new book, new blog

I cut my blogging teeth on Blogger, but something made me want to have more control over how it looked and read.  I’ve had a go at different themes and I’m happy to run with this one, for now, to create a thinking and planning place as I start my second novel.  The picture above is one I took in Port Erin on the Isle of Man when I created a site-specific, promenade performance with a carload of old coats borrowed from the Royal Court, stacks of old suitcases, a steam train opening scene and a lovely, large cast of locals.  It was an amazing year in residence with the Isle of Man Arts Council.  It changed my life in a number of ways, but probably not as dramatically as the island changed the lives of 4000 female internees during WWII, when the tip of the island was surrounded by barbed wire to become Rushen Camp, or the villagers who found themselves interned as well.  It’s the story I can’t let go.  Or rather, it won’t let me go.  It insists I do better, dig deeper, look harder.  It is the call I must answer – or try to.