When I was young, I read everything I could lay my hands on, but the Scots in my storybooks spent their time fighting glorious battles, rowing across lochs, or escaping over moors of purple heather. Even those Scots were hard to find. For at school, we recited poetry according to the set texts the teachers taught us.
My hope is for a literature that raises the language above the ordinary, makes words both functional and emotional, and to resonate at the frequency of the human spirit - the skill and insight of the writer lifting the parochial novel above the level of regional concern. Making it personal, national, and universal.
In addition to exploring imaginative worlds, I believe that young people should have access to reading material that validates their life, that gives them a sense of identity - to be able to read texts that chimes with their own world, corrals thoughts, and connects with the emotional conflicts of growing up.
What I try to do - and I think this is the former librarian in me - is to get primary source material.
In order to deliver the emotional truth in the story, you have to include some of the literal truth.
In addition to being a writer, I'm a librarian - professionally trained and everything.
One of the reasons I began to write was because I wanted stories for my children where the characters spoke as they did and had similar life experiences.
