Ask the Author: Fiona MacBain
Answered Questions (6)
Fiona MacBain
I refuse to accept it. My writing time is extremely limited so I have to force myself to write when the opportunity presents itself. Sometimes I write utter rubbish that I would dread anyone every reading, but if I have spare time to write, I make sure I do, even if it's all deleted at a later date.
Fiona MacBain
The people I’ve met because of it – the readers who get in touch with me on my facebook page, especially all the women who had similar experiences in Tunisia to me, and who read my debut novel because of their interest in its setting, but also the other authors I’ve become friends with and many other people I’ve met at book events and who helped me on my self-publishing journey. There’s also an element of having a dream come true – to become a published author, to see my books on sale and being reviewed, and to be invited to give talks about my books, has made all the hard work worthwhile.
Fiona MacBain
Prioritise your time for writing and don’t let anything non-essential distract you. The only way I managed to get my books finished was by giving up a lot of other things – social events, watching TV, housework, gardening, reading, sleep... With three kids and a day job, my spare time is scarce so I devoted it entirely to writing and sometimes it was exhausting and hard, i.e. I made myself quite ill a couple of times and on occasion got so tired I was weepy and looked like a zombie extra from the Walking Dead.
Fiona MacBain
A sequel to my first novel, Glasdrum, set eleven years later. It’s a standalone story but has many of the same characters as the first book. It opens with the District Council’s Area Manager floating face-down in the harbour, so it’s a murder mystery, but it also has a tale of revenge woven through it and a considerable amount of relationship drama as the women of Glasdrum once again struggle though their daily life against a backdrop of drama and disaster.
Fiona MacBain
I’d always wanted to write a novel but I didn’t knuckle down to it until I hit 40. Oddly, this was also the busiest time of my life with 3 children and a 4-day per week job, but perhaps the realisation I was roughly half way through my life made me get my skates on. I started getting up at 5am to write, and took my laptop absolutely everywhere with me, writing in any spare half hour, balancing it precariously on my knees at children’s sports activities. Somehow, in 5 years I managed to finish two novels, publishing the first one in November 2016, a month before my 46th birthday.
Fiona MacBain
Glasdrum is a dark-humoured thriller set near my hometown of Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. I wanted to write a story that had strong female protagonists and show them juggling their daily lives and relationships while trying to solve the mystery of a skeleton they find in one of their gardens. At the same time, there are rumours of a serial killer pushing lone hill-walkers off mountains – this idea came to while walking with my teenaged daughter on Britain’s second highest peak, Ben MacDui , near Aviemore, on a quiet, misty path that had a sharp drop beside it. We were followed for some time by a hooded man who was making us nervous and in my imagination he became a mountain murderer. He wasn’t, of course, he was an 80-year old man who was following us because he was worried about getting lost in the mist! But an idea was planted…
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more