Featured Author: Chris Longmuir

A warm welcome to Chris Longmuir, who is a writer of many talents based in Scotland. I’m a big fan of Chris’s crime novels (see my previous interview with Chris) and I was intrigued to read her historical saga, A Salt Splashed Cradle, since I like her writing so much. And I love that cover!

The book did not disappoint. From the first page, the reader is transported to a Scottish fishing village in the 1830s. With a strong cast of characters, A Salt Splashed Cradle tells a fascinating tale about the detailed everyday life of the fishing community and the impact on that community by the arrival of beautiful, incomer Belle. Although married to one of the young fishermen, Belle is not immune to the attentions of the local Laird’s son. Belle is an unusually well rounded character, neither wholly good nor completely bad, and the story of her difficulties in being accepted into her new family ensures an absorbing read.

BLURB
 
A Salt Splashed Cradle


This historical saga is set in a Scottish fishing village in the 1830s and reflects the living conditions and the morals of the ordinary fisher folk of that time. The novel follows the relationships of Belle, her husband, Jimmie, her daughter Sarah, her mother-in-law, Annie, and the rest of the Watt family.

James and Annie Watt are a typical fisher family, and Annie is horrified when Jimmie, her eldest son, brings Belle to the village as his new bride. She makes her displeasure obvious to Belle who struggles to find acceptance in the village. Belle is engaged in a losing battle however, because the villagers regard her as an incomer.

Jimmie, anxious to buy his own boat, leaves the fishing village to sail with a whaling ship. The story follows him to the Arctic, and on a whale hunt, before he returns home again. Meanwhile, in his absence, Belle has fallen for the charms of Lachlan, the Laird’s son, and embarks on a tempestuous affair with him. When Jimmie returns she struggles with her feelings for him and for Lachlan.

By this time the women in the village are starting to regard Belle as a Jezebel who will tempt their men away. A mood of hysteria engulfs them and they turn against Belle, in an attempt to force her out of the village.

What will Belle do? And will she survive?

A Salt Splashed Cradle is available from Amazon (UK); Amazon (US) and Smashwords.

You can find out more about Chris on her website and blog.

Chris Longmuir won the Dundee International Book Prize in 2009 with her first crime novel. The prizewinning novel, Dead Wood, was published by Polygon and was so successful that the first print run sold out within four months. Since then Chris has published two further novels as e-books. Night Watcher, her second crime novel, was published in March 2011, and her historical saga, A Salt Splashed Cradle followed three months later. Boosted by the success of her novels, Chris delved into the depths of her computer to dig out her short stories which she published in two volumes as - Obsession & Other Stories, and Ghost Train & Other Stories.

Chris also writes short stories and historical articles for magazines which are published in the UK and the US. She is currently working on a further two crime novels. Chris is fascinated by electronic gadgets of all types and descriptions and is never happier than when experimenting with new hardware and software. She designed and put up her own website and builds computers in her spare time. She describes herself as being a bit of a techno-geek.