The Highlander’s Pirate Lass by Heather McCollum
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading the second book in my Brothers of Wolf Isle series! The Macquarie Clan is growing, and I love being a part of it. And sharing it with you all is a dream come true.
Thank you to my fabulous Highlander husband, Braden, who always supports me. And to my children who have come home through this pandemic. We’ve been living on top of each other, but we’ve made it work!
Thank you to my cool-as-a-cucumber agent, Kevan Lyon, and my publisher, the fabulous Liz Pelletier at Entangled Publishing. To Alethea Spiridon, my talented editor, I love working with you! And cyber hugs go to my publishing team at Entangled and all the book reviewers and book bloggers. It takes a village to get a book out. I couldn’t do it without you all!
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A word about Eliza’s favorite curse word, which popped up frequently in the book. I tried to talk Eliza out of using the F-word, but she just rolled her eyes at me and called me an easily offended milksop who shouldn’t be writing about pirates if I couldn’t handle their wicked words. I even tried to have Beck curb her tongue! So I left it in for authenticity, but wrote it phonetically with the characters’ accents as fok, to hopefully be less offensive to modern readers. Eliza didn’t seem to have a problem with that.
The actual word, meaning sexual intercourse, is ancient, recently having been found in a 1310 court document. It became taboo through the centuries and was not in any dictionary between 1795 and 1965. It was outlawed in print in England (Obscene Publications Act, 1857) and the U.S. (Comstock Act, 1873), but was still widely spoken. In WWI, generals used it so much that soldiers knew that if their general did not use it, things were deadly serious. For more information about English word origins and history, check out https://www.etymonline.com/.
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Also…
At the end of each of my books, I ask that you, my awesome readers, please remind yourselves of the whispered symptoms of ovarian cancer. I am now a nine-year survivor, one of the lucky ones. Please don’t rely on luck. If you experience any of these symptoms consistently for three weeks or more, go see your GYN.
· Bloating
· Eating less and feeling full faster
· Abdominal pain
· Trouble with your bladder
Other symptoms may include: indigestion, back pain, pain with intercourse, constipation, fatigue, and menstrual irregularities.