Reb’s Comments (group member since Aug 26, 2012)

Reb’s comments from the Ask Reb MacRath group.

I'm afraid I haven't read Pompeii.r But I'll tell you an interesting story about names and attention to detail. In an earlier version of my ebook SOUTHERN SCOTCH, my Scottish hero was a descendant of the wild MacTavin clan: the wildest of them all being Boss, who was drawn and quartered in a certain revolution. A writer friend, Brad Strickland, read the book and pointed out that the name Boss did not come into circulation until a few hundred years later. I was crushed. But Brad laughed and rolled up his sleeves. With further research, Brad came up with a nickname the old brigand might have used: Bas Aithghearr: the first word meaning Death and the second Sudden. From Bas to Boss wasn't that far a jump--and now my reborn Scotsman had a new name that suited his style and wasn't historically false. And so a better book was born and an important lesson learned.