It’s Robert Louis Stevenson Day today. Joyce has his Bloomsday in Dublin, Robert Louis deserves his day too.

Edinburgh, Stevenson’s hometown, celebrates his anniversary today by offering an array of events.

My blog for the Scottish Book Trust, describing my experiences of writing during a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, also appears today. You can read the blog here: Scottish Book Trust: Five Things Series.

Here’s my interview with the online magazine ‘Just a Platform’, in which I talk about winning the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Prize and other things writerly.

I have recently returned from my wonderful writing residency in Grez-sur-Loing, gifted to me in the lovely package that is a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship.

Grez and the ‘hotel’ were idyllic. Hôtel Chevillon , which once hosted writers and artists such as Strindberg, Carl Larsson and Stevenson, has been converted into writers’ and artists’ apartments and studios. Light. Beautiful. Elegant. French.

The jewel of the village, for me, I’ll admit, was the delicious boulangerie – less than a minute’s walk or skip from the front door. Monsieur Daniel, the baker, was delightful and his croissants and pains au chocolat and baguettes made me many a fine breakfast.

Of course, I was there to write. And write I did. Every morning I wrote down in the shade of the garden, by the river until the local teenagers sauntered along the bridge around two o’clock and took occupation of the opposite bank with their radios and chatter, both at a very polite volume. That was my signal for lunch. Early evening I would begin to write again in my apartment. The rhythm of these days just worked for me: I was able to inhabit my characters and their world. I need this, I think, to write a novel. Routine or rhythm is important. I have my ending now and the editing and revising is well under way. All good.

The other thing I loved about my retreat in Grez was the quiet sense of community. It was just there. Even though the days were often solitary, there was a sense of working alongside other writers and artists – all lovely people – who were all taken up in their own craft and imagination. There was writing and painting and sculpting in the air, somehow, and the feeling too that what we were doing, what we are doing, is valued.  I felt like a writer in the proper doing sense.

Thank you Creative Scotland. My time in Grez was a gift. And I’m holding onto it.

I am delighted to have been awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. This award gifts me a summer month living and writing in the Hôtel Chevillon, a writers and artists’ residence in Grez-sur-Loing, France.

Grez has enjoyed a long history as a writers and artists’ colony. Stevenson spent several summers there in the 1870s and while staying in Chevillon, then a hotel, he met his wife, Fanny. The playwright Strindberg also spent time there as have many artists, including Carl Larsson and painters associated with the Glasgow Boys.

I’m looking forward to a retreat that will be restorative and fruitful. My goal is to complete work on my novel in progress. And, of course, to enjoy some proper continental sunshine, the many scented delights of French patisseries and cheesemongers, and a soupçon or so of the finest wines known to humanity.

Thank you, Creative Scotland!