Author Interview: Maggie Craig
JMR-Welcome to the Books Delight, Maggie. Tell our readers
where you live, what you do for fun and what does the perfect day look like?
MC-I live in a tiny village in north-east Scotland. There are
22 houses set around the picturesque remains of an old kirk that was a ruin
before the Reformation. The recumbent stone form of Tom o’ Daugh, a mediaeval
knight, still lies in a niche in the remaining wall with his stone dog at his
feet. He’s been there for 800 years and more and he’s a wee touch worn away but
you can still make out most of him, including his sword and sword belt. For fun
I like to write – on a day when the words are flowing! – read, be outside in
the fresh air enjoying the scenery, the flowers and the song of the birds. I
love to take photographs of nature too. A perfect day would be a good morning’s
writing followed by lunch with friends and family. A trip to the beach is
always a great pleasure. I love the sea.
JMR-What’s your favorite historical time period? Why?
MC-The Jacobite Rising of 1745, the final attempt by the
Jacobites and the House of Stuart to regain the throne of Britain from the
House of Hanover. I think it has everything: drama, honour, betrayal, love and
friendship across the political divide, colourful characters who lived their
lives with great passion. The ’45 also played out against the spectacular
grandeur of the Highlands and in the cobbled streets and narrow closes of
Edinburgh, so the backdrop is fantastic. I love everything about this period,
including the way the men and women of the time dressed.
JMR-Who is your favorite historical figure? Why? If you could
ask them one question, what would it be?
MC-Not sure I have a favorite historical figure. I’m not one
for kings and queens, much prefer to read and write about the so-called
ordinary people of history. My favorite heroine from Jacobite times is Anne
Leith, at the time a young widow with a schoolboy son. She and two other women
went out to Culloden from Inverness as soon as they heard of the defeat of
Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army, taking bandages with them. They did everything
they could to help the wounded. Anne carried that through afterwards by tending
to the Jacobite prisoners in Inverness and demanding that they receive humane
treatment. She landed in hot water because of that. I might ask her if she would
do it all again, only I’m absolutely sure she would have!
JMR- How did you come to be a writer of historical fiction?
MC-I’ve always been interested in history and the past has
always seemed very close, separated from our own modern world by a very thin
curtain. With research and imagination you can draw that curtain to one side
and look back into the past. I started off writing humorous articles for
newspapers but it wasn’t long before I started to write historical pieces as
well. Whenever I visit a new place, I always want to know not only what it’s
like now but also what it was like back then.
JMR- Maggie, tell us about your new book, Dance to the Storm
and your Storm Series.
MC-Dance to the Storm grew from a piece of
free-writing. I sat down with a sheet of paper and a pencil and before I knew
where I was, I was in 18th century Edinburgh with a party of the
Town Guard, the police force of the time, on their way to mount a raid on an
illegal dissection. I quickly realized this was only an excuse to come down
hard on one of Edinburgh’s suspected Jacobite plotters. Redcoat Captain Robert
Catto has been given the assignment of trying to flush them out into the open.
He also has personal reasons to hate Jacobites. He soon meets Christian
Rankeillor, surgeon-apothecary’s daughter and passionate supporter of the
Stuart Cause. Robert and Kirsty clash but the mutual attraction is there right
from the beginning. So there’s a love story, political intrigue and all sorts
of other complications. These include Robert and Kirsty working together to
help two young runaways, fleeing from brutality and perpetual servitude in the
coalfields of East Lothian. A writing friend describes my Storm books as “historical
fiction with a strong historical backbone” and I do my very best to make them
that.
JMR- You also wrote a pair of nonfiction books about the
Jacobite Rising. Why do think this rebellion still resonates with readers?
MC-In Scotland, we learn our own history at home. I was still
in primary/elementary school when my father took me to Culloden. We stood by
the memorial cairn in the centre of the battlefield and he told me the story
with tears in his eyes. Culloden is like an open wound which has never fully
healed. I think that sense of melancholy and lament speaks to people from all
countries who think and feel deeply about the past. I worked for several years
as a Blue Badge Scottish Tourist Guide, showing mainly German and
German-speaking visitors around Scotland. At Culloden one time, a German man
said to me: “You make it sound as though it happened yesterday.” To which I
answered: “For us, it did.”
JMR- Did you visit anyone of the places in your book? Where
did you feel closest to your characters?
MC-Well, Culloden many times of course, with its very special
atmosphere. The Storm over Scotland series is set in Edinburgh. I love the
place and have spent a lot of time there. A large part of my book One Sweet
Moment is set in Edinburgh’s underground vaults, where you can still see
stone benches the right height for children to work at. Thinking of young
children working long days there shut away from fresh air and sunlight inspired
young Andrew Dunbar in that book. The old physic garden also features strongly
in One Sweet Moment. It vanished a long time ago under Waverley station,
Edinburgh’s main railway terminus but there’s a plaque to recall where it was.
I’ve often gone there and imagined myself away from the hustle and bustle of
trains and passengers and back to the physic garden.
Gathering Storm was inspired by wandering about the Old Town of Edinburgh
and walking down narrow closes where history is awaiting around every shadowy
corner. I find it very easy to see my characters in my mind’s eye, be it the
swirl of a cloak or the dull gleam of a drawn sword. And I can almost hear the
rustle of petticoats.
JMR-What projects do you have in the pipeline?
MC- I’m currently writing the third book in the Storm series:
Storm Tossed Moon. A fourth book is in the planning, at the end of which
Robert and Kirsty’s story will be resolved – one way or the other!
JMR- Tell our readers how to find you on social media and the
web.
MC-I have a website and I’m also on Twitter and Pinterest.
@CraigMaggie
(Pinterest) Maggie Craig Scottish Writer
JMR- What question were you hoping I’d ask but didn’t?
MC-Maybe about what it’s like to write both fiction and non-fiction. They exercise different writing muscles but they often complement each other. For example, Damn Rebel Bitches and Bare-Arsed Banditti grew out of research for a novel. Last year I published One Week in April: The Scottish Radical Rising of 1820. I did lots of research and visited the places where dramatic events had happened. Three of the Radicals were hanged as a punishment for fighting for freedom and democracy and I find I’m still thinking about them. There might just be a novel brewing!
JMR- Thank you, Maggie for stopping by. I have added your book to my TBR pile! Readers, I've include a link to Amazon if you'd like to check out Maggie's writing.
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