MY PATH TO PUBLICATION
FRANCES MCKENDRICK
The debut novelist took the right route for her book by going with an independent press
As a kid, I loved the Scottish author Molly Hunter because she wrote fantastical stories (selkies on the shore, kelpies in the burn, fairies in the dell) set in the chilly places where my family went on holiday. Inspired, I wrote bits of stories about enigmatic young heroines in the Highlands, wandering about and yearning for undefined somethings. I pestered Molly Hunter with letters and for a time she became my penpal, sending kind words when my papa died without warning me. In my teens, stories became diary entries about boys I fancied and the minutiae of my day. Then no writing whatsoever, until in my late twenties I moved to Amsterdam where a story set in Edinburgh formed in my head. It took me ten years to finish it – kids and work were a higher priority.