Why Highlanders? By Terry Spear

My friend Terry Spear has a new historical romance which just released, so I asked her to guest blog. Welcome Terry!

Thanks so much for having me!

I'd love to give an autographed free copy of Winning the Highlander's Heart to a lucky winner who comments on today's blog. The cover will not be the same featured. The Accidental Highland Hero is the second in the Medieval Highland romance.

Why Highlanders? My great grandmother was in love with all things Scots, which I inherited from her! She was the descendant of a proud Highlander, Malcolm MacNeill, who worked for the Duke of Argyll. His daughter, who might have been born on the other side of the sheets, Elizabeth Campbell, was still considered a lady, and ran off with her love, the commoner MacNeill. It's a true life love story in Scotland where a woman would give up her wealth and rank to be with the Highlander she loved. The Duke was said to have offered the proud MacNeill as much land as he could walk in a day, but MacNeill wouldn't have it. Instead, he bought passage to the Americas, to North Carolina, only the ship was sailed by Cpt MacDonald, whose father was the minister in the Campbeltown kirk, and one of the captain's brothers owned land in Prince Edward Island, where he was having a difficult time getting settlers to settle the wilderness.

So the story goes, Cpt MacDonald took the Highlanders to PEI instead of North Carolina, wrecked the ship, and though the settlers refused for sometime to go ashore, they finally had to find food and water. Indians on the land showed the settlers how to hunt for seal or they would have died during the harsh winter without homes to shelter them. Elizabeth Campbell died, leaving behind three small children. One was my direct ancestor, a 6 or 7 year old boy, another older boy by about 9, and a very young girl. The girl and my direct ancestor were raised by different families and then married into those families. All were have said to have come from Scotland on the same ship that mine had traveled on. It was said that Elizabeth had taken furs and jewels with her and used these to barter with the Indians.

My grandmother and others in the family felt Elizabeth had let the family down by leaving her home in Scotland for a life and hardship in PEI, in which she didn't survive for long. When the Duke's family eventually had no issue to carry on the title, my grandmother and great grandmother were visited by Scotland Yard as they were searching for the family Bibles that would prove their claim that they were descendants of the earlier Duke. A family who was more distantly related was able to prove their tie and claimed the title and estates. :)

And so that's why I love the Highland Scots. Because sometime in the distant past, my mother's family were from Scotland, both tied to the commoners and royalty too. Love bloomed between them and though it didn't have an entirely happy ending, for a while, Elizabeth and Malcolm were lovers united.

My Playfairs are of Scotland also, and the eldest son was a brilliant scientist, another a famous architect, and another, the one I'm directly descended from also brilliant (inventing the bar and circle graphs we studied in school) and a scoundrel too (blackmailing a duke over the legitimacy of a couple of children the duke claimed were his own, and Playfair claimed were not).

I salute our rich history, no matter where we're from and continue to write about Scottish scoundrels in fictional books of romance, passion, adventure and mystery.

If you'd been the Duke's daughter, would you have run off with a man you loved, or waited for someone who had money and title? When I've asked this before, some have said they want both, but that's too easy, and ye must choose one or the other. :)

Thanks again for having me here! May all your historical readings give you pleasure, take you into worlds you can only dream about, and satisfy your quest for love and truth.

Terry Spear

Bio:
Award-winning author of urban fantasy and medieval historical romantic suspense, Terry Spear also writes true stories for adult and young adult audiences and loves all things Celtic because of her Scottish and Irish ancestry where true love flowered in the Scottish Highlands and in Ireland . She’s a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and has an MBA from Monmouth University. She also creates award-winning teddy bears, Wilde & Woolly Bears, to include personalized bears designed to commemorate authors’ books. When she’s not writing or making bears, she’s teaching online writing courses. Originally from California, she’s lived in eight states and now resides in the heart of Texas. She is the author of Heart of the Wolf (Publishers Weekly's Best Book of the Year), Destiny of the Wolf, To Tempt the Wolf, Legend of the White Wolf, Seduced by the Wolf, Winning the Highlander’s Heart, The Accidental Highland Hero, Deadly Liaisons, The Vampire… In My Dreams (young adult) and numerous articles and short stories for magazines.

The Accidental Highland Hero
ISBN: 978-0-9819896-6-2

Lady Ellis Dunbarton didn't think life could get any worse, until her loving cousin dies and Ellis learns she is to wed the man her cousin was to marry. Not by a change of contract, though. Instead, by deceit. If he learns she is not her cousin, Agnes, her life is forfeit. Crossing the Irish Sea, her ship sinks, she survives, but temporarily loses her memories. When a Highland Clan takes her in, she remembers one thing. She must flee at all costs and disappear. She knows if her family learns of her whereabouts, her life is over.

James MacNeill must take a bride or give up his holdings to one of
his younger brothers. Malcolm has already taken to wife, the fair Lady Anice of Brecken. Dougald is the next one in line to govern the MacNeill Clan if James does not wed and provide an heir. But when James discovers his cousin and advisor have rescued a half-drowned lass from the sea, there's speculation she is of the enemy clan. Returning her to them is his plan, since he has no intention of using one of their lasses as a bargaining tool. But his mother has another notion--use the lass as a means to entice one of the ladies he is interested in marrying, to visit him and commit to marriage. And then return her to her clan, if she is agreeable.

Only nothing works out as anyone plans.

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Please check out Terry's websites:
www.terryspear.com
Wickedly Romantic Blog
Casablanca Authors Blog
Fierce Romance Blog
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Shapeshifter Romance

Terry Spear's Blog