Blog Tour ~ The Damsel Fly by S J I Holliday

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host a stop on The Damsel Fly Blog Tour

Banktoun #3

Black&White Publishing
2017

What's it all about ...

Katie Taylor is the perfect student. She’s bright and funny, she has a boyfriend who adores her and there are only a few months left of school before she can swap Banktoun for the bright lights of London. Life gets even better when she has an unexpected win on a scratch card. But then Katie’s luck runs out.

Her tragic death instead becomes the latest in a series of dark mysteries blighting the small town. The new school counsellor Polly McAllister, who has recently returned to Banktoun to make amends in her own personal life, is thrown in at the deep end as the pupils and staff come to terms with Katie’s death. And it’s not long before she uncovers a multitude of murky secrets. Did Katie have enemies? Is her boyfriend really so squeaky clean? And who is her brother’s mysterious friend?

With Banktoun’s insular community inflamed by gossip and a baying mob stirring itself into a frenzy on social media, DS Davie Gray and DC Louise Jennings must work out who really murdered Katie before someone takes matters into their own hands…

The Damselfly is the latest novel from the bestselling author of Black Wood and Willow Walk set in the small Scottish town of Banktoun. Fans of Rachel Abbott, Angela Marsons and Peter James will love this rivetting psychological crime thriller as DS Davie Gray tries to hold together a community once again rocked by tragedy.

My thoughts about it...

The Damsel Fly triggered my imagination right from the start because those who know me know of my fascination for dragonflies/damselflies, so to have a book with one strategically placed on the cover was, for me, going to be intriguing right from the start. I am pleased to say that in this 3rd book in the Banktoun series of psychological crime thrillers, the author, once again, doesn't disappoint her many fans.

Mentioning that teenager Katie Taylor dies almost at the start of the book is no spoiler, as the blurb tells you so, but what comes after is tightly knitted crime mystery which involves not just Katie's immediate family, but also her relationships with her boyfriend, her school friends and also her teachers, so that her unexplained death sends out deadly ripples of unrest into the wider community of Banktoun.

The mystery at the heart of The Damselfly is current and topical and there are more than enough twists and turns in the story to keep the reader guessing right until the end. I do enjoy trying to second guess a good crime writer but this author always keeps you at arm’s length never letting you get too close until she wants you to know something. 

What I love about this author's writing is her ability to get right into the nitty gritty of the story without ever resorting to superfluous waffle. The characters she creates always feel authentic and could be people you meet in everyday life and of course, it’s always great to see the return of those characters we have met up with in previous stories. The Scottish town of Banktoun, as always, features heavily in the story and there is a welcome whiff of recognition in the people and its hidden places. Those who have read Black Wood and Willow Walk  will find themselves smiling as they recognise subtle references to past events and of course, it's interesting to see how DS Davie Gray will progress in his role as a Detective Sergeant alongside his relationship with DC Louise Jennings.

Such was my need to power through to the end I raced through the book in one sitting  and, as always, I wasn't disappointed either by the story or the way it concluded. All I will say is bring on Book 4...☺

Best Read with...a raspberry zinger and a packet of custard cream biscuits

About the author

My thanks to the author and her publishers for the invitation to be part of this blog tour.

Blog Tour runs 2nd - 17th February so do visit the other stops on the tour and follow on Twitter #TheDamselfly

@bwpublishing  @SJIHolliday

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Blog Tour ~ Valentina by S E Lynes

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting this first stop

 on the exciting Blog Tour 


for 

Valentina by S E Lynes

Blackbird Digital
1 July 2016

A bit of book blurb

When Glasgow journalist Shona McGilvery moves with her partner Mikey and their baby to an idyllic cottage in rural Scotland, they believe that all that lies ahead of them is happiness.

But with Mikey working offshore, the frightening isolation of the Aberdeenshire countryside begins to drive her insane...

That is, until she is rescued by a new friendship with the enchanting Valentina. 

She has the perfect home, the perfect man, and a charismatic new best friend – or does she?

As her fairytale life begins to unravel, the deep dark wood becomes the least of her fears...

My thoughts

Shona McGilvery is like the girl you meet on the bus, she's funny and feisty, not afraid to stand up for what she believes in and she loves her man, Mikey and their tiny daughter, Isla. But when they move to an isolated cottage on the outskirts of Aberdeen, Shona is left alone whilst Mikey works as an engineer on an offshore oil rig. For the two weeks each month that Mikey works away from home Shona is really lonely, so when she meets the enigmatic Valentina, who also has a baby son, you can imagine that Shona is only too keen to make friends, and Valentina quickly adapts herself to Shona's life and very soon becoming everything that Shona thinks she needs in a friend.

What then follows is a very clever psychological thriller which lulls you into a sense of security only to rip the comfort blanket away from you in a story which literally had me on the edge of my seat. Such was the compulsion to read just a little bit more, I literally carried my kindle from room to room and read and read without a break until I had finished the story in one sitting.

I was lulled and beguiled by the relationship between Shona and Mikey and Valentina and Shona, I wanted to like them all, but before too long I had misgivings about one of them, which then made me question what was happening, made me seek answers and had me flipping back in the story to see if I had missed anything vital ....I hadn't. And the fact that the book kept me guessing right until the end is where the absolute strength of the story lies.

What happens throughout the whole of this clever novel is not for me to divulge as that would be to do both book and author a complete disservice, but what I will say,  is this, that such is the emotional pull of this intelligent and finely observed domestic noir, I would argue that no-one who reads the story will be disappointed.

Without doubt, one of the best debut novels I’ve read this year.

Best Read with….A fish and chip supper and a bottle of Sancerre..

About the Author

After graduating from Leeds University, S. E. Lynes lived in London for a couple of years before moving to Aberdeen to be with her husband. In Aberdeen, she worked as a Radio Producer at the BBC before moving with her husband and two young children to Rome. There, she began to write while her children attended nursery. After the birth of her third child and upon her return to the UK, she gained an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University. She now combines writing with teaching creative writing at Richmond Adult Community College and bringing up her three children. She lives in Teddington, SW London.

Visit her on her Facebook page

Follow her on Twitter @SELynesAuthor

Amazon UK

My thanks to the publisher Blackbird Digital for my e-copy of this book and of course, to the author for writing such an addictive and compelling psychological thriller.

|Do visit the other stops on this exciting blog tour.

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Blog Tour ~ Willow Walk by S J I Holliday

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting a stop on the

Willow Walk Blog Tour

And here's the author to tell us all about Breaking Book Two

Breaking Book Two

It shouldn’t be difficult, should it? You’ve done it before, you’ve sweated and toiled and drank all the gin. You’ve read the one-star reviews and you’ve survived the library event where three people turned up and only two of them managed to stay awake. It’s just a book, forgawdsake. It’s like riding a bike… you never forget how to do it. So WHY did it take multiple failed attempts and days, no, MONTHS, worth of wailing before you managed to write the damn thing?

Because you forgot how hard it was.

What, with all those library tours and book festivals and signings for friends who think you’re THE NEXT BIG THING, you’ve existed in months of blurred, happy thoughts about writing a book and being an author and people treating you like their local celebrity.

You forgot that you have to sit down for hours on end, feeling your bum merge itself into the shape of one of your sofa cushions, while you stare at a screen with a big white rectangle on it and a little black line that just sits there, flashing, taunting you, saying GO ON, SPOIL THE PAGE, WRITE SOME OF YOUR CRAPPY WORDS ON HERE.

Because you remembered that all the ideas are so much better when they’re still in your head.

So many ideas. ALL THE TIME. It’s like a tap that you can’t switch off. It keeps you awake all night, drip, drip, dripping until you’re wide awake and full of all the words, and you scribble them down (or type them into your phone)… and then the next day, you read them back and they’re crap. Why can’t you just download the stuff from inside your head onto the page? Why do you have to think about it all so much. JUST WRITE IT, JUST WRITE IT.

Because you remember how it felt the first time.

You were delighted, that day you signed your publishing deal. But then all the hard stuff started. Edits and marketing and that damn library (one of those three punters was probably DEAD you know – did you even check?) The reviews… oh the reviews – getting a good one is like winning the lottery, getting a bad one is like being slapped in the face with a slipper.

Because you just don’t think you can do it all again…

But then one day, you wake up early – the sun is shining through the blinds – your husband brings you a cup of tea in bed… and that’s when it comes. THE BIG THING – the prologue – that scene where… OH MY GOD. And the next thing you know, the story is tumbling out… and the excitement is back… and you just CAN’T. STOP. WRITING.

Because when you’re a writer, you can never stop.

Black & White Publishing
Banktoun #2
June 10th., 2018

When the past catches up, do you run and hide or stand and fight?

When a woman is brutally attacked on a lonely country road by an escaped inmate from a nearby psychiatric hospital, Sergeant Davie Gray must track him down before he strikes again. But Gray is already facing a series of deaths connected to legal highs and a local fairground, as well as dealing with his girlfriend Marie's bizarre behaviour. As Gray investigates the crimes, he suspects a horrifying link between Marie and the man on the run - but how can he confront her when she's pushing him away? As a terrified Marie is pulled back into a violent past she thought she'd escaped, she makes an irrevocable decision. And when events come to a head at a house party on Willow Walk, can Gray piece together the puzzle in time to stop the sleepy town of Banktoun being rocked by tragedy once more.

About the Author

S.J.I. Holliday grew up in Haddington, East Lothian - a small town near Edinburgh, Scotland. She spent many years working in her family’s newsagent and pub before going off to study microbiology and statistics at university. She has worked as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry for over sixteen years, but it was on a six-month round-the-world-trip that she took with her husband ten years ago that she rediscovered her passion for writing. Her first novel, BLACK WOOD was published in 2015. Her second novel WILLOW WALK was published in June 2016.

Visit the author's Website

Follow on Twitter @SJIHolliday

Amazon UK

Huge thanks to Susi for sharing this fascinating guest post all about breaking book two and let's hope that she never stops writing..roll on book 3 !!

Thanks also to Laura at Black&White Publishing for the invitation to be part of this exciting tour.

Blog Tour runs 6-17 June - do visit the other stops for more exciting content.

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Review ~ Love's Long Road by G D Harper

Matador
April 2016

Bobbie Sinclair’s feeling of responsibility for her boyfriend's suicide is something she struggles to cope with, and her only way of dealing with it is to fight against everything she knows. She innocently assumes that her life can be blocked out by an unending progression of one night stands, but leading a promiscuous life, in her home town of Glasgow, brings her into contact with Michael Mitchell, an unscrupulous manipulator, who takes Bobbie by the hand and leads her, imperceptibly, into the dark and shady world of Glasgow’s criminal underclass.

The dark and gritty world which Bobbie finds herself part of, both in Glasgow and later in London, evokes a realistic edge to a story which moves along at a rollicking good pace. The late 1970s, a time I know very well, comes alive, and the author's descriptions of time and place are excellent, from the wearing of bright yellow jumpsuits, mine was blue, to drinking abundant amounts of Blue Nun and cruising around the edge of a Tiffany's nightclub dance floor, the detail was absolutely perfect.

Bobbie is a feisty protagonist, the sheer strength of her personality carries the story very well, but she also has a uniquely vulnerable edge which even though there are times when she is exasperating, you can’t help but form a deep emotional attachment to her. The other characters who flit into and out, add real depth to this dark and gritty story. Michael is such a dangerous charmer, and yet he exudes a sensuous attraction which hides just how dangerous a manipulator he is, and then there’s, Duncan, Bobbie’s friend who sticks with her throughout the whole sorry story.

The drama throughout Love's Long Road is utterly believable, the attention to detail is excellent and the ending, when it comes, is entirely appropriate. I really enjoyed it - it would make a great TV drama!!

Best Read with….chicken in a basket and of course, copious glasses of luke warm, Blue Nun…

My thanks to the author for sharing this book with me

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Review ~ The Last of Us by Rob Ewing

The Borough Press
21 April 2016

The Last of Us is a heart-breaking novel about courage, survival and the overwhelming power of hope over adversity.

When a violent pandemic wipes out a community on a remote Scottish island only a handful of children remain. They fend for themselves, but are always looking for a means of survival. They scavenge food, store water, search for medicines which will aid their survival, and whilst they seem tough, underneath the bravado they're as vulnerable as kittens. Elizabeth is the sensible one, she cares and cajoles, gets them to attend an improvised school, and keeps an eye on the youngest, Alex, whose dependence on daily insulin, is just one more problem for them to face. With food running out and morale low, petty squabbles break out amongst the group and when two of the boys attempt to usurp Elizabeth, the tenuous link which holds the group together is broken.

This is a difficult story to enjoy as the prospect of a pandemic wiping out a community at first seems beyond belief but like any dystopian story, the truth is in the believing and the author does a really good job of making sure that the children's story is frighteningly truthful. I found the story immeasurably sad with a bleakness which is, at times, quite upsetting but such is the power of the story telling, that despite my misgivings, I found the story utterly convincing.  I read it very quickly as I didn’t want take any respite, as to put the book down felt like I was abandoning this intrepid band of little warriors to an unknown fate.

The overriding theme of endurance is captured with great insight, the evocative Scottish setting, the smattering of Gaelic spoken by the children and the oppressive nature of what happens when your little corner of the world is completely damaged certainly makes for compelling reading.

About the Author

Rob Ewing is a GP living in Edinburgh. His short stories and poetry have been published widely. The Last of Us is his first novel.

My thanks to The Borough Press and Lovereading.co.uk for the opportunity to read and review this novel in advance of its publication.


You can read other reviews of The Last Of Us on the Lovereading website.



Available to buy from all good bookshops from the 21 April  2016

Blog Tour ~ Elemental by Amanda Curtin

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's concluding stop on the

Elemental Blog Tour

Introducing the author

Amanda Curtin

AMANDA CURTIN is a critically acclaimed writer and book editor who lives in Perth, Western Australia. Of Scottish ancestry, she spent years researching Elemental, travelling to The Shetlands, Aberdeen, Peterhead, Great Yarmouth, Edinburgh and all along Scotland’s north-east coast, discovering the superstitions, folklore and customs of fishermen in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Using archival images and documents — and even teaching herself the Doric and Shetland languages — in Elemental she crafts a vivid portrait of a lost world, and connects it compellingly to our own.

Amanda ~ welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for inviting us to be a part of your blog tour for your novel, Elemental...

Where did you get your inspiration for the novel?

Three little scraps of paper in a file where I squirrel away ideas could be said to have inspired Elemental: one said ‘fishermen’; one, ‘consequences’; one, ‘butterflies’. The second of these was the most obvious and formative, but if you read Elemental you’ll also see the other two weaving through the novel.

I was intrigued with some of the Scottish fishermen’s superstitions I had come across years ago, and then my reading started to expand in wider circles—to fishing villages, fishing boats, fishing methods, fish curing, fishwives… Eventually I came across a reference to the herring girls, and I was (if you’ll forgive the pun) hooked; I knew that the character that had been beginning to form in my head would be a herring girl.

I was—and remain—fascinated by those teams of women and girls in the early twentieth century who left their isolated villages in the north of Scotland to follow the seasonal migration of the herring from the north-west islands to the Shetlands, down to the north-east mainland and as far south as Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft—a journey that began around late February or March and ended just before Christmas, by which time the girls were having to break the ice in the farlins (tubs) of fish. Imagine what it would be like to be on your feet, gutting herring all day, sometimes for ten hours, or twelve or sixteen—just as long as the boats kept coming in. I admired their skill, their endurance, their incredible speed with the knife; I loved their camaraderie and their pride. I wanted to write about those strong, brave ‘quinies’.

My main character, Meggie Duthie Tulloch, is fictional, but everything I read about the women and girls of that time—in newspapers, oral histories, memoirs, government reports—helped to shape her, along with her sister Kitta and friend Clementina. I saw some wonderful photographs at museums and libraries during my research, and I kept photocopies of some on the wall above my desk. I began with the word ‘fishermen’, but it is women who became the heart of Elemental.

Scribe Publications
11 February 2016

It has taken a lifetime for me to see that the more afraid people are of the darkness, the further into it they will flee.

Nearing the end of her life, Meggie Tulloch takes up her pen to write a story for her granddaughter. It begins in the first years of the twentieth century, in a place where howling winds spin salt and sleet sucked up from icefloes.

A place where lives are ruled by men, and men by the witchy sea. A place where the only thing lower than a girl in the order of things is a clever girl with accursed red hair. A place schooled in keeping secrets.

Moving from the north-east of Scotland, to the Shetland Isles, to Fremantle, Australia, Elemental is a novel about the life you make from the life you are given.

Find Amanda on her website 

Follow her on Twitter @lookingupdown

 Amazon UK

Amazon.com

Huge thanks to Amanda for her guest post today and also to Molly at Scribe for her invitation to join in with this exciting blog tour

Do take a look at what has been happening on the other stops on the tour

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Review ~ In the Cold Dark Ground by Stuart MacBride

Harper Collins
January 2016

Logan McRae, the troubled Scottish sergeant who seems to attract trouble like a moth to a flame, returns in this tense and gritty novel which focuses on a dark and dirty criminal underworld.

When Logan and his team are called upon to investigate a missing person, the disturbing nature of the enquiry leads Logan in a direction he would rather not travel, but as with all complex cases, what he discovers during the investigation, will reveal more questions than it does answers. It’s difficult to say more about the plot without giving away vital pieces of information which will act as huge spoilers, so it’s really for the best if you read of the challenges that Logan faces, both in his personal and professional life, without any preconceptions.

Without doubt the story is action packed and full of gritty realism which had me on the edge of my seat, but, I think because this was the first time I had read any of the books in this series, I puzzled about certain aspects of Logan’s character and couldn’t quite make up my mind about whether he was one of the good guys.. or not. I realise that he’s a superbly flawed individual, which I why, I guess this series has run and run, and that part of his special appeal is no doubt due to his somewhat maverick approach to policing, which often gets unexpectedly good results.

Coming into a series so far down the line, really does makes a difference to the overall enjoyment. I missed lots of points of reference and I couldn’t always fathom Logan’s relationship issues, or his somewhat cavalier approach to professional standards. But putting that on one side, I am sure that fans of the series will be delighted with the story, which is well written and complex, the dirty dealings of the criminal underworld are scarily real, and Logan’s part in it, is both exciting and complex.

So, all in all, well worth a read if you like gritty crime and, of course it's a sure fire read if you've followed Logan's story from the offset.

Best read with…giddying amounts of whisky and several sausage butties, heavy on the red sauce…

About the Author

Amazon UK

Thanks to Jaime Frost at Harper Collins for my review copy of this book

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Review ~ The Winter Isles by Antonia Senior

Corvus

November 5 2015

Twelfth century Scotland is a place of brutal warfare, and for Somerled, the son of an ageing Scottish chieftain, life is harsh and often unpredictable. There is much to lose in the frequent battles and turmoil that command his attention, and yet his unfailing enthusiasm for his land and his people shine through in this story of ancient conflict, and of a young man's quest to reclaim what is his, by right of birth. To be Lord of the Isles in such a time of great uncertainty was tantamount to risking everything but the ties that bind him to this desolate country are strong and deep.

Twelfth century Scotland is vividly recreated and the storm tossed days of battle thunder and ruthless conflict is depicted in such glorious detail that I felt the earth tremor with excitement at the lyrical quality of such powerful storytelling. There are clever interpretations of light and shade with struggles and skirmishes sitting comfortably alongside tender moments between lovers, and an abiding love for home, land and people.

Not much is known about the character, Somerled, and I must admit that my own knowledge was woefully ignorant, shrouded as he is in mythology and buried in legend, there is little to really know about what actually happened during these early years in Scottish history. With that thought firmly placed in my mind, I must admit to reading the author’s historical notes at the end of the book before I had reached the end of the first chapter. That’s not to say that the rest of the story was spoiled by reading the notes out of sync with the book, far from it, in fact, it helped enormously to put time and place into context.

It is obvious that the author is extremely passionate about Somerled. Her enthusiasm shines through with every well written word and there is no doubt that her impeccable research and many, many visits to Scotland have paid off on abundance.

A perfect read for a wintry afternoon and best enjoyed with a glass of Bunnahabhain ,a smooth Islay single malt, and maybe a plate of oat biscuits.

About the Author

Antonia Senior is a former staff writer for The Times. She is now a freelance journalist, living in London with her family. She has travelled extensively through Scotland's Highlands and Islands.

Visit the author's website

Find the author on Twitter@Tonisenior

My thanks to Karen Duffy at Atlantic Books for my review copy of this book

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My guest author today is ....Margaret Skea

I am delighted to welcome back to Jaffareadstoo

Margaret Skea

Margaret's Second Novel



A House Divided is Published today

Sanderling Books
15 October 2015

Margaret talks about writing the sequel to an award-winning debut novel. The pressures, the problems, the pitfalls and the process, including the all-important editing. And ultimately the pleasure (and relief) of seeing her second novel finally make it onto the bookshop shelf.

The Dreaded Sequel.

Turn of the Tide, my debut novel, had, as with many first novels, a long gestation period, so it was with great excitement (and considerable trepidation) that I approached the book launch, held in Waterstones Bookshop in Edinburgh.  It was a wonderful evening, full to bursting point with not just family and friends, but also total strangers who had picked up tickets in the shop. The publisher provided refreshments, everyone, including me, was relaxed, and walking down the stairs and seeing my book piled high on the signing table was an experience I will always remember.  And with a great audience I even managed to enjoy reading and answering questions.

I’d always intended the book to be part of a series and so, once the first flurry of excitement was over it was time to get back to work.

With the first book mainstream published, an option on the second and the plot for it already partially outlined, producing a sequel should have been straightforward – right?

Wrong!

I’ve heard folk say that the second book is hardest to write – I certainly hope so – for I wouldn’t want No 3 or 4 to prove as difficult as No 2 has been.  ‘Second-child syndrome’ springs to mind – prickly, difficult, hard to rear…

What were the pressures?

Well for starters, the first book was very well received. Not a problem you might think. But for me it was. Although I always hoped Turn of the Tide would be published, there were never any guarantees and so I’d primarily written it to please myself. Now I found that I had a whole new group of people to please, namely the readers who’d enjoyed the first book and wanted to read more. So I found myself worrying whether they’d be happy with what I was doing with and to the characters, especially ones that they liked.   That was a tough barrier to overcome.

Then there was the fear that I wouldn’t be able to match the first book in terms of the quality, cadences and tone of the writing, something I found very hard to assess. It took a beta-reader who read it after it was completely finished, to set my mind at rest on that score.

And as for the plot. Although I had a partial outline, I didn’t know how the book was going to end, nor in fact at what point in my fictional family’s history I should begin. That was very uncomfortable because for Turn of the Tide I had known from Day 1 what the climactic scene would be and so had a goal to aim for. 

There were practical problems too – when I was about one third of the way through the first draft circumstances meant that I had to stop writing completely for almost a year.  Once things had settled down again I found it very difficult to pick up the thread of the story, and even more importantly, it had become impossible to work at home.

Enter a ‘good fairy’ in the shape of a person that I didn’t know, but whom, having overheard me at a writers’ event telling a friend that I wished I could maroon myself on a desert island, immediately offered me the keys to a remote, almost empty cottage, to use as much as I liked.  And what a fantastic gift that was. Within a day or twoeach time I  drove up the single track road to the cottage I found my brain reacting to the journey by clicking over into writing mode - Pavlov’s dogs style.

Three-quarters of the way through the book I was thrown another curved ball, in the form of advice from a London literary agent, who suggested I re-think the idea of a trilogy and finish the story in the second book.  Perhaps it was a good thing that I hadn’t my mind set on a particular ending, because as a result of that advice the story took a new turn.

If the pressures and the problems were new, the process was familiar.  While writing the first draft I tried to discipline myself not to stop to fact-check. Instead if there were historical details I wasn’t sure of I typed in red, so that they would stand out during editing.

I had done a lot of edits of Turn of the Tide - seven to be precise, so I was expecting that part of the process to be lengthy.  In the end it was the one thing that I found much easier second time round, though I approached it in a very similar way.  First the factual edit, sorting out all the red-pen sections, then macro editing for the story arc and drama; followed by a series of micro-edits  - looking at punctuation and repetitions; and a final trim to get rid of words that added nothing to either the story or the writing style. (I took out more than 300 occurrences of ‘that’ and didn’t miss any of them!)

  

As for the pitfalls – for me there are two main ones, but I suspect these are true of many authors.

The first is the internet – wonderful as it can be, I need to switch it off when I’m writing, otherwise the temptation to browse would mean I’d get no work done at all!

The second issue is promotion. In an ideal world I’d just write, and someone else would do the promotion bit, but sadly publishers now expect all but the most well-known authors to become involved. Not that I’d mind a world book signing tour! but I hate the (very un-British) concept that everyone you meet is a potential customer.  Hopefully I can get the balance right.

But amidst all the pressures and problems there is also pleasure. My husband has been enormously supportive throughout, and as chief cook over the last few months his culinary skills have increased exponentially. Something I suspect I shall continue to exploit! I was taken completely by surprise both by the strength of my emotions when I finished the first draft – a mix of euphoria and relief that is hard to describe - and the excitement I felt when my paperback copies arrived, and I knew for sure that the bookshop would have them in time for the launch. (It has been a close run thing…)

And the future? I will be starting to write another historical novel very soon - there are lots of ideas fighting it out in my head. Munro may not have finished with me yet.

You can follow Margaret via her website – www.margaretskea.com

Or on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MargaretSkeaAuthor.Novels

Her books are available in all good bookshops in the UK and online via Amazon as both paperback and e-book.

Turn of the Tide http://tiny.cc/v5dg3x

A House Divided http://tiny.cc/s4xp2x

Huge thanks to Margaret for giving us such an insight into the writing of the Dreaded Sequel !

Jaffa and I wish you continued success with A House Divided.

Sanderling Books
15 October 2015

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The author in my spotlight is ...Melissa Bailey

I am delighted to introduce the author

Melissa Bailey

Today she is talking about her latest book

Beyond the Sea

Arrow
July 2015

Melissa ~ welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for sharing your thoughts about Beyond the Sea...

Your latest novel Beyond the Sea is set in the Hebrides. How important is location to your writing, and did you visit any of the places you describe so vividly in your novel?

Setting is really important. Before I knew very much at all about the novel, I knew that it would be set in the Hebrides. It’s a wild, remote part of the world with ever changing weather and tides. It seemed to be the perfect location for my protagonist Freya, a woman grieving the loss of her husband and son – a true reflection of her loneliness and turbulent emotional landscape.

Glen More

A849 - view toward the Burg

I travelled to Mull to research some of the places that are mentioned in the novel. I took the ferry from Oban on the Scottish mainland to Craignure, the same journey that Freya takes in Chapter 1 of the novel. I then drove along the A849 to Fionnphort (the same route that Freya also takes), past towering Ben More and across the desolate glen at its feet. I passed Loch Scridain (the loch that Torin lives beside) and watched the sunshine turn its seawater from slate grey to brilliant blue.

Loch Scridain

I visited Knockvologan on the south of the island, waited until low tide, and then crossed the exposed white sand beaches of the tidal island of Erraid (the setting for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped). I trekked past the now abandoned lighthouse keepers’ cottages and tried to imagine what it would be like to live on a tiny island like this, isolation complete when the sea rolled back in. From there, out in the vastness of the ocean, I caught sight of the ominous lighthouse, Dubh Artach, which gets a few mentions in the novel. I made a later visit to Skye and travelled to Neist Point lighthouse, one of the inspirations for Freya’s lighthouse in the novel. It’s built in an incredibly beautiful but immensely isolated spot.

Loch Linnhe Lighthouse
One of the Lighthouses used as inspiration for Freya's Lighthouse

Beyond the Sea is a story about sadness, secrets and folklore – in your research for the novel; did you discover anything which surprised you?

I found out so many strange things - from accounts of mermaid sightings, to vanishing lighthouse keepers, to the discovery of perfectly preserved objects that had been on the sea bed for nearly 400 years.

I came across a great literary anecdote when I was researching the Corryvreckan, the whirlpool between the islands of Jura and Scarba, which also features in the novel. I discovered that George Orwell (who went to Jura in 1947 to complete the first draft of the novel which would become Nineteen Eighty-Four) once nearly drowned in the whirlpool when he was caught out there in rough seas. He was ultimately stranded with his two friends and his three year old son on Eilean Mor, a skerry south of the whirlpool, when their rowboat capsized on it. They were later rescued by passing lobstermen. I also subsequently found out that Orwell’s one legged brother-in-law, Bill Dunn, was the first person to swim across the Gulf of Corryvreckan!

Another thing that surprised me was not only the sheer number of shipwrecks which have occurred in Scotland but as a result the number of lighthouses that were built around the Scottish coast (over 150 by the Stevenson family alone). I read a large number of interviews with lighthouse keepers about the realities of tending the lamp - tales of isolation, depression and the primitive conditions in which they had to live. One account told how the keepers on a tower far out at sea had two buckets for their daily ablutions - one was for washing; the other was their toilet which they emptied by flinging the contents off the top of the tower. So it was important to check the way the wind was blowing before doing so!

Where do you get your inspiration for a story from – are you inspired by people, places or do you draw purely from your imagination?

My books usually start with a single image which has taken root in my mind. In The Medici Mirror it was a darkened mirror. In Beyond the Sea it was a woman, Freya, her hair turned white in grief, standing on a beach, a lighthouse in the near distance behind her.

I then do huge amounts of research to help me find the story. For Beyond the Sea I read lots and lots of books on the Scottish islands - the history, the landscape, the sea, the people. Through this the strands of the novel began to emerge - the historical thread with its soldiers, storms and sea battles; Freya’s emotional and physical journey, the old keeper, Pol telling her stories of when he once worked at her lighthouse, her blind friend, Torin, possessed of the second sight common in the islands, giving her warnings along the way. I read fairy tales – the fabulous ‘Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend’ by Donald Mackenzie – and stories of magical islands, mermaids and dark Beira, the Queen of Winter began to feed into my story. And slowly but surely it all began to come together.

Beyond the Sea is your second novel, The Medici Mirror, being the first – did you feel more of an obligation to make this second book even better than the first?

Yes, without a doubt. I think every writer feels that way. Ultimately it’s not good to dwell too much on that as it can inhibit you. But you keep working away at it, hoping that you’re making progress, that you’ve learnt a lot from the mistakes you made in the first novel and that your writing is improving. But you never know for sure, so there’s always a large element of hope!

What do you hope readers will take away from your stories?

I hope with Beyond the Sea that readers will come away with a keen sense of place, of the beauty and magic of the Hebrides, and a desire to visit the islands and perhaps the places that are mentioned in the novel. I also hope they’ll be touched by the characters within that landscape, particularly Freya, and come away from the world of the novel with a sense of consolation. Finally, I found the stories from the Hebrides really fascinating - a rich combination of history, myth and fairy tale. I hope readers found them equally interesting and discovered a few things they didn’t know before!

What can we look forward to next?

I’m in the process of writing a third novel. I love dark topics - betrayal and black magic in The Medici Mirror, grief in Beyond the Sea. The next book focusses on madness.



All photographs by kind permission ©Melissa Bailey

Huge thanks to Melissa for sharing her inspiration so eleoquently. I really feel like I have visited this beautiful part of the world. 

My review of Beyond the Sea is here.



Melissa is very kindly giving away a copy of Beyond the Sea to one lucky UK winner of this giveaway



a Rafflecopter giveaway




Good Luck



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