My Editors- all forty-five of them..

Some time ago, I promised an update on my children's book but Telling Tales.Growing Up On a Highland Farm took over. Now that it's finished, I'm getting back to the Secret of Cloven Hill. A work in progress title.
I'm very lucky. Two teachers at the Anderson's School in Forres have a writing hour every Thursday for two Primary Three classes and seem happy for me to go along to 'try' out the book on them and to ask for their advice and suggestions.
 I've been very impressed at the way, working in groups of three, they've come up with some great ideas and artwork whilst giving each other a say and place.
Neither were  prompted by sharp elbows or tongues, and already colour and personality have been added to the first character.  It's all very exciting and I hope that when John, my front cover friend meets them, he'll get the same buzz.

Post Book Launch.

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www.janeyeadon.co.uk

Book launches come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and atmospheres. The numbers and ease of organising the celebrations for Telling Tales  exceeded all my expectations.  Having a catering, fiddling husband  who organised background music with some friends, sure helped as did the local newsagents, 'The Washington'. Before the event, they gave the book a full shop- window display. They also dealt with the event's happy book sales.
Local folk made their way up into the newly refurbished Tolbooth Court Room, where, in days of old, felons were summarily dealt with. The assembled may well have had their own miscreant history but  all that was gone at the event. Friendly, cheerful chat and a mischievous banter were exchanged in kinder, more convivial feeling surroundings.
Although I wrote the book, recalling a free, adventurous childhood, times change and often for the better, I imagine that my own words-smith ancestors would have loved word processors. Even email.
And The Tolbooth in all its revived state still carry hints of a savage past. The man -trap displayed on the way to the cells is a reminder of the days when this form of entrapment was considered an acceptable aid to the law.

A book launch.

On Friday, the 17th April, there'll be a book launch for my book.
The community- minded Forres folk have taken on the running and management of The Tolbooth which sits, fair and square, in the middle of the town. It's a centre for all sorts of civic 'dos', including the monthly Community Council, where the local folk have the opportunity to voice concerns on local matters.
The Coutroom in the Tolbooth is where the book launch will be held. Let's hope the guests have no other concern than having their glass filled so they can toast to the book's success.


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Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

A track well travelled.

This was a part of The Dava Way on a cold January day. It used to be a railway track running between Forres and Grantown-on Spey, but thanks to Dr Beeching's axe, the trains stopped running on it.
Now, thanks to the super human efforts of a group of dedicated volunteers, it's been made good once again, but this time, for walkers and cyclists.
Who'd have thought it! In my Telling Tales book I remember a time when the railway line provided a link between those two towns. Today, there's no  such public transport so unless you've a car and want to make that journey, you'll just have to get on your bike or warn your walking shoes they're in for a twenty two mile hike.

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Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

A book worth reading..

I've been reading Andrew Greig's At the Loch of the Green Corrie. The book's a simple enough concept but beautifully written.
 . Not long before he died, Norman Mac Caig instructed Greig to fish at the Loch of the Green Corrie. Near Loch Inver in the far north of Scotland, it was an inspirational source for much of Mac Caig's poetry. The book's about that journey as well as the authors own life- one and takes the reader to a different and fascinating place.
I once met Mac Caig at a wedding but I think if  Mr Grieg had been the one sitting  at the opposite side of the table, he'd have seemed a lot more comfortable in  the company of strangers.


Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

The trees that tell the tales.

I photographed these trees last week when January hadn't  consulted  its diary and forgetting to chuck down its sleet ration. The North wind too had gone missing. Today, they're making up for it and I'm hoping my trees can withstand their onslaught. They should. They've been here longer than my seventy years.
When I was growing up, the trees stood near the stack-yard of our upland farm. I used to think that the  bare branches must be like the writing on a witch's spell book and that the two Scots Pines on the moor were an elderly couple.
Recently, they've been  much in my mind. Now, no matter what the weather might decide in the future, the trees will have an assured presence on  Telling Tales' pages.
Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

Telling Tales.

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Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

This photograph of the Knock of Braemoray  with the farm of Tombain sheltering beneath was taken in January 2015. For a number of reasons, there'd be no such record if taken at the same time of year and just after the war.

The Forres to Grantown road which passes the farm, would have been snow- blocked and photography would have been reserved for people with huge cameras and mostly based in studios.

I've been writing about these times and hope you'll find the progress reports worth following.