Border Wedding, Border Lass, and Border Moonlight all began
with a legend from Scott family historyβ¦the legend of Muckle-Mouth
Meg. Meg was Meg Murray, who was supposedly one of the homeliest women in
the Borders. Legend perpetuated by Sir Walter Scott the poet, among others, was
that the son of famous reiver Wat Scott of Harden was trying to steal cattle
from one Jagan Murray, a neighbor, when he got caught. Murray supposedly gave
Will Scott the choice of hanging or marrying Meg. So, thatβs where I started.
But the first thing I discovered in my research was that the man involved was
not Will Scott of Harden. Negotiations for Willβs marriage to his wife Agnes
are well documented as being long and amiable.
The discovery was no great shock to me, as I have done family history for years
and learned long since that the best known anecdotes frequently donβt involve
the people to whom they have been attached, or even that generation. So, I
began looking for other possible couples in the line, and came up with another
Sir Walter Scott 200 years earlier, whose wife was unknown. Lo and behold, the
history of the Scottish Borders at the time he would have married was almost
exactly the same as it was at the end of 16th century. The most powerful Border
lord at the end of the 14th century had issued the exact same order to βend
reivingβ that was issued in Will Hardenβs time. Itβs the kind of thing that
gives historians goose bumps.
From there, I simply endowed Meg Murray with two sisters and a brother and
marched on. My Wat Scott of Buccleuch and Rankilburn is based on the real Sir
Walter Scott of that Ilk. Creating a love story between two people based on an
incident where the woman was forced into marriage as much as the man was (and
to a man who first said heβd rather hang, at that) provided a juicy challenge.
I added a few more challenges of my own for the next two books in the course of
the first. Iβd love to hear from people who read the books or might be
interested in reading them, and anyone else who might have comments to make.
Amanda Scott
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Amanda, great post! I love reading where authors get their ideas from. I am real big into historicals, they are my favorite read. I love reading the history behind them. You series sounds wonderful! (Gail Hurt 11:58am February 25, 2009)
Hi, folks! Always great to meet readers who enjoy history. I feel the same way about it that Sara does, in that I no sooner read some interesting bit than my imagination goes into full swing. When I was writing Regencies, I read a bit in an early 19th century edition of the London Times about a little girl who had been frightened by a witch while walking in woods near her home. That one developed into a whole book. On the other hand, when readers ask me where I get my ideas, I'm often tempted to use Stephen King's favorite reply: Cleveland. (Amanda Scott 2:50pm February 25, 2009)
I liked your blog. HR is my #1 fav genre. I really like when the true time history is included - I learn new things that way. I have several of your books in my TBR and now having read this bit I will go get to reading them! (Martha Eskuchen 5:43pm February 25, 2009)
Thanks, Martha! I hope you and Gail and Sara all take a look at the Border trilogy. I have a thing about getting the history right and making the characters fit their time and place, then weaving it together so the reader feels as if he or she is there. I always welcome comments, even complaints. There is an email link on my website, and I love hearing from readers. Also, if anyone is interested in receiving cover-art postcard announcements of my future books, just let me know. The mailing list is my own, and I print the labels, so you won't get a bunch of junk mail. The publisher is thinking of changing to e-postcards, so if you have any comments on that, I'd like to hear them. (Amanda Scott 6:10pm February 25, 2009)
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