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.
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… 6 ft by 8 ft (or larger still) 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.
In my novel, the old Laird looks much more like this…
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…
This photo was taken on my Uncle 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?
There were a number of things that influenced and inspired me to write my debut novel, A Shadow in the Past. Here are some of them.
Start with one spooky, derelict mansion…
Add one ancient stone circle…
Sprinkle in a narrow country lane…
Lined with ghostly trees…
Add a generous dollop of old graveyard…
One full-sized headstone…
Spice it up with a village hall…
One lunatic asylum…
One small country church…
And lastly a smidgeon of Aberdeen…
Mix well.
Add characters…
Let all the ingredients simmer then write, write some more, re-write, re-write some more.
When finished it looks like this…
Blurb:
Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself thrust back into the past. There she struggles to keep her real identity from a society that finds her comments and ideas strange and her speech and actions forward, unlike Victorian women. When Sarah verbally confronts confining social practices, including arranged marriages, powerful enemies commit her to a lunatic asylum. After falling in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, Robert Robertson, she must decide whether to find her way back to her own time or to remain in the past with him.
Well, in Scotland and England it is. And since my heart belongs to Scotland, and I have family and friends in both countries, need I say more?
Okay, so in keeping with the day, here’s my story…
Blurb:
Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself thrust back into the past. There she struggles to keep her real identity from a society that finds her comments and ideas strange and her speech and actions forward, unlike Victorian women. When Sarah verbally confronts confining social practices, including arranged marriages; powerful enemies commit her to a lunatic asylum. After falling in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, Robert Robertson, she must decide whether to find her way back to her own time or to remain in the past with him.
Now isn’t that a great story? I think so, but then I’m biased.
~~~~~~~~~~
You can buy A Shadow from the Past in print or ebook from:
I’m currently sitting at just over 62,000 words in my first draft and my target length is 85,000. This book hasn’t progressed as quickly as I had hoped but I’ve not totally thrown in the towel yet, either.
I don’t have a cover to show you but as the book hasn’t progressed to that stage, I can’t.
Here is the cover image for my first book. I see my name and the title Shadows from Her Past exactly how they are here. Keep the ‘author brand’ continuity if you will.
I also see the past and present being represented much as they are here but, shall we say, in a more modest setting. Present looking into the past and the two characters who are most important to the heroine appearing with her in the mirror’s reflection.
What do you think of my vision?
Blurb for Shadows from Her Past:
Sarah finds herself back in her time without her husband, Robert, and adopted daughter, Jenny. When she sees visions of them appear, Sarah doesn’t know if it’s her imagination or if they’re really there trying to break through the constraints of time and space.
David Robb, a student doctor at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary who has been assigned to her case, bears a familial resemblance to Robert. Sarah develops feelings for him but also feels like she is betraying her husband, despite them being centuries apart.
Will Sarah make a new life with David in the present, or will she find her way back to her husband and daughter in the past?
~~~~~~~~
Keep coming back for news regarding Shadows from her Past. In the meantime, you can purchase book one in the series – A Shadow in the Past in paperback from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters, and local bricks ‘n mortar bookstores.
If you’d prefer to buy it as an ebook, all you have to do is click on the logo of your choice to download it. The link for all the amazon domains is the same, you just have to change the .co.uk to your own.
In most character interviews you see, it’s the character being interviewed. This time, it’s the character being the interviewer as opposed to the interviewee. My main character from A Shadow in the Past, Sarah Shand, interviewed me over at her blog, Sarah’s Place the other day.
We talked about A Shadow in the Past, the second book in that series, Shadows from her Past, author brand and other things. She asked some pretty tough questions. You can read the full interview here.
About Sarah:
I live in rural Aberdeenshire with my parents, sister, and ginger and white cat, Murphy, on our farm (Gordonsfield) near the village of Kendonald.
When I’m not with them, I live in the year 1886 at Weetshill mansion with the laird Robert Robertson and his staff.
If you think going back to the past and knowing what you do now is fun, let me tell you, it isn’t. But then I’m probably telling tales out of school.
The best way to find out is to buy a copy of Melanie’s novel, A Shadow in the Past, and find out for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
And no it’s nothing to do with Sgt Pepper teaching the band to play.
It was twenty years ago today (on this date is more accurate), I first set foot on Scottish soil. I had wanted to do this for quite some time but it never seemed to be even the remotest possibility. But, this year I had an extra year’s holiday leave from my job so it was “I’m doing it.”
We weren’t in a position for the entire family to go on this adventure so my hubby stayed home with our two young children and off I went.
There were a lot of firsts on this trip.
First time flying. Yup, my first time and I’m going on my own and crossing the ocean. I’ve never done anything by halves before, so why start at that point in my life?
First time in Scotland.
First time meeting family that I knew of but had only written to (and not email) and exchanged Christmas cards with.
First trip to the orphanage where my father and four of his siblings were raised.
First time seeing where he was born and staying at Earlsfield Farm.
Maybe most importantly of all, first time driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car and shifting gears with the wrong hand.
See what I mean about a lot of firsts?
When I first drove by the signpost for Weets on my way to Earlsfield Farm just outside Kennethmont, I got all weepy. Weets was where my father was born.
From the first time I clapped eyes on this spooky old hulk, I fell in love with it. I bet those old stone walls are filled with stories and maybe even a ghost or two. What do you think?
So that’s my twenty years ago adventure. Being on my own, I spent all my time behind the camera, and to this day I’m still more comfortable on that side.
What were some of your “huge” firsts? I’d love to hear about them.
Isn’t it beautiful? Every month has a different full colour photograph (taken by moi) of something “A Shadow in the Past“.
How well do you think you did at guessing the various locations where Sarah Shand turned up each day?
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 8 (we didn’t play on Day 7 as it was my launch at the Rannes Hall in Kennethmont)
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
I thought having the map beside the book was a dead giveaway in this one but apparently that wasn’t always the case.
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
So how did you do? Get all of them right? Some of them right? None of them right?
It’s been a close race – neck and neck right down to the wire between two participants. It was really difficult to say who would finish with the most correct answers. But in the end, one emerged victorious.
And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… the winner is… Grace!
Today is the last day you can enter to win 2014 A Shadow in the Past calendar. Don’t be disappointed. Enter today. You don’t have to know much – or even anything – about Scotland. The clues are in the text portion of each day’s blog post. Using that information, you guess where the photos were taken.
You’ve seen the cover many times – a stone circle, which I think is an excellent wa to convey a time-travel set in Scotland.
But now you get to see the pictures that will grace each and every month…
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
These photos were all taken by me on my trips to Scotland in 1993 and 1997, long before A Shadow in the Past came to be, even in its earlier novella form of Sarah’s Gift.
Now that you’ve seen all the months’ photos, don’t you want to win one? You can. It’s easy. Visit the daily posts of my trip to Scotland (the clues are in the text) then leave your guesses where the Seeking Sarah Shand photos were taken in the comments.
Okay, I’ve banged on about it being a 2014 A Shadow in the Past calendar (created at Vistaprint) but have only ever revealed the cover image. And what better to convey a time-travel set in Scotland than a stone circle on the front cover?
And now for the inside leaves…
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
These photos were all taken by me on my trips to Scotland in 1993 and 1997, long before A Shadow in the Past came to be, even in its earlier novella form of Sarah’s Gift.
Now that you’ve seen all the months’ photos, don’t you want to win one? You can. It’s easy. Visit the daily posts of my trip to Scotland (the clues are in the text) then leave your guesses where the Seeking Sarah Shand photos were taken in the comments.
There were likely faster ways of getting from Kennethmont to Kelso but they wouldn’t have been as much fun. I wanted to go the back way to Banchory then over to Stonehaven and down the coast – well at least as far as Dundee.
It was mid morning by the time we got away from Earlsfield Farm but we expected that and not just because of the late night. We had so much fun when we stayed here it was really hard to say goodbye.
We stopped in at Kildrummy Castle in the heart of Aberdeenshire – another Historic Scotland property – on our way south. It’s well-maintained, has a small, but well-stocked gift shop and WCs! The gentleman working there had a brother who used to live less than 30 miles from where we currently live. Talk about a small world.
The further we got away from Kennethmont, the more melancholy I felt. There were a couple of times that I could have pulled the car off the road and bawled my eyes out. Thankfully, we had an argument or two with “Sat Nav Sally” over where we were going which temporarily took my mind off things. I knew the route I wanted to take (been there, taken it before so knew where I was going) and she refused to recalculate and get on the same page… or perhaps I should say the same road.
We stopped briefly at Dunnottar Castle just south of Stonehaven on the North Sea, primarily for a photo op and maybe make a point. Long story…
Okay, back to my long story. Some years ago, I started reading a novel set in Scotland (author and title shall remain nameless) and a castle on the North Sea south of Stonehaven was wrongly named Kildrummy Castle. Having been to both castles, I knew it was WRONG! The only castle fitting this locational description was Dunnottar. Try as I might, I couldn’t get past this glaring error. I might have passed up a good author but that was a chance I was willing to take. I mean, if the author didn’t want to use the ‘real’ name, then make up a fictitonal one, don’t just plunk an inland castle on the coast. Rant over now.
At Dundee, we agreed to “Sat Nav Sally’s” route and we continued on without her nagging “turn around when possible”. The rest of the trip to Kelso was quiet (well at least on the sat nav front). I was still sad but not so much as before. Now, I had new territory to get excited about. Yes, we’d been to The Borders before but not Kelso.
When we arrived in Kelso, I couldn’t remember the name of the street the B&B was on, only that it was a one way street. It seemed most of the way in to the town centre was just that. I wanted to stop in the square where the Tourist Information was located but I missed the turning and ended up going up yet another one way street. And guess what! It was the right one. Just at the top of the hill was the sign for Duncan House and their car park. How fortuitous was that?
There was a note on the door addressed to me, telling me where the keys were and how to get to our room so we began the process of unloading the car. On one of our trips to the car, we opened the front door at Duncan House to be greeted by a young couple wondering if we were the owners and was there a room going for the night, We disappointed them but told them to try the phone number on the note in the window. Making sure the front door was securely locked behind us, we got the rest of our loot from the boot of the car.
One of the first things I had to do was plug my laptop in and charge it as the battery was almost flat and I didn’t want to give it a case of “chargus-interruptus” before we left Kennethmont.
Once we were settled, it was time to go exploring but first we stopped off for a bite to eat at The Empress of India, just down the street from our B&B.
After a fantastic meal, an Indian beer (Cobra) and the best onion bhajias I’ve ever had, we headed to the abbey. Unfortunately, the gates were locked but I still got some great photos – likely even better than from within the gated part of the grounds.
Let’s play SEEKING SARAH SHAND!
Tomorrow will be another big day! We’re going ‘south of the border’ with our final destination being Market Rasen, but on our way we’re stopping near Whitby to meet my author friend, Nicky Wells, and her family and my cousin in Lincolnshire that I’ve not met in person before. How exciting!
My Scottish roots and writing by Melanie Robertson-King