In 1902, two days before he was to be crowned, the future King Edward VII was diagnosed with appendicitis and in need of emergency surgery.

Even though only briefly mentioned in chapter 51 of Bloodlines -Traces; describing a much talked about moment in the history of the British Empire, can take up a lot of time.
As authors we feel responsible for reproducing fact in faction, and go on a quest to find out what really happened, which , as the proverb says, can be stranger than fiction.

Carried away on the wings of imagination, we also at times loose ourselves in creating new history.
‘Suppose Edward had died? What, lo and behold, would have happened to British History!’

As it is however we contained ourselves on this occasion and wrote:

A look of concern appeared on Mary’s face. “Did you hear of Bertie Miss?”
“Bertie? Oh you mean the King. He’s not dead is he?”
“Nearly. MacLean told me he was diagnosed with appendicitis, King Edward that is, not MacLean. The coronation has been postponed.”

It is interesting to observe how different details of a subject seem to pop up from different  angles in real life, once the process of writing about something has been initiated.
Documentaries  on ‘Bertie’ that we didn’t know were on, unexpectedly appeared on television.
Family members with ‘appendicitis stories’ to tell, rang the doorbell.
In that sense the forces of creation have an intriguing way of synchronizing watches when it concerns searching for clues and answers

This phenomenon of these coincidental finds, could be explained by stating it is the mechanism of the author’s mind opening up in search of answers
The cousin with the appendicitis story would also have rung the doorbell when the author had not been writing about Edward VII; and the television documentary would also have been scheduled and probably even seen  ‘by chance’, when the topic had not been of extra interest.
It is the mere fact the subject is just ‘as it happens’, being written about, that makes it more noted.

But is that really all there is to it? The creative process of writing follows mysterious trails.
In Bloodlines – Touch Not the Cat, for example, while describing the possibility of somebody drowning in the strong current of the river Spey in 1896, a real life 2012 news paper article literally gave us an example we could then include into the narrative.

And after describing American Universities around 1910 only admitting white people; Tom stumbled upon a complete centerfold article in a Scottish newspaper, on an Afro-American who came to study law at Glasgow as no American university would accept him.

Some subjects seem to introduce themselves. We then say:  ‘We would have never have thought to write about that, had it not been for….”

As a matter of fact, while doing research for this blog, using ‘afro american university glasgow 19th’ as tags for the search engine, a website popped up, about rival medical schools, holding an article on Joseph Lister.

Now guess who Joseph Lister was: He was the surgeon who operated on Bertie and basically the only piece of information that ended up in Bloodlines -Traces, after all the research we did.

Here’s how the story continues:

“Bertie? Oh you mean the King. He’s not dead is he?”

“Nearly. MacLean told me he was diagnosed with appendicitis, King Edward that is, not MacLean. The coronation has been postponed.”

“Appendicitis can be a killer Mary, though they have made a lot of progress on anaesthesia and antisepsis over the years. I’m sure he will be treated by the best surgeons.” She wondered if Joseph Lister from Edinburgh would have been summoned to London.

Makes you wonder doesn’t it? Which was first? The chicken or the egg?

My dentist seems to be a good address for ‘coincidence finds’.

When a couple of month ago I was at his office, I found the periodical of the AVN, an organization helping to protect The Hague’s local nature.
I ended up going on a very interesting bird-watching excursion turning into an interview for Dutchbuzz, the radio program for internationals on Den Haag FM, along the way.

It was a cold, but fortunately very clear day in December and right around the corner from where I live and often go for beach walks, so I’d been there often enough.
With a guide telling me what to look out for however, the so familiar environment on my doorstep, suddenly turned into a treasure chest of information on natural life.

Last Tuesday I was at the dentist’s office again, and this time found a newspaper in the waiting room that featured two full pages of turn-of-the-century family pictures of ‘early expats’ living in Indonesia.
‘As it happens’ …Tom and I are in the middle of preparing workshops on writing family histories, using old pictures, letters and storytelling as a lead, so here was another interesting find we could use for the genealogy storytelling workshops.
Into my purse the article disappeared. I confessed my theft to the dentist once I could talk again after treatment, which as a bonus, lead to a conversation on the dentists parents having been teachers in Indonesia.

Now this morning I had to go back again for the next step in the dental treatment, so I sat down in the waiting room and picked up the NRC, a Dutch national newspaper.
Leafing through it I stopped at the obituaries.

I have a fascination with ‘famous last words’. It’s amazing how much information about the deceased is sometimes given by quoting just a few, even if I didn’t know that person at all.
My eye fell on a quote in the obituary of a Dutch gentleman.
Not only was the quote in itself of extraordinary beauty;
I also wondered why his relatives had chosen this specific quote; or if perhaps the man himself before his passing had requested this quote to be used.

The quote is from someone who in my understanding must have been very wise and sensitive to what matters in life.
I copied the quote and the name of its maker, (left the newspaper in the dentist’ s waiting room this time) and googled the author when I got home.

Kahlil Gibran. I had expected to find a Sufi philosopher behind that name and perhaps he was, though his online biography doesn’t mention it.
What I did find was the extraordinary story of a man born in Lebanon in 1883, who emigrated with his family to the United States.
Apparently he wrote a famous book: “The Prophet”; ‘an early example of inspirational fiction’ the article says.
Indeed, even the one quote was inspirational enough for me to now go on a quest and find Gibran’s book.

And now of course you want to hear the quote; Here it is:

“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof”

It will be my mantra for the day
Thank you for reading.

Ingrid

p.s

For more Kahlil Gibran Quotes: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/k/khalil_gibran.html

and for more information about the genealogy storytelling, to be held at The Expat Archives, (see picture next to this blog) La Buena Vida and The Welsh Bakestone, all in The Hague go to :

https://www.touchnotthecat.com/events/agenda/

Shortly after the launch, Tom had one of those ‘spooky’ experiences of his own. I had dropped him off at the airport, two days after the Dutch opening event of 11.11.11., to catch his flight home. Amsterdam to Glasgow is a pleasant short flight, with many planes scheduled per day, so usually there is plenty of space available on the plane and no hassle with seating. This time however, Tom was seated on an aisle seat on a row of three, and next to him an empty chair and on the window seat, a young gentleman. Tom had his copy of our book and his Kindle in front of him to do some editing checks on the e-book. A member of the cabin-crew approached the man in the window seat and asked to see his boarding pass, as there appeared to be some confusion on seating. The KLM attendant glanced at his boarding pass and said,

“Thank you for your co-operation Mr. Macpherson.”
Tom let out a short laugh.
“What’s so funny,” Mr, Macpherson asked.
“I just wrote a book riddled with Macphersons,” Tom answered. “In fact we’ve just launched it two days ago in the Netherlands.”
“Well, Macpherson is a very common name you know,” Mr.Macpherson said.
Another short laugh escaped.
“That’s exactly what we have one of the characters in our book say as well,” Tom replied. “It seems pretty synchronistic though that Fate should arrange for me to end up with a Macpherson next to me in the plane.”
As expected, Mr. Macpherson ended up wanting to know all about the Bloodlines -Touch Not the Cat and stepped out of the plane a good hour later with a note in his pocket as he wanted to buy it.

“Typical,” I said to Tom when he told me the story; “Is meant to be.” It made me smile
When Tom and I started writing the book, Tom was always the down to earth ‘no nonsense one’, while my spiritual beliefs always seek meaning in omens and synchronicity.
Now it was Tom who had experienced a little ‘funny coincidence’ of his own first hand.
I of course believe it was no funny coincidence at all, but a mysterious encounter, scheduled by Fate.

Ingrid Schippers.

Here’s my sequence of events:

For the upcoming book launch of Bloodlines-Touch Not the Cat at the American Book Center, I needed something appropriate to wear. Men have an easy life; (also) where dressing up for events is concerned. All they need to do is wear the right suit with the right tie, the right socks and the right shoes and they’re done.

“Scottish men,” I said to Tom, “have even less to worry about.” They simply wear their kilt and that’s it.”

“Just wear what feels comfortable,” Tom said, trying to shush me.

I pictured myself at the launch: Dutch girl… Scottish American novel… Scottish co-author in kilt… what was I going to wear? Clogs and a white lace cap? It wasn’t that easy to decide.

I didn’t want to wear any particular tartan, as my clan is Dutch and the Dutch don’t do tartans.

As I’m in a long lasting relationship with my computer I decided to ask my MacIntosh for advice.  I typed in:

‘Scottish Holland clothes woman.’

To my utter delight my Mac’s search engine took me by the hand and brought me to a shop called, “The World of Scotland,” near the famous Rotterdam harbor of Holland. The shop sells all sorts of products directly imported from Scotland, including… woman’s clothes.

One of the tartans displayed on the website had an highly unusual match of colors. Sunny pink, with cobalt blue (Rangers-blue Tom would say,) and a green and a yellow line.

It looked highly un-Scottish to me, yet was absolutely lovely.

I stepped into my car and covered the 60+ kilometers dividing The Hague from Gravendeel where “The World of Scotland” is located.

On arrival, the owner of the shop, Fiona, a resident in Holland for almost 30 years now, yet from Scottish origin, explained to me that the particular tartan design I had seen on line, was a design of her own. It has no specific connection to any clan and was in fact designed in Holland.

There you go! I had found the answer to my problem.

I had found myself a Dutch Tartan.

The story doesn’t end there though.

I had of course brought with me a copy of Bloodlines-Touch Not the Cat. While leafing through it, Fiona asked me if the novel was based on true fact.

“The storyline,” I told her, “is entirely fictional. We do use actual locations and events as a basis. For instance, the Tay Bridge disaster was a major railway accident in 1879 where a train plunged from a bridge into the Forth of Tay during a December storm. Many bodies were never recovered and simply disappeared.

Fiona looked at me and said, “Victoria’s gloves were on that train.”

Intrigued I stared back at her.

“My great grandfather,” Fiona continued, “was a glover; someone who makes gloves. He lived in an area north of theTay Bridge. Queen Victoria had ordered a pair of gloves and they were on that unfortunate train. The gloves were recovered. My family kept them for over three generations until they donated them to a museum. I remember as a child thinking how small Victoria’s hands must have been as they were really tiny gloves.”

It’s at moments like this I get a major case of goose bumps and realize how, as an author, you can never really know what your book triggers in the mind of the reader.

We may have written the book, but we will never know exactly what resonates, what rings the special bell.

Will it be the Genealogy? The Mystery? Or the Tay Bridge disaster with the train that carried Victoria’s gloves?

What a Gift to be told such a story as an author.

Ingrid Schippers.