To Gaelic or not to Gaelic...

I've been taking a great online class through Celtic Hearts Romance Writers on the clan system and one of the recurring topics (as happens quite a bit in Scottish romance classes) is the correct terminology of "xyz" for "xyz" period. If it's before 1600 in the Highlands, usually that means its a Gaelic word.


Now here's the funny timing issue on this. Right now I'm going through the copy edits for Highland Warrior (it's so nice to have a title!) and my editor must have circled every other Gaelic word I used--meaning she wanted me to get rid of it--and I don't think I use that many. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of defining the term in context, but I guess maybe not. I basically use Gaelic for the clothing (i.e. Breacan Feile or Arisaidh) and smatter in other "local" words for flavor (i.e. birlinn; yett; barmkin).

But with each book the Gaelic gets less and less. Why? Because I think the words trip up most people other than the hard core Scottish fans and that last thing an author wants is a frustrated reader. So occasionally, this might mean I use a Scots word or English word for something (i.e. Whisky or Laird).

I thought I'd see whether you guys agree...Do you like to see Gaelic in your Scottish romances? A smattering or the more the merrier?

An Exciting Week of Sports

So I did something this weekend in between kid activities and father's day that I rarely do anymore--veg out in front of the TV and watch sports. It wasn't so long ago that this wasn't such a rarity. I used to watch quite a bit of golf, football, basketball and occasionally tennis.

You'll notice I left out baseball. That's the one sport that I do watch regularly--we subscribe to the MLB package on Direct TV so most nights I'm watching the Red Sox at dinner. It's nice because when my husband flies back to do TV work for NESN (the Red Sox station), I can watch him.

It's not that I don't like to watch sports anymore, but frankly I just don't have the time to spend a few hours in front of the TV. But this past week/weekend I was caught up in the frenzy. I happened to turn on game 4 of the Celtics/Laker game right before the Celtics started their big comeback. Then it was Tiger. Isn't he amazing? Saturday was one of the most exciting rounds of golf I've ever watched--of course I had to watch Sunday (and part of Monday, too). Stanford (where my husband and I went to school) is also playing the College World Series so we've been watching part of those games. See what I mean?

What about you...do you enjoy watching sports on TV? Any team you follow religiously?

Just a Quick Heads Up!

Hope you saw the update on my website, but I have titles (finally!) for my next trilogy. Drumroll please . . .

Highland Warrior (Jamie Campbell's story)
Highland Outlaw (Elizabeth Campbell's story)
Highland Scoundrel (Duncan Campbell's story)

As you can probably tell, I ran out of "un" words. LOL. I'm still waiting for covers, but I hope to see those very soon. It will be hard to beat the first series, but the art department at Ballantine is amazing so you never know.

I literally just got the titles and yet when I checked Amazon a few minutes ago . . . low and behold the first two are aleady up for pre-sale (thus the link). Amazing. Not quite as exciting as seeing that first book listed for sale, but pretty darn close.

Have a great weekend everyone!