About

My name is Helen McClory. I’m a PhD graduate, born and educated in Scotland (and Australia for a wee bit). I lived in New York City for a year and a half, though I’ve now moved back to Edinburgh.

In this blog, I’m putting down some notes and occasional excepts connected to the research, outlining and writing of my second novel, Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts, set in New Mexico, New York, and Cornwall. Tackling the immigrant experience, the agonies of the internet and love, big landscapes, and the cramped spaces within the brain created by obsession.

You will also find here lots of images of where I’ve been (because text loves an image to anchor it), along with the occasional book review and links of interest.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Why Schietree?

An early draft of my first novel, Kilea, formed the thesis for my PhD. The titular Kilea is a fragile girl/young woman living in isolation with her controlling ‘father’ on an island off the west coast of Scotland. She is haunted by fragments of memory from her early childhood, and by human and nonhuman ghosts. In Scots Gaelic these spirits are known as Sith, rendered phonetically as Schie in the novel.

A schietree, therefore, is a spirit or fairy tree; these trees grew in Scotland and Ireland. Some were places to seek help/pacify the spirits over issues of fertility, or infant mortality and are still, apparently, to be found today with coins embedded in the bark, or rags tied around the branches. They may have been considered gateways to the fairyland/underworld. Others were simply large, impressive trees, often hawthorns (one of my favourites for their heady-scented white flowers in spring), growing in an open clearing, or another significant place, that found their way into local legend in their own distinct ways.

There aren’t any schietrees in Kilea, although there are plenty of other indicators of place, of Scottish (and particularly Island) culture. The plurality of meanings and readings, coupled with their general impressive stature is why I chose the name. I don’t believe in fairies (sorry J.M. Barrie) but I will be forever enthrall to story, stick, earth, rock.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Kilea was recently awarded the Unbound Press Best Novel Award. I am represented by Drea Cohane of The Rights Factory. A chapter from Kilea appeared on Necessary Fiction in February 2012.

All pictures and illustrations (unless otherwise stated) taken/drawn very amateurishly by me, or possibly my husband. Feel free to link – credit would be kindly appreciated.

Thanks for reading – and if you would like to ask me anything, or simply chat about writing and bookish matters, email me: wheresthebread[@]hotmail.com. I am also on twitter: @HelenMcClory