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The Apprentice Tattoo is the first novel in a series of historic fantasy stories set in the late Neolithic period. I’ll be blogging about the stories and characters, the settings, and life on the Outer Hebrides.
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This is where it all began.
Callanish stones, on the west side of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
Jane and I moved to the Western Isles in October 2005, and within a few days we’d made our first visit to the Callanish stone circle together.
There aren’t a lot of tourists about on the Isle of Lewis, once the summer is over, and we had the hilltop to ourselves for a short while. The stones looked dramatic, stark against a dark sky, threatening rain. We walked the length of the northern avenue, inspected the ring of stones and the central megalith. We walked along the ‘arms’ of the cross, pointing roughly east, south and west… then we retired to the cafe.
Warm and dry, with a latte and a piece of cake, I wondered about the people who built this monument. Who were they? We know so little about a society that could raise huge slabs of stone that have stood for 4500 years. What did they hope to achieve by building Callanish, and so many other sites throughout Britain?
Was the site for religious practice? Was it a calendar or a solar observatory? As I sat, mulling over who the Neolithic people were, I spotted a sculpture, standing against the wall, a man crouched over a scrying bowl, tattoos adorned his face, and a wren perched on his hand.
Who was he? The name of the sculpture was ‘The Messenger’ and that’s just what he was doing, seeing the images in his bowl of water and relaying them to his tribe.
That figure was made by sculptor/painter Simant Bostock from Great Bernera, who has since become a good friend.
The figure became Albyn, Spirit Messenger of the Hill Clan of the Tribe of the West. Guardian of the great stones of Classac, plant master, lore master and healer. Though he is not the main character of my novel, The Apprentice Tattoo, he is a major influence on Col and Talla, and features in his own novella, Talisman of Fire.
So the story began. A man, a place, and a point in history. The protagonists, Col, a sixteen year old orphan, and Talla, a freed slave the same age, soon followed. When the weather changes, and their clan’s crops begin to fail, someone must make a journey to find out the reason for the Spirits’ anger with the tribes of man.
The Apprentice Tattoo is the first in a series of linked novels and novellas available soon.
D J Eastwood
The Apprentice Tattoo 