Our gratitude to Linda Strachan, for a highly informative talk on her fiction pieces and her work with the Society of Authors.
Linda attends something in the order of one hundred speaking events a year, talking to school children and fulfilling her roles in writing organisations. Her Hamish McHaggis books have been hugely successful, and widely distributed throughout schools (she even brought along a cuddly toy version of the eponymous gentleman!).
More recently, Linda’s emphasis has been on fiction for teenagers, young adults, and ‘reluctant readers’ (with gritty, hard-edged books like Don’t Judge Me, Spider, and Dead Boy Talking). With these titles, she tackles contemporary issues of relevance to young people (in her sparse and gripping style, which does not waste a word).
Hugely experienced and entertaining, Linda had much wisdom to impart regarding the life of a professional writer – including how to network with key literary figures, how to cultivate inspiration, and questions to ask literary agents.
