For some reason so far, my novel writing tends to focus on a real context and timeframe. Perhaps that’s something subconscious in me wanting to chew through events and respond to them creatively. Or maybe it’s a way of capturing a story of where we are at. Guard Your Heart was very much inspired by the Decade of Centenaries and the 100th anniversaries of the Somme and the Easter Rising in 2016. Truth Be Told is framed around a real timeframe in autumn 2019.

I dread every time someone asks me a question on my writing practice. It scares me and makes me feel inadequate – like there’s this ‘thing’ I’m meant to be and am not. I’ve written so little new material since completing edits on Truth Be Told that it feels almost dishonest to call myself a writer. Then again, I think I write in seasons and in bursts. Some writers talk about a ‘fallow’ time where you read, and reflect and muse. Maybe I’m there. Everyone’s circumstances are different, so I don’t think there’s a ‘one size fits all.’

Truth Be Told is about truth, forgiveness and the stories that do not fit. Up front, it’s the story of two sixteen-year-old girls, Tara and Faith – imagine ‘Parent Trap meets Derry Girls’. Similar to Guard Your Heart, it’s is a pacy, contemporary YA novel set against the real backdrop of events in Northern Ireland – only this time it’s Autumn 2019. Readers should expect laughs, tears, smiles and a rollercoaster of a read.

Confession: I am always terrified when someone asks me about my writing process. Here’s my story, behind the story, of Guard Your Heart. It begins with two things.

Did growing up in the Troubles impact me? Is that why I wrote Guard Your Heart? In the North, there is an unwritten convention about the ‘Troubles’ that bears striking similarity to how we speak of the impact of Covid. This is it: caveat suffering with disclaimers. What happened to me, well it wasn’t as bad as what happened to others…

Things come in threes. Except when they don’t. Sometimes they come in twos. Friday at the end of November 2018. The day the Caledonia Novel Award 2019 would announce their longlist. I’d taken the day off work to write. A rare luxury. Perhaps a step of faith. I couldn’t bear to be in the office because something told me this year I’d a chance. This year... So. Confession. I entered the Caledonia Novel Award two times. 2018. 2019. With the same novel. Except it wasn’t.

I made every mistake possible writing my novel – but it worked. If you already have a Masters in Creative Writing and the money to pay for expensive literary consultancy manuscript reviews then please stop reading now. If you’re scared to admit you’re a writer, wonder what possessed you to start writing a novel in the first place and still haven’t a clue what ‘literary fiction’ is, then this is for you. And yes. You should consider entering the IWC Novel Fair 2020.

John Hewitt has murdered my raspberry jam. At the start of the week’s summer school, I say this with regret. I smile, lopsided. I offer up my back-garden raspberries - to the birds. Perhaps next year...