Dear Reader…
Welcome to the fourteenth century, to a world of mysteries
and miracles, to Scotland’s
thin places! It’s a world that proves truth really is stranger than fiction.
Or, as people say—you can’t make this
stuff up!
The truth is, apart from Shawn falling through time, I made
up very little of The Water is Wide. There’s the part, for instance,
where Shawn and Niall visit the Eildon Hills, in a half-hearted hope that Shawn
will be somehow whisked away to his own time, here on the site where, Niall
says, a Fairy Queen appeared to Thomas the Rhymer.
I didn’t make up the Fairy Queen or Thomas, and if history
is to be believed, neither did anyone else. Thomas himself existed. He was the
laird of Erceldoune, who prophesied the King Alexander’s death and the
devastation it would bring on Scotland.
The ruins of his home can be seen in Earlston,
Scotland. More
intriguingly, history tells us that he, a man unable to lie, claimed as truth
that a Fairy Queen took him to her realm for three days. The world says he was
missing for seven years.
Iona is called ‘a thin place’ by
many—a place where unexplained things may happen, where worlds may overlap.
Traveling there in search of answers, Amy learns from Angus a wild story of St.
Columbkille attempting to build his chapel there in the sixth century. A voice
told him it would not stand until a man was buried alive under its foundations.
As the walls continued to fall down each night, his companion, Oran,
volunteered.
Let us hope this is only legend! But it is a legend that has
been told for centuries.
Vampires? Amy meets a much more corporeal threat when she
and Shawn’s mother travel to Melrose
with her newborn son. On their way, they discuss the legend of the vampire said
to lurk the grounds where Bruce’s heart is buried.
What is so fascinating about this story is the source. It is
relayed as history by William of Newburgh, a Canon of an Augustinian Priory, in
his twelfth century Historia Rerum Anglicarum.
The fifth book of this work contains a full three chapters
on vampires. Newburgh remarks with surprise that such stories are not found in
ancient writings for, he says, were he to write down all such instances which
he has ‘ascertained to have befallen’ in his time, it would be a great,
laborious chore.
The best known of his accounts concerns a priest of Melrose,
known as the Hundeprest, or dog priest, for his worldly ways. After his death, Newburgh
says, the Hundeprest tormented a woman of his association, in her bedchamber,
with groans and ‘horrible murmurs.’
On hearing her story and request for prayer, four friars
took up watch over the Hundeprest’s grave. When midnight
came and went, three clerics left. It was then the Hundeprest rose from his
grave and attacked the lone man, who struck the corpse with an ax. The thing
fled back into its tomb.
The three other clerics came running back and as dawn came,
dug up the corpse. On it, they saw the wound left by the ax.
Believe it...or not? As strange as it is, it is equally
curious to believe four clerics would make up such a story and that it
would be attested to by a fifth. Surely William would have questioned the lady
and clerics, his contemporaries, before writing it as history.
In less mysterious realms and adventures, Shawn and Niall
are found out while spying on the English in Carlisle. I
hate to give away spoilers about how they get out of a walled city whose gates
have been closed and guarded—so I will say this:
I had a lot of fun with their escape! The punch lines wrote
themselves! And much as the avenue may seem too convenient—something the author
made up to write Shawn and Niall out of an impossible situation—no, in fact,
what is convenient is that archaeologists kindly discovered this unique feature
of the Black Friars monastery of medieval Carlisle about ten months before I
needed it! Yes, the place really does exist, exactly where Shawn and Niall,
given their disguise, would need it!
I could have made it up. But I wouldn’t have because it
would have been almost too much to believe. And yet—it is true!
Dear Reader, let me close by saying, the world is a
mysterious and amazing place and a big part of my joy and fun and amazement in
writing has been all the mysterious and amazing stories I’ve learned of Scotland,
a place of mysteries and miracles!
I hope that you not only enjoy the story itself, but fall in
love, as I have, with the amazing history that is the backdrop to The Water
is Wide.
Love,
Laura Vosika
About the Author
She
has been featured in newspapers, on radio, and TV, has spoken for regional book
events, and hosted the radio program Books and Brews. She currently
teaches writing at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
As a musician, Laura has performed as on
trombone, flute, and harp, in orchestras, and big bands. She lives in Brooklyn
park with 5 of her 9 children, 3 cats, and an Irish
Wolfhound.
Her latest book is the time
travel/historical fiction, The Water is
Wide.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
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About the Book:
After his failure to escape back
to his own time, Shawn is sent with Niall on the Bruce’s business.
Returning from the Bruce’s
business, to Glenmirril, Shawn finally meets the mysterious Christina. Despite
his vow to finally be faithful to Amy, his feelings for Christina grow.
In modern Scotland,
having already told Angus she’s pregnant, Amy must now tell him Shawn is alive
and well—in medieval Scotland.
Together, they seek a way to bring him back across time.
They are pursued by Simon
Beaumont, esteemed knight in the service of King Edward, has also passed
between times. Having learned that Amy’s son will kill him—he seeks to kill the
infant James first.
The book concludes with
MacDougall’s attack on Glenmirril, Amy and Angus’s race to be there and Shawn’s
attempt to reach the mysterious tower through the battling armies.
Watch the Trailer:
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