Greetings from sunny Scotland!
AllendaleDiary.org was such a large part of our lives from our home in Sparty Lea, and I loved it so much I’ve kept it alive online, thanks to ourBen’s kind hosting. I’ve thought its daily presentation of the events of 2019 could be useful for future historians, looking back at that year in the life of our community. Little did we know that life would change so dramatically in 2020 with the Covid lockdowns, and we ourselves couldn’t know then that circumstances would mean we needed to live within a village. Sadly for us, post-Covid, rural property prices skyrocketed, so we had to look elsewhere than Allendale. We are now happily ensconced in New Galloway, not far from the border, and yes, we do think of the Allen Valleys often, and of our friends there.
I’m activating this lovely blog, much as I did to announce my follow-on effort several years ago, the eponymously named RoadsToJoy.blog with which I hope I was able to entertain for about two years. I found that thinking about joyful things was therapeutic, good for the soul you might say, and naturally, I cannot bear to let that blog slide away into oblivion either. But my attention swerved, finally, to a conscientious effort to create a real novel, incidentally an effort that grew out of one of Claire Lynn’s Creative Writing sessions in Hexham. I’ve found such joy writing this book!
I’m delighted to announce, now, that the novel, already receiving pre-publication accolades like a Finalist ranking in the Pen Masters Global Award for Literary Excellence, will launch formally on the 10th of September here in New Galloway at our Arts Centre (gcat.scot/arts/). The launch, in which I’ll be interviewed by the novelist MargaretElphinstone.co.uk, will, we expect, be live-streamed and recorded for posterity on The CatStrand YouTube channel.
Incidentally, I’m writing under a pen name, Aldon Law, to differentiate this effort from my erstwhile apprenticeship in the science fiction (hard) realm. I’d like to think this general fiction (historical, literary, cultural heritage, family saga) effort is much more worth the read than my science-heavy BiomeNE47.com series which, although prescient in idea, fell short in writerly craftsmanship. I feel The Song Cannot Be Silenced is, after some eight years of gestation, a real novel, in effect a debut novel, at last.
My authorial website will, I hope, help to illuminate the setting, but I shall also be blogging about the continuing odyssey — there’s real creativity in this part of the book business as well, involving a host of different skills to learn — and so I hope readers who know my voice will be intrigued to follow the book’s travels, as the paperback, eBook and Audible books are prepared for publication, which will occur online and worldwide on the date of the book launch.
If you click along to AldonLaw.com you will find all the current news about the book I fondly think of as ’The Song . . .’ and I’ll be glad to welcome you there! As a friendly gesture to readers far and near who have shared my words over the years, I’ll be opening a window of opportunity to download a free copy of the eBook from my author site, at some point this summer, so you might want to sign up to my author’s blog there to be sure to be notified of that complimentary offer. There’s also a Contact form on the site to start a conversation with the author directly, which might be useful for after the book is published. Anyway, just to say, I won’t trouble the AllendaleDiary waters on this subject again.
all best wishes
Larry Winger
Writing as AldonLaw.com, launching The Song Cannot Be Silenced at The CatStrand, New Galloway,on the 10th of September. Reading in the Local Writers Spotlight, Wigtown Book Festivalon 29th September.