It was a lovely day in Aurora. A breeze kept it from being unbearably warm. We had a nice crowd in the morning and another one after lunch. But then the rain came! It was fun while it lasted.
Aurora Woman’s Club was busy with raffle tickets and baked goods.They were in the perfect spot, right beside Carolina Brew! Great iced coffee! I bought a cinnamon and brown sugar iced coffee to go with my AWC goodies.My partner for the day Mandy Monath visiting with our special guest, Sarah Swan.
Sarah surprised us with a visit.
It was a wonderful day, we sold a few books and made some new friends and connections!
Don’t forget to join us in Washington at the Turnage Theater, Tuesday, September 26th, 7 pm. I’ll be talking about writing, my books and the community of writers who helped me get there.
In order to write faster you must first turn off your inner critic. It is difficult to write and edit at the same time. Turn off your editor and just create. Enjoy the process. Be free! Write as if no one is going to read it. Pour everything you think and feel into it with no censor.
You might surprise yourself. You might even frighten yourself. It’s good to be a little bit afraid. Fear shows passion. If you are not a little afraid then what risk have you taken?
Writing in 10-15 minute increments is another way to write faster. Set a timer and write for 10 minutes. How many words did you write? Try it for fifteen or twenty minutes. Is your average word count better or worse? Some people write better for longer periods but others do more during the shorter times. I do a variety of times taking breaks in between to keep fresh.
Join writing sprints with fellow writers and enjoy the community of writing with others. There are online events and even in person ones. If you can’t find a group, start one.
For many of us who write fiction, at least I know this is true of myself and some of my writing friends, we broach subjects with our fiction that might not be easily discussed in real life. I can write about a character’s difficulties following her rape from her self-medicating to her pushing others away, but only a therapist or close friend could discuss this touchy subject with a real person. Showing a character going through something so heartbreaking and difficult allows the reader and writer to empathize.
With fiction we can allow a reader and even the writers ourselves to live for a bit in the skin of a person who is hurting so we might better understand those around us who are also hurting. I’m not saying all fiction is therapy or designed to enlighten. Fiction is first and foremost written to entertain, but within our entertainment if we can also learn something or experience something, that is an added bonus.
When I think about some of the books that have touched my soul and left their mark. I’m reminded that not everyone reads the same way I do. Some people simply read a book and move on, but others absorb a book until it becomes a part of them. John Hart’s book The Last Child left me feeling raw and vulnerable. It was one of those books that even years after reading it, I still remember parts of the story, and the main character, thirteen-year-old Johnny Merrimon.
Have you ever read a book that affected you strongly? I’d love to hear about it. Share some of your favorites or most memorable books and I’ll share some of mine.
The Truth about Lord Stoneville by Sabrina Jeffries
A short, sweet and steamy, Valentine romance. What do you do when you hate Valentine’s but your best friend needs you to capture her special day? Well, you pull up your cowgirl boots and head to Colorado to photograph the reenactment of their proposal. Instead of hiding out and ignoring Valentines as she’d planned, Ali stumbles across the Eros of her dreams and is swept up in a local and family (Max’s family) romantic comedy that has grandma conspiring with the local angel to get her favorite grandson a bride before the next Valentine’s Day.
Beauty and the Baller by Ilsa Madden-Mills
What do you do when your worst one-night stand turns out to be your new neighbor and the only job you can find makes him your boss. The good news is, he doesn’t remember you. Yay! This romantic comedy is packed with family drama, self-image, coming home, second chances, choices, football and romance. This is a fake it until you make it kind of romance. When the town of Blue Belle goes overboard trying to keep the new coach, former NFL star Ronan Smith happy by throwing all the pretty women his way. Ronan turns to Nova, his surly neighbor to act as his fake girlfriend, but is true rom-com style, this farce is sure to fail. The question is: who wins in the end. I loved this story and was surprised by how much. This is definitely one to read again. I will be looking for more books by this author.
You Only Die Twice by Brynn Kelly
This was a fun and fantastic romantic comedy with a little suspense thriller thrown in for good measure. What happens when the spy novel you co-wrote with a dying friend turns out to be true? What if your book boyfriend turns up at the school where you teach and sweeps you off your feet? Okay, that’s not exactly how it happened but whew, he’s definitely better than the book.
Sleep No More The Lost Night Files, Book 1 by Jayne Ann Krentz
The beginning of another great suspense series by JAK. Pallas and Ambrose seem to be suffering from a similar incident, an incident that changed their lives and made them feel they were going crazy. Lucky for Pallas, she was not alone when she experienced her lost night. Can she help Ambrose discover the truth before they become victims of the sleep institute.
JAK weaves our real fears with the possibilities and comes up with an edge of your seat suspense story, adds in a bit of romance, friendship and a few unique characters and I just can’t put the book down. Breathlessly waiting for the next in the series.
The Kidnapped Christmas Bride by Jane Porter
Jane Porter is a new author for me but I’m glad I’ve discovered her. This story wasn’t quiet what I expected but it definitely delivered all the feels. Trey Sheenan just wants a little time with his son after five years in prison but his fiancé McKenna Douglas is getting ready to marry another man. When TJ decides he’s going with his dad, McKenna can’t let him go without her. What happens next is a slow reveal of past hurts, unforgotten love, and the promise of a future together if Trey doesn’t end up back in prison for kidnapping a bride on her wedding day. This was a lovely story of discovery, love, family and the magic of Christmas.
The Upside Down Christmas by Kate Forster
Marlo’s life in Sydney is turned upside down when her part-time lover suddenly starts ghosting her and she finds out what her friends really thought about him. With Christmas looming, she is determined to avoid the holiday, but her flatmate Alex has other plans. His gentle coaxing and terrible Dad jokes, not to mention his washboard abs soon have Marlo thinking of Alex as more than a friend. Christmas doesn’t seem so bad when you have someone to share it with.
A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
This steamy little rom-com was a lot of fun and definitely not your normal holiday story. What happens when you cast a plus-sized adult film star and a bad boy former boy band member in a family-friendly Christmas movie? What could possibly go wrong? This was a laugh out loud and sometimes cry out loud adventure in romance. Bee Hobbs and Nolan Shaw are each other’s biggest fans and can’t fight their attraction for each other, but they both have too much to lose to risk it all for a fling. But what if it’s not just a fling? This has all the feels wrapped up in leather and stays.
The Christmas Contest by Scarlet Wilson
Obsessed with all things Christmas, Ben and Lara are pushed into a radio station Christmas contest with a prize of $10,000. Both have great causes they want to win the money for but when the two of them fall in love, they could lose it all. This was a light-hearted holiday romance worth the read.
Along Came Holly by Codi Hall
A grumpy-sunshine holiday romance. Holly is all about Christmas but her neighbor, Declan is a true Grinch. When she hires him to set up her display for the festival of lights, they get to know each other and find they’re just right for each other. Family, small town and Christmas, what’s not to love.
The Plight Before Christmas by Kate Stewart
What happens when your brother brings your ex to your family’s big, holiday get together? There’s not enough alcohol to numb the feelings that surface when Whitney and Eli have to spend the week together, especially when he’s not as bad as she remembered. Can they learn to forgive the past or are they destined to repeat it? This was a fantastic romance filled with fun and family drama.
The Package by K. Bromberg
Everything goes wrong for Jules and then she finds herself stuck in an elevator with a handsome stranger. When their packages get switched, the mix up turns out to be the best part of her Christmas when the handsome stranger arranges for her to return the package and makes her Christmas wishes come true.
Christmas at Copper Mountain by Jane Porter
Taking a job at Christmas as a temporary housekeeper to keep from facing Christmas without her family, Harley is thrown into the middle of the Sheenan’s family drama. This story has all the feels. I sobbed, laughed and fell in love with these characters. You have to read this one with a box of tissues and a bag of chocolate.
A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
Three dates before Christmas is all Gretchen has to survive and she’ll get what she wants, control of her wealthy family’s charity. She could do so much good with the Winthrop money. All that’s standing in her way is country music star Colton Wheeler. He’ll agree to be the face of their family’s whiskey brand but the price might be too high for both of them.
With the help of the Bromance Club these two won’t stand a chance against romance.
Warriors, Queens, and Intellectuals by Joyce E. Salisbury Great Courses
An eclectic view of inspiring women from different parts of the world and different times in history. A great source for research.
Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore
Manipulated into marriage by financier Lucian Blackstone, whose past and business practices strike fear into the hearts of Britain’s peerage, Hattie Greenfield, banking heiress is willing to go toe to toe with him to get her way.
A sudden trip to Scotland allows Hattie to see the real man she married. As her opinion of her husband softens, she knows she’s in danger of losing her heart.
Can this mismatched couple overcome their difference to find their happy ever after?
This was a rollercoaster ride of emotions. I loved it.
The County Compass will be featuring a brief interview with me Thursday, January 19th. To celebrate, I’ve put together a little behind the story information and I’ve placed all of my eBooks on sale for 99 cents through Tuesday, January 24th at all eBook retailers and on my website.
I started out writing historical romantic fiction. I even sent off a couple of manuscripts, pieces of manuscripts and hundreds of query letters to agents and publishers long before doing it by email was a thing. But then tragedy struck and we lost our home to a house fire that pretty much wiped us out. My husband got us all out with our lives. I still have flashbacks of that night.
After losing all of my research books, my big computer and files, my husband and friends encouraged me to get back to writing. I took an online class about creating characters. The instructor said describe someone. I chose my husband. The next day, she told us to change their gender, ethnicity, keep some of their traits but expand others. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever write again but with the love and support of my family, friends and writers’ groups, Rae Lynne was created.
My town, Aurora was the inspiration for the fictional town of Leeward. I decided on a fictional town in order to have a little more creative freedom, but locals recognize places like the Depot Café as Wayside, the Hardhat Lounge and of course, the fossil museum and library.
Chrome Pink was inspired by several things that happened at nearly the same time. I’d created the character Rae Lynne but she was just a paper doll, I didn’t have the rest of her story, but my husband and his boss were restoring a motorcycle in memory of a nephew who’d passed away. At the same time my friend’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and my sister-in-law was always volunteering me for something or other that had to do with Relay-for-Life or other projects. Then I met one of my sons’ friends, a lovely half-Hispanic lady who was very kind but she was tattooed and pierced. When I asked about the tats and piercings, my son simply said, she’d had a rough life. From there, I found Rae Lynne and had my theme for Chrome Pink. https://books2read.com/u/4jaeBk
Reading that North Carolina was ranked 9th in human trafficking and growing up listening to seafood trucks running in the middle of the night got my imagination playing in the dark. What if they weren’t really carrying seafood, or not just seafood?
The Leeward Files was supposed to be a three-book series about three best friends: Rae Lynne-Chrome Pink, Dana Windley-White Gold, and Jenna McKenzie Roberts-Titanium Blue who uncover the town of Leeward’s darkest secrets while finding their strengths and falling in love.
White Gold’s Dana Windley is a force to be reckoned with. She is one of the ladies all small towns need who gets jobs done whether it’s volunteering to coach a youth ball team or organize the local beauty pageant. My sister-in-law loves this book best because she knows she’s one great ladies who inspired the main character. Dana is a plus-size multiracial woman who carves out a place for herself and becomes a hero all little girls can look up to. https://books2read.com/u/brYpjA
Titanium Blue has Jenna McKenzie and her estranged husband Tar Roberts struggling to get on with their lives after separating. This was the first book my son, Jason and his wife, Brandi helped me with. Since they were both in the Army their insight helped me make my character Tar, who was an Afghanistan vet who lost his leg and was dealing with PTSD more real. Jason served two tours in Afghanistan but thankfully returned home and is now retired from the Army. https://books2read.com/u/bzWOrq
After writing the first three books I wasn’t ready to leave the town of Leeward. Evergreen Crystals was supposed to be my first true romance with Rae’s wedding, but I can’t write anything without a murder and blowing something up. “Holidays, weddings and babies are happy occasions until someone ends up dead.” Or in Rae Lynne’s case, arrested. https://books2read.com/u/b68OqE
Red Steel is the final book in The Leeward Files series, my youngest son, a volunteer firefighter and his wife, a photographer, helped me with this book, and were the inspiration for the young couple Billy Grimes and Tracy Harrell. This is the final book is also the spin-off for The Harrell Family Chronicles. https://books2read.com/u/3yEKXB
The Harrell Family Chronicles came about from a dream my husband and I had as a young married couple of owning our own camp. I grew up in the community of South Creek which was at one time known as Stanton-Harrell thus the name, the Harrell Family Chronicles. The Harrell family turned part of a failing farm into a family campground. The middle brother, Charlie and his wife, Liz have seven children and they run the family campgrounds. Charlie’s older brother John runs the farm and his younger brother, Robert is a hunting and fishing guide.
The first book in the series was actually written third when I realized Red Steel couldn’t be the last of The Leeward Files and the first in The Harrell Family Chronicles. Willow’s Retreat deals with estranged married couple John and Willow, the oldest of the Harrell brothers and his wife, Dr. Willow Rider. The difficulty I had in writing this book was how can two people be married for thirty years and not know each other. With my husband’s help I tried to show the relationship and the couple’s choice to stay or go, and how they found their happy ending. Using my research into therapy animals, PTSD and trauma, I tried to craft a story that was both romantic and suspenseful with the deeper story of family. https://books2read.com/u/mgEra7
All of my stories have family as part of the theme whether it is the family we’re born with or one we create. Even though my stories are fiction, I feel it is important to portray honest relationships. Red Steel and Willow’s Retreat also show the family that comes about through shared experiences, such as being part of the local volunteer firefighters.
Janie’s Secrets is about mistakes and second chances. Janie hides behind the safety of her life as a small-town librarian, she even lives at home. She’s afraid to take chances. Afraid of getting hurt and making mistakes. But life is about risk, and if we aren’t taking a risks are we really living? This is a second chance romance. https://books2read.com/u/bpDq79
Roxy’s Betrayal was a lot of fun to write. Where Janie was the good girl in the family who never did anything wrong, well, Roxy was just the opposite. She was known for her bad girl antics and it takes something truly serious to make her forget about herself and put someone else first. But even trying to do the right thing, a bad girl’s got to do a little bad along the way…and boy does she have fun doing it. She falls for the wrong guy who just might be her Mr. Right and together, they save the day. But even being the hero of the story might not be enough to salvage her relationship with her family. She had to betray them to save them. Will they understand? https://books2read.com/u/boD5Na
Christmas Inn at Teach’s Island slipped away from Leeward but not too far. After a visit to Bath, I decided I needed to write a story with it as my backdrop, so I created Teach’s Island ( a combo of Indian Island and Bath). Hurricane Irene devastated this area and took several years to recuperate from. People who don’t live in areas affected by hurricanes don’t understand the devastation. I thought this Christmas romance was a good way to show the rebuilding of the small community and making my bad guy the hurricane instead of a person was good for a change. I also used this novella to set up the next book. https://books2read.com/u/47Ong8
Trent’s Melody was partially written several years ago but I couldn’t get it right. I think the timing was wrong. Using some of the previously written material, I managed to recreate the idea and make a few changes. Trent is Tracy’s twin brother. He’s as different from her as chalk from cheese but I had to dig deep to understand why. This story revealed itself to me like an onion peeling layers away to reveal something new each time. Of all the books I’ve written Trent’s story touched my heart in ways I never expected. For one, it helped me understand one of my sons better. I had a couple of contests, one a song writing contest where my writer friend, K B Davenport sent an awesome song that fit so well within the story. If you love music competition shows like The Voice and home improvement shows like Rock the Block, you’ll enjoy this story. https://books2read.com/u/bz1vK2
I am working on Remy’s Dilemma the last in The Harrell Family Chronicles (for now). I won’t completely leave this world but the next book will be a new point of entry for the series and I’d like to lighten things up, do a little romantic comedy. I don’t know if I can write a book without murdering someone and blowing things up, but I will try. Maybe…
My historical novel, The Americans are Coming, is a cozy mystery. This is more family friendly but I still managed to blow a few things up and kill a couple of people. I can’t help it, it’s an addiction. When seventeen-year-old, wild west show performer Winnie Applegate’s brother Riley is accused of causing the death of a fellow performer, Winnie seeks to prove him innocent. Instead, she uncovers a murder and a family secret that could put her brother and father at risk. What does a mysterious benefactor, an invitation to England and a family secret have to do with murder and sabotage? Winnie along with the young man she plans to marry, and a female Pinkerton agent will uncover the truth of who is really trying to sabotage Colonel Bill Dexter’s Wild West Extravaganza even if it kills them. https://books2read.com/u/b6zzRW
Holiday movies and stories, and seasonal baking competitions, these are a few more of my favorite things.
When I put away the Thanksgiving leftovers and start pulling out the Christmas decorations, I get in the spirit of the season by watching holiday movies, reading, or listening to Christmas stories, or turning on Christmas music. Over the years my favorites have changed but there are a few that will always put me in a holiday mood and they’re probably not everyone’s idea of a classic. 1) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2) While You Were Sleeping 3) Last Holiday 4) How The Grinch Stole Christmas 5) Santa Clause 6) Frosty, The Snowman 7) The Little Drummer Boy 8) Holiday Inn 9) Stage Door Canteen 10) Jingle All The Way 11) Miracle on 34th Street 12) The Christmas Carol 13) Hallmark Movies Collectively
This year I might have to add The Noel Diary, it had all the feels and was a little more than the traditional holiday movie.
I love Christmas and Hannukah stories. I prefer romantic comedies to lift my flagging holiday spirits, but occasionally I’ll choose a story with deeper emotions, action or maybe even a mystery. Over the years I have downloaded several holiday audiobooks, ebooks and even bought a few in print. Anthologies are another of my favorites during the holidays. Who has time to read a full-size novel when you have to buy Christmas gifts, write and send cards, bake, go to parties, decorate, and whatever else the holidays bring. 1) Christmas Revels Anthologies (regency) by Kate Parker, Hannah Meredith & friends 2) ‘Twas the Night After Christmas (regency) by Sabrina Jeffries 3) Kissing Under the Mistletoe (historical) by Suzanne Enoch, Amelia Grey and Anna Bennett,
This year I added a few new favorites. 1) Christmas at Copper Mountain by Jane Porter, be prepared to cry, 2) A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams, a fun story with the Bromance series characters, 3) It Happened One Winter by Christi Caldwell, not exactly a Christmas story but close enough and filled with romance, winter, kids, and hope, 4) Mansplainer by Avery Flynn, Book 3 finishes at Christmas but the whole series is leading up to Christmas and the last gift their grandmother left, 5) Highland Games by Evie Alexander, a funny twist on a Highland romance.
I love baking competitions but especially the holiday ones where everything is decorated with the spirit of the season. I also love to watch the holiday cookie challenge and the gingerbread competitions. The holidays are about warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and allspice. I love to bake cookies during the holidays. My favorite cookies are oatmeal raisin (or cranberry), ginger snaps, and cinnamon Snickerdoodle cookies. What are your favorite cookies? Do you like to bake or just eat?
Bio: I retired from Craven Community College in 2009 and am a newbie to the author scene. Plan to bring two items to the event: my dad’s memoirs and my doctoral thesis of 1982, just published.
Sherri: Welcome to my virtual café. If I ever win the lottery or become the heir of some unknown wealthy relative, I plan to open a coffee shop by the river but until then, I go down the wildlife ramp and dream. Have you always loved books?
Murdina: Hi Sherri, so happy to meet you. Have enjoyed the interviews you have done with the “lucky 35” of this November event as well as the interview KB did of you. You’ve said “do what scares you.” Love that. My own mantra, if I were to verbalize it, would be: every wrong road is a good road if it leads you home…
Yes, I have always loved books though, oddly, I cannot remember anyone actually reading to me in my childhood. At about ten I fell in love with horses which led to all those books with titles like The Black Stallion, The Black Stallion Returns, The Son of Black Stallion, The Island Stallion etcetera. Next for me came Ivanhoe, then The Count of Monte Cristo and ultimately, the discovery of my two great adolescent heroes, Jane Austin and Charles Dickens. Remember the sorrow I felt when I realized I had read all of Austin’s novels and, at fourteen, the tears running down my cheeks as I read “it is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better place I go to than I have ever known…”
Sherri: How did you come to publish your father’s story? What is the story behind the story, Blackhouse God’s House?
Murdina: My father was a complete mystery to me. When he came home from work he would talk at dinner about biblical characters, David a favorite of his and historical figures like Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox, current folks like Roosevelt and Churchill. But he spoke very little about himself or his past in Scotland.
So, when my sister Christine died in 2011, I inherited his papers. My brother-in-law Jim mailed me 2 big “If it fits it ships” boxes containing about 2,000 manuscript pages. Some of them I called sermons for himself. Others were commentaries on famous people he just wanted to write about, like John Barrymore. But the bulk of his writings were about the people of his village, Skigersta, in the Isle of Lewis.
I found the papers fascinating on two levels: they revealed a father I never knew and they gave me glimpses into a world that no longer exists. The world he left behind I found both exotic and familiar and discovered where my father had been living for 60 years since his immigration in 1924. He was right there in his own blackhouse at 7 Skigersta, surrounded by his mother, brother and three doting sisters, listening to the marvelous tales spun by his brilliant neighbor, the bard, enjoying the warmth of the peat fire, the babble of gaelic on every lip, the feeling of utter contentment – and the sounds of laughter.
Sherri: Your father grew up in rural Scotland? Have you ever visited? Do you still have family there?
Murdina: My father, born in 1903, grew up in a village of 300 souls in the northern part of Lewis, the youngest of five children. He seems to have been a very observant child and one from an early age who was able to appreciate the rugged beauty of his surroundings. He also appreciated the various types of human life on display in his village as seen in one of his titles: “Of worthies, wags, wits and oddballs.”
The blackhouse that Angus lived in was made of stone and topped with a thatched roof (museum pieces now). There was a peat fire in the center, sleeping quarters at one end and 3 cows at the other. He went to school until age 14 and was happy to depart the scene after that despite a visit from the minister pleading for him to go on. Tellingly, he describes his school days under the heading “My Own Dark Ages”. Let’s see, his education began when at 5 his teacher threw him out a window. But I digress…
Like many in the village, his father was a fisherman-farmer and Angus would no doubt have followed in his footsteps had not life intervened in the form of World War I and post war unemployment, poverty and civil unrest. The British government found a way to relieve the pressures of this situation by offering free passage to Canada in exchange for two years of labor on Canadian farms. Dad was a part of this diaspora in 1924. The next year he found his way to New York City to work for a Skigersta neighbor who had made good in the New World, D. B. Mackay, shoetree manufacturer. His adopted daughter, Effie, was his secretary and chauffeur. She and Angus were married in 1936 with brother Norman coming along in 1942, me in 1944 and sister Christine in 1947.
It has been one of the unexpected pleasures of my life to have visited Lewis 3 times and to have discovered first and second cousins, to have met both mother’s folks and dad’s folks, people from different parts of the island and from different denominations. What lovely people – and so welcoming to me and my friends.
In 2012 when I travelled with dad’s ashes, my first cousin John Murdo, his wife Mary, 2nd cousin Isabel and brother Donald came from one side of the island to the other to meet me in a howling rainstorm! Boy, was I so grateful we had not had to navigate from our B&B to them! We swapped photos and stories. I went to church in Stornoway with my cousin Alex’s widow, Catherine. She loaned me a “bonnet”, as you can’t go without one.
At the Ness Historical Society, I met dad’s sister Margaret’s family where Catherine’s daughter, Margaret Anne, put her newborn son in my arms for a photo. What a whirlwind. Loved the group photo. [Shakespearean aside: I said to my friend Catherine, I didn’t even have time to comb my hair before they shot the photo. She replied: “It wouldn’t have made any difference…” Comforted by the fact all my relatives had uncontrollable curly hair too!]
Sherri: What kind of research and how long did it take you to write this book?
Murdina: My dad’s life story was set against a backdrop of very big events on the island of Lewis, events such as World War I, the purchase of the island by Lord Leverhulme, the sinking of the Iolair, mass emigration in the 1920s and denominational discord. In addition, about 8% of the texts were written in gaelic without an English translation, so I needed a translator. Fortunately, I found one in Annie MacSween of the Ness Historical Society.
With respect to World War I, I knew very little, but what was important here was how the war impacted the island. It is said that the island suffered the greatest proportional loss of life during the war of any district in Scotland. Angus has several fascinating stories here. He tells of the mailman delivering the news of the war on a quiet Sunday bicycling through Skigersta while blowing a whistle(!) to draw attention and another tale of his dad and six others dodging a German sub while out fishing. Grief is everywhere of course -both individual and communal – as islanders dealt with the loss of loved ones.
Who knew you could “buy” an island? The soap magnate, Lord Leverhulme [Bodach an t-Siabainn (the soap man)] did just that in 1918 and had great plans for Lewis’ development. Societal unrest toppled his plans and he left in deep disappointment. So, poverty and unemployment did not find their savior here.
The sinking of the Iolair is a story I knew from my parents. Mom wanted one of her three children to write a book about it. We didn’t. John MacLeod did [When I Heard the Bell]. On January 1, 1919 the Iolair struck the ‘Beasts of Holm’ in Stornoway harbor and 205 Lewisman returning from war in France perished. The Stornoway Gazette led with the story the next day with “Grief Unutterable” – as perfect a designation for the reality in this close bound community as words could come. Dad translated the first gaelic version of the tragedy, portions of which are included in the book.
Denominational discord is what most closely affected my father’s life growing up in the first part of the 20th century. Most of Skigersta belonged to an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland called The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The split had taken place in 1898 and divided the 23 villages that constituted the province of Ness in northern Lewis. Almost all of Ness rejected the new group, using both shunning and verbal hostility as their main expressions of disapproval. This is the backdrop of a number of my father’s stories: students slinging stones and insults, teachers being abusive physically with a strap as well as verbally, doctors refusing to visit sick and dying patients. A dismal tale but one that is behind the island now.
My father clearly wanted, in his sketches, to honor the courage and faith of his parents and neighbors in sticking to their principles, whatever the cost. And although I am not of my father’s denomination, I too, in promoting Blackhouse God’s House celebrate and honor those people long dead now – for their faith, their love and their communal solidarity in hard times.
In answer to your question, Sherri, about how long it took to write the book, the answer is – way too long! I was not under any deadline, so I rather poked around with it for 8 years. Not sorry, really. In retirement I was enjoying the luxury of leisure – only a word in the dictionary for most of my life.
My translator and I settled into a snail’s pace. I’d send her a list of 15 gaelic words and phrases. Two months later she would send back answers for 7 or 8 of them, which I would incorporate into the text and then construct a new list and send it on. After a couple of years, I grew tired of no answers in some cases and resorted to filling in the gaps myself with my gaelic dictionary and Google.
I took a year and a half of baby gaelic at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye, with Zoom classes every Monday morning at 5:00 am. (What was I thinking? What was I trying to prove? At my age?) Didn’t take. Did ok with the written word but I would need way more than an hour a week of hearing the language to get any good at speaking it. So, for purists out there, whatever is a mangled gaelic translation, send me the corrections!
Sherri: Your second book is from your master’s thesis? It is the religious history of London Calvinistic Baptists, why is understanding our religious history important to Christians today?
Murdina: Sherri, thank you for asking! The book [London Calvinistic Baptists 1689-1727: Tensions within a Dissenting Community under Toleration] is my Oxford doctoral thesis, submitted in 1982. It contains a Forward by Larry Kreitzer of Regent’s Park College, Oxford and a Reflection by the Author by me. Dr. Kreitzer has kindly updated the footnotes – all 400 pages of them, bless him!
Of course, it is a delight for me to see the thesis in print. It still has historical value because: (1) it is based on original manuscript sources (2) it tells a story that has not been told before based on such sources (3) it contributes to the narrative of English Baptist history and (4) it contributes to the history of the Christian church.
By the time William and Mary brought the Glorious Revolution to England in 1689, Baptists and other Dissenters from the Church of England could look forward to relief from persecution. The worst, dark days were over, days when pastors were torn down from their pulpits and thrown into prison where they died of disease and neglect. Under William, being a Dissenter was no longer illegal. In their new lives they would be second class citizens, to be sure, deprived of opportunities for public service and education, but no longer subject to prison for their faith.
The thesis traces the fortunes of one group of Baptists, Calvinistic Baptists, in the capital in the period 1689-1727. It asks, and seeks to answer, why they did not organize themselves in a way that was traditional for them since the early 17th century, i.e. through associations.
Attempts to organize in that way were made in London but were sabotaged by internal tensions, first over the issue of hymn singing and later over the issue of open or close communion. London ministers lined up on one side of these issues or the other and participated in a furious pamphlet war that sapped the life out of efforts to get them to cooperate in associational life. What the London Calvinistic Baptists ended up doing was to organize exactly as the Presbyterians and Congregationalists did, in ministerial fraternities, which led to a process I call the ‘ministerialization” of corporate life.
That, in a nutshell, is the thesis.
Sherri: What do you hope people will take away from your books? Why are these books important?
Murdina: For my dad’s memoirs, I hope the reader is able to celebrate, with my father, the variety of human personalities he has shared with us, personalities set in a particular time and place – Scotland, early 20th century. He certainly gives us a nice bunch of beloved oddballs, quirky people like the pastor who was afraid of chickens or the man who gave flour to his cow (it died) or the husband-and-wife team battling over how to pile the peat in front of their house. He gives us the devout, like pastor Duncan Macbeth, praying on his knees for the men at sea in a thunderstorm, wearing out his slippers, his own mother a magnet for ministers, his sister Annie washing the feet of the elderly who had walked 8 miles over the moor, barefoot, to communion.
He serves us up tales of his neighbor Norman Morrison who was brilliant in everything he did – sailor, poet, a leader of men, a charismatic personality and so much larger than the little island he lived in. Norman makes me think of the brilliantly colored fish who swim deep in the oceans, fish that have only recently been seen because now we have the technology to do so. Who sees them, to admire their beauty? Only God does.
Who sees the spiritual beauty of these people in this forgotten speck in the world, this little village, this little Lewis, this little piece of Scotland? My father “saw” them and they responded back by “seeing” him and giving him as an eternal reward his identity, his place, his contentment, his home.
Regarding my thesis, I would hope that those who have an interest in history – in English history, in Baptist history, in Calvinist history or in Christian church history – will find something of interest in the commonalities here amidst the particularities of 18th century London. For Baptists in 1689 their worst days were behind them, yet they fell to squabbling among themselves, both sides quoting from the same sacred book. What might they have accomplished working together?
Sherri: You are a historian, what would you love to explore historically, either for research or perhaps, you would love to time travel back to that time period?
Murdina: Well, I started a project in 2010 that brought me to the National Archives in Madrid. I was researching the life of Maria de Bohorquez, a woman who was burned at the stake in Sevilla in the 16th century. She was one of a cluster of Protestants, mostly priests and nuns, who met to explore the thinking of Martin Luther. She was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman who did not reject her but allowed her to get a wonderful education. She knew Greek and Latin. All I knew of her is that when imprisoned, they sent a cadre of people to argue with her in her cell, and night after night, she argued back, quoting scripture. Quite impressive a defense, apparently. I was so much hoping to find transcripts of these conversations in the archives, but after 30 days I ran out of time and money and had to go home. Still would love to explore her life, among other things because I taught Spanish and the language, at least, would be one less hurdle.
Sherri: What are you working on now?
Murdina: I am working on a devotional book based on the writings of John Bunyan. My idea is to select twelve of his writings, one for each month, and to provide, for each day, a selection from that work, then some relevant scripture passages, and last, a commentary. Have started with Pilgrim’s Progress and the month of December.
My idea is not to write a scholarly work, for which I have no experience, but to write a devotional as I learn about the world of Bunyan scholarship. Only 350 years’ worth out there, I know, but I am having a ball with the literature so far.
Sherri: If someone wanted to write a memoir or biography for a family member or ancestor, where would you suggest they begin?
Murdina: Don’t think I can speak to that with any great expertise except to say that the best place to start is probably the staff at your local library, who can walk you through online sources, explaining the peculiarities of each.
In my case, since my father was from Ness, I started with the Ness Historical Society. Through this contact I met a kinswoman who has been working on ancestral ties in Lewis for 40 years, Ann Thomson. Here I found my gaelic translator. Consulted with Bill Lawson of Seallam in southern Harris and paid for him to do a family search. Did family research in libraries in Glasgow and Edinburgh in person, but they have online services. Explored ship passenger lists for dad’s name. Every road, even one that leads nowhere specific, has to be seen as part of the journey that will lead “home.”
Sherri: What is your advice for anyone who wishes to publish their first book?
Murdina: I asked a relative for advice and he gave me the name of his publisher. That did not work out. Second suggestion was a source in Stornoway that also did not work out. So just googled “Christian publishers” and got the name Christian Faith Publishing. On my third try, then, I found a publisher. Paid a fee for their editorial assistance and they worked with me for nine months. There were some frustrations along the way, but all in all I am happy with them. Particularly happy with the cover of Blackhouse God’s House.
Sherri, thank you so much for this opportunity to meet at your Creekside Café and to have the chance to talk about all this stuff! What a joy it will be to meet you in person as well as all the other authors on November 20.
Sherri: If you enjoyed this interview with Murdina MacDonald come meet her in person at the Author Sunday Book Festival, November 20th, 1 to 4 pm at the New Bern Farmers Market, 421 South Front Street, New Bern, NC.
My facebook page is under Murdina D. MacDonald and my Instagram username is: blackhouse_godshouse.
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