Sooner or later, every author gets asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” And the answer varies, from author to author and even book to book for any author. I often say, ripped from the headlines, or it was an amusing story I heard from a friend. But sometimes it’s just the crazy way a writer’s brain works.
For twenty years, I lived on the beautiful coast of Maine. From my front yard, I could see the scattering of islands just outside Boothbay Harbor. One of them, Damariscove, caught my interest in particular because of its history. I’d read that there were communities of Europeans living on the islands along the coast of Maine fishing the teeming waters and salting their catch to be shipped back to hungry Europeans long before the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims to these shores, and in the journal of Henry Winslow, a pilgrim who had come north to beg for food when the little settlement at Plymouth was starving and in need, he mentioned that there were thirty ships of sail in that harbor and that the good people of Damariscove had given them four hundred pounds of food. More than a hundred years later Capt. Henry Mowat of the British Royal Navy, on orders from Parliament to harass the communities along the New England coast to discourage them from joining the patriot cause, put in at Damariscove and commandeered seventy sheep to feed his crew of sailors and Marines, before turning south to burn the little port city of Falmouth to the ground. During the War of 1812 the men and women of Damariscove were able to watch the battle between the British ship Boxer and the American Enterprise from their own shore. And there are stories that a pirate put ashore to hide his treasure in the pond. All this history on one tiny scrap of island piqued my interest.
So, as I stood in my front yard and contemplated what I could see of this now treeless little island, I was taken by the desire to explore it. I sailed out there on a beautiful sunny summer day, anchored in one of the coves and rowed ashore. There were a few buildings still standing but mostly it was long abandoned, grass and daisy lined cellar holes and overgrown dirt roads.
As I stood at the high point of the island and gazed back toward the harbor that Captain John Smith had once described as a busy place, I considered the ghosts who are supposed to haunt this place. A headless man named Pattishall and his faithful dog, a woman with long flowing hair who has been seen walking into the pond. There are others, I’m sure. But as I stood there, balanced on the edge of an old foundation, the large slab of granite wobbled and I jumped back, not wanting to fall in.
And here’s where my twisted writer’s brain comes in. On the sail back home, the thought came to me: What if I had slipped and fallen into that old cellar hole? And what if I’d hit my head and been knocked unconscious? What if when I came to, there was a roof over my head? What then?
That is how the book, Iain’s Plaid came to be. From a fascinating, yet little known island off the Maine coast with a long and colorful history came a really fun tale of a woman named Dani who sailed out there just like I had, who did fall into that cellar hole and woke up in 1775. And that cellar belonged to Iain, a merchant captain who had his ship loaded with contraband destined for the beleaguered citizens of Boston. When Iain finds Dani hammering away at the door, trying to get out, he thinks she is a lad, but is afraid she might be spying for the British and he’s not about to set this questionable youth free until the goods have been safely delivered. How long before he discovers she’s not what she seems at all? And what will he do with her then? Pick up Iain’s Plaid while it’s on sale and find out…..
I’ve often been asked if there is going to be a sequel and there are plenty of characters who leapt off the page in Iain’s Plaid, whose stories I might just tell. Be sure to let me know what you think after you’ve read Iain’s Plaid. I love hearing from my readers. You can visit me at http://www.Skye-writer.com
Ian’s Plaid by Skye Taylor is on sale 8/16 – 8/31
Find it on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Apple
