A-Z Blog Challenge: C is for Caledonii by Ian Hall

It's that time again!!!  Unwritten and some 1000 other blogs participated last year, and this year looks to be even bigger! Just like last year, I've opened up the blog to host 26 fabulous writers, with each day of the challenge representing the letters of the alphabet from A-Z. I've asked each writer to focus on something that is personal to them, so we can learn more about each other. 

Please check out some of the other blogs in the challenge here: 

A-Z BLOG CHALLENGE 2013

C is for...Caledonii

by Ian Hall

In every kids ABC, C is for Cat.

Which is fine if you’re a kid or a cat person. I’m neither.

As I grew up in lowland Scotland, just a mile or so from a real life 2000 year old Roman Encampment, commonly called "the camp". So... C became synonymous with Camp. As scrawny kids, we played there a lot; our imaginations ran wild.

C for Clan seemed to be my Grandad’s quest. He must have looked in every clan tartan shop in the country, chasing us from being members of the Robertson/Skene family, to being a sect of the MacGregor clan.

As I began writing back in 1995, this ‘camp’ must have lingered in my mind, and suddenly the big picture dawned on me. C stood for Caledonia, the ancient name given to the area by the invading Roman troops twenty centuries before.

I looked up old Roman maps, from 74-79AD, and there lay the name of my tribe, my clan.

The latest ‘C’; Caledonii.

It became the name of my first novel,; a historical adventure based on archeological fact and tactical supposition.

Calach (meaning ‘the prickly one’ is another ‘C’) is the main tribal chief’s son, and despite family opposition and inter-clan politics, he must unite the Scottish tribes to stand together to face the Roman invasion.

So begins a sprawling set of novels/novellas, set from 79AD to 85AD, pitching Calach against the greatest Roman general of his time; Julius Agricola.

Calach must unite the clans/tribes, and manage a guerilla war on a huge scale, a war which pits brother against brother, with backstabbing and heinous betrayal round every corner.

The Romans only spent five years in my country, then retreated a hundred miles and built a wall a hundred miles long; Hadrian’s Wall, stretching from the North Sea to the Irish Sea.

Caledonii tells of a epic time that you’ll never find in a history book. The adage of “Only the Victor writes the History” is very apt, the infamous Tacitus being Agricola’s son-in-law.

“Caledonii: Birth of a Celtic Nation”, is available in eBooks everywhere. Currently there are four parts, Part 5 will be released in Autumn 2013. The series is planned to have 7 parts.

 

Link to Kindle/Amazon edition:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Caledonii-Celtic-Gathering-Nation-ebook/dp/B005O1AVXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364414965&sr=8-1&keywords=caledonii

 

Author’s Website: 

http://www.ianhallauthor.com/

 

Author’s Blog:

http://www.jamieleith.blogspot.com/