Ali Bacon's Blog, page 8

THE END (and the beginning!)

Finishing a novel – or any novel-shaped book – is a funny thing. Most books of course are finished more than once.  So finishing a first draft brings a huge sigh of relief, maybe a few happy tears for getting the characters out of the muddle I put them in, followed by some mulling time which can be anything from a week to a year.  Then it’s back to the drawing board for Drafts 2, 3, 4… because in my experience it’s only at the end of a first draft I know what I was trying to do. (And if I don...

Picture Palace by Paul Theroux (Photography in Fiction #2)

[image error]A few months ago I wrote about William Boyd’s Sweet Caress (a badly named novel if ever there was!) with the intention of looking at other novels with photography as a theme or backdrop. The one I had in mind was Paul Theroux’s Picture Palace. I read this and quite a few other Theroux books – (fiction rather than non) –  in my twenties when it made quite an impression.  On the other hand that impression had become vague over time (a famous woman photographer, a windmill, a compelling ending?)...

A Lot of Linen Going On

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A new view of Dunfermline Abbey

My home town of Dunfermline may only recently have acquired a Heritage Quarter but it has never lacked heritage: King Robert the Bruce of Bannockburn fame has his name emblazoned around the abbey tower;  more recently Andrew Carnegie lavished quite a few of his millions on the place of his birth, equipping us with the very first Carnegie library and the first public swimming pool in Scotland.

[image error]In my childhood these were our local heroes but the town’s  twentieth...

New Biographical Fiction – ‘Katharina: Deliverance’ by Margaret Skea

 

As a fan of Margaret Skea’s Munro Series, I was intrigued to discover she was about to publish ‘something completely different’ this year – a fictional biography (you know how that topic gets me going!) of Martin Luther’s wife. Martin Luther had a wife? I hear you say. Yes, it was news to me too, but I found the book absolutely fascinating (my review’s on Amazon and Goodreads) and so I had to have Margaret along to find out how she came to write it.

[image error]Hi Margaret! What is the origin of your i...

St Andrews, its place in time

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Iconic view from Kinkell Braes

St Andrews is a small place that for any of its ex students holds a hoard of memories, all of them inextricably linked to the time as well as the place. I remember going back a few years after my graduation and feeling mostly a sense of loss. People I knew had left, their places taken by new cohorts, all intent on making the town their own, just as we did back in the day. Visiting since then (Sea Life Centre with kids,  golfing holiday, last year’s Photofest ) I...

The Joy of Being Edited – and a festival in St Andrews

Amongst the many delights of signing with Linen Press has been the unexpected joy of having an editor. I’ve been in more than one writing critique group and learned lots from writing workshops, so I consider myself quite a good self-editor, but having lived with Blink for several years and in multiple versions, I hadn’t realised what a relief and pleasure it would be to have a fresh eye and another ‘ear’ when it comes to making decisions.

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Photography in fiction (1): Other people’s photos

[image error]Fiction with photos?

I’ve just been reading William Boyd’s  Sweet Caress which I picked up when I spotted its photography connections. It’s about a girl growing up in the twenties who, after a family trauma, joins her uncle as a  society photographer in London then unshackles herself from an unhealthy relationship to reinvent herself several times over and in as many places: in from Berlin to Mexico,  New York and ultimately Vietnam.  It didn’t reel me in straight away and I noted a consensus...

Words and pictures (1): Other people’s photos

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Fiction with photos?

I’ve just been reading William Boyd’s  Sweet Caress which I picked up when I spotted its photography connections. It’s about a girl growing up in the twenties who, after a family trauma, joins her uncle as a  society photographer in London then unshackles herself from an unhealthy relationship to reinvent herself several times over and in as many places: in from Berlin to Mexico,  New York and ultimately Vietnam.  It didn’t reel me in straight away and I noted a consensus...

Signed with Linen Press – In the Blink of an Eye

Sometimes something just feels right. [image error]

Having toiled for what has seemed like aeons over my fictional version of the Hill and Adamson partnership, I looked at what I had a few weeks ago and realised it was finished – maybe not totally ready for publication, but the beginning and end felt right and the middle wasn’t far off. Most of the writing was polished (one chapter had just won a prize.) Suddenly  it felt like the story I wanted to tell. As I made some minor revisions to the opening chapt...

A win for historical fiction – and me!

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Collecting the trophy!

Having seen my historical short story Silver Harvest shortlisted several times without ever making the winners’ enclosure, I was beginning to suspect that even if competitions were ‘welcoming’ all genres, there was a reluctance to give the overall prize to a historical piece. I’m happy to say my suspicions have been allayed , since on Friday night The Bird of Wax (from the same series as SH) took the adult prize at the Evesham Festival of Words.

The prize was presented...