Bonnie Scotland

It's been a while and so much has happened. If you've been watching my social media on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok you will know the various awards, finalist listings, and events that have been occupying my time.

But, more recently, I returned from three weeks in Scotland with a Very Patient Dave where we met up with family and friends, crawled through drafty ruins of castles, got leads on legends and characters for future stories, and ate way too much sticky toffee pudding and Tunnocks Teacakes.

Highlight, as always, was seeing Dad. My father-in-law, Hugh Noble for whom wee Hugh MacCoo was named and inspired by.

After last year's sharing of the rough drafts and sketches and asking permission to use his name, there commenced a wee bit of nail biting over whether he would be happy with the final product. 

Presenting him, in person, with a hardcover copy of the book and sharing the dedication page with him was the high point of the trip. A smile and a wee laugh, some comments about my illustrations, and then began the stories! As always, Hugh can tell a great story and shared with Dave and I several tales of Munro's captured, historic sites we should explore, and of course recounting the tale of why he never made it up the Matterhorn. (His companions were struck silly by some good looking girls on the trail, and reversed their path to spend some time with said girls at a local establishment and the weather window for climbing was closed...as always, life gets in the way sometimes and he never made it back to do another expedition.)

It was a lovely time and on his suggestion we roamed Kilmartin Glen and became kings of Dalraida by placing our foot in the footprint, traced the carvings of ancient peoples in the various carvings in the glen, and captured the magic of standing stones at sunset.

From mountains to moors, kirks to coos, castles to crofts...Hugh MacCoo was born of this land of mist and magic. Legends abound and locals love to share a good tale. We learned of heroes and warrior women, monks and monsters. Many were tales we knew before but they came to life in the cool, crisp, highlands.

We will always return to the land of my husband's birth and we will always discover new bits of history and lore. We will burn it into our memories, and write about it in the pages of our journals. Characters will rise and fall and intertwine in books yet to come. 

Lochs and Legends. Mists and  Magic. Castles and Crofts. Monks and Monsters. Always two sides to a story, but if you step within the standing stones...maybe there will be another dimension to the story you heard before that will change it for all time.