Comments on: Sketches from Scotland

By: lettuce

lettuce — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:23:08 +0000

hmm… i suspect u have abandoned this site since you haven’t written anything since 2008….tis a pity

By: Erynn

Erynn — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:46:25 +0000

When I was camping on the coast of California last summer I saw a white stag and a white doe, and there was another full-grown doe in the herd that was very pale and with fawn-spots, which is extremely unusual coloration in adults. (They all wore radio collars, so I know they weren’t exactly misty otherworld creatures, but still…)

By: happy_lizard

happy_lizard — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:55:43 +0000

oops! meant that to be “holding” my breath

By: happy_lizard

happy_lizard — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:55:00 +0000

Two perfect moments in one! I loved the feel of this and found I was holkind my breath as if I was watching the stag also. You have painted a picture with words.

Your absence is felt in H/W world. Will you be back?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:13:59 +0000

Shoot, go the easy route–have Watson learning about his family’s culture at the same time you are! Loved this…

By: Predatrix

Predatrix — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:59:59 +0000

Very nice mood piece; a delicate moment where not much happens (or needs to happen).

2 Britpicks: ‘cattail’ should probably be ‘bulrush’ (I’m not certain about this, but I think it’s not British English) and ‘most any’ should definitely be ‘any’ or ‘practically any’ or ‘just about any’. (To my ear ‘most any’/'most every’ &c sound rural colloquial American, and might be drifting over here now thanks to the might of the great god Television, but wouldn’t sound right in C19th British English).

By: norma

norma — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:47:20 +0000

Hey!! You made it! And it’s one of the more lovely piece that you ever wrote! I love it, and may I worship yours pen from afar? I’ll be honest, I just don’t like so much ‘venomous’, all my poor judgement, I know, but this story it’s absolutely gold! Thank you again, and go girl, go! Sei un vero genio.

By: Rose

Rose — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:21:53 +0000

Quite unutterably lovely. There’s a beautiful, dreamy, almost isolated aspect to the atmosphere that dovetails nicely with there being very little in the way of dialogue; the effect is only heightened by the vividness of the imagery, causing little details to leap out at the reader.

I especially liked: /’It was one of those rare moments in life, I thought, when you know with a crystalline certainty there is nothing that could be added or taken away to make it any more perfect.’/ as it gave me a beautiful sense of how full to bursting with joy Watson’s heart must have been at that moment – and the next sentence is so perfectly rueful and so perfectly Watson as he finds out he’s wrong.

[Though a quibble of the teeniest order: you have Watson talking of Highlands and Highlanders a fair piece here - the highlands are a very specific, very rural part of Scotland and no Scotsman would refer to himself as a highlander if he wasn't from them. If you have Watson hailing from any of the cities in your personal canon - one presumes Edinburgh, what with Doyle himself being from here - then he is very much a lowlander. Happily, this does mean he wouldn't have a Teuchter accent, which sounds more Welsh than it does Scottish, IMO.]

nlr alicia sez: Thanks for the tip! I’m a newbie to Scots culture so that’s helpful. I’d planned to make Watson a Highlander by birth for the purposes of this story (I want to use lots of Highland mythology – Ghillie Dhu and the like) so I thought I’d have him hail from Inverness. Taking your advice into account, I’m going to go ahead and put that in the text. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to seed it early. Thanks again!

By: Daylyn

Daylyn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:28:52 +0000

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The rich imagery of each perfect moment, each more perfect than the last, was just wonderful.

By: Alia

Alia — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:20:50 +0000

Hi, my comment is above. I forgot to log in.