I've always felt a kinship with the Scots through my first name, a Scottish name if ever there was one. The motto of the Keith clan is "veritas vincit," or "truth conquers," perfect for a writer, don't you think? The Keiths were a powerful clan indeed around the time of Robert the Bruce. According to legend, in a feud with the Gunns, the Keiths swooped down and killed the Gunn warriors while they were at prayer. The Gunns got even over the next century. Backing the Jacobites did not really pay off for the Keith Clan either. Anyway, to further celebrate my faux Scottish ancestry, the hero of Dot Dead was given a good Scottish name. The great love of Ivanhoe in the Sir Walter Scott classic was Rowena, a name I borrowed for Dot Dead as well. Dorothy Dunnett wrote my favorite historical novels, the Francis of Lymond series, set in the time of Mary, Queen of Scots. The female protagonist of the last few volumes in the series served as at least partial inspiration for the name of my #3. And like all mystery writers, I am a literary descendant of the Scot, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, progenitor of the greatest of all fictional detectives.
When I lived in the U.K., I remember my friend Dave organizing a Burns Night party on the traditional January 25, the great poet's birthday. What happens at a Burns Night gathering? if memory serves, the two essential requirements are a bottle of good single malt and haggis, the stuffed sheep's stomach that Mr. Burns deemed the "great chieftain o' the pudding-race." I'll see if I can get my wife and kids interested in some Scottish food and poetry tomorrow night to celebrate our Scottish roots, such as they are. In any case, I'll be toasting with the Scottish motto, "Nemo me impune lacessit " or in modern English, "Mess with me and you'll be sorry."
Robert Burns
Keith family crest
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