Mum opens up another new chapter in her life
I knew quite quickly that I didn’t want to spend my mornings cleaning. “I had this dream of being able to leave the job and get up in the morning and write. I don’t do it eevery morning but, when I do get up at 6am tto write, I know I could just as easily be going to work cleaning. It is never very far away. HopefHopefully, the book will do well.” It seemsse unlikely not to, given the interest already generated.generated But although quietlyqu confident inin her work , SandraSa is taking nono t h i n g for granted.gra HavingH gone to universityuni at 18, she dropped out after her first year to getge married and movedmove to Ireland, wherewher she ran a smal lholding.l She has twotw sons, Jamie, 30, and Calum, 28. TheTheffamily moved to Carnoustie,Carnou where her gran had a house, in the mid-90s and opened a cafe. FoFol lowing the break-up of her marriage, she studied English and creative writing at the University of Dundee as a mature student. She said: “When I was on my own, I knew I wanted to go back to education and the only way I could do it was to work as a cleaner in the morning. “I did that for seven years in my local shop – a great place. I have never really had a career as such. I raised my kids. I’ve done all kinds of things but when I started writing I didid really feel this is right, this is what I do.” Sandra’sandra’s first novel, Beneath The Skin, was published in 2016 and shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award last year. Although she’s won prizes and acclaim for her work, it had never been on this scale.
Bee Books in India have also snapped up the rights to Bone Deep.
She said: “It’s a strange thing. With the first one, you don’t know what’s going to happen and it is nervewracking. It is very hard to rejoice in it totally because you can’t help but think it might be snatched away.
“I think that’s quite common for anybody if you have a dream and you think it is sort of within your grasp.
“I am not a very confident person but with Bone Deep I’m confident of the work. I was really hoping it would hit the spot.” imagination and I put them together.” With funding from Creative Scotland, Sandra secured a residency at the Mill, which is a National Trust for Scotland property, while she worked on the book. It fired her imagination in all sorts of ways, both good and bad.
She said: “It’s a very welcoming place which is open to the public but I made a point of going to the Mill at times that would be out of the normal day-to- day routine and sometimes that was a bit scary.
“I have been to the mill at night as part of events, such as paranormal evenings where ghost-hunters will stay all night. I’ve done that a few times
“When the lights go off, it is totally different – you get a flip side to these old buildings at night.
“I’m not sure I believe in ghosts but I have experienced quite interesting things, which fed into the book.
“The ghost hunters have all this different paraphernalia – lots of monitors which seem to pick up electrical energy – and when you are faced with these very scientif ic instruments bleeping and going green, you do just wonder what is passing across them.
“On one occasion I heard something like a ball rolling, like a marble, on the f loorboard overhead and I went upstairs and there was nothing there and nothing out of place. Little things like that make you think.
“I went at dawn. I did a lot of writing then and it takes on a lot of different characteristics.
“But I have also been there on my own and there are times I have gone in and you think there something behind you but you know there isn’t.” Although it could, of course, have been a cleaner.