SCOTTISH SCRIBBLES

SCOTTISH SCRIBBLES


"O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!
For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent;
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil
Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content"
Robbie Burns

Friday, September 24, 2010

FICTION FRIDAY!!!

This is going to be a short post today. I am getting ready to attend the Emerald City RWA conference in Seattle. A wonderful get away weekend for my husband and I. A week for him to golf with our son who lives out there and a week for me to catch up on old friendships and do a little business.

The authors I have listed today have been my favorite authors for a long time and are auto-buys for me, even when their books are not set in Scotland or have Scottish heroes. Though they may not be familiar to you they are worth checking out their offerings and have been mainstays in the industry. I hope if you haven’t tried one of their books you will pick one up soon. The books listed for each are only a sample of their backlist but are my favorites. Click on their names for a site that lists their backlist.

AMANDA SCOTT

Amanda has been one of my favorite Scottish/Historical romances from way back when I returned to reading romances in 1994. I had a wonderful backlist of books to choose from whether it was a book set in the Highlands, Lowlands of the Borders, she has created yummy heroes and fiesty heroines.

Though her current trilogy was set in the borders I find my favorite recent books of hers are the stories of the MacLeod sisters of Glenelg, Scotland. What makes this series so great is she starts the story in the Highlands or better yet the Islands of the Macleods and the Lord of the Isles and but over the course of five sisters and their friend Mary Macdonald the story ends in the Lowlands of Scotland as well as the Northeast. The books are set in an around 1370 during the reign of Robert III whose brother, the Duke of Albany had far too strong of control of the throne of Scotland.





The titles include:

LORD OF THE ISLES – Cristina’s story

PRINCE OF DANGER- Isobel’s story

LADY’S CHOICE – Sorcha’s story (my favorite heroine

KNIGHTS TREASUER – Adela’s story

KING FO STORMS- Sidony’s story (my favorite couple)

HIGHLAND PRINCESS Mary MacDonald (though not a Macleod sister, similar period and location).

Her current title

TEMPTED BY THE WARRIOR- completes her current trilogy and is set in the Scottish Borders.






One of Susan’s first books THE RAVEN’S WISH was one of the very first books I was asked to review and I have been a fan of her work ever since. I especially like her nouvella THE SNOW ROSE which appeared in THE STOCKINGFUL OF JOY anthology. Her books are set in many different periods of Scottish history and some are from actual events where others are more mystical. She stepped away from the romance genre and wrote a wonderful fictional account of one of Scotland’s most misunderstood Scottish Queens LADY MACBETH. Though historical evidence no longer survives about this Queen, she like her husband Macbeth has been a victim of malicious character assassination by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare has done to Macbeth and his Queen in MACBETH, as Randall Wallace has done to William Wallace in BRAVEHEART- all bleather little substance. Of all of her recent books I would highly recommend this book because one gets a real sense of what the final years of the last Celtic Kingdom in Scotland were like. She currently has a new book out on Queen Margaret of Scotland- wife of Malcolm Canmore.

Susan is no longer writing romances under the aka Susan King and you can find her new offerings under the aka Sarah Gabriel



JEANETTE BAKER

The last author I would like to recommend wrote a number of Scottish romances but her real talent lies in setting her characters in Ireland, especially the Northern Irelands and the Troubles.

Jeannette Baker packs more book in 100 pages than many authors do in 300 pages. Her stories are well researched and her characters get under your skin that you can't forget them when the last page is turned. The three books that are favorites of mine include LEGACY, set in contemporary Scotland complete with mysterious Celtic traditions where our heroine learns of three of ghostly ancestors and a hero who helps her along the journey, CATRIONA the heroine returns to contemporary Shetland Islands to learn about her heritage and finds out she is a reincarnated soul who has lived through five lifetimes through some of Scotland and England’s most turbulent times. And this next title is from her aka of Jeanette Ramirez- LADY OF LOCHABAR- set to the backdrop of one of Scotland’s worst tragedies the massacre at Glen Coe. For those who want

a compelling story set in Ireland I would highly recommend her Rita winning book NELL – is the story of childhood friends who were torn apart not only by social standing of their parents but also by the hero’s movement toward the Irish Nationalist cause and the heroine’s path that leads to her becoming a lawyer and fitting in with the establishment in Northern Ireland but when their lives are intertwined with Nell a woman from the past who was torn from her lover, will our m
odern couple achieve what Nell could not?




PS: I will be away from the computer next week so if I post other than Fiction Friday the posts will be short and sweet. Have a great week everyone!!

10 comments:

Pat McDermott said...

Wonderful recommendations, Jody. Have a great getaway!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful reviews, Jody. I have the MacBeth book on my wish list now. Some people know I bought the marymacbeth.com for and aka.
Emjoy your week and keep that knee safe.
http://marymccall.wordpress.com/

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

These look great. I ordered two from last week's list. As if I need more books......

Jody said...

Paisley
That is why I have an ebook reader the dh can't see how many books I buy a month. When I get back from my trip I am going to do a major purge of paperbacks. i always kept them thinking I would like to open a used bookstore but I live where no one reads. Which ones did you order?

Jody said...

Thanks Pat. I so need this trip, even if i just sit and read the whole time it will be great. I have a number of projects goiing so I have things to do then there is a writers conference on the end.

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

I ordered 'On a Highland Shore' and 'Ladyy of the Glen.' I could have ordered them all, but since I have probably 500 books to read, I didn't want to overload myself. ;)

Jody said...

Mary interesting blog at History undressed. I have a book on symbols thru history though not just Christianity.

Susan said...

Hi Jody!! And thank you so much--I'm totally delighted to be listed as one of your favorite authors of Scottish historicals! I know you've been a longtime fan, reviewer and supporter of Scottish historicals, mine as well as those of other writers, which is wonderful and much appreciated.

And thanks for mentioning my new book, QUEEN HEREAFTER, about Margaret of Scotland, out in December. :)

Jody said...

Susan,
I loved finding out you are writing historical romances under the new aka. I had thought maybe you were just doing what I call straight historicals. I always enjoyed your books and I would hate to think your romacnes would be no more. Your early romances were of the variety that I think is missing in historical romances of today.

Your new book on Queen Margaret looks really interesing which says a lot for me because she is not one of my favorite Scottish Queens. Do you enjoy writing these straight historicals? Anything you might be working on?

Winona Cross said...

Hmmm . . . Which ones do I order first? I do love your blog posts. Enjoy the conference, hope you'll share your new knowledge with us.