University of the West of Scotland

I’m very chuffed to say that for the next three years I’ll be doing a PhD in Historical Fiction, and I’ll be based at the University of the West of Scotland’s Ayr campus. Look at the sexy new building!

I am so delighted to be joining UWS. I have lived in Ayr for over a year now, and I feel there is a bit of creative energy knocking around here at the moment. People say writing can be a very solitary activity, and while that’s true, I prefer to work as part of a wider community of artists and writers. I’m sure I will find that here.

The Culture Show: New Novelists

The Tin-Kin is one of twelve debut novels that was chosen to appear on BBC2′s The Culture Show on World Book Night. If you missed it, you can watch here for a week after broadcast.

The Guardian published a related article, here.

Ullapool Book Festival

I’m really looking forward to reading at this event in early May. Click here for  the festival website.

Ayr Alternative Arts Day

I’ll be reading in Ayr on September 25th as part of an all-day event at Ayr Town Hall, part of Ayrtime and the Septembayr festivals.

Authors, Jason Donald and Karen Campbell are also taking part, and throughout the day there will be African music by Seeds of Thought, an exhibition and talk by artist, Alex Norris, four monologues, and a new electronic music commission.

All free!

Click here for more details on the day.

Readings in Glasgow and Edinburgh

I’m taking a break from work at the moment to look after Ivor, but I’m doing one last reading (for a little while at least) on July 7th at the summer garden party, Baillieston Library, Glasgow, together with author Karen Campbell. Come along between 1 and 4pm!

Another date later on:

August 30th: Edinburgh International Book Festival (part of the Elsewhere project)

Sassuolo – new short story

You can now read my newest short story, Sassuolo, online at the Edinburgh International Book Festival website. Download the story as a word document here:

http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/eleanor_thom.html

I’ll be speaking about the story at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on August 30th. The story  was commissioned by the festival as part of a project called ‘Elsewhere’, which involves authors from all over Scotland.

Sassuolo is a town in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy.

Baby Ivor

A little message to share the happy news that our son, Ivor Jupiter, was born on June 4th at 9:26am. Chris and I are so grateful to the staff at Ayrshire Maternity Unit, who looked after me for three weeks leading up to the birth, and in particular we want to thank the surgical team who eventually placed Ivor safely in our arms. It was a rocky road but we made it! Here he is with his daddy:

Forthcoming Events

Apologies that it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. It’s been a busy few months. A couple of forthcoming events in Brighton and Glasgow:

Tuesday 2nd February 2010, 6pm, at The University of Sussex. Details here.

Sunday 7th March 2010, 7:45pm,  at the Aye Write Festival in Glasgow (launching the Tesco Bank Summer Read). Details here.

And the paperback edition of The Tin-Kin will be out on the 25th of February. Here’s a peek at the cover, which I’m very pleased with:

The Tin-Kin has won…

The Saltire Society’s First Book of the Year Award 2009! Here I am, pictured with the other winning authors, at The National Library in Edinburgh on St Andrew’s day.

The Tin-Kin is a family story, and it means a great deal to me and my relatives that ‘our’ novel has been appreciated in such a way. Thank you very much to The Saltire Society, to The Royal Mail (who sponsor the First Book Award), and to the panel of judges. When I was writing The Tin-Kin I just wanted people to read it as a story, and maybe learn a bit about Scottish Travellers in the process. When I know they’ve enjoyed it too, that’s just brilliant! I hope this award will help spread the word about the book.

I enjoyed the day in Edinburgh with my husband, Chris, who drank lots of the free wine. We met the other authors, and I was really fascinated by the winner of the Research book category, The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. Work began on this impressive tome a full ten years before I was even born. I had a chat to two of the editors, who assured me there are lots of Traveller Cant words included in the thesaurus. I’m really looking forward to getting to see a copy.

Canadian Events This Week

This is a very quick post to say that I’m flying to Toronto early tomorrow morning to take part in Writing Scotland at the International Festival of Authors.

Please come and see me and the rest of us at the following times:

New Writing Scotland. Saturday October 31st 4pm at the Fleck Dance Theatre in Toronto, with Alan Bissett, Margaret Elphinstone, Roland Gulliver and James Meek. More info on this event.

IFOA Midland. Tuesday November 3rd 8pm at North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre, Midland, with Olive Senior, Lauren Kirshner and Mary Tilberg. More info on this event.

I’ll post photos and much more when I get back.

Ellie

X