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Author Tony Black has just published his latest work entitled ‘The Lock-In’. Some of it was written when Tony lived on Arran and here he gives a personal account of how his time on the island shaped his life and work. After a short spell living on the east coast, Tony now lives in Ayrshire.
They say nostalgia is not what it used to be and, after leafing through the pages of my latest book, I think they might be right.
Two of the tales in my short story collection, The Lock-In, were written in Kildonan and reading them again stirs-up quite a few memories.
In 2015, along with my wife Cheryl and son Conner, we rented a cottage with the – typical for a writer – romantic notion it would be good for my writing. Yes, it does sound a bit silly to up-sticks for an island life, but the move was backed by sound research and planning…sort of.
I’d been a journalist before I turned to the novel and had long believed writer’s block to be a bit of nonsense. I’d never seen a reporter mooning around the newsroom, attempting to summon the muse. Deadlines were the antidote to that sort of thing. At least that’s what I thought, until the cover came in for my latest novel, long before I’d reached the mid-point turn.
In panic I asked my PA – she was unpaid, but we were married – to book up somewhere remote where I could live like a hermit/writer for a little while. I’d heard this sort of thing worked a treat for other authors…what could possibly go wrong?
I still remember the morning of my arrival, laptop and reams of notes in hand, when I was greeted at the ferry by my hosts, my now dear friends Joyce and Phil. On our journey back to base camp, I noted how relaxed they were and thinking how I could really do with some of that after signing a two-books-a-year contract.
By a miraculous turn, within the next 48-hours, I’d rattled my difficult novel’s black moment and was racing towards the denouement. By mid-week, I was hastily scrawling The End and picking up the phone to my wife. I still had the hideaway booked for the rest of the week, so Cheryl and Conner joined me for a spot of R&R Arran-style; by the time we were boarding the ferry home, we’d agreed to rent a more permanent cottage on the island.
This wild move turned out to be one of my wisest. I went to Arran to continue writing the gritty crime thrillers I’d become known for, but soon found myself turning to a more personal style of storytelling and painting landscapes and local figures in my spare time.
When people ask me “Why did you pack-in the thrillers or why did you take up painting?” I tell them my Arran origins story. The island, the lifestyle, the slower pace, the mañana, mañana mindset made me, to butcher Bowie, “Turn and face the change”.
During my time on Arran, I made many inroads into the journey my work has taken since. Fewer opportunities to see old friends and some isolation can work wonders on the creative mind. It turns you inward and that alters your outward perception.
My new book of stories is entitled ‘The Lock-In’ which everyone seems to think is a reference to the recent shut-down, but it isn’t. It might just have easily been called ‘The Lock-Out’ because the content of this book – and the new artwork I’ll be unveiling on my November 30 book launch – was simply out of reach for me before Arran.
Tony Black’s new short story anthology, The Lock-In, is available online and in stores now, published by McNidder & Grace. Tony will launch the book at a free event in Prestwick Library on November 30 with Glasgow writer Barry Graham. Doors open at 7pm. Find out more at: www.tonyblackarts.co.uk
credit JimDeanPhotography.com
Author and artist Tony Black with some of his new artwork. Photograph: JimDeanPhotography.comNO_B46tony01_black_book-
The cover of his latest work The Lock-In. NO_B46tony02_23_book_cover
Credit: Source link
