Tag: writing

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Fanny Stevenson Barges In: #BeyondtheBook #TheAbsentHeart

When I first encountered Fanny Osbourne, she appeared as a footnote in Louis Stevenson’s story—emotionally fragile, grieving, and overshadowed. But the more I read, the more she demanded centre stage. Like my own heroine Frances Sitwell, Fanny was shaped by loss and resilience, but unlike Frances, she courted controversy and defied convention with unapologetic strength. Camille Peri’s A Wilder Shore and other biographies have only deepened my fascination with this remarkable woman—adventurer, writer, and the fierce force behind one of literature’s most celebrated figures. Without Fanny, there may have been no Louis as we know him. Continue reading Fanny Stevenson Barges In: #BeyondtheBook #TheAbsentHeart

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Small changes, big difference. Editing and loving it! #histfic @linenpressbooks

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

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