Hebrides Stories

Storms at sea. Heartbreak on land. Sally meets Dermid on a tall ship sailing across the Atlantic and is drawn to him, despite what she considers to be his unfortunate passion for bagpipes. However, their tentative romance ends badly. She feels guilty and he feels betrayed, and they part in hurt, angry silence. Despite what happened on the ship, Sally can’t forget Dermid, although when she takes a job on a Scottish island she claims that the fact he lives on a nearby island has nothing to do with it. Not a thing. On the Isle of Lewis, city girl Sally runs head-on into small-town Scotland, complete with inquisitive neighbours and more things tartan than she had ever imagined existed. When her job ends, Sally must choose between building a life with Dermid or returning to her carefree, wandering ways. Someone from Dermid’s past sparks a crisis that sends Sally fleeing back to London -- and may tear them apart forever. And could she ever learn to love the bagpipes? Set against the tempestuous North Atlantic and the windswept beauty of the Hebrides, ‘Ship to Shore’ is a story of two people who must learn to trust their feelings, and to trust each other.

Fleeing from his family and trying to make his fiancée remember her past, Angus is forced to come back home when gruesome and sudden news reach him. Soon he realises his mother's death wasn't a mere suicide and that whoever did this, might hold the cure to his bride's ailment. Heir to the shady business, entangled with the underground, Angus soon discovers that the past roots deeper than expected and brings more than one young man can handle...

They only harm those who sin against the sea... Cordelia Parker, an oil company spokeswoman, has never believed in magic, despite her late mother's fanciful stories. Then, during an oil spill in Scotland's mysterious Minch, her reality is shattered when she stumbles upon a merman in a hidden cave. Even more shocking, she feels the same soul-level connection to him she felt for the ocean before it claimed both her parents. A fish out of water in his sexist culture, Cuan feels a powerful attraction to Cordelia, but, because she knows what he is, he is duty-bound to kill her. If humankind discovers the Blue Men of the Minch are real, they will destroy them the way they destroy the ocean, whose abundance belongs at once to all and none. Thus, the only way he can have a life with her is to prove she is more than she appears, trust her with his secrets, and give up his undersea world. With so many obstacles to overcome, they will need a miracle to be together...or maybe just a splash of ancient island magic. The whole novel is available on Amazon: Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CXBRSA8 Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Sins-Against-Sea-Nina-Mason/dp/1530539846

This piece isn't fiction, though it speaks in the voice of story. It's a remembrance - for a people, a language, and a landscape that survived centuries of conquest and silence. My bloodline traces through those hills and borders, through families who lost their homes, their words, and their songs - yet somehow kept the flame alive. Celtic culture has too often been turned into costume, myth into merchandise. This writing is my way of giving it back its heartbeat. Every name, every god, every season we once marked with fire still belongs to us. May this be read not as bitterness, but as love - fierce, remembering love. For those who were silenced, and for those still learning to speak again. We are not relics. We are flame. And the flame still speaks our names.

He left the band but the music never left him, there's nothing like going home to realise there are some things you can't walk away from. A Runrig song fic. - Although characters portrayed herein are obviously real people, scenarios described are not based on facts, purely my interpretation of how things could have been. I am a massive fan of Donnie & Runrig and have written about them with the highest respect and love of their work. Lyrics are used under the fair use exception to the British copyright law. Fair dealing is governed by Sections 29 and 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. https://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/articles/fair-use-copyright-explained# - The title is from "The Cutter", about a native of Skye who moved away but still returns to the island regularly. More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHh0X2TPaQ&ab_channel=MissFlowerOfScotland - Every Chapter title is the name of two songs in chronological order, with the exception of Runrig's Play Gaelic(1978) and Donnie's Gaelic Heart(2003). I left these out as these albums are in Gaidhlig and although I am learning the language I don't know enough to be able to translate, I feel they aren't my words to use. The lyrics used are from the songs named in the titles. Lyrics used 1973-1999 are copyright of Calum & Rory McDonald, those used from 1999-2006 are copyright of Donnie Munro. Chapter 1 Going Home-Highland Connection(1979) Nightfall on Marsco-Recovery(1981) Chapter 2 Skye-Heartland(1985) The Cutter-Cutter And The Clan(1987) Chapter 3 City Of Lights-Searchlight(1989) I'll Keep Coming Home-Big Wheel(1991) Chapter 4 Song Of The Earth-Amazing Things(1993) Things That Are-Mara(1995) Chapter 5 All Things Must Change-In Search Of Angels(1999)(1st Runrig album without Donnie) Fields Of The Young-On The West Side(1999)(Donnie's Solo Album) Chapter 6(Donnie's Solo Albums) Highland Heart-Across The City And The World(2002) Winds Of Our Time-Heart Of America(2006)

A relaying of years amongst an island population seen through the eyes of an incomer, looking beyond our daily fears to find the people inside the house of cards we all live in. The story told in poems and short prose is featured on my weekly blog.