GLASGOW, SCOTLAND TO SAN FRANCISCO

Those who followed my writings know my novels settings are in two places, Glasgow, Scotland and San Francisco, California, U.S.A. Both places are close to my heart and life experiences: I was born in Glasgow emigrated in mid-fifties to San Francisco's neighborhood called Eureka Valley, now known to many as the Castro.

Although I became an American citizen in 1962, I grew up in a very traditional Scottish household. Thus I am of both nations. Many stories I heard about "back home" and songs learned, like "Murder, Murder Polis", came past down from parents and our Scottish friends. They were about growing up in Glasgow such as the difficulties Catholics had in the job market, and about my faither's (father) work at the shipyards on the River Clyde, WWII - running at night with an infant and toddler to a bomb shelter, and the happier times of holidays at Ayr with a graveyard as the backyard of the place we stayed. I remember jumping from gravestone to gravestone that laid long on the ground. We spoke differently with words like pokeyhat (ice cream cone) and wee backle  (a small disheveled person) were spoken. To this day I am more comfortable with some pronunciations of words than in the West Coast U.S. way of speaking.

I learned that the English were sassenachs and not well liked in Scotland by many. After all, when taking over the highlands of Scotland they had turned out women and children in the dead of winter to starve and freeze to death  That time was called, The Highland Clearance.



The English wanted the land for sheep grazing, not for inhabitants who had lived there for hundreds of years. Further more they took the traditions and honor of the inhabitants by banning the wearing of the kilt (the highlanders colors), forbidding the bagpipes and Gaelic. 

So much trite in such a small country and so much of the discord supported by the conquers through religious division as read in my novel, "The Skye in June".

Is it time for the Scots to have their country back as the Irish have done in the south of of that country?


Tomorrow 9/19/14 we'll learn if Scotland will separated from England. A country that opposed and repressed Scottish people for hundreds of years.

John Oliver's satirical video says it all http://youtu.be/-YkLPxQp_y0

In my novel, The Skye in June,  the answer to the family's unhappiness will be found when they learn the secret connection to the Isle of Skye. You will also enjoy learning
Scottish words, and customs. Same as in my novel, City of Redemption while you dig the San Francisco groovy scene from 1967 - The Summer of Love.

My paranormal and parapsychology books: "How to Talk with Spirits: Seances, Mediums, Ghost Hunts" and "The Timeless Counselor: The Best Guide to a Psychic Reading" are in ebook form (How to Talk with Spirit in paperback due by end of 2016).  On Amazon: or Smashwords.  To learn more about me and follow links to my ghost investigations and hauntings please go to june ahern dot com.