At the end of last week we had the very great pleasure of launching Regi Claire’s already highly acclaimed short story collection, Fighting It. The event took place at WordPower books in Edinburgh, and over a hundred people attended, followed by a good 60 or more at dinner afterwards. Regi has had two stunning reviews: by Alison Miller in the Scottish Review of Books and in The Sunday Herald. The SRB said: ‘Her prose has a cut glass quality. Clear and crisp as Alpine air, it refracts the light at startling angles, illuminates the singular, the striking detail, turns a flashlight on the dark corners of the psyche, and manages not to flinch.’ And the Sunday Herald said: ‘Claire’s virtuosity lies in her range. Though she plays her characters out in quite a narrow emotional tonal space – right at that high-pitch, straining end of the scale – the scope of their identities and the settings she puts them in are breathtaking. While so many authors tend to stick to a particular subculture, Claire … roams the length and breadth of Europe, taking in a French ambassador’s wife, a German undertaker, a wealthy couple who live for their flowers and racehorse, a Presbyterian child in Dundee in thrall to her father’s Bible; all ages, all classes. It is as if she is saying that wherever you come from, when we are up against a wall and fighting it, we are all similar animals. … There is nothing ordinary about these tales. They are all extraordinary.’
All of this was followed by a very fine interview in The Scotsman by literary editor David Robinson, which you can read here.
So, back at base for a while. David has a poetry reading at the Dundee Book Festival on Saturday of this week at 12.30pm, preceded by participation in their publishers’ panel on Friday at 3.30pm. If you’re in the vicinity, come along!
Meanwhile, I am determined to stay put for a while, trying hard yet again to carve out a decent period of time to work on my own novel. We have a number of authors, including Regi, at the Edinburgh International Book festival (see our News & Events page for details) and who knows, by the time August comes around we may have got second wind and be ready to go on the road again if need be.
The Two Ravens Press bees
But for a little at least we can stay home and watch the vegetables grow and the bees hard at work, in between bouts of hard work at the computer.
Sharon
