Tarbert Book Festival

I enjoyed a magical weekend at the very friendly Book Festival at Tarbert, Loch Fynne, one of the less well known haunts of the miniature Asian elephant. I was involved in  the ‘Saturday with the Stevensons’ event with Bella Bathurst, the lighthouse expert and Joseph Farrell who has recently written about Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa.

Edinburgh

I greatly enjoyed taking part in the celebrations for Robert Louis Stevenson’s birthday in Edinburgh, November 2018. I spoke about how he inspired my writing at the Writers’ Museum. It’s a wonderful old building with narrow spiral staircases. The bottom floor is dedicated to RLS while the other floors are for Sir Walter Scott and Bobbie Burns.

Penzance Literary Festival

I spoke about ‘No Safe Anchorage’ at the Penzance Literary Festival in early July after travelling by train from the North-western Celtic fringe to its counterpart in the far South- West.

Redwing cafe Penzance

 

The beautiful coastline reminded me of the Highlands.

Cornish coastline towards Penzance

 

On the way down I signed copies of my book at the Waterstones branch in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

Waterstones EDINBURGH en route to Penzance

Skye U3A May meeting

U3a Skye

I was delighted to talk about ‘No Safe Anchorage’ at a meeting of Skye U3A at the end of May. There were many interesting questions and comments from the audience despite it being a very hot day. It was a complete contrast to when I spoke about my first book, ‘Love and Music Will Endure’ on a day of storms and torrential rain. The joys of living in a place with changeable extremes of weather!

Women Writers in the Highlands

HighlandLIT

In April I spent an enjoyable evening as part of a panel in Inverness, hosted by HighlandLIT. We discussed

‘Women Writers in the  Highlands’.

We were a varied group, both in age and as writers. Helen Forbes and Margaret Kirk are both accomplished writers of crime thrillers set in Inverness, Morven-May MacCallum has written a moving account of a teenager suffering from the aftermath of Lyme’s disease and my speciality is historical novels set in the Highlands. However we have Highland ancestry in common and Highland women are renowned for their toughness and resilience!

We covered a range of subjects, including how male authors expect praise for portraying “strong women”. Does this imply that strong women are unusual and therefore most  women are weak?

Also debated was the issue of why Highland stereotypes are still so popular, especially the kilted, brooding Jacobite hero (red-haired of course).

There were plenty of lively observations from the audience which contributed to a memorable evening.

The Travelling Bookseller

Since the launch of ‘No Safe Anchorage’ I’ve been travelling around Skye and further afield to Inverness, talking to all sorts of different groups and selling copies of the book. I’ve also been a travelling bookseller, taking books, not only to bookshops but to Skye’s Gaelic College, craft shops, post Offices, galleries and petrol stations. My journeys were mostly by car but I also took the ferry over to the island of Raasay, close to Rona where the story begins.

 

Talk to Dunvegan Ladies

 

Talk with Dunvegan Ladies

Aros Community Theatre

Sabhal Mor Ostaig

The Raasay Ferry

Skeabost, Skye

Inverness Book Reading