Alastair Rosie's Blog, page 2

Morganna’s Interview – Excerpt 5

What’s your view on the war on terror?

Morganna: First of all I’d call it a war of terror. How can you declare war on a military tactic? It’s absurdity to the extreme, a soundbite trotted out by Fox News and CNN over and over to please their masters in Washington. America and its allies in the West have been funding extremist groups in the Middle East for decades, setting up client regimes that will benefit their business interests. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Middle East over the last two thousand or so years. They were always far more advanced than Western kingdoms. Al Queda was a Western backed group of freedom fighters who are now terrorists after nine eleven. Saddam Hussein was Washington’s man and the Taliban had funding from the CIA but when they decided to do their own thing or should I say disobey the west they paid the price. The Zionists in Israel are a powder keg in the middle of a furnace. Israel possesses the most terrifying arsenal of all, and believe me they’re not above using it to start a war. The American government needs to get out of the Middle East and stop meddling in things they know nothing about, they’re so busy trying to please Israel and buy off Israel’s enemies that all credibility is completely lost. It will take two generations at least to shake off the stain of American and British influence.

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Morganna’s Interview Excerpt 4

So was Christianity a good thing or a bad thing?

Morganna: It kept the power centred on Rome even after it was sacked. Christianity by the time of Constantine was a major force because Christians took anyone into their fold. They borrowed the concept of Roman citizenship and modified it. Go through baptism and become a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Rome was bankrupt, morally and financially, the Goths were manoeuvring into position, the Parthians were a constant thorn in their eastern flank and the Irish and Pictish Celts had never been conquered. Rome was imploding and Christianity united the empire but ultimately it couldn’t stave off the inevitable collapse. As to whether it was a bad or good thing, I can only say there were individual Christians I liked and protected but as a religion I could never take it seriously. When it was joined with political power it became even more corrupted, which led directly to the Burning Years and the suppression of intellectual and scientific thought. The most perplexing problem for scientific minds in the Middle ages was working out how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Christianity and science, such as it was back then were definitely at odds with each other and the church had the upper hand.

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Morganna’s Interview – excerpt 3

You don’t have much respect for the church do you?

Morganna: Well that stands to reason. I was there when the myths about Christ began to circulate in the market places and taverns. I met Jesus once and thought him to be a good and noble man but he was not the son of a god, not even a distant relative. He was a mortal man who dreamed of a united Israel that incorporated Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free. That was the heresy for which he was condemned because he was a self proclaimed Son of Man. The first time I had an argument about his divine birthright was in Alexandria at the great library. There were Greeks who’d been disciples of Saul of Tarsus. He’d been executed in Rome a few years previously and these Greeks were saying that Christ was the Son of God. I argued with them for a good couple of hours but not even logic could sway their blindness. The general belief was that Christ would return very shortly, like in a few years time to bring an end to the world of man and usher in the kingdom of heaven. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard the prophecy but towards the end of the century it became more and more common. There was a need to put the stamp of authenticity on the Christian cult because it was competing with much older cults and traditions. Christianity was the new kid on the block that claimed ancestry from a man who’d been crucified. It was a novel enough idea at the time when you consider that crucifixion was a shameful death. Over the next century and a half I saw more and more Christians accepting this myth that Jesus had risen from death. It was borrowed from the cult of Mithra and the Egyptian god, Osiris. Mithra was the soldier’s god and worshipped all over the empire by soldiers. Just about every so called Christian tradition or story was borrowed or bastardised from other pagan stories, at the time it was actually quite laughable.

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Morganna Interview-excerpt 2

Is there something our leaders can learn from Julius Caesar?

Morganna: Don’t go to the Senate on the fifteenth of March? I think one rather obvious lesson is that power is seductive. If a big industrialist or a general funds your campaign or works to put you into power then it is not yours to keep, you’ve been given the freedom to exercise that power but that can be taken away if you threaten their interests. These days in American politics you’ve got presidential candidates courting Wall Street and the military industrial complex, big energy companies and wealthy donors in an attempt to raise their profile. It does work but once you step into the Oval office you’re then their man and they want a return on their investment and you can’t blame Wall Street for wanting to control the government. They’re only working to protect their vested interests, it’s human nature. A populist president is ultimately more dangerous and those same powerful men and organisations will try to depose him. Kennedy upset a lot of very powerful individuals during his short lived presidency and paid the ultimate price. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and I’m not the first one to say it. Personally I’ve always made it clear that my people are the power behind the throne. This title of queen is only a title, without the common consent of my people it’s just a paper crown, it means nothing. I never want to get to the stage where I have people bowing and scraping to me. When your halo slips, grow horns.

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Morganna – The Grey Queen Interviews

Her official title is Queen of the Grey Ravens or more simply, the Grey Queen and while she accepts the title, Morganna still raises an elegantly sculptured eyebrow when I address her by her full title.
Morganna: It’s Morganna if we’re talking vampire business and Melanie Nolan to the outside world. The title does imply power and authority, I admit that but power comes from the clan I serve. I suppose servant queen might be a more palatable title but I prefer Morganna.
What do you mean by serving your people?
Morganna: It’s both literal and figurative. With some fifteen hundred members and three times that amount of mortal members it’s obviously impossible to attend to each and every member but wherever I go I’m in contact with members. I listen to their concerns and try my best to implement changes where I can see it’s going to benefit the clan. Leadership is very much about leading by consensus and popular opinion.
So it’s democratic?
Morganna: Very much so. I was a great admirer of the early Greek democracy, the Romans did borrow it but then meshed it with the concept of the god kings of Egypt. They were very much enamoured by the culture of Egypt, they sensed it was far far older than their civilisation and incorporated that into their society. Ultimately though it was a flawed arrangement because men are fickle creatures and when a god king makes too many mistakes he too can be killed. When Julius set himself up as a dictator he was drawing on the idea of the Egyptian god kings and when he was assassinated he discovered to his shock perhaps that god kings are still mortal.
You were there when he was murdered I believ
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Chapter Twelve Excerpt – Angel of Mercy

Some people will always love, some people never lose hope, some people never die…

This excerpt is from The Chronicles of the Grey Raven. Book One, Angel of Mercy, now available on Smashwords and Amazon and Amazon UK

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tuesday, January 21st, 2014

I took Sven into town today seeing as I’ve got a day off my classes. I think I’ve actually worn him out, I was on a mission to find a chain for Cat’s pendant. I found plenty of silver chains and gold but it wasn’t until late morning I finally found one that was within my budget. After that of course there were more things to buy. He declared to all and sundry when we got home that standing in a shield wall wasn’t half as tiring as going shopping with a woman. Cat laughed out loud but she loved the chain. He brought her a new pewter raven head from Chicago with the date she was turned on the underside. She has a few raven heads, pendants and rings, even belt buckles but this was a special one from Elizabeth and that brings me to the subject of the Clan of the Grey Raven.
One thing that did stand out plain as day was the fact that all of Cat’s friends in Chicago wore the image of a bird most of the time. When I first noticed a bird pendant worn by Anna she said it was a grey raven. It wasn’t long after we’d moved to Chicago and I asked why she wore it.
“It signifies membership of our little club.”
The club was mentioned now and then but other subjects soon took over. However as I got older the club of the Grey Raven was mentioned more and more in general conversation. I once asked dad about it and he said it was all to do with charity work. “They do a lot for people who have less from what I understand.” But it wasn’t until I was in my sophomore year at college that I learned more about it. Melanie told me it was a small club with members all over the world that reached out to others less fortunate than themselves. When I asked if it had anything to do with the Masons she laughed.
“I should think not, it’s considerably older than the Freemasons.”
“How much older?” I wanted to know.
“Much older,” she leaned on her palm, “we look out for each others’ needs, Cat was a fully paid up member of the Grey Raven and by virtue of the fact she was your stepmom, you are eligible to apply for membership.”

When my stepmom’s plane went down a part of me died, Cat was my world. In her place she left us to her friends, the Grey Ravens. Over the years I slowly came to realise her death was a mere facade. When we were reunited I learned the truth about Clan Grey Raven and her remarkable history. Some people will always love. Some people never lose hope. Some people never die…
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Amazon.com
Amazon UK

This excerpt is from The Chronicles of the Grey Raven. Book One, Angel of Mercy, now available on Smashwords and Amazon and Amazon UK

Chapter Eleven Excerpt – Angel of Mercy

Some people will always love, some people never lose hope, some people never die…

This excerpt is from The Chronicles of the Grey Raven. Book One, Angel of Mercy, now available on Smashwords and Amazon and Amazon UK

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Monday, January 20th, 2014

One of the great ironies about families is that while it’s okay for children to date, we get a little funny at the thought of our parents having any kind of love life. It’s one of those sticky subjects that usually elicits a frown or gets a reaction when the new mom or dad is introduced to the children. It stands to reason that our parents must have had a love life at some point in order to bring us into the world and that love life doesn’t just stop when children are born. Looking back, I should have reacted differently, because I’d seen Cat’s friends involved in relationships even though they were fleeting and infrequent. However dad was a different case because Cat was still listed as missing presumed dead but with the absence of a body and the possibility she could make a sudden reappearance, it changed the dynamics slightly and I didn’t help matters. Dad was lonely, missing his wife and while he had held out hope she’d survived the accident, after eight years he was losing hope. In hindsight would I have been any different?
August, 2011 was a particularly rocky month for me. I had just started school at Harold Washington and towards the end of the month I discovered that dad had been seeing Cindy. As I mentioned in my last chapter, she had worked at McIvor Style as a paralegal but left in May to start her own legal practice with her sister’s new husband. The first I knew of it was when I came home unexpectedly to find them both on the couch looking slightly flushed. Her hair was messed up and one of the buttons on her blouse was still undone. Dad made some crazy comment about it being hot outside and I just looked at him and shook my head.
“It’s only seventy,” I tugged at my jacket, “you must be coming down with something,” and I just walked upstairs to my room.
They were talking downstairs for a bit and then she got into her car and drove away. I sat at my computer and sent a message to Anna.
Just caught dad and Cindy on the couch.
OMG, she typed back, big boobie Cindy?

When my stepmom’s plane went down a part of me died, Cat was my world. In her place she left us to her friends, the Grey Ravens. Over the years I slowly came to realise her death was a mere facade. When we were reunited I learned the truth about Clan Grey Raven and her remarkable history. Some people will always love. Some people never lose hope. Some people never die…
Smashwords
Amazon.com
Amazon UK

Chapter Ten Excerpt – Angel of Mercy

Some people will always love, some people never lose hope, some people never die…

This excerpt is from The Chronicles of the Grey Raven. Book One, Angel of Mercy, now available on Smashwords and Amazon and Amazon UK

CHAPTER TEN

Sunday, January 19th, 2014

Well I’m back again. I was talking with mom over dinner about my trip to Britain in the summer of 2011 and she confessed that while I was here she was in Chicago at the Kings’ place where she met Elizabeth and Melanie. Dad as I recall, was in LA for about a week, Elizabeth sent him there on business and then booked him into a regional business conference in Aspen, Colorado. Mom had been living in Brazil and was preparing to come out of retirement and, as is the custom in the vampire world, was scouting out the neighborhood to discuss her coming out. Up until tonight I was only vaguely aware that it had been some time in the planning but mom said it had been planned from the moment she went into retirement back in 2003.
“We just had to find a way to integrate you into the vampire world without causing too much of a crisis. Your father was also discussed but both Elizabeth and Morganna thought that I should focus on outing myself to you first and leave John for a later date. Considering the fact they’d been involved in both your lives and because you were about to enter college, they thought if I was going to come out it should be sooner rather than later.”

When my stepmom’s plane went down a part of me died, Cat was my world. In her place she left us to her friends, the Grey Ravens. Over the years I slowly came to realise her death was a mere facade. When we were reunited I learned the truth about Clan Grey Raven and her remarkable history. Some people will always love. Some people never lose hope. Some people never die…SmashwordsAmazon.comAmazon UK

Chapter Nine Excerpt – Angel of Mercy

Some people will always love, some people never lose hope, some people never die…

This excerpt is from The Chronicles of the Grey Raven. Book One, Angel of Mercy, now available on Smashwords and Amazon and Amazon UK

CHAPTER NINE

Sunday, January 19th, 2014

I’m sitting at home reading over what I’ve written over the last week. It’s patchy in places but I’m liking where it’s all heading. If I was to actually write a real book then it would obviously be longer but mom said to just write what comes into my head, it’s not like it’s gonna be read by some critic from the New York Times. She’s gone out to the movies with Tom McIntyre. He’s a detective inspector with the CID here in Glasgow and he wouldn’t mind me saying he looks like a detective. He and mom have been friends for the last year after she saved his life and inadvertently outed herself. It could have spelled the end of her career as a doctor and another faked death but Tom is what she calls a typical Glaswegian. He’s as tough as nails but with a heart of gold and the ability to roll with the punches and adjust to new ideas.
His first meeting with a vampire came when she had to cut a hole in him and pump his heart by hand during a power surge. She was doing some shifts out at Western General back then and the emergency generator failed to kick in straight away forcing her to resort to more primitive methods. To cut to the chase, her fangs protruded slightly, it’s a vampire reflex action to extreme pressure or danger, not the fact that there was a lot of blood about and Tom came back to his body and nearly had a second heart attack. It could have ended badly but mom has a way of explaining herself, I know that from experience and now they’re best friends. He comes once a fortnight for dinner and she looks forward to his visits, it’s not like they’re dating although I can tell he likes her. They’re good company for each other and that takes me back to the spring of 2011.

When my stepmom’s plane went down a part of me died, Cat was my world. In her place she left us to her friends, the Grey Ravens. Over the years I slowly came to realise her death was a mere facade. When we were reunited I learned the truth about Clan Grey Raven and her remarkable history. Some people will always love. Some people never lose hope. Some people never die…
Smashwords
Amazon.com
Amazon UK

Chapter Eight Excerpt – Angel of Mercy

Angel of Mercy Cover image

This excerpt is from The Chronicles of the Grey Raven. Book One, Angel of Mercy, now available on Smashwords and Amazon and Amazon UK
CHAPTER EIGHT

Friday, January 17th, 2014

It’s Friday night and I’m sitting here having just watched The King’s Speech on Netflix. Sean set it up for mom when she first moved back here. He’s gone out with mom, Sven and Gerry to Oran Mor at the top end of Byres Road. It’s a restaurant, bar and entertainment venue inside a converted church. Sven remembered the church from years ago as we walked past yesterday and says it’s the best use of church premises he’s seen in years. He’s an old pagan though so I guess he would say that. There’s an open microphone night every Friday. Sven wanted mom to take her guitar but she just wants to have a few pints and get pleasantly pissed. Sean’s promised to arrest her if she gets too drunk, which mom thought sounded romantic!
I was going to go along but this journal has really got me going so I’ll sit here for a while in the peace and quiet to write some more, and as I read back, there are many incidents I’ve left out but that would take a book. There were many other friends who helped make me what I am today. Jake and his wife Victoria, Albert and Alan, Gerry from Glasgow, Aiyana and Sybil.
My school friends are still my friends, but I learned that some people will make friends simply because of your position in life. My dad was deputy editor of McIvor Style and because of its liberal bias, he came in for a lot of flak from the right and as a result, I was subjected to cyber bullying and hate posts. The link between Elizabeth and I was always a tenuous one in public, she never actually mentioned my name but in private we had many talks. Elizabeth would often walk into Melanie’s house and watch us paint or just chill out and watch a movie with us.

Elizabeth McIvor turned up to my graduation and almost stopped the entire ceremony. There was a stunned silence as she walked into the hall with her friends. People turned to look as the teacher tried to read his speech and then they sat down. When I walked across the stage to receive my diploma there was extra applause from the McIvor section. Afterwards in the reception hall she chatted with me like we were old friends. It sent out a message that I had come under her wing, in a subtle way it was my coming out, there were pictures taken of me with my high school diploma and Melanie took ‘one for Cat’ again. We went out for dinner that night, Elizabeth had booked an entire restaurant months in advance because, “I knew you’d pass.”…

…Anna dropped me off in her Dodge Viper. I think the car got as many looks as my dress. Tommy was there to meet me and I respect him enormously for that because it drove a wedge between him and this guy he’d been seeing, which was probably a good thing because that guy wound up getting diagnosed with AIDS twelve months later.
A few months later, Catherine Zeta Jones was at a red carpet function wearing the same dress and while she certainly looked sexier, I got to wear ‘that’ dress before her!
I guess to sum my high school years up, there were great days and not so great days and I felt loved and protected by Cat’s friends. Through it all however I held onto the hope that one day I’d get the news that Cat was alive and pray that no one would ever find the skeleton belonging to a thirty something woman washed up on a beach somewhere. But I wouldn’t swap those years for anything. As I mentioned earlier, in Chicago I matured and grew up. Melanie’s statement all those years ago about everything working out wasn’t as trite as I first thought, it was actually spot on.
Now it’s off to Oran Mor!

When my stepmom’s plane went down a part of me died, Cat was my world. In her place she left us to her friends, the Grey Ravens. Over the years I slowly came to realise her death was a mere facade. When we were reunited I learned the truth about Clan Grey Raven and her remarkable history. Some people will always love. Some people never lose hope. Some people never die…
Smashwords
Amazon.com
Amazon UK