Sandra Ireland's Blog, page 7

Have book, will travel…

This week I’ve had my sales hat on….books don’t sell themselves! This seems to be the least favourite part of the whole publishing process for most writers. I suppose we are by nature a solitary bunch, happiest hunched over a keyboard, glass in hand (I still type with one finger) wrestling with words long into the dark night…Any gathering of writers usually includes one or two who are still mentally wrestling. You can see it in their general twitchiness.

Now I’m not given to a lot of twitchiness (mainly because dark nights for me usually mean settling down with Bake Off) but I did try and keep the weirdness

in check when I visited the very lovely Waterstones Kirkcaldy for an author visit and book signing this week. They call Kirkcaldy the ‘Lang Toun’, and Waterstones is placed a lang, lang way doon the toun, depending on where you park (and your sense of direction).

After a lovely welcome from manager James, we talked books and writing long into the dark night (well, for at least an hour). Well done to the hardy souls who made it through the cold and rain- it was great to meet you. It wasn’t a very nice evening, weather-wise, but you can always be sure of a warm welcome in your local bookshop. Where would we be without them?!

‘Stockbridge Gothic’

When The Scotsman dubbed Beneath the Skin ‘Stockbridge Gothic’ I was highly delighted. Gothic is definitely my go-to zone when I’m dreaming up the mad, the bad and the dangerous!

Those of you who have already read the book  may have noted a few nods to my all time favourite Frankenstein. I won’t give any games away, but if you have spotted the clues, then feel free to start a conversation! This has made me think about my own relationship with the Gothic, and how it has influenced my writing. For me, I suppose the defining element of the genre is setting, and the development of architecture and landscape as characters within that context. I’m thinking about the labyrinthine Castle of Otranto, the windswept bleakness of Wuthering Heights, and the haunted attic of Charlotte Bronte’s lesser-known Villette.

In Alys’s Stockbridge villa, the damp basement, the creaking staircase, the cramped attic all take on a life of their own. There is a sense that the house is less than welcoming, resistant to the notion of being a family ‘home’. We might call such an atmosphere ‘uncanny’, a concept which, interestingly, stems from  the German Unheimlich, best translated as ‘un-homely’.

In his treatise on the Uncanny, Freud quotes the philosopher Schelling: ’Unheimlich is the name for everything that ought to have remained hidden and secret, and has become visible.’

All that stuff we carry ‘beneath the skin’ perhaps…

I’ll leave you with an appropriate quote. Walt, just out of bed, makes his way to the kitchen…

‘…the hall felt somehow odd. It took him right back to being a kid again, when you come back from holidays and the house feels cold and damp…has a distance about it. He remembered how his mam used to stand in the porch, sniffing, in case she’d forgotten to chuck out the milk, or the cloths had rebelled in her absence and gone sour. And here he was, sniffing,like his mam used to do. A house with a kid in it shouldn’t feel this way.’

From Beneath the Skin (Polygon) 2016

 

 

 

 

Beneath the Skin…finally!

So the book is out there! Duly launched with appropriate amounts of wine and fanfare at the gorgeous Saint Stephens Stockbridge, Beneath the Skin is now winging its way (with the help of its gorgeous feathery jacket!) to various homes and bedside tables throughout the land.

This is the scary bit!

What will readers think of my imaginative ramblings? It feels a long, long way from my first excursions into creative writing; often random scribbles (phrases, odd words) in notebooks, on the backs of envelopes. And Professor Kirsty Gunn’s timed exercises in our four-hour workshops. No pressure!

Over time, the scribbles took shape- poems, short stories. ‘Novels’ no one will ever read. Very slowly, my writing began to say what I wanted it to say. It came of age.

My great aunt Mary had a tiny oak dresser. A beautifully- carved, miniature piece of furniture, lovingly finished with all the craft and hallmarks of the standard article. It was a ‘prentice piece’, she told me. A showcase of skill; a small-scale beginning to the career of an apprentice carpenter.

So this is my ‘prentice piece’…I hope it will hold its own on the shelves alongside so many masters of the craft.

A few images from Launch Night. Thanks so much to Golden Hare Books for gracious hosting; Polygon for terrific organising. Thank you to each and every one of you who rocked up to buy a copy and listen to me blethering- my heroes!

Click to view slideshow.

 

 

Bloody Scotland is Bloody Brilliant

Last weekend was my first experience of Bloody Scotland, crime writing festival extraordinaire, and it was so Bloody Brilliant I’ve already booked a room for next year! As one of twelve debut authors, I was delighted to have been allocated a three-minute Crime in the Spotlight ‘spot’. This basically involves gate-crashing proper authors to plug your new book, a risky business, given the genre. Luckily they all seemed remarkably chilled, and if they were plotting a grisly end for upstart newbies, they hid it very well.

Now, at this point, I could wax lyrical about the amazing opportunity, the warmth of the Bloody Scotland welcome, the talent and sheer niceness of my fellow Spotlighters…all of which is true, but I thought it might be handy to jot down a few of my observations; a handy guide, perhaps, for the Spotlighters of the future. So here we go…

 

Stirling is uphill. Doesn’t matter which direction you go in. Everything. is. bloody. uphill.
Stirling has amazingly cool coffee shops where people go to strum guitars and sing on a Sunday morning.
The Golden Lion mid-festival resembles one of those kids’ jigsaws where people are doing busy things in every corner, on the stairs, in the foyer.
The Albert Halls resemble Fawlty Towers with lots of different levels, doors that lead nowhere and tall men running.
The Festival volunteers are freakishly Zen, know lots of stuff and look super cool in black.
Festival audiences laugh at bad jokes.
Do not wear dangly earrings with a microphone. There is a techy term for dangle which I’ve forgotten.
Stages come equipped with billowing curtains, uneven flooring and all the darkness of the pits of hell, just in case you haven’t enough to worry about.
Green rooms are not green.
Crime writers are friendly, encouraging, and kind to nervous people.
Crime writers are a mad bunch, and ,worryingly, I seemed to fit right in…

 

What’s in a name?

Beneath the Skin….the scars of the past are more than skin deep.

Love the title of my new novel, but it didn’t start off like that! The original title was An Arrangement of Skin, which is the OE definition of taxidermy.Early 19th century: from Greek taxis ‘arrangement’ + derma ‘skin’.

Taxidermy is a strange thing- people are either intrigued by it or repelled by it. For me, as a writer,taxidermy represents those areas of the past which should have been laid to rest but are being artificially kept alive. In the novel, the main protagonist Walt finds work in a taxidermist’s studio, but facing the ‘undead’ on a daily basis has a disastrous effect on a this former soldier’s psyche.

 

On an interesting note, I have discovered an amazing Icelandic band whose current album is called…Beneath the Skin! Have a listen here:

Of Monsters and Men.

Fantastic- good luck with it, guys!

MY Beneath the Skin is out on Sept 22nd….click on the link of the front page, and keep up to date with my events page. I believe there are some advance copies to be had….!

The Launch- not long to go!

September 14th is scrawled on my calendar in blood…well, not quite, but it’s been a long haul from my scribbled notebooks hidden in the wardrobe to holding a glossy paperback in my hand! I haven’t actually had my paws on an actual copy yet- although a proof version did briefly land on a table in front of me. That was a strange experience- a bit like learning the sex of your baby before delivery day. I wanted to hold it and relish the thrill of it…but I also want to open that cardboard box and see the final, final book-my book- in all its glory…

I’m sure it won’t happen like that, but I’ll let you know!

Anyway, the pre-publication launch party is almost upon us! It will be hosted by Golden Hare Books and the venue will be the rather impressive Saint Stephen’s, Stockbridge. Since Beneath the Skin is set in Stockbridge, my clever agent Jenny Brown and publisher Polygon thought it would be highly appropriate to launch it there, amid the cobbled streets and eerie basements. You will be a stone’s throw from Alys’s taxidermy studio, from Mrs Petrauska’s dance classes and just down the road from the park where Walt contemplates his future….

September 14th, 2016. 7pm-9pm. Refreshments will be provided. Tickets here from eventbrite. I will be chaired by the amazing Eddie Small, fresh from his glory at the Edinburgh Fringe…he does seem to like death and dark themes…!

  See you there!

 

 

Folklore Sunday

As part of my Creative Scotland residency as Barry Mill, I’m keen to carry out some research into the folklore, ballads and poetry associated with the mill and milling in general. My second novel, The Bone Harp, takes as its starting point a Border Ballad about two sisters who quarrel down by the mill pond, with disastrous consequences!

The best place to begin research is often with the recent past and work back. People always assume their memories and stories are of little interest to anyone, but it helps us to form a bigger picture of life in and around the mill. For a writer, too, these stories are a valuable resource, and the oddest things tweak our imagination- or is that just me?!Good writing is the ability to turn the smallest molehill into a mountain you might want to climb…

You can read some of the stories and poems from my workshops at Barry Mill

From left to ‘write’…Sheena, Elizabeth Frattaroli (awesome author and willing assistant!), June and myself, at Sunday’s event

Bloody Scotland!

No, I’m not cursing the weather…I’m actually going to the festival!

Now in it’s fifth year, Bloody Scotland is a celebration of all things dark and dangerous in Scottish fiction. Tartan Noir is one of our biggest exports (after whisky). My own writing veers more to the Domestic Noir side; more creeping dread than hack and slash!

I’ve been lucky enough to land a ‘Spotlight on Crime’ slot. I’ll have 3 minutes (and only 3) to make an impact on an audience which has paid to see Lin Anderson, Doug Johnstone and Louise Welsh. (Cue rotten fruit). Let’s hope Beneath the Skin can talk the talk!

BloodyScotland. Stirling. Sept. 9th-11th, 2016

First Review!

So pleased to get a great review from The Courier!

Beneath the Skin is “packed with suspense and loaded with eerie excitement”.

I like to think so! Not long to go until Publication Day….

If it’s good enough for JK…

I don’t have any aspirations to write about a boy wizard but I couldn’t help posing in front of the place where it all began!

This Edinburgh cafe must be the most famous in the world, and not for it’s menu. The fact that J.K.Rowling  scribbled her best seller here over a cup of cold coffee is the stuff of literary legend, and there were scores of festival goers queuing up to share the experience on my recent trip to the city. I didn’t see any dog-eared, coffee-stained manuscripts, but plenty of cameras and smartphones!

It’s made me think about my own writing habits and whether anyone in the future will be interested in the fact that I:

a) write in my bare feet (‘in’, not ‘with’)

b) drink cold tea from mug with a wren on it.

c) cower under the Cloak of Darkness on cold mornings. That’s actually a fleecy throw and nothing to do with Hogwarts.

What are your legendary writing habits?!