A – It’s a story of two stubborn people who refuse to lose their pride for the sake of love.

Seven years ago, Gordon offered for Shona, but she thought it was only because Gordon was friends with her brother and knew their dire straits. Instead, she married an old earl, someone who was delighted with her beauty and her youth. When she’s made a widow, she discovers that she’s right back in the same predicament, with not a coin to her name. Only this time, she has two people dependent on her.

Gordon has come home to Invergaire Glen to try to forget war and become his own man. He isn’t happy about Shona’s plans to sell Gairloch to the Americans, but neither is her brother.

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Q – Are you having any contests to give away copies?

A – Not right now. I’ll continue to give away books in my Clean My Closet contest, though. Since I’ve just received a full box of My Beloved, that may be the book du jour.

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Q – Will A Scottish Love have a sequel?

A – None is planned at the moment.

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Q – What’s your favorite part of the book?

A – I have five favorite parts, but they’re plot points, and I don’t want to give those away. I will, however, show you part of the introduction to the castle:

And in Invergaire Glen, on the shore of Loch Mor, near Moray Firth, the Imrie clan began building Gairloch.

They carved a foundation at the base of Ben Lymond. Using the topography God gave them, they created a foundation and quarried the yellow-white stone for the building. Three years passed before a roof was erected and the first clan member moved into the fortified structure. In the next twenty years, when they weren’t warring to protect the land and their country, they continued to build.

In 1592, the castle was complete, in the era of the Duke of Lennox and his men who were allowed, by decree of the Scottish Parliament, to root out the inhabitants of the Highlands. If slaughter was necessary, so be it.

The Imrie Clan looked to their fortifications, added two more wings and three more towers to Gairloch. The road was redesigned to be winding and circuitous, giving full warning to the inhabitants that a visitor approached.

No one, least of all the Imrie Clan, ever called the massive building they’d constructed a castle. Instead, it had been called Gairloch from the first stone laid on the foundation by its warlike laird.

As the final stone was set into place, a piper played a pìobaireachd in honor of the men who’d died in the construction of Gairloch, and for those who would die in the future for the sake of the clan.

Die they did. As the generations continued, they each gave their blood sacrifice to Scotland, to the Highlands, to the very land on which Gairloch had been raised. The earth itself seemed to demand it, and these hardy Scots resolutely and with great respect surrendered their husbands, sons, and brothers first to clan warfare, then to the endless battles with the English.

A hundred years ago, the last battle had been fought, and with it came a sigh of relief throughout Scotland and Invergaire Glen. The time had come for a respite, for a period to nurse her wounds, breed sons in decimated clans, and plan for the future.

Gairloch had weathered the years well. When people passed, many miles away, they viewed a bit of magic. The deep green of Scottish pines gave way to the sight of the huge building of yellow stone with Ben Lymond at its back.

Even from a distance, Gairloch looked proud, as if it knew its own history.

Tales were told of the ferocious lairds who’d guarded Gairloch for generations. In this place in the Highlands, the members of the Imrie Clan had earned their reputations.

Now, only two were left heirs of Gairloch: Fergus and his sister, Shona.