Category Archives: Romancing the plaid
The Ultimate Itinerary for a Scottish Road Trip
Our five week research trip to Scotland
Part One – Leicester – Strathclyde
In the past, when we travelled to Scotland with the caravan, we left Leicester at 4 AM to pass through the M6 Toll Road and take advantage of the preferential rate negotiated by the Caravan and Motorhome Club. Sadly, those days have gone, and it now costs sixteen pounds to travel on the toll road. The toll is now fully automated, so with a quick flick of the debit card, we were on to our first stop – Tebay Services, Westmorland. We were eager to hit the road because Storm Floris was waiting for us over the border.
We love stopping at Tebay services (if only for farmshop, cafe and restaurant). It’s rather strange when you first arrive, because the caravan site is almost deserted. However, as evening approaches, it quickly fills up. It reminded us of the time we travelled to Greece (with only a fishing tent to sleep in!) when campers belted through the former Yugoslavia (avoiding Albania) to reach Greece as quickly as possible. In those days there were queues at the bakery and bread and other supplies quickly ran out. It gave us a taste of what life would be like under a communist regime and it wasn’t very appealing. So, next morning, fuelled by a Cumberland sausage cob (!) and a cappoucino we set off to go head-to-head with Storm Floris.
We crossed the border without incident and, as usual, my heart was full as I remembered everything my family (mum, dad, granny, uncle, four kids and an alsatian) left behind when my father moved south in search of work in the sixties. But I didn’t have time to dwell on it because as soon as we were on the M74, Storm Floris made her presence known. Here, the land flattens out and the wind whips across from the west even on a good day. Soon the caravan was being buffeted by gale force winds and Dave slipped into four wheel drive as spray rose from the road making driving difficult.
At this point in the journey I usually recite Young Lochinvar (one of my fav poems) coming “out of the west”, but the driving conditions were so scary I held my wheesht. I’m sure Dave was grateful for that. In fact, the weather was so apalling, that the CAMH warden at Hamilton rang us to ask if we were still intent on camping there. We were told to come straight in and not to wait until 1pm, as was usual. I was grateful to arrive in one piece and told Dave (not for the first time) that he was a hero, even though his cape was packed in an overhead locker along with the spare towels.
The weather eventually calmed down and the caravan was no longer in any danger of aquaplaning across the motorway. We left the ‘bra’ [which protects the large front window from damage] in place as we were moving on the next day and wanted a quick getaway.
The next day, August the 5th, would have been my mother’s 97th birthday and we decided to make a pilgrimage to Craigneuk via Motherwell to visit the house where I was born. Last time we visited, an elderly lady came out and asked if she could help. She brought me up to date on some of the families I’d grown up with. Sadly, she didn’t appear this time, so we took as many photos as we could and returned to the van.
It was quite emotional standing before my old home and remembering growing up in that cul-de-sac. Back in the fifties, children played without adult supervision and pavements were marked with chalk drawings and peever beds. Although the road was now empty I could recall the children who lived there: Wallaces, Smileys, Bunces, Parkes and my many cousins. Along with the other girls I would sit on the back doorstep and write little tales and poems to read back to each other.
Then, one Christmas I was given a Petite typewriter and my writing career began . . .
It seems strange to think that the Ravenscraig Steel works was – quite literally – in our back garden. We never paid it much heed, concentrating instead on renacting the movies we saw in Saturday cinema in each other’s back gardens: The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Rob Roy and my particular favourite The Ghost Goes West. The works were demolished in 1996 and a new town – Ravenscraig, built there instead. On the last evening we visited it, but there were no ghosts waiting for me, nor a sense of what had been.
One of the eponymous Ravenscraig boilers, me as a “wean”and with grannie. Looking down Meadowhead Road and remembering . . .
I hope you’ve enjoyed the first instalment in our five week trip around Scotland; we covered two thousand miles researching #3 in the Dark Skies Trilogy. I daren’t look at the petrol receipts bcause towing a twenty-five foot caravan guzzles up the gas.
Next time, we travel onwards through the Trossachs to Barcaldine near Oban where we stayed in a romantic campsite situated in a Victorian walled garden.
In the meantime, do check out the first two books in the series and my other novels which are FREE to download on kindle unlimited. You can also read them on your kindle or purchase a paperback. Signed copies of the paperbacks are also available; please leave a message in the “comments” and I’ll get back to you.
….and remember – if you’ve enjoyed this post please like/share/reblog and leave a comment
Caravanning and researching!
Back in the day my husband bought a ‘secret caravan’ off eBay for £300 because he was not sure I would take to the caravanning life. Talk about ‘ducks to water.’ We are now on caravan #5 (a Bailey Cartagena) which is 25 feet long, has a dedicated bathroom and a fixed double bed. A real home from home. Caravanning is ideal because we can combine research, writing away-from-home and having a fun time.
As you can see, its quite a big ‘van’ and I don’t travel light. Call me crazy but I don’t like staying in hotels (at least, not the ones I can afford), so the van suits us down to the ground.
At home, I have a study overlooking the garden. I have had a writing room/study since we married in 1973 and, occasionally, I allow my husband to enter, but he must knock first and wait for me to say: ‘Ye-es?’ before entering. Just kidding. To be fair, he brings me coffee and biscuits to fuel my writing sprints or, in the winter, a stiff gin and tonic and cashews nuts. Spoiled? Most definitely. But he knows that when I am writing I’ll leave him alone to get on with his ‘projects’. (mostly servicing his fleet of classic cars, if you really want to know.)
When we are at the caravan, I write at the pull out ‘card table’ or at a big table in the awning. The caravan is fully equipped, but – as I said above, I do not travel light . . . I take my iPhone (natch) printer/scanner, dongle, MacBook Air, packs of paper etc. I have commandeered one of the drawers at the front of the caravan as a dedicated ‘stationery drawer’ full of pens, notebooks, spare ink cartridges etc. I also keep my planning notes in there (made from a recycled Amazon folder). However, I find writing notes by hand takes too long and I easily lose the thread, so I do most of my planning on the MacBook, cutting and pasting once I’m happy with it.
I’m not a great fan of the MacBook and wish now that I’d bought a Windows laptop.
I don’t take many reference books along with me, instead I keep all the information in a bookmarked folder on my pc. It’s backed up every day on Dropbox et al. I usually print out the relevant sections and take those with me for reference. I prefer to write the novel proper while I’m away and research is filed away for when we get home. Then I ‘colour in’ what I’ve written/make changes.
As I said, I do not take copious notes along with me, but two things are essential – a timeline and a cheap calendar. I use these to mark what happens when/where in my WIP. I know (roughly) how the novel ends and put little ‘pegs’ on the timeline to get me there. Each section of the timeline becomes a chapter. If inspiration or a new idea strikes, I glue post-it notes to the relevant section of the planner to remind me to add that information when I come to it.
All my photos are stored in the cloud for when I need them. I don’t write outside the caravan, unless its in the awning, because I find the light bothersome. When in the caravan I write with the blinds behind me drawn, as I find it easier on my eyes. Mostly I beaver away in the semi-darkness wearing a peaked cap to further shade my eyes. I have dedicated ‘computer glasses’ with a blue-light coating, I also use a screen filter on the MacBook, so my eyes don’t get tired.
We have a television, Blu-ray DVD player, stock of movies and an Amazon Firestick. That way, when I run out of inspiration, I can watch a favourite movie, zone out and give my imagination free rein.
In case you’re wondering what my husband Dave does while I’m writing, it’s simple. He lies on the double bed and watches DVDs (wearing headphones) or surfs the net on his iPad. He can shut the bedroom off from the front of the caravan via a sliding screen, so we do not distract each other. In fact, I am pleased that he can have down time as he works so hard towing the caravan and setting it up etc.
Sometimes, we will stumble upon a part of Scotland which is unfamiliar to us and take masses of photos for research and planning. For example, after discovering Castle Stalker on Loch Linnhe and booking a tour, Girl in the Castle was born. Several summers ago, we returned to the castle and presented the owner with a signed copy of the book and my heartfelt thanks. One of my favourite spots in Scotland is Plockton which inspired Harper’s Highland Fling – a ‘road trip to romance’, featuring a slightly older hero and heroine. I was able to draw upon my experience as a teacher when I created the heroine, a primary school headteacher who discovers that her niece has run away to Scotland – where else – with a boy who lives in the same village.
Usually, we explore the location where my books are set. I could do most of this research via Google Earth, But where is the fun in that? Visiting a place several times means that I can write about it with some authority. I particularly love Wester Ross and last summer we visited Inverewe Gardens which set me off thinking about/planning number nine. Readers tell me that they love my depiction of Scotland but I am careful not to let purple prose or descriptions of scenery get in the way of the romance.
Some days I do not write a word, but I’m always thinking about my novel when I’m not at the pc.
Well, that about wraps up my first blog post on Romancing the Plaid. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Keep your eyes peeled because Dark Highland Skies will be available for 99p from Valentine’s Day – its book birthday, until February 20th. After that, it reverts to its usual price of £2.99.
Halley Dunbar has spent her entire career searching for the impossible – an exoplanet capable of sustaining life, a one-in-a-billion find. But when she’s forced to travel to Scotland to arrange her great-uncle’s funeral, Halley discovers something rarer, the one man capable of making her happy, Laird’s son Tor Strachan. However, obstacles stand in the way of their happiness. Tor, an Afghan veteran, has Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and must confront his demons before he can be the man Halley deserves. Meanwhile, Halley has a secret of her own, one she can’t share with anyone – not even Tor. Will the two be able to find their happy ending or will their secrets be the downfall of them both?
See you soon,
Lizzie Lamb - author 