Have a great Hogmanay and a Happy New Year

 

Tonight, I’ll be the despair of all my Scottish ancestors. I’ll be going to my bed and sleeping the old year out and the new year in. I won’t even stay up to hear the bells and drink the toast to welcome the new year. When you’re the only one in the house, there seems little point. Not like the old days when we might go on the razzle for days on end.

Why should it matter? Well, in Scotland Hogmanay and New Year have always been the biggest celebration. Far bigger than Christmas. In fact, Christmas was never an official holiday in Scotland until about 1958. It was only after that date Scots were allowed a day off work at Christmas and that has built up over the intervening years to be the same as the English holidays, two official days. But New Year has always had its full quota of holidays.

When I was a child, everyone worked on Christmas Day, but like most other children in Britain, Santa did come on Christmas Eve and we hung our stockings up, hoping for them to be filled. But I recall some children who did this at New Year, particularly if their parents were from the older generation.

I suppose the situation in Scotland was a hangover from the Scottish Protestant Reformation, John Knox and all that jazz. In fact, Christmas was banned in the sixteenth century due to the views of influential reformers that it was a Popish or Catholic feast.

So, back to Hogmanay and the New Year, the biggest Scottish celebration when everyone celebrates with a dram. Being Scots, alcohol and celebration go hand in hand.

It was certainly a riotous time when I was in my teens. Everyone bought a bottle, even the girls. The men would have their whisky or rum, maybe both, if they had enough money, while the girls settled for port or sherry and, in some cases, if you really wanted to splurge, cherry brandy.

Armed with our bottles, we would sally forth before midnight to the town square to wait for the bells. When midnight tolled (the bells), bottles would be opened and offered to all and sundry. Everyone taking a swig from the bottle offered. No concerns about germs in those days. We would link arms, sing, dance, and kiss strangers. Thinking about it, an orgy couldn’t have done any better.

This would go on for about half an hour and then we would be off to first foot all and sundry. In those days, people kept open house for any reveller who knocked on their door. You were meant to first foot people with a gift of some sort, a lump of coal preferably for luck, although most young folk just offered a swig from their bottle. And, of course, it had to be a dark-haired person who was the first foot, otherwise it was bad luck.

I remember my gran always had soup and steak pie for her first footers. Anyone through the door after midnight was given a seat at the table and a generous helping of both. After everyone ate, they retired to the best sitting room where my aunt played the piano and a friend the accordion. It was singing and dancing until the early hours, then we would be off to see who else we could first foot. There were times when the first footing lasted all of three days. We were hardy back then.

So, now you see why my ancestors will despair of me when I retire to my bed without even waiting to hear the bells.

Happy New Year everyone.

Chris Longmuir

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Dangerous Destiny - Cover Reveal

The wait is almost over. Dangerous Destiny is with my editor and I'm hoping to get it published before too many moons have passed.

This book is part of a new suffragette mystery series and I've set it in Dundee, Scotland, in 1908. The story involves three women, a seasoned suffragette, a working-class girl escaping her abusive father, and a young girl breaking free from her controlling family. They join forces to find a killer who is targeting suffragettes. So, the book is a mix of murder mystery and rites of passage as the two younger girls choose a different destiny for themselves.

Well, what do you think? Do you like it? I'm quite chuffed with it. I think my cover creator has done a good job and now all I need is for my editor to complete her work and get the manuscript back to me. Then it will be all systems go.

Watch this space!

Chris Longmuir

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Is the World ready for Death of a Doxy? The great launch is today

Hang out the flags, summon the marching band, and bring on the dancing girls – Death of a Doxy has been unleashed on an unsuspecting world. It’s taken a year of hard graft but book launch day has finally arrived and to celebrate its arrival I’m offering an introductory bargain price on the Kindle eBook for the first few days. But it ends on Friday 9 February so if you want a bargain you’d better be quick.

 Death of a Doxy is set in Dundee, Scotland, in 1919, and features Kirsty Campbell, Dundee's first policewoman. In this book, which is the third in the series, Kirsty is investigating the murder of Lily, one of the girls in Big Aggie's house of pleasure. As the only policewoman in Dundee, Kirsty struggles to be accepted and she is keen to prove herself by cracking the case.

Not for the first time, Kirsty disagrees with her senior officer, DI Jamie Brewster. He is convinced Big Aggie killed Lily, but Kirsty believes the case to be more complicated than it appears on the surface and embarks on her own investigation.

To find the killer, she must unravel Lily's secrets and the deeper she delves into Lily's past, the more secrets she uncovers. But it is only when her own life is in danger that she learns others hide secrets too and will do anything to prevent exposure.

It is a tortuous trail where Kirsty faces danger before the mystery is solved.

Read the first chapter here:

Death of a Doxy

Chapter 1

Splotches of blood combined with other stains created a grim kaleidoscope of colour on the faded blue mattress.

He had meant to save her, not kill her. But her depravity overwhelmed him when she mocked him and laughed in his face.

Bile burned his throat and he leaned over the box sink in front of the window waiting for the pain to pass. Outside, footsteps on the landing caused him to draw back and he slid into a shadowy corner of the room, his hand tightening on the poker which he still clutched. When the sound disappeared he returned to the sink, turned the tap, bent over, and swilled water around his mouth. The burning sensation faded. He closed his eyes and leaned his head on the cool glass of the window in the vain hope the scene behind him would disappear and everything would be the same as when he entered the room less than half an hour ago.

An image of her flashed through his mind. Innocent blue eyes; now so knowing. Hair, golden as daffodils on a spring morning, streaming behind her in the breeze; now dull and lank. Skin, translucent in the sunshine; now caked in thick face paint.

Where had that innocent young girl gone?

He opened his eyes and turned to survey the room. A dingy place containing nothing more than a rickety wardrobe, a bed, one chair, and a table holding a guttering oil lamp. The last embers of a fire glowed in the black grate of the fireplace which spilled ash over the floor. And on the mantelpiece, a candle dripped wax into a saucer.

But the thing that held his eyes more than anything else was the body which sprawled on the mattress before him, beaten and bloodied, and no longer recognizable as the girl he remembered. His hand loosened on the poker which clattered onto the wooden floorboards to lie in a widening pool of blood.

Unaware he had been holding his breath, it now whispered out from between his lips, and the anger that consumed him was replaced by exhilaration rushing through his body, reviving him, exciting him.

He had saved her, although not in the way he intended. He could see now. This way was better. It was the only way to eradicate the depraved life she led. But he couldn’t leave her like this, with her clothing in disarray. No, that wouldn’t do. He would make her respectable, lay her out before her body stiffened, and arrange her dress to provide her with a modesty she hadn’t experienced for a long time.

Her limbs moved easily under his tender hands. He rolled her onto her back and straightened her legs, smoothing the dress over them. Next, he crossed her hands over her chest and arranged her blood-soaked hair over her shoulders.

Pleased with his work he carried the poker to the sink and rinsed her blood from it. Then, taking one last look at the scene in front of him, he left the room, closing and locking the door behind him.

At the bottom of the stairs, he sidled around the final corner and hurried across the backlands behind the tenement. This was an area of grass, weeds and rubbish which serviced the tenements that bordered it. The place where the tenants kept their bins and hung their washing on ropes to dry. He slipped through a close at the other side of this waste ground, opposite the building he’d left, and emerged onto the street. After taking a circuitous route and keeping to side streets he eventually reached Magdalen Green. From there it was a short walk to where the River Tay flowed to meet the North Sea. With one last look around to make sure no one observed him, he raised his arm and threw the poker into the water.

He smiled to himself as he walked homeward. His job was done.

Chris Longmuir

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First Policewoman in Scotland Appointed 100 Years Ago

How many of you noticed that earlier this week Police Scotland marked 100 years of women in policing with a passing out parade, and that almost two-fifths of the officers in the parade were women. Glasgow was also celebrating because the very first policewoman in Scotland was appointed by the City of Glasgow police force. However, both of these celebrations were a tad early, because Emily Miller, Scotland’s first policewoman, was appointed on 6th September 1915. Still, I don’t suppose that matters too much.

Scotland was also a bit behind the times in accepting a woman into the police, because the first women’s police service came into being a year earlier in 1914, and many of the first policewomen were former suffragettes. The two main suffragette organisations, the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union), and the WFL (Women’s Freedom League), joined forces to formulate the Women’s Police Volunteers (WPV) after the sufragettes decided to curtail their activities for the duration of the Great War. They were not the only police service however, because the National Union of Women Workers (NUWW) set up the Voluntary Women Patrols. But this article is not about women police in London, or elsewhere in England, it is about Scottish policewomen.

The decision to employ women in the police force was made by the Chief Constable of each individual force, therefore Scotland was no different to England in that respect. However, the resistance to women was more widespread in Scotland, and in evidence at the Baird committee in 1920, the Town Clerk of Stirling stated – “We neither need them or want them”.

Glasgow City Police, however, had lost so many men to the Great War, they had to take radical measures. They employed hundreds of temporary constables and increased the number of men in the Special Constabulary, and they appointed Emily Miller in September 1915. Miss Miller remained the only policewoman in Scotland until 1918, when Mrs Jean Thomson or Wright was employed by the City of Dundee Police. There was actually another woman employed by the police in 1914, prior to Emily Miller, and that was the Court Sister in Aberdeen, whose duties included everything a policewoman might do, however little is known about her.

The Baird Report into employment of women for police duties, which heard evidence in 1920, is the place to go to find out details of how policewomen were employed and what their experience was. Both Emily Miller and Jean Thomson gave evidence, and it would appear that Miss Miller’s duties involved working with women and children, whereas Mrs Thomson’s role was wider, and it could be said she was the closest thing to a policewoman that Scotland had, although neither woman had powers of arrest. Women constables would have to wait until 1924 before they were granted this power.

It took a long time for women to achieve the same status as men in the police force, and initially they were used for work with women and children. The power of arrest, as stated earlier, came in 1924, and few women were employed – Glasgow only had eleven policewomen at that time. Promotions were unheard of and it was 1940 before the first woman constable was promoted to Detective Sergeant, and 1954 before there was a Chief Inspector, and 1995 when the first female Chief Superintendent was appointed, she went on to become the first Assistant Chief Constable. It was 2008 before Norma Graham became Scotland’s first female Chief Constable, making it a full 93 years before a woman reached the top of the tree.

The problem with researching the early women police is that records are sparse in Scotland, although I believe the London Metropolitan Police have more information in their archive. Joan Lock, a former policewoman and now a crime writer, used this archive to write, The British Policewoman: her story, the book that got me interested in the origins of women police services in Britain.

The women who joined the police in 1914 and beyond were adventurous, fascinating characters who weren’t afraid of authority, nor did they take kindly to the taunts they received from the constables of the time. Things like, ‘get back to your washboards’, and much worse. They were dedicated, tough, disciplined women whose training included learning martial arts like ju jitsu, and they ventured into places that many male constables avoided. These women, many of whom have faded into obscurity, were worthy forerunners of today’s modern policewoman.

My own historical crime mystery, The Death Game, was inspired by these women, and because my crime stories are set in Dundee it was fortuitous that the second policewoman in Scotland, Jean Thomson, worked there as a policewoman between 1918 to 1921, The Death Game could be said to have been inspired by her. Naturally, my Kirsty Campbell, bears no resemblance whatsoever to Jean Thomson, but I have given Kirsty the London Women’s Police service training, including the ju jitsu, and then transported her to Dundee.

The recognition paid this week to these pioneering police women is well deserved, and long overdue.

Chris Longmuir

Web site 

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

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A guid New Year tae ane an’ a’ and mony may ye see

That’s the traditional Scots welcome on New Year’s Eve, known as Hogmanay in Scotland. A time of celebration,drinking, and first footing to see out the old year and welcome in the new year.

Some say the name, Hogmanay, has French roots, others say it originated from the old Norse, and it seems the celebrations are a throwback to that of the winter solstice among the Norse, as well as customs from the Gaelic celebration of Samhain. However, I doubt that any of the revellers on Hogmanay will be worrying about where the name or customs come from when they welcome in the New Year.

Hogmanay has always been a big end of year celebration in Scotland, with Christmas coming a poor second, although that is now changing. However it wasn’t so long ago that Christmas was not a holiday in Scotland, the influence of the protestant reformation was to blame for that. I can’t recall exactly when Christmas became a holiday in Scotland but it was well into the 1950s. Before that many people exchanged their gifts and celebrated on the winter solstice – Hogmanay.

Customs

There are several customs associated with Hogmanay. The house has to be cleaned from top to bottom on Hogmany as it is considered unlucky to welcome the New Year into a dirty house. The act of cleaning the whole house was called the redding, because it was getting ready for the new year.

Debts had to be paid by New Year’s Eve, as it was bad luck to usher in a new year with an outstanding debt.

Any knitting has be completed before the old year passes, failing that all the stitches should be removed from the needles.

It is unlucky for visitors to be admitted to the house before midnight has struck on New Year’s Eve, and they are likely to be refused admittance.

At midnight the man of the house opens the back door to let the old year out, and then opens the front door to let the new year in.

It is common for people to gather in the town centre waiting for midnight to strike, and on the first stroke of the chimes, known as The Bells, people link arms and sing Auld Lang Syne.

First footing starts immediately after midnight, on the last stroke of the church bells, and signifies a celebration of the new year which has just arrived. A first foot is the first person to cross the threshold of a friend or neighbour, their first visitor of the year. He should be male, and tall and dark. The first foot should present symbolic gifts to bring luck to the householder. These gifts range from salt, coal, shortbread, whisky, and black bun (a type of rich fruit cake). The householder then gives food and drink to the guest and they may party on until early morning, or alternatively the first foot will take his or her leave and visit a procession of houses. At least that is the traditional way. Nowadays, first footing is done with a bottle, and the first footer offers a dram (drink) from it to the householder, and vice versa.

Many of these customs were prevalent for a long time, but progress has caught up and a lot of these old customs have fallen by the wayside. No longer is it possible to open your door to complete strangers and welcome them inside to give them their New Year dram. Television programmes ensure many people sit in comfort at their firesides instead of congregating at The Bells. In fact many people are reluctant to venture to the town centre for The Bells, as what used to be a good-natured, friendly gathering, has become significantly rowdier. At one time the drinking never started until midnight, in fact it was thought unlucky to open your bottle before The Bells started. Nowadays people start drinking much earlier in the day.

Official, organised celebrations have taken the place of these informal gatherings. Events like Edinburgh’s torchlight procession, or Stonehaven’s fireball swinging festival.

But however people celebrate the coming of the New Year, the Scots will always let their hair down on Hogmanay.

So, until I see you after the New Year, lang may your lum reek, and a guid New Year to ane an’ a’ and mony may ye see.

 

Chris Longmuir

 

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

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Melanie Robertson-King in the Hot Seat

I’ve known Melanie Robertson-King for several years now. I met her initially when I was researching an article based on the children who were shipped to Canada in the 19^th and 20^th century by many of the altruistic charities including Barnardo’s, Quarrier’s, the Salvation Army, and even the Church and Scout movements. These children are often referred to as The Lost Children, and in Canada are known as Home Children.
 
In the course of my research I stumbled across a Canadian website devoted to these children and what happened to them. I emailed to request permission to use some of the photographs and that was how I met Melanie. She is one of the nicest and most helpful persons it has been my good fortune to meet, and therefore it gives me great pleasure to see the publication of her first book, A Shadow in the Past, and it’s definitely on my list of must have books.

Have a look at Melanie’s book cover, isn’t it fab

 

When I met Melanie, I didn’t know she was a writer, but then she started to publish articles in various magazines, and now she has produced a novel. I feel proud for her because it is quite an achievement to get a novel published in today’s hard climate. So I really wanted to know how she did it, and she obliged me with an interview. So without further ado, I’ll launch straight into the interview.

 

Photo of Melanie and her husband in their kitchen at home in Canada. She’ll probably slay me for publishing this

 

Interviewing Melanie

 

Melanie, I’ve known you for quite some time now and we first met when I was doing some research on the Canadian Home children who had been shipped to Canada by several charities in Britain. So my first question is related to that.

 
Do you still have an involvement with the organisation related to the Canadian Home Children and can you tell me something about that?

Yes, I’m still involved with the Quarriers Canadian Family. I’ve done presentations at area genealogical and historical societies on the subject. I get a number of e-mails from people looking for assistance in tracing their ancestor’s roots once it’s discovered they’ve come from an agency such as Quarriers (then known as The Orphan Homes of Scotland). If anyone is interested, the Quarriers Canadian Family maintains a website. It’s located at http://tinyurl.com/36loory

 

Tell me something about your writing career. When did you start writing? And how long was it before you published your first article? And are you still writing and publishing articles?

I wrote stories when I was a teenager and then after I finished my education, stopped writing for a number of years. It wasn’t until about 1999-2000 that I started up again. I enrolled in a creative writing course and the first assignment was to seek out publications and find out their guidelines etc. So I chose The Scottish Banner and our local free weekly paper The St. Lawrence EMC. Then I wrote an article for each of them for my next assignment. No surprise, it was on Home Children. I wasn’t out and out rejected by the EMC (they had made some formatting changes – titles in various sections of the article) but they never printed it. The Scottish Banner; however, did without as much as a bye your leave so you can imagine my surprise when I opened up my Dec 2001 issue and there was my article!

I would never get rich on the money I’ve made with my articles but it was a niche that I felt comfortable in. I’d written the occasional short story for local contests but that’s as far as my fiction writing went.

The last article I had published was about the abandoned railway that ran from Brockville to Westport and it was printed in 2011.

 

It was a long time before I knew you were writing a novel, so when did the urge to do this, grab you? Did you tell anyone what you were writing? If you didn’t, when did you come out of the cupboard?

Well, we go back to the short stories and around the time that Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series was big. A friend thought I could write something every bit as good so I came up with an overgrown short story (I think around 16,000 words) and called it Sarah’s Gift. While I was taking my creative writing course, my instructor asked why I didn’t write a novel because in his words “I could write a cracker.” Not knowing where to start, I thought why not resurrect Sarah’s Gift? So I did and over the duration of my course turned it into a novel... not a well written one I can honestly say looking back on it. I think I e-mailed you in the early days and told you that one of the publishing houses I had submitted to, wanted me to send the full manuscript. I can’t remember what year that was now but suffice it to say I received a number of rejects before finally landing the contract with 4RV Publishing.

 

How did you find the transition from article writer to novel writer? Was it difficult to change your writing style? And how long did it take you to write A Shadow in the Past?

Actually, the transition was easier than I expected it to be. It could have been because I wove a number of factual events into my writing. I always tried to keep my articles somewhat light rather than dry and clinical so the change in style came relatively easily.

How long to write A Shadow in the Past? Over all, with work and the occasional not writing funk because I thought my work was terrible, a very long time. I would think likely 4-5 years maybe 6 especially if you count the fact it started as a short story.

 

Now you are a published novelist, tell me what it feels like?

I have so many emotions right now about being a published novelist – surreal, thrilled, scared – being at the top of the heap. Every now and then, I think that I’m going to wake up and discover it’s all been a dream.

 
Have you started the next book? And can you tell me anything about it?

Yes, I have a couple more in the works. Originally, there was a Part 2 to A Shadow in the Past but I decided it would work better as a sequel so I’ve got it written, although with the changes that have been made, there will be some heavy-duty rewrites to be done.

I have another manuscript completely finished called The Anniversary (again started as a short story) which I originally thought would be book 2 of a 3 book series. But I’m not sure how that’s going to fit now. And I have another one in the works. I’d written the beginning and ending but no middle. It’s about a helicopter that ditches in the North Sea. Well shortly after I started it, helicopters started falling out of the sky off the eastern coast of Canada and in the North Sea, so I stopped. I posted a snippet from it in the loveahappyending Facebook group back in the summer and got some interesting feedback.

 

Well, that’s been very interesting Melanie, and you’ve whetted my appetite for the book. Good luck with the sales, not that I think you’ll need it, and I look forward to seeing the next book come out.

 

About Melanie

 

Melanie Robertson-King author of A Shadow in the Past

 

A Shadow in the Past is Melanie Robertson-King’s debut novel. Prior to turning her hand to fiction, she wrote articles and has been published in Canada, the US and the UK. In addition to writing, her interests include genealogy, photography and travel. On one of her trips to Scotland, she had the honor of meeting The Princess Royal.
 
Melanie is a member of Romance Writers of America and their Ottawa Chapter.
 

She lives in Brockville, Ontario, Canada along the shore of the majestic St. Lawrence River with her husband, son and oldest grandson.

About the book
 
A Shadow in the Past
 

When a contemporary teen is transported back through time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past…

 

When nineteen year old Sarah Shand finds herself in Victorian Era Aberdeenshire, Scotland, she has no idea how she got there. Her last memory is of being at the stone circle on the family farm in the year 2010.

 

Despite having difficulty coming to terms with her situation, Sarah quickly learns she must keep her true identity a secret.

 

Still, she feels stifled by the Victorians’ confining social practices, including arranged marriages between wealthy and influential families, confronts them head on and suffers the consequences.

When Sarah realizes she has fallen in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, she faces an agonizing decision. Does she try to find her way back to 2010 or remain in the past with the man she loves?

 

Where to buy:

4RV Publishing: http://4rvpublishingcatalog.yolasite.com/robertson-king.php

Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Shadow-Past-Melanie-Robertson-King/dp/0983801886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346607916&sr=1-1

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Past-Melanie-Robertson-King/dp/0983801886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344434406&sr=1-1

Amazon.co.uk:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Past-Melanie-Robertson-King/dp/0983801886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344434484&sr=1-1

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-shadow-in-the-past-melanie-robertson-king/1112348992?ean=9780983801887

ChaptersIndigo: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/A-Shadow-In-The-Past-Melanie-Robertson-king/9780983801887-item.html?ikwid=a+shadow+in+the+past&ikwsec=Home

Publisher: 4RV Publishing LLC
Author Website: http://www.melanierobertson-king.com/
Author Blog: Celtic Connexions http://www.melanierobertson-king.com/wp02/
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melanie-Robertson-King/221018701298979
Twitter Account: @RobertsoKing https://twitter.com/#!/RobertsoKing