Ronald MacKay

I love and support Indie Authors. Through my writing journey, I have met a lot of Indie Authors, with amazing colorful lives. One of them is Ronald McKay, whose journey in life is awe inspiring. I’ve met him virtually through one of my favorite FB network group: We love memoirs.

Ronald just released his memoir, ‘The Kilt Behind the Curtain: A Scotsman in Ceausescu’s Romania’ Sent deep behind the Iron Curtain to Bucharest by the British Government in 1967, Ronald MacKay serves as the “sharp end’ of a trade initiative. How will he fare in communist-run Romania where suspicion abound and Ceausescu’s Secret Police are everywhere?

In 1960, with just £40 in his pocket, Ronald, who was just 18 at the time, hitched from Scotland to Spain then took a tramp steamer to Tenerife. He discovered the village of Buenavista del Norte and he lived and worked there for a year. You can read about it in his previous memoir ‘Fortunate Isle: A Memoir of Tenerife’. He has also lived and worked in Morocco, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, and Canada and many more. He worked around the world for 40 years and then retired to Argentina. After years as a grape producer in Mendoza and working with avocado plantations in Chile, he and Viviana moved to Canada.
1. Tell me about yourself.
I’m fairly normal for a Scot born in the early ‘40s. We enjoyed a strict upbringing, a good school education, we learned right from wrong, pride in ourselves and our country, respect for our parents and our fellows. Early, we learned to exercise common sense and develop self-reliance, to shoulder responsibilities, fear nothing, weigh up our options and choose the best, and to venture out into the world to fend for ourselves while showing compassion for others.How would you sum up your approach to writing autobiographical stories?
My most insightful approach depends on my reflecting deeply on what I call “events of unresolved significance”. I explain what I mean by “events of unresolved significance” in this link:

https://youtu.be/fNo0s43gwyU

2. Synopsis of your books in one sentence.
I’d summarise Fortunate Isle as: A teenager’s rewarding reaction to finding himself penniless among a proud people whose language he did not speak but whose fundamental values he shared.The Kilt Behind the Curtain: A young Scotsman’s account of shrewd survival behind the Iron Curtain in communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu’s Romania.

3.Is this a series?
They’re a series only in the sense that they recount the occasionally remarkable exploits of the same person at two different periods of his life.

4.Why did you write these books?
I wrote them at my wife’s urging! Viviana kept telling me: “You have so many stories to tell! You must write a book!” So, I did.

5.What message or lessons did you want your readers to take from this book?
If there is any lesson in Fortunate Isle and The Kilt Behind the Curtain, it is: “In life, look before you leap! But don’t be afraid to leap!”

6.Are you writing, at the moment?
I’m always writing something – a short autobiographical story, a play, even toying with a novel. But I’m not yet sure what my next “big” project will be.

7.If you are not writing, what are you doing?
You can find Viviana and me walking. Our home is on the shores of Rice Lake in Ontario. We can walk on the trails that belong to our neighbours – Elmhirst’s Resort. Elmhirst’s Resort is open 365 days a year and have kilometres of walking trails through the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. In winter, the trails are used for cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. In winter, we can walk kilometres on the frozen lake.At home, I enjoy being “chief cook and bottle-washer”. Viviana is of traditional Italian and Peruvian extraction and so, like the traditional Scot, she has no culinary taboos. There are absolutely no limits on the kinds of dishes and ingredients that I can use.

8. What is your advice to emerging Indie authors?
Having published memoirs only recently, I won’t venture advice, but I’ll tell you what has worked for me. In both my books, I’ve turned quite separate portions of my life into a series of linked stories. I’ve striven to keep them concise, with a clear structure, and have them revolve around an insight into life that I find important. The insight can be humorous or serious, it should resonate with reader so that they say: “Yes! I’ve thought that very thought myself!”

As regards to publishing, having gone both commercial and Indie routes, there is a lot to recommend the latter. Indie allows you more control. For The Kilt Behind the Curtain, I asked Ant Press to format both the paperback and the eBook. It turned out to be a pleasure. I’d advise memoirists to read Victoria Twead’s How to Write a Bestselling Memoir: Write, Publish, Promote. It’s a complete education for the Indie author.

9. What are you currently reading?
I tend to dip into several books at one, on my Kindle. Currently I’m reading Viking Voyager, an Icelandic Memoir by S. Sigurdsson with V. Li and Making the Most of It by Bryan Magee. Both are memoirs. I’m also reading novels: The Fraudulent Racehorse by K.R. Morden; and Howard Spring’s My Son, My Son.

10. Of all the beautiful places you have been to, why did you choose to settle in Canada?

We chose Canada because it is a country we both love and feel entirely comfortable in. However, we are moving to The Netherlands in 2022. Viviana lived in The Netherlands for 20 years, loves everything about it — and we have family there, whereas we have no family in Canada. The older you get, the more important family becomes.

11. If you were a flower, fruit or a vegetable, what would you want to be and why?
As a Scot, I suppose I have to say that I would be a Scottish Thistle. Acceptable in appearance; harder to handle. The Latin motto beneath the Scottish thistle symbol is Nemo me impune lacessit. In Scots that means: Wha daur meddle wi me! I’ll leave it to you to look up what that means in Standard English!

Check out more of my author interviews here.

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