Author diaries

[Previous entry: "New Year's Eve in Craster"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Thieves, Miners and Journeys"]

1 March 2005 Entry: "Parallel universe"

One of the things about living in NE England is the way that I so frequently cross borders. I've been back in Scotland for the last two weekends - the first working in Edinburgh, which is where I went to college, and last weekend in Montrose, where I grew up.
Although I'm quite often in Edinburgh, this was the first time I'd been close to the flat I stayed in, and I found it quite strange to recognise how unhappy I was when I was living there. I think the decades had given it a rosy glow, but somehow, all that disappeared this time.
Going back to Montrose was, as usual, hectic and fun, trying to catch up with friends and family, plus bumping into other people I'd not seen in ages. I was back for the Kaims Players' production of my play The Anstruther Light, now rewritten after its performance in Livingston last November. It was a bit of of a Von Trapp experience, as my sister and brother-in-law were acting in it, and my nephew Chris was doing the sound, but leaving all bias to one side, it was fantastic to see it on stage. Gerrie, the producer, had done an amazing job with my very naive stage directions. Writing the play was nothing compared to the many evenings that have gone into rehearsing it and creating special props. It was also great that the adjudicator, Brian Marjoriebanks, awarded it the cups for best play and best production. The Kaims now go through to the next round of the SCDA festival on March 24.
I've almost completed my mentoring with Sara Maitland. We met up in Durham last week and preparing for that, I tallied up my output - short stories totalling 60,000 words. It feels a real achievement. Some of them are entered in competitions and sent to magazines, but others are still on my computer, so that will be my task over the next few weeks, sending them out.
I also need to start thinking about my stories for Comma Press, as I am to be one of three writers featuring in a book to come out in the autumn. The stories are to have a theme running through them. So far I've thought of Africa, music or setting them all in the same function room. Tomorrow I will probably decide on something else.