This Victorian-set novella was inspired by a trip I took between lockdowns in 2020 with some of my family back to our old home in Aberdeenshire. We lived here on a croft for several years, but I hadn’t been back for so long that it was like visiting somewhere completely new.
Location is really important to to me as a writer. My stories usually start off with a place and the characters grow from there rather than vice versa. So this view, from our rented holiday house, looking south-east over gently undulating fields of barley towards the North Sea was really inspiring. The yellow and pink sunrises were stunning, but cold even in August. Also, they were a little too early. I’m an early morning writer, but this was too much even for me! And with the amount of barley – there was no way I could write a story WITHOUT some whisky – which is how I came up with Meggie’s Distillery (named after my dog btw).
Sidenote: I LOATHE whisky.
The real inspiration, however, came from this place, Aberdour beach, a place I visited a lot growing up. There isn’t much sand, just lots of shingle and red stone, but in my totally biased opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I sat on the rocks one evening and thought about what kind of hero and heroine might plausibly be here and soon I came up with Angus and Fiona – originally called Sadie, but somehow that didn’t work. She was the hardest to name of all my heroines, but ironically that makes sense for her character. Honestly, she’s kind of a pain (so is he, to be fair) but I like her.
Then there was Fraserburgh, one of the largest fishing ports in Europe. It was a little windy – I could hardly see where I was going – but the sand dunes were perfect for rolling down. HIGHLY recommended!
Finally, you CANNOT go to Scotland without visiting some castles. On the drive home, we visited 5-6 (I forget!) in one day. Most were closed because of COVID, but we were still able to climb around a few of the ruins – so naturally I threw some into my story too. Tbh we took such a random route that by the time we arrived in New Lanark that evening, we couldn’t find anywhere to eat and had to eat custard creams and Kit-Kats for dinner, but it was totally worth it.
If you’re interested, you can pre-order Snow-Kissed Proposals here