Authors Electric

  Photo taken by Kirsten Bett on 21 June 2021 Eilandverlangen or Island Longing is something I relate to. We went to Terschelling on Monday 21 June, and on the window of the ferry building in Harlingen, I saw the above poem with that very title by Gerda Posthumus. It's perfect because it always looks different. Blue skies would have made it easier to read but the grey background and rain gave it a more poetic atmosphere, wouldn't you agree? It's in Dutch because the poet and the location is in the Netherlands. The north of the Netherlands is made up of the Wadden Islands. They are part of Unesco World Heritage . Below you can see the ferry connection to Terschelling. Gerda Posthumus is the island poet of Vlieland, the island to the southwest of Terschelling -- that ferry also leaves from Harlingen. I adore the Wadden islands as I am an island lover. I would not want to live on one but if I am in a rut, if I need to clear my mind, there is no better destination. Of course, y...

I'm currently busy on the final draft of a new novel called Line Dancing, set in a small Scottish village, of the kind I have lived in for many years. I've been working my way steadily through a print-out of Line Dancing, correcting and rewriting as I go. I always like to do these late corrections on paper and then type them up afterwards, even though I write the first draft straight onto the computer, and follow that up with a great number of on-screen rewrites. While I've been doing this, I've been thinking about a previous novel, Bird of Passage . I suppose there are vague similarities, although Bird of Passage is much more of a family saga; a twentieth century historical novel  spanning some 50 years. On the other hand, if I had to place Line Dancing into any category, it would be 'contemporary women's fiction, romance with a literary twist'. It's a love story which tackles serious issues in a rural setting. And perhaps that's one reason why...