Lari’s Writing blog

The North West corner of Sutherland is the least populated part of Western Europe, which makes it a great place for fabled beasts to explore undetected, but a pretty risky place to do book events, because I could end up just reading to myself. So I was very impressed at how many people, locals and visitors, turned up to hear about Storm Singing. I did author events in Smoo Cave (and it was just as much fun telling a Viking legend in the cave as I’d hoped, and even more fun reading the scene set in the cave…) and in a community centre in Bettyhill, and in both cases 19 kids turned up and they all brought adults with them too. (19 is very exact, but we counted. I could say about 20, but it would sound like I was guessing, and I’m not!)

So, I was pretty impressed that for a place with a tiny and very scattered population, I managed to chat to 38 readers in a couple of days, about mermaids, sea monsters, cliff hangers and setting scenes in caves.

In between the events I was meant to be on holiday, so I did spend a bit of time having fun on beaches too, slithering on wet rocks, teetering on loose stones, slipping on seaweed, and being constantly reminded of Yann falling in rock pools on the first page of Storm Singing. So I kept apologising to him for putting him in such dangerous and undignified positions. And then I planned even more dangerous situations for him for the next book (which I was making long, scribbly, slightly damp notes about most of the holiday too!)

So now I’m back home, I’m getting ready for the Edinburgh Book Festival (I’m doing an event on the last Saturday, 27th August, so I have plenty of time to enjoy seeing other authors first!) but I’m also getting seriously into planning research trips and plot complications for First Aid Four. (It has no title yet, but plenty of baddies…)

(I’ll put a photo of the event in the cave up as soon as I’ve unpacked the camera!)