There’s nothing guaranteed to get an author worked up as a chat about book covers. We all have quite fixed ideas of how our book should look but sometimes a publisher thinks differently and we bow to their knowledge of the market. They usually do know best! As a reader too, I’m increasingly aware of … Continue reading Two similar covers, two very different books. The power (or pestilence) of genre.
It’s been quite a few years since I started writing The Absent Heart (and two years since I visited RLS’s former home!) and the vast proportion of the hours I’ve spent with it have been in rewriting, but then as Robert Graves said, ‘There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting’, an … Continue reading Small changes, big difference. Editing and loving it! #histfic @linenpressbooks
I’m thrilled to announce that my latest historical novel, The Absent Heart, the story of Frances Sitwell, enigmatic muse to Victorian Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson will be published early in 2025 by Linen Press. Followers will know this book has been a while in the writing and rewriting and I’m delighted it has found … Continue reading NEWS! ‘The Absent Heart’ to be published by Linen Press.
As soon as Sara Sheridan’s The Secrets of Blythswood Square crossed my radar I pounced on it as it’s a novel which springs from the exact scenario (and some of the characters) I drew on for In the Blink of an Eye. Coincidentally in the same week Sally Magnusson’s Music in the Dark was a … Continue reading Full orchestra or string quartet? Two novels set in Victorian Scotland #photohistory #historical fiction #highlandclearances #scottishbooks
I was introduced to Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Christmas Sermon (first published 1888) at an online lecture in December 2020 by Stevenson expert amd fan Robert Louis Abrahamson. If I’m unconsciously replicating any of what RLA (whom I’ve since met) said, apologies and also thanks to him. Thanks too to Debbie Young for inviting me to … Continue reading Kindness at Christmas: R.L. Stevenson’s ‘A Christmas Sermon’
Ali Bacon, Author 