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#HistFicThursdays - The Personal Side of History... and a Word on Food!

 The events of the past week have brought home to me just how important the personal aspect and view of history are. One of the key questions I have both asked other authors and been asked myself, is whether there was a specific character they identify with. For my own part, I've always answered that there is a little bit of me in all my characters. And it's true. I have never based a character totally on myself because I have never belonged to a point in time except my own, I can't know how I would react! Now, I am less than a decade from my own lifespan encompassing the general 50-year gap for an historical fiction setting - a scary thought! Suddenly, my own early adventures are starting to sound like something from a historical novel. A few weeks ago, Crowvus published Child at the Pantry Door  and, at the end of the month, we will be publishing the next issue of our journal Hooded: Memoirs . The personal aspect to both of these books is a crucial resource to historical ...
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John o' Groats Book Festival



What a weekend it has been! The 1st John o' Groats Book Festival has been in the pipeline for a long time, and it certainly lived up to expectations.

It started with a bang on Friday. A cartographer was launching her new set of Northern Scotland maps. Sadly, I was at work during this event but I've heard great things about it from people who were there. The cartographer's name is Val Fry and the publisher is Nicolson.

The first event I could attend was on the Friday evening when the authors were introduced, including 8 fabulous local authors who each had a 10 minute slot. It was great to see one of the organisers, Ian Leith, start the evening by showing his books.

The next author was Virginia Crow, published by Crowvus, who started her talk by showing the Day's Dying Glory book trailer which had people sitting on the edge of their seats.

Virginia Crow, author of Day's Dying Glory
It was super to hear so many local authors talk about their books, and read a passage or two. The authors included:
Dorothy Stewart (her books can be purchased here)
Meg Macleod
Sharon Pottinger
Laura Morgan
Margaret Mackay
Catherine Byrne

Please browse around the links above to look at the author's selling pages, or blogs.

I will write an individual article about the four main authors - Theresa Breslin, Christopher Brookmyre, Andrew Greig and James Hunter - throughout this week.
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