Photos and such…

I posted a photo of my grandfather and his first wife that was taken presumably on their wedding day a few years ago. I’m reposting it along with two more from the family archives.

Grandpa John Robertson with his first wife, Susan Christie

This photo was definitely taken in a studio setting and judging by their clothing and the way her hair is styled, it had to be a special occasion. Hence, the thought of it being a wedding photograph.

Grandpa Robertson was born in 1856 and married for the first time 20 years later. And yes, that is my grandfather, not great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather.

After looking carefully at the photo for a few minutes, close your eyes and imagine it in full colour, an oil painting of huge proportions… 3 ft by 5 ft or even bigger 4 ft by 6 ft and it’s hanging on a rich oak panelled wall. Can you visualize it in that setting?

That’s where it is in my novel. This is the Laird and Lady of Weetshill on their wedding day. Now, the heroine (Sarah) looks very much like the young woman in the portrait. The hero resembles the young man.

In my novel, the old Laird looks much more like this…

Grandpa Robertson as an old man

This photograph of an older Grandpa Robertson was taken some time before his death in 1930. I’m thinking maybe between 1915 (the year my grandmother-his second wife) and 1917 (the year my father and four of his nine siblings were admitted to The Orphan Homes of Scotland). By that time, he’d had a stroke with loss of memory and was unable to keep up the farm.

This is how I envision the hero’s grandfather. White-haired, balding, mustache and beard.

The old Laird in my novel also walks with a cane.

 

And finally this photograph from the archives…

Peter, Robert and Angus Robertson

This photo was taken on Angus’s wedding day in Scotland. My father (Robert) was serving overseas with the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders at the time but was able to get leave to go back to Scotland for the occasion. It would have been the last time my father saw his brothers.

Now there’s no mistaking the men in this photo are related but look closely at the young man in the first photo, the old man in the second one and lastly (mostly Robert) the men in this photo. Perhaps, a natural progression of how my hero will age?

 

 

 

 

Last night’s accomplishment… or lack thereof

Well, I did a major purge which put my word count down to 91309. ACK! I had to go out after supper so didn’t take a lot of time to write but managed to get a few words down… very few. I ended with 91395… a mere 86 words. Still on the positive side so that’s a good thing.

Have ideas percolating… just deciding on how best to get them from the grey matter onto paper.

In the meantime, the laptop needs to charge so will ponder where I’m heading while it does that.

Great Day on the Writing Front

In addition to the 800 words I wrote in a separate file yesterday (and now merged into the main manuscript file), I’ve added another 702, give or take. I deleted some but added more but overall my word count is up 1502 from the last time I recorded my progress here when I believe I was at 92360. Words in… words out… not huge numbers but enough. Anyway, I’m sitting at 93877 right now. Yesterday, during my writing date, I added some words to the original manuscript before moving on to start a separate file.

Now it’s time for a major purge. So we’ll see where I end up. Not sure yet how many words will vanish but it will be a good chunk. Hopefully, I’ll still be in a plus situation but I have my doubts.

But it’s the new words that count not the ones I delete, right?