April 6 was National Tartan Day. Though I’ve s-l-o-w-l-y come to embrace my sister’s research that showed our lineage is Scottish, not Irish, which I was told all my life, information given to me by my college running buddy Kathy about Thomas Cochrane, tenth earl of Dundonald, whose burial place she saw at Westminster Abbey, helped pique my interest. You can see a little of the Cochrane tartan on that button.
And you can see how that interest in our Scottish side led me to this. I still keep these dolls in their kilts on display in the writing sanctuary every day. Muses.
I misdated this post so it published on Saturday instead of Sunday. I went back and put my actual Saturday post where it was supposed to be, corrected this one to April 7, and noted that National Tartan Day was April 6. Computers and me sometimes…
Perhaps you should fly over and see the production of Macbeth I am currently rehearsing..?
It wouldn’t surprise me if I have some Scottish blood somewhere way back. My father’s side of the family came from the North West of England and the region changed hands through history.
Maybe…we are relatives back there somewhere. Wouldn’t that be a lovely discovery?
Cousin Becky!
True story. When I first got online and found the chat room where I met Timothy, Jim, Timmy, and Rhonda, most of us didn’t know last names, and many of us used screen names, so we might not even know first names.
Such was the case with another person I met in that room, who lives in the southwest. I learned his first name relatively soon, and sometime later, because he found out I’d lived in Alabama, he said his father’s family was from there. He told me his last name. It’s one of our family names. I can’t exactly remember the details, but I believe we figured out that my great-grandfather and his great-great grandfather were brothers. We’ve been Cousin Ron and Cousin Becky since. Tim and I once met up with him and his best gal pal in Dallas, and he also came to visit us at The Compound.
I find it incredible how these coincidences crop up in life.
I need to find a chat room like the one where you connected to so many good and creative people. Who knows – I could be part of a writing team by now?! It would certainly give me the motivation I struggle with.
I know both my mother and Marika found writing groups to meet with. They shared their writing and discussed one another’s stories and writing in general. It’s tricky. I think it’s a trial and error thing. Sometimes people can damage your confidence because they have their own issues and agendas and project them into your writing. (I found this out with beta readers, too.)
But if you can find the right people, feedback can definitely encourage and motivate you.