Well this was a surprise – unknown to me Amazon decided to offer Turn of the Tide for a limited time at 99p – so I wanted to share the joy with you! Here’s the link, if you want to grab yourself a bargain,
here’s the link – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Tide-Outstanding-Scottish-Historical-ebook/dp/B0BLLQMT4Z/
This was my first novel, and for those who may not know, it is the beginning of my Scottish trilogy – a little bit of real life murder and mayhem in a long-running historic feud, with a fictional family (the Munros) trapped in the middle of the opposing clans.
For me it is a looking back, which is appropriate just now as I have been doing a fair bit of that in the last month or so. Here’s a wee flavour of that –
This is the cover of my school magazine from my Upper VI year – and I have a literary contribution in it – I will spare you my teenage angst, but it was interesting to see it again at a significant school reunion I attended recently. When the magazine was first being handed around I wondered why I’d never kept a copy – until re-read my contribution!!
It was a fabulous evening though – re-connecting with old friends and as one person put it – ‘It was amazing how recognisable most folk were – aside from hair colour, or (in the case of most of the men), no hair.’
There are no prizes for guessing which is me in the photo below, but the hair style is not one I’m going to replicate any time soon…
The years just melted away as we answered fairly random quiz questions on our school days – ‘How many people piled onto P H and broke her ribs?/ Name as many teachers and their nicknames as you can / What was the 3rd School rule? / What was played with books and scrunched up paper in the VI th form common room? (Table tennis following the confiscation of the real equipment – actually it worked quite well.)
I have to confess I was part of a group that exploded ink that marred the (brand new) lab 7 ceiling for some 30 years… We sang a new version of the school song – right tune – with much more amusing words, written for the occasion, and generally had a great time.
The pictures look like something from the 1970s – and of course they are… but we are already looking forward to our next reunion in 5 years time. (We can’t leave it too long, or half of us mightn’t be around to tell the tale.)
Ballyholme, Northern Ireland.
In another ‘looking back’ while I was over for the reunion, I found that the house I’d grown up in until the age of 12 (the right-hand as you look at it of these semis) had just been sold. In a moment of madness, I went and knocked the door and said I’d grown up there and would really like to see inside. (Ssh, don’t tell my husband, he’d be mortified.) Imagine my embarrassment when the man who opened the door said he’d have to go and ask his mum who was resting in bed… It was too late to backtrack when he returned to say if I’d care to wait until she got dressed she’d be happy to show me round. In the end it was a lovely experience – I was the first person she’d met who’d lived there before and she was really interested to hear stories from my childhood there – how I used to climb on the garage roof to read in peace; how we slid down the stairs on tin trays, until the day my sister overshot and her feet went through the stained glass window at the bottom; how I fell off the pillar at the gate and was impaled on a spike in the chain that hung between the pillars that bordered the garden…
I was fascinated to see the kitchen had the same ‘Hygena’ cupboards from 50 years ago – very retro now, but still in excellent condition, and she was fascinated to learn that the archway between the front and back hall was my mum’s idea. Dad didn’t want to do it, but when he came home from school one day, he found she’d taken a sledgehammer to the wall and knocked a hole in it, meaning it was almost as easy to make the arch as mend the hole. (I think there is a bit of my mum in me!)
All in all it was good fun and if the lady hasn’t moved before I’m next in the area, I’ve even been invited back for tea!
In current news, Douglas Adams style, I am working on Book no 4 of my Scottish trilogy – but don’t hold your breath – it’ll be a while! And restricting my nostalgia trips to re-reading books I loved as a child – imagining myself back on that garage roof.
This month I am also going to be taking a trade stand at various Pop- up markets and agricultural shows so if anyone is nearby, please come and say ‘hello’. They are:
Pop-up Market, Paxton House, Berwickshire – Wednesday 10th July
Newbattle Summer Fair, Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian – Saturday 20th July
Kelso Agricultural Show, Scottish Borders – Friday and Saturday 26th / 27th July
And if you do go and grab yourself a copy of Turn of the Tide – at the bargain price of 99p do please let me know if you’ve enjoyed it – I love feedback. (And a wee review on Amazon would be great – they are so valuable to authors and helpful to other readers.)
Here’s the link again, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Tide-Outstanding-Scottish-Historical-ebook/dp/B0BLLQMT4Z/
Until next time – take care,
Margaret