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To me, reading through old letters and journals is like treasure hunting. Somewhere in those faded, handwritten lines there is a story that has been packed away in a dusty old box for years.
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Those who have not been stung will hardly fear a bee the same as those who have.
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I had never really understood what an adventure life could be, if you followed your heart and did what you really wanted to do, which is what we must all do in the end.
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It is through our extended family that we first learn to compromise and come to an understanding that even if we don't always agree about things we can still love and look out for each other.
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If we don't value the people who inspire us (and money is one mark of that) then what kind of culture are we building?
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Sometimes I create a character from a scrap - a mere mention that has been left behind.
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A book is a story, even if it's non-fiction, and once I've read it, I have the story with me inside my head always.
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It may take a village to raise a baby, but hell! it takes an army to produce a book.
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I'm not sure how much easier it is for a mother to balance her life now - have we simply swapped one set of restrictions for another?
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While I'm frustrated at the amount I'm expected to take on in the present, the 1950s woman was frustrated by being excluded - not being allowed to take things on at all.
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As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective.
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It is one of the benchmarks of a culture I always think – the page at which it operates. A good way to measure it is to order a taxi and see how irate local people get if it is late.
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Scotland just isn't terribly Tory.
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Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it.
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I've always had a keen sense of history. My father was an antiques dealer and he used to bring home boxes full of treasures, and each item always had a tale attached.
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We can learn so much looking outside our core field of expertise.
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Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer's job.
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For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.
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Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrians Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.
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An Aunt is a safe haven for a child. Someone who will keep your secrets and is always on your side.
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I didn't expect to love being online as much as I do. I've met some wonderful people and discovered that however arcane some of my interests that there are people out there who are interested too.
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At length, when I considered it, I realized that the best of my actions were small things. Picking flowers and cooking food for my mother when she had been unwell, spending an afternoon with the children, sending money to my sister or kissing Henry's tiny head as he slept in the nursery before I left. I thought of every detail and afterwards I felt better. Hellfire and brimstone have never appealed to me and I admit I become easily confused thinking of right and wrong. But I do understand kindness.
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A word out of place or an interesting choice of vocabulary can spawn a whole character.
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I believe the era of the militant lady is back.