CaptainPig: Blog

I wanted to update those of you waiting on the next chapter of Sàmhach. I know it has been too long since I got something posted.

My mother has just celebrated 95 years of life by having her pacemaker replaced and then being hospitalized for pneumonia twice in just over a month's time. As you can imagine, this has kept my two sisters and I very busy.

Fortunately, my normal sister has been able both times to travel from her home in Florida to help out with dealing with the hospitals, doctors and aftercare. I am extremely grateful that she was able to do this as my autism makes this sort of thing extremely difficult for me to manage by myself.

My other sister traveled from her home and spent three weeks 'helping' and driving my mother and I both to distraction.

Suffice it to say, things are finally beginning to get back to normal. I am letting Chapter 10 cook for another day before I do the final edit and post it. Chapter 11 is fully outlined, partly drafted and I have it working in the back of my head and hope to have it up before Labor Day.

I have taken down Chapter 1 and replaced it with a new Prologue and a revised Chapter 1. Hopefully, this will make things a little easier to read. I am adding a glossary with pronunciations and definitions to the beginning of each chapter where new words and names appear.

My wife just got all over my case for using Scottish Gaelic names and words in this story. She's complaining that they are too hard to spell and impossible to pronounce. She has a point, but I told her that if she combed her hair differently, it wouldn't show. (I really did, but I hope she doesn't see this)
I haven't yet reached the point in the story where all of the history and back story come out, but I will eventually. More on that later. Still trying to decide if I should add it as a prologue or fit it in to the regular narrative, probably as school lessons and holiday speeches. I am thinking more the latter than the former. Comment if you have an opinion. I promise to consider all suggestions.
I have Ulster Scots and German ancestry on my mother's side of the family and Nordic (Swedish, Danish and Norwegian) ancestry on my father's side. I wanted to use that, but I suppose that I may have gone just a teensy bit overboard with the Scottish Gaelic. I'm not going to stop using it, but I will start showing pronunciation and meanings of the words and names in parenthesis if they are not familiar or clear and obvious. For example Sàm is pronounced 'Sam' and hach is like 'hatch' without the t sound.
I will do this with the German, Icelandic and other Nordic words also when they eventually appear.

I just realized that I posted a draft instead of the final edited version of the chapter. As soon as I can get my filing system straight, I will repost the correct version. My apologies to all.

Posting the first chapter of something new for me. I hope you like it.
The first few chapters are complete or partially written and I have about 30 chapters in outline. I will try to get a chapter up every week or so, but can't promise. I am autistic, have ADHD and some health issues. As well, my mother is 95 years old and will be having surgery to replace her pacemaker in the near future.