Hello friends, I am delighted to welcome fellow author, selkie soul, and lover of folklore, Kate MacRitchie onto my Substack today. Kate and I connected many years ago through Instagram and have been blessed to be early readers of each other's books. As someone who embraces her cultural heritage and has a deep-rooted sense of place, Kate inspires many to find those threads within their own ancestral roots. Her Instagram videos where she shares her journey with learning Gaelic are wonderful, her photos of her native Scotland are breathtaking, and her writing is ever beautiful, mystical, and poetic. Thank you to Kate for allowing me to interview you about your creative life and inspirations. Please check out Kate's bio at the end of this post and feel free to share this interview with anyone who likes folklore and magical things.
1. You are a published author of fairy tales, write a couple of newsletters here on Substack, and seem to be working on different creative projects here and there. What factors contributed to you becoming a writer?
Firstly, thank you Cait for featuring me on Muse Monday. It’s truly an honour as I’ve always admired your writing from the early days of sharing my writing on Instagram. To answer your question — being a bookworm from childhood sowed the seed of wanting to become a writer (and perhaps a romantic view of what a writer’s life looked like). But I also need to write. (I wrote a dawn letter about this very topic recently!) The weight of accumulating thoughts would drive me mad if I couldn’t write them in my diary. And then there are all the untold stories hazily roaming my heart like ghosts, haunting me until I set them on paper.
2. Besides writing, from your sketches I have been blessed to see you are also a talented artist. Was there a point in time when you considered a career as a visual artist? Thank you! Yes, I did consider pursuing art when I was in high school. Throughout childhood and my teen years drawing and reading were my two escapes and I often wonder if I should have pursued art instead. I’ve been feeling the call to draw again lately…I’ve always loved the thought of illustrating my own stories but unfortunately, my ambition outweighs my talent. I’d love to take life drawing classes at some point to get better.
3. Where do you find inspiration? My main inspirations are the legends and landscape of Scotland, Gaelic language and culture, moonlight, and the river that runs through my town. And of course, books.
4. What fairy tales would you consider to be a part of your personal mythology? I’ve never thought of them in terms of personal mythology but since I was five years old I’ve been captivated by selkies. I’m not from the islands or coast so I discovered them in a book (Stories By Firelight by Shirley Hughes). Something about the shapeshifting, tragic nature of the seal woman’s story and the wild, stormy seas she came from captured my heart. They felt more relatable (and local!) to me than mermaids. Having said that, I recently discovered that there is a loch near to where I live called the Mermaid’s Loch!
5. I’ve known you for several years now, and since we first connected I’ve enjoyed seeing you post about nature, magic, and folklore of your homeland. Would you say that sense of place is a vital aspect of your creative work?
I feel grateful to have such a deep connection with my native Scotland. I don’t think I can separate myself or my creative work from it. The islands and glens, legends and nature, are an infinite source of inspiration and comfort. I feel a part of it if that makes sense. If I tried to write about another place, for example, it wouldn’t sound right…or it would come from the perspective of outside looking in rather than truly knowing.
6. You’ve been studying Gaelic for a while now. What inspired you to learn Gaelic?
Gaelic is very much the language of the land, so perhaps my love of nature intuitively drew me to it! Gaelic fascinated me from a young age but I only knew a few phrases. As a teen I really wanted to learn it properly but unfortunately there wasn’t much provision for learning Gaelic back then unless you lived on the West Coast. It wasn’t until I left uni that finally decided to do a short course at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (Skye’s Gaelic College) and I’ve been learning on and off ever since. Thankfully, attitudes to Gaelic are changing in Scotland and more people recognise the importance of preserving it. I feel so grateful that today I have a group of Gaelic speakers I can meet every week in my hometown — something that felt like a pipedream 15 years ago!
7. What are a few of your favorite Gaelic words and why?
Cailleach-oidhche is the Gaelic word for ‘owl’ and translates to ‘old woman of the night’. I love this word for its associations with witchcraft and the Cailleach, Scotland’s mythic winter-hag. Maigheach, for hare — I’ve been told that this roughly translates to ‘May creature’. I find that so poetic!
And cuideachd, which means also. There’s no supernatural lore attached to this word, I just find it satisfying to say!
8. Do you have any new books in the works?
At the moment I’m taking time out to heal from burnout. After finishing my first novel (unpublished) I immediately wrote a second (also gathering dust on my laptop!) and then plunged into the Fireside Tales series. I put pressure on myself to write a book a year, which seems silly looking back. Last year I started working as a freelance copywriter, which left little energy in the tank for creative writing…that coupled with some personal issues last year has led to a massive burnout. That’s a long way to say that when I feel able I’ll start writing Fireside Ghosts, the third and final book in the Fireside Tales series. I started the process last year but realised that I wouldn’t be able to do these tales justice while feeling completely burnt out. It’s hard for me to slow down but I’m finding a lot of peace and ‘inner knowing’ comes from doing nothing. Going forward I want to prioritise rest as a vital part of my writing process.
9. Are there any goals as a writer that you’d like to meet within the next five years?
Getting better at sinking even deeper into what I love, using the silent tug of intuition as a guide, and creating work that feels truly aligned with who I am.
10. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Hopefully living peacefully in a faerie grove deep within the woods!
Thank you, Kate, for joining us today! Connect with Kate on Instagram or read her newsletter here on Substack.
Author Bio:
My name's Kate, an author and Gaelic speaker from Scotland. I write books inspired by my homeland's dark folklore and the eldritch beings who haunt its hills, lochs, and ruins. The mystical Gaelic landscape (and language) has always held sway over my imagination and my stories often blur the boundaries between worlds.
I'm the author of two short story collections: Fireside Fairy Tales and Fireside Magic, inspired by Scotland's fairy lore, folk belief, and 'witchcraft'.
Thank you so much for asking me to be part of your Muse Monday, Cait! I'm grateful we connected on Instagram all those years ago ✨
The dream collaboration we've been waiting for! I enjoyed this so much.