A Scottish story

Many years ago, I was invited to submit a story to an anthology of Scottish Romance. It was supposed to be a maximum of 12,000 words long, but as usual, I went a little over and submitted mine at 15,000 words. I was willing to cut it, but the publisher said that was fine.

Readers said they liked my little story, but many also said it was too short and they would love to read more, so,  having got my rights to it back, I decided to extend the story. But then I got busy with my Berkley books and the little Scottish story languished, almost forgotten.

I don’t normally write Scottish romance, but my family on my dad’s side is Scots and I had learned to recite the Selkirk Grace before meals long before I laid eyes on Scotland.

The Selkirk Grace:
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be Thankit!

Then when I was between 7 and 8, we went to live in Scotland, just for a year, for Dad’s work, and I soon developed a love of All Things Scottish. I returned to Australia speaking with a strong Scots accent, as did my siblings. Partly that came about because when your group of little Scots friends fall suddenly silent when you speak with your “funny” accent, you soon learn to fit it. <g>

And reading through this story again, I realize I’ve picked up a bit of a Scots cadence to my character’s dialogue — I hope not too much. I’m going to send it to a few readers to see if they think it’s too much.

I have a cover, and the story, so as soon as I have all my ducks in a row, I’ll publish it. I’ll let you all know when it’s up.

So what do you think? Do you like the cover? Would you read a Scottish romance?