I get asked quite a bit about what I’ve learned while writing. Where the Highlanders came from was my biggest surprise, for historically, they share little with the Lowlanders, but I never truly understood this difference until doing research on THE RETURN OF BLACK DOUGLAS. I’ve always been a bit of a stickler when it comes to research, in that I love history, which is why I chose to write Historical Romance, and I truly love doing the research.  THE RETURN OF BLACK DOUGLAS it was the earliest time period I have written about, being set in 1515.  My biggest surprise was in learning where the Highlander’s came from and how they fit into the big picture that most of us have of Scotland. The early history of the Highlands is sketchy at best, and this is due, in part to the fact that the Scottish Highlands were thought of as the backwater of Europe, and not worth much regard.  The Highlands were also in a remote part of Scotland, where travel was difficult.  There were no “roads” there in this time period, only trails.  Because of this, historical information on the Highlanders and their clothing, customs, etc., is almost…