Today, I welcome Richard G. Nixon, author of The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon, along with his editor and creative partner, Jean Nixon. Rooted in the Scottish Borderlands and inspired by a deep engagement with ancestry and history, the novel brings imaginative life to a little-known historical name, weaving careful research with emotional depth to explore violence, loyalty, love, and survival in a brutal and contested world.
Mary Anne: The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon is set in the Scottish Borderlands at a particularly violent moment in history. What first drew you to this time and place as a storyteller?
Rich has, in the closet, a large scroll of paper. It is now brown and slightly tattered on the edges and barely fits on the wall of a room with 8’ ceilings if you squeeze it in. On this paper are years of research into the genealogy of his family. Along with the genealogy scroll depicting the family tree back to the late 17th century are twenty or so photo albums. These he has patiently assembled. They contain family photographs with notations below each picture insuring no one there will be forgotten. He has collected and saved these photos since the beginning of time, or at least the photographable start of it. On the top of the genealogy scroll and each photo album lie his deep appreciation for the gift of life our ancestors managed to live to pass to us. Their genes and their stories have lived, swimming through blood and history to make their way to him and now on to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He sees this as a profound miracle.
Much of this gift is genetically rooted in Scotland’s Border Region. And though he has no actual documentation to prove the Scottish line back to the actual historical figure known as Fingerless Will Nixon, we can fantasize that it might well have done so. Because this ancient Will Nixon had no story attached to his peculiar name, Rich determined to give him one. And what a story it has become.
He has another book underway and one more in the shadows of a planned series of three. This should take the adventure of this family to 1603 where the story may end. At least this one.
But then there is Jean’s Swedish great-grandmother, deaf at 7, mail order bride, who at 30 immigrates, alone and unable to hear, from Tanumshede, Sweden to the Wisconsin Lake Superior shores to wed a before unknown 19 year old lumberman. She then gives birth to 9 children, builds a small empire, outlives her child husband by 30 years and lives independently in the wilds of northern Wisconsin until the age of 97. Her story too needs telling.
Mary Anne: Will Nixon is young, headstrong, and shaped by loss almost immediately. How did you approach building a protagonist who lives by outlaw values but still earns the reader’s sympathy?
Rich writes the story, Jean edits. Together we research and collaborate—usually over morning coffee--deciding the direction the plot will take that day.
We build our characters from people we know in real life, or from an amalgam of several individuals we know poured into one. History gives us the framework--Will Nixon, his time, his culture, and the events that shaped his world. Our task is to fill in the spaces between the recorded facts.
We are drawn to discussions of good and evil. We often discuss the tension between truth and illusion in both history and in the modern world. In our writing, we look for those same elements, truth and distortion, virtue and flaw and use our own reactions to them to shape our characters.
Though our story is set 600 years ago, humanity at its heart is no different today than it was then. We take the essence of those we know, place them in circumstances and allow them to respond. In doing so, we are reminded how little human nature truly changes. This makes what we hope to be believable characters fun and easy.
As far as making a hero out of a border reiver, that did not seem difficult. Morality is so often shaped by the culture and circumstances, the forces of life beyond our control. Consider rural morality vs. city morality today. Each works for its own set of cultural values. Put the values of one on another and they won’t work as well. Try to impose one set upon the other and there is conflict. And so it was with the border Scots. Such things, at least to the two of us, are more a matter of perspective than who is right and who is wrong. And so, where history frames the Reivers as villains, if one puts themselves inside their world and sees it from the circumstances of their daily lives, it is easy to understand their motivations. They need to live, to eat, to love. They need the cohesion we all crave of family, community, traditions. They want to feel safe, defended, cared about. And so, they do as we all do and create a world in which these things are at least able to be hoped for. This story simply views the world from the Scottish Border Reiver’s side of the border. Inside their perspective, many villains are seen as heros.
Mary Anne: The Border Reivers are often romanticised or misunderstood. What myths did you want to challenge—or preserve—about Borderland life in the early 1500s?
I suppose, after considering this, we address three major issues we have with misunderstandings of the Reivers life in the Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon.
The first is the commonly accepted concept of the Reivers being scoundrels of the worst sort. And that they were, by nearly any measure. However, with their houses burned, their crops smashed, their cattle scattered, over and over again, for hundreds of years--by the English, by laws that failed them, by clans from the south as well as sometimes their own neighbours, they built a life to accommodate these losses. The stories we are creating are not attempting to turn these people into heroes, only to portray them as a subculture of people who do not quite fit into the puzzle of accepted traditions. So they create their own picture where the pieces fit so as to make sense to them. They are neither good, nor bad, but only people doing what they must. How these fierce, freedom-loving folks live, love, laugh and fight to survive is nothing more than any of us might do under the same circumstances. The actions might be judged, but the motivation is understandable.
Second, we attempt to address the role of women who seem to be all but absent from the history of the Scottish borderlands. We have made a bold assumption in considering they did truly exist. We propose that not only did they live among the men, but that they were as fierce and independent as their stronger counterparts.
In our book, they carry the weight of keeping the hearths burning, of being helpmates, and in many cases, morally stronger than the men. We have given Molly Robson the unique role of owning the Elkhorn Tavern, Morgianna the strength of character to change perspective, Grandmam Libby more moral clarity (as will become evident in book 2) than the men in her life. And Mattie. Mattie is indomitable. We hope we have brought some dignity and credence to the forgotten women of the border.
Finally, we have attempted to show the border people’s contempt for the organized religion of the era. In this era they are surrounded by the religious strife about to erupt as a result of Martin Luther and King Henry VIII’s fracture of the old Roman Popedom order of things religious. We have imagined, and I think not without reason, the probable feelings of the border people’s contempt for an organized religion that seems to do nothing for them--nothing but further impoverish them even after famine, warfare and hardship have already stripped them of most everything they could have or want. We have tried not to denigrate the much-appreciated gifts of God or those who worked with Mans’ best interest at heart , but only the greed of the many men who posed or saw themselves as men of God. This is probably most evident in the scene where Mattie first sees the cathedral in Carlisle and Will’s commentary, his explaining the building of it to Mattie. Gavin Duncan’s actual words in his cursings of the Scots are chilling.
Mary Anne: Love grows quietly between Will and Mattie in the middle of hunger, war, and brutality. Why was it important to make their relationship tender rather than purely dramatic or tragic?
The story of the border is a brutal one. It is already dramatic and tragic, and in the end, in 1603, devastatingly so. Our premise is that love is perhaps the most defining of all human wants and needs. Tender love stories have existed in books describing the most brutal of times. Leon Uris in Exodus does it well. So many tender love stories are written against terrible situations people live within. There have been many stories written of love and human connection even in the hell of the concentration camps of World War II’s Germany and Poland. In such violent and tragic places and lives, a tender love may be the only redeeming thread to hold. It had to exist or the story would crumble into one of disbelief and melodrama.
Mary Anne: The Church and the nobility loom large as forces of oppression in the novel. How much of this portrayal is rooted in historical record, and where did you allow yourself creative freedom?
In the years just following our story comes the dramatic fracture and looming loss of power of the Italian based Power of the popes who controlled the great majority of Europe’s wealth. The religious earth moved in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his 99 theses as it did again when Henry VIII broke from its grasp in 1534. Common people as well as clerics were questioning practices that enriched the church as it further drained the poor. There were rumblings of discontent and races to power in the vacuum created by loss of the complete control once held by the Roman Church. These events eventually have great effect on the borders when monasteries are forced to close and the political and social structure they did offer was shattered
All these forces are working behind the curtain in Fingerless Will. The Border people were traditionally suspicious of the established church. While the Monarchy and lords ruled the people’s lives with an iron fist, so did the Church rule their minds and souls. But not our border Scots. The Border regions had for years almost unanimously rejected its laws and made their own. They were among the few regional peoples at the time to do so.
Although our depictions of finally allowing the common people to enter the Carlisle Cathedral are of our own imaginings and a tool to further the plot, such practices were not uncommon. Morgianna’s conflicted religious ideals are of our making and serve to show the overall conflict between the borders and the church. And though John Leslie is real and did become the Archbishop of all Scotland, we have fictionalized his character. His description of being on a raid with the reivers, however is a very real, well documented piece of history. We fictionalized the historical figure of Gavin Dunbar as well, although his “Mother of all Curses”, where he so thoroughly curses the Scots, is very real and lives on and figures strongly in the history of Scotland even today. This curse is a testament to the deep friction that existed between the church and the Scots who dwelled on the borders.
Mary Anne: Mattie Glendenning is a strong but understated character. Can you talk about the inspiration behind her, and the role women play in the story?
I, Jean, will write this one myself. I was born in 1948, a daughter of traditional women’s roles. I was, according to my parents, wilful and difficult and when the women’s movement began, I suppose I was ripe to embrace those parts of it I felt to be my due. I was by nature independent and unwilling to submit to many social rules, much to my father’s dismay.
I still love home and family above all else and rue the loss of so many values that have gone by the way since the women’s movement began. But, that said, I was more than willing to embrace the new world of women with rights. I broke traditions and went on to have my own successful business. It was created on my kitchen table, then went on to become international (admittedly on a small scale) in scope.
My husband, now author of this book, and I have enjoyed the grand adventure of life, pretty much hand in hand. He is the one who says he created Mattie in my image. If it is true that I am his Mattie, then it also holds that he is my steadfast, strong, brave and patient Will…albeit with fingers.
Mary Anne: As an author, how do you balance historical accuracy with pacing and emotional impact—especially when writing about such a harsh world?
Harshness gives perspective. Without his/her own experience of some pain, discomfort and stress an author has a difficult time offering up the feelings and reactions that might have gone with such. We are both older than most who today have lived to inhabit earth. And we have felt plenty of discomfort along the way…financial, spiritual and physical.
However, if a person is grounded in the harshness of history, we know, no matter how much of it we think we have felt, it is probably a pin prick compared to the agonies most humans lived through in times past. The joy of not having to have lived with too much harshness makes it easy to appreciate the ease of today’s world. Our own discomforts, though real have been temporary. Imagining unavoidable and prolonged hunger, penetrating cold, and constant fear, having experienced some temporary bad situations makes it easier to create some uncomfortable drama.
As far as pacing, life is a balancing act. In life we balance work with play, sorrow with joy, fear with calm. And so, it must be with writing. When things get too tense, they must be tempered with scenes of calm or happiness. When our writings get to be too frightening for us to bear, we take a breath and go to the Elkhorn, or to the hearth where hangs the cooking pot filled with rich beef. There, it tastes of home. It has the feel of peace.
Mary Anne: Your wife, Jean, served as editor and creative partner on the book. What did that collaboration add to the story that might not have been there otherwise?
That’s an easy one. It would be half done in the bottom of my sock drawer with my other treasures, or in one of my albums as a half-finished attempt at something my great grandchildren might someday appreciate. More likely it would have wound up in the dumpster along with the rest of that drawer’s treasures: My pebble from the Great Wall of China, the small stone from the Alamo, a piece of wood from the porch of a famous home I shall not mention here, a dried-up leaf from the Gettysburg battlefield, a tiny piece of the Andes; those sorts of treasures.
She kept me interested. She rewrote clumsy, perhaps even silly-sounding pieces of it until it sparkled. She filled in the missing emotions and gave it the female touch only a woman can provide. Finally, she researched how to publish it. And like the dog on a scent she can be, she never quit until it was completed. It only exists because of her determination and her faith in me.
Mary Anne: Looking back now that the book is complete, what does The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon mean to you personally?
It is my legacy. It is what I leave behind that will hopefully be more lasting than ashes in an urn or a name on a forgotten grave. My hope is that my children, grandchildren and beyond will someday read it and understand I was more than just a name…and that this is a written tribute to the Nixon’s and our survival.
Mary Anne: My thanks to Richard G. Nixon and Jean Nixon for reflecting so openly on the inspirations, themes, and characters of The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon, and to Jean Nixon for sharing her perspective on the creative partnership that shaped the book. It has been a pleasure to discuss the moral complexity, tenderness, and human resilience at the heart of this story.
Will Nixon, a bold and headstrong eighteen-year-old Border Reiver, loses his cattle—and his fingers —to the ruthless young lord of Thirlwall Castle. Shamed and enraged, Will rides out in search of vengeance. But what he finds instead is Mattie Glendenning, a herder’s daughter with gold in her hair, fire in her eyes, and a tenderness that threatens to undo him.
As love quietly takes root between the outlaw and the girl who saves him, the world around them grows ever more perilous. Hunger, disease, betrayal, and war press in on every side, while the Church and the nobility fight to crush the freedom-loving Scots who dare to live by their own laws.
In the cold and brutal sweep of the Borderlands, Will and Mattie must choose whether love can survive a land steeped in blood and bound by legend.
The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon brings to life the harsh beauty of 16th-century Scotland, capturing both the raw hardship and the fierce spirit of a people who lived—and loved—on the edge of the law in a world created by themselves that others dare not touch.
Discover the fierce and moving world of The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon, available now on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback, and hardback. Whether you prefer digital or print, this is a story well worth spending time with. Purchase your copy HERE.
***
What a wonderful interview! I really enjoyed hearing about your inspiration and creative process. Thank you for sharing such thoughtful insights into your work. I have added your book to my to-read list!
ReplyDelete