R.M. Brown's Blog

Hey! It was published by Ringwood Publishing, a small press based in Glasgow ☺️

Songs of the Stag Track 9 ➡️ No Time To Die, Billie Eilish

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As Cait’s world view expands and her curiosity grows, there are aspects of her old life that start to rub with each step forward she takes. The main symbol of this outgrowing of her old life is her relationship with Kenzie, and this song perfectly encapsulates Cait’s bitter disillusionment when everything falls apart. There was actually a very early draft of Song of the Stag where Cait helps Aggie burn down Hart Hall, and this was the song that played in my head during that scene. I ended up scrapping this in favour of a more measured, mature exploration of the pain that comes with a toxic relationship, and now this is the song that plays as Cait sits alone in the Crabbit Corbie near the end of act 1.

‘Was I stupid to love you?

Was I reckless to help?

Was it obvious to everybody else

That I’d fallen for a lie?

You were never on my side

Fool me once, fool me twice

Are you death or paradise?

Now you’ll never see me cry

There’s just no time to die’

Songs of the Stag track 8 ➡️ Land o the Leal, Grey Dogs & Kathryn Joseph

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Between the Separatists, the officers in the Queen’s Watch, and the regular citizens of Storran, there are a thousand shades of patriotism. To some, patriotism lies in acts of defiance, to others, it is steady maintenance of the status quo. I enjoyed playing with this idea in Song of the Stag through the concept of ‘lealtie’ (Scots, or Old Storrian, for ‘loyalty’). The Separatist battle cry is ‘Lealtie Ayebidin’, a declaration of eternal loyalty to their cause and their land. With a taste for irony, the Separatists call the Queen’s Watch soldiers ‘Lealists’, highlighting the soldier’s intense loyalty to a land that is not their own. Each of the characters in Song of the Stag are forced to reckon with what ‘lealtie’ means to them, and indeed, how far they are willing to go for it. The melancholic song ‘Land of the Leal’, which is about a woman’s dying words to her lover and promising to meet him in heaven, comes to mind for me when I think of a scene early in the novel where Cait faces the consequences choosing to be loyal to a certain side.

“Sae dear ’s the joy was bought, John,

Sae free the battle fought, John,

That sinfu’ man e'er brought

To the land o’ the leal.”

Songs of the Stag Track 7 ➡️ Butchered Tongue, Hozier

The full Song of the Stag playlist can be found in my bio! 🎶

“But feel at home, hearin’ a music that few still understand

A butchered tongue still singin’ here above the ground”

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In language there is defiance and resilience. Gàidhlig and Scots are just two languages that have suffered at the hands of cultural imperialism throughout history, and I wanted to reflect this in Song of the Stag through the languages of Old Storrian and Leid. The line between the Old Storrian tongue and a Storrian dialect is a familiar blur to those of us who grew up hearing that Scots was merely a bastardisation of English. Its invocation in the book can be taken as an act of defiance, or simply an accented manner of speaking, depending on who is listening. Leid, on the other hand, is a statement.To the oppressor, it is testament to the resilience of a culture they tried hard to wipe clean. Like Gàidhlig, Leid thrives beyond its butchery.

Songs of the Stag Track 6 > I’m a Wanted Man 🦊

Every day or so I’m sharing a track from my novel’s playlist alongside some annotations!

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There’s nothing I enjoy writing more than a notorious character, and The Fox of Thorterknock is certainly that. She’s a character of duality, who cultivates a reputation and allows it to precede her. She’s a law unto herself, and takes glee in the outrage she sews.

But on the other side of the coin, she’s Aggie, a girl afraid of her own shadow. She’s equal parts drawn to and terrified of peace. This song is bombastic to the point it feels like it’s overcompensating until we reach a slowed down bridge where the narrator questions if they’re able to change their ways, much like our beloved Fox.

“They didn’t know it when they turned me loose

I shot the sheriff, and I slipped the noose”

Songs of the Stag Track 5 👉 What Do You Do

Every day or so I’m sharing a track from my Scottish fantasy book’s playlist! Link to the playlist in my bio 🔗

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‘What Do You Do’ is a song about cycles, cynicism, and disillusionment with the political system that so many of us resonate with. It also resonates with Cait’s early days in Thorterknock as she becomes exposed to a world she had no idea existed: a world of poverty, illness, and struggle. She’s lived in a bubble, and when it bursts, it hurts. We have all had moments when we realised the system was broken.

For so many of us, that moment leads to a loss of innocence and a sense of betrayal. The steady pace of this song perfectly exemplifies how it feels to wander through your world feeling hopeless and helpless, but on the other side of that melancholy, is the fire to inspire change.

“What do you do when democracy fails you?

What do you do when the rest can’t see it’s true?”

Every day or so I’m sharing a song from my Scottish fantasy novel’s playlist alongside some annotations!

Track 4 - Revolution, The Score

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To me, this song represents Cait’s arrival in Thorterknock. Compared to previous songs, it’s quick and loud, asThorterknock is quick and loud. It’s a place of industry, and a place of opportunity. It’s a living, breathing system of people from different classes and backgrounds. It’s always moving, always rattling. This makes it the perfect setting for revolution. Cait’s arrival in Thorterknock is the catalyst for her political awakening. She is taken by the irresistible force of the city, and its plucky, hopeful residents.

There’s a revolution coming”

“Oh, can you hear the drumming?

Songs of the Stag Track 3 > Rolling Hills of the Borders

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The Rolling Hills of the Borders is such a joyful folk song and I feel it really represents Cait’s love of her home region. This track comes 3rd on the Song of the Stag playlist, as I always imagine Cait and Kenzie’s train to Thorterknock speeding through the countryside when I listen to it. In one of the verses, the narrator talks about how they have travelled far and wide but love nothing more than their home in the Borders. Cait is much the same. It doesn’t matter how much she changes or how much she outgrows her home, its place in her heart is sealed. I chose the Borders as Cait’s home as I wanted her to be as physically close to Storran’s oppressors as possible. It’s what lends her the balanced outlook she wields in the story and helps her counter Aggie’s cut and dry opinion of the Afrenian people.

Songs of the Stag annotated playlist: track 2

Cànan Nan Gàidheal, Tide Lines

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The first time I heard Cànan Nan Gàidheal, I was mesmerised. I didn’t understand a word of the lyrics, but that didn’t matter. Then beside me, in that cramped festival tent, some guy started heckling the band. ‘Sing something in English!’ he cried. It wasn’t until I got home and looked up a translation of the lyrics that I realised the irony of his words. The song is a lament, a mournful reflection on the way the Gaelic language has suffered, and a testimony to how it prevails. While ‘Prelude’, track 1 in this playlist, looks to the future, Cànan Nan Gàidheal takes a step back. I wanted to capture that same sense of loss in Storran, especially surrounding the languages of ‘Leid’ and ‘Old Storrian’. Gaelic speaker or Scots speaker, we can all relate to being told our culture is not. proper or worth nurturing.

“Cha b’ e ‘n t-uisge ‘s an gaillionn bho ‘n iar,

Ach an galair a bhlean bho ‘n deas

Blàth duilleach is stoc agus freumh

Cànan mo threubh ‘s mo shluaidh.”

Translation from rewild.com:

“It was not the snow and frost from the north,

nor the acute cold withering from the east,

it wasn’t the rain or the storms from the west,

but the sickness from the south

that has faded the bloom, foliage, stock and root

of the language of my race and my people.”

Track 1 of the Song of the Stag playlist: Prelude by Tide Lines

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While working on big picture edits of Song of the Stag, I listened to A LOT of Scottish music. I’ve loved Tide Lines for a long time, but something about being elbow deep in the world of Storran cast the song ‘Prelude’ in a totally new light. Suddenly I was getting snapshots of images: bleeding heather, a running girl, a single drop of melted pewter, and I just knew I had to make a book trailer. Luckily, the guys over at Tide Lines were kind enough to let me licence the track, and I spent the restless months between edits and book release filming a trailer. In my head, the song became the book’s unofficial theme tune. It’s a slow, cinematic build with lyrics that feel like folklore; a bittersweet memory of days gone by, and a reckless optimism for the future. To me, that is everything Song of the Stag represents.

“All the wishes of our memories

Are reaching out before us now

I recall the days when we were free

There’s a yearning in our chorus now”