Guest Post by C.D. Hersh: Scottish Proverbs by Eli McCraigen
The characters in our paranormal romance series The Turning Stone Chronicles are guided by “The Keeper of the Stone”, an immortal shape-shifter/werebear whose roots are in ancient Celtic Scotland. Eli McCraigen is fond of providing wisdom by quoting Scottish proverbs. We’ve had fun researching for proverbs that fit the situations occurring in our books. Of course the characters often do not understand what he is recommending, especially when he quotes a very oblique proverb, such as “pity him who would burn his harp for you”. Catherine had to ferret this meaning out and discovered it referred to a story about a man who, having nothing to make a fire for his wife, broke up his harp and burned it. The wife ran away with another man before morning.
Not all of Eli’s Scottish proverbs are this obtuse. Here are a few examples. Can you figure out what they mean before looking at the explanations below?
- Never count the fish till they come out of the sea.
- It is difficult to draw pure water from a dirty well.
- Get bait while the tide is out.
- All that’s yellow is not gold, and all white things are not eggs.
- A stack can be eaten in cakes.
- What’s done in the corner will come to the hearth.
- The good speech of an ass is better than the bad word of a prophet.
- A rotten stick is often nice to look at.
- As unsteady as an egg on a stick.
- Is math an sgathan suil caraide.
Explanation:
- Do not count on anything until it actually happens.
- You only get bad from bad.
- Do something in a timely fashion.
- Everything is not as it seems.
- A big job can be broken down into smaller tasks.
- Secrets will come to light.
- Stupid people sometimes have good thoughts.
- Beauty is only skin deep.
- Can’t walk a straight line or not dependable.
- A friend’s eye is a good looking glass.
How well did you do in interpreting the proverbs? Anyone get them all correct, including number ten? Do you have a proverb, Scottish or other, that you especially like and are willing to share?
Son of the Moonless Night
Owen Todd Jordan Riley has a secret. He’s a shape shifter who has been hunting and killing his own kind. To him the only good shifter is a dead shifter. Revenge for the death of a friend motivates him, and nothing stands in his way . . . except Katrina Romanovski, the woman he is falling in love with.
Deputy coroner Katrina Romanovski has a secret, too. She hunts and kills paranormal beings like Owen. At least she did. When she rescues Owen from an attack by a werebear she is thrust back into the world she thought she’d left. Determined to find out what Owen knows about the bear, she begins a relationship meant to collect information. What she gets is something quite different-love with a man she suspects of murder. Can she reconcile his deception and murderous revenge spree and find a way to redeem him? Or will she condemn him for the same things she has done and walk away from love?
EXCERPT
A crash in the alley stopped Katrina Romanovski mid-stride. Like the October mist swirling in off the lake, her gypsy blood stirred sending her intuition into high gear. Something unnatural was happening.
Go see what’s wrong. She heard her father’s voice as clearly as if he stood next to her.
On the heels of his words came her mother’s pragmatic warning in clipped British tones. You know what curiosity killed. Katrina pushed the ever-present warning aside. Mom never approved of Dad’s supernatural hunts and even less of his drawing her into them.
Pulling the oversized cross she always wore out from under her shirt, Kat looked around for a weapon. Please, not a vampire. I hate vampires! A piece of wood sticking out of the trashcan at the front of the alley caught her eye.
Grabbing it, she broke the end off into a sharp point. The mist-filled air filtered the light from the single bulb over one of the alley doorways. The wind swirled the loose trash around making a quiet approach difficult. Sidestepping the paper, with the stake in one hand and holding the gun she took from her purse in the other hand, she crept into the alley.
A roar echoed against the buildings, the sound nearly sending her running. That roar wasn’t a vampire. It sounded more like an animal. Kat inched closer. In the yellow pool of light from the back door of the building, a black bear, over seven feet tall, reared on its back legs and swung its paw at the man standing at the edge of the light. He crashed to the ground, shirt torn open from the slashing claws. Blood covered the fabric, and he clasped his left hand over his shoulder to stem the flow. The bear bent toward him, teeth bared in a smile. A wicked smile.
Kat aimed her gun, but before she could pull the trigger, a shot rang out. The flash of gunpowder lit the face of the injured man. The blast reverberated against the buildings. With an enraged bellow, the bear staggered backward against the wall. Shaking his head, the animal dropped to all four paws. Weaving like a drunk, he lumbered toward his attacker. The man took aim again, shooting the animal between the eyes. Animal and human collapsed on the dirty, littered pavement.
As she started to move forward, Kat’s gypsy senses crawled over her skin like angry red ants. As she slipped back into the shadows, the bear shed fur. Changing size. Then, finally, turning into a man.
Shape shifters. Her stake wasn’t any good against them, and her bullets weren’t silver. This one appeared dead anyway. Had the wounded man seen the shift? Tossing the stake aside, she paused by the shifter and quickly moved to the wounded man. Out cold. Still human.
When she touched him, his eyelids fluttered open. “Did I get it?”
“What?”
“The bear.”
About C.D. Hersh
Together they have co-authored a number of dramas, six which have been produced in Ohio, where they live. Their most recent collaborative writing efforts have been focused on romance. The first three books of their paranormal romance series The Turning Stone Chronicles are available on Amazon. The first book of the series is entitled The Promised One and the second book in the series is Blood Brothers and book number three is Son of the Moonless Night.
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The Promised One (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 1)
Blood Brothers (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 2)
Son of the Moonless Night (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 3)
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Collette – Thanks for letting us share some of Eli’s wisdom with your readers.
It’s wonderful to have you here!
love it! knew them all except the one in gaelic 😉
Dholcomb1 – you should join our main characters Alexi & Rhys to interpret Eli’s instructions since he’s always uses Scottish proverbs. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.