Leila and I met over 20 years ago when we were taking a creative writing class. The day I first noticed her, she told the class she was delighted to have just finished writing her first ever short story. Since then, Leila has written many more short stories, including The Museum, which won the first ever Caine Prize for African … Read More
A “Sort-of” Scot Clears up Some Anglo-American Confusion
A large proportion of this blog’s readership is American (around two-thirds) so I’ve decided to do a little to further Anglo-American understanding (Anglo in this sense including Scotlo too, since I am (sort of) from Scotland and live there too.) In my last post, I used the British word “hob” and I included the American term “stove top.” Sarah, of … Read More
Find Your Own Writing Process
I’m a member of a few writing groups – all online though in the past I’ve been in some off-line ones too. One topic of conversation that crops up over and over is the writing process. I find the writing process fascinating, and I also find our obsession with it fascinating. In particular, I’ve been thinking lately about that elusive … Read More
His Grandparents’ House (Extract)
This extract is from the story: His Grandparents’ House, found in my short story collection, Looking For America: Short stories from the Shetland Islands The story is about an old crofter (small farmer) and his elderly dog, named Lad, out in the fields during lambing time. The story was inspired by my father, who went on running a croft until … Read More
Themes: Mothers and Daughters in Literature and in Life
Many years ago, I read My Mother, My Self by Nancy Friday. This book is an exploration of the mother-daughter relationship. Friday points out how much women mirror our mothers, even when we try to do the opposite. She interviewed many women for the book. In describing the way this mirroring isn’t always obvious she says: “Mother lived in a … Read More
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