#Guestpost: Settlement by Anne Stormont @writeanne #literary #romance #location #amreading

It’s such a pleasure today to welcome author Anne Stormont as my guest here on Being Anne. To my shame, I still haven’t read one of her books – although I have an absolute conviction that I’d love her writing, knowing from her reviews that we’re often in perfect accord over the books we enjoy. Her latest, Settlement, was published in September, and is available for kindle and in paperback – and I’ll be reading and reviewing within the next couple of months.

Let’s take a closer look…

Can the past ever be put peacefully to rest? Can love truly heal old wounds?

Settlement is the sequel to literary romance novel, Displacement, but it can be read as a stand-alone.

Falling in love is the easy bit. Happy ever after requires work, commitment and honesty.

She wants him to be her friend and lover. He wants her as his wife. Can a compromise be reached? Or are things truly over between them?

When former Edinburgh policeman Jack Baxter met crofter and author Rachel Campbell at her home on the Scottish island of Skye, they fell in love. It was a second chance at happiness for them both. But after Jack proposes marriage, it becomes clear they want different things.

Then, as Rachel prepares to return to the Middle East to work on a peacemaking project that’s close to her heart, and as Jack’s past catches up with him, it seems their relationship is doomed. Can Rachel compromise on her need to maintain her hard-won independence? Can Jack survive the life-threatening situation in which he finds himself? Will they get the chance to put things right between them?

If you like a complex, contemporary, grown-up romance with lots of raw emotion, dramatic and exotic settings, all mixed in with some international politics and laced with elements of a crime thriller, then this is the book for you.

I’m very much looking forward to this one. And I’m delighted to welcome Anne Stormont as my guest today, to set the scene…

First of all I must say thank you to Anne for having me here as a guest on her amazing book blog.

My name is Anne Stormont and I’m an author of contemporary fiction. I’ve written three novels so far and my latest one Settlement came out in September this year. It’s the sequel to my previous book Displacement – although it can be read as a standalone.

Both novels are set on the Scottish island of Skye and in the troubled country of Israel-Palestine. Yes, I know that’s an unlikely pairing of places and I do get asked why I chose them. So I thought I’d try and explain.

Location, location

There are three main elements to consider when writing fiction. These are character, plot and setting.

When I wrote my first novel Change of Life, it was the main characters and the plot that were centre stage – and the setting of Edinburgh and East Lothian were very much an attractive but tame backdrop. But when I came to write Displacement I knew from the outset that the setting needed to be strong, dramatic and every bit as relevant to the story as plot and character.

The idea for Displacement started when a character came to me. I was hanging out the washing – I know the exotic life of the writer – in my garden on Skye and there she was – Rachel – the first of my two main characters. I knew what she looked like and that she, too, lived on Skye. I also knew she was divorced, in her fifties, raised sheep on the croft she’d inherited from her father, and combined this with her work as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. But most importantly she was struggling to come to terms with the loss of her soldier son during the conflict in Afghanistan. And, as I got to know more about her and my other main character – Jack, a former Edinburgh policeman, who’d just come to live on Skye – I thought I had my setting.

But as more of Rachel’s story came to me I realised that even Skye with all its dramatic scenery and wild beauty wasn’t going to be enough to contain the plot. Rachel was about to go on a journey of discovery – a journey where she would explore the other half of her heritage –the half that came from her mother -a German, Jewish, Holocaust survivor. Rachel was going to Israel.

And, as Rachel’s story wasn’t over by the end of Displacement, it was necessary that she once again set out from her Hebridean island and returned to the Middle East during the course of Settlement.

Research implications

While I didn’t have to research what it’s like to live on Skye or its geography, geology or weather systems, I did have to do a fair bit of research on sheep. I was a teacher not a crofter – but fortunately I knew plenty of people who were. So that part was relatively easy.

I also didn’t have to do much research on Edinburgh where Jack returns to work for the police in Settlement. It’s my home city – where I was born, grew up and lived for much of my adult life.

The research for how things are in Israel – Palestine wasn’t quite so straightforward. However, the whole idea of having Rachel go there had arisen out of my own experiences in this contested land. So I wasn’t starting completely from scratch.

I first visited the country as a student way back in 1975. I’d gone to visit a school friend, an Israeli girl who’d been in my class at high school in Edinburgh. She’d come to Scotland with her family for two years while her father did his PhD at Edinburgh university. We formed a strong friendship and our parents also became friends. And when she went home to Israel we promised each other we’d keep in touch. Since then I’ve been back several times.

My friend and her husband, both Israeli Jews, fight tirelessly, and at some personal cost, for fairness and justice for the Palestinians. Through them I’ve met other amazing people who do the same. Israel-Palestine is an amazing country – ancient, beautiful, beguiling – but also challenging and infuriating. And as I came to write my novels I wanted Rachel’s journey of discovery to reflect my own. So I drew on my impressions formed during my visits and during conversations with many interesting people including, of course, my old friend and her husband.

And while I didn’t want to be preachy or to deliver a political lecture in either of the novels, I did want to prompt people to think. And not only about the particular situation in Israel – but about how we humans act and react toward each other more generally. I wanted to give readers pause for thought about why we go to war, about why one group of people comes to oppress another group, and about the personal cost of conflict.

Settings to fit the themes

But I was also aware while writing Displacement and Settlement that they are both essentially romantic fiction. And I hope I kept the story of the growing love between Rachel and Jack at the heart of both books. The settings are intended to provide colour, drama and context. They are meant to mirror the themes of loss, grief and conciliation. They are also meant to be an appropriate backdrop for issues such as honesty, communication and acceptance in human relationships at a personal, cultural and political level. But most of all, I hope the settings lend themselves to reflecting on the meaning of home and on the precariousness and preciousness of love.

Many thanks Anne – I’m now looking forward to it even more. Settlement will also be on a blog tour with Love Books Group Blog Tours between 12th and 18th November. 

About the author

Anne Stormont writes contemporary, women’s fiction that is probably best described as literary romance. Her writing is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Her stories are for readers who enjoy a good romantic story, but who also like romance that is laced with realism and real world issues – and where the main characters may be older but not necessarily wiser.

Anne was born and grew up in Scotland where she still lives. She has travelled extensively having visited every continent except Antarctica – where she really must go considering her fondness for penguins. She has friends and family all over the world including in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and the Middle East.

Anne was a primary school teacher for over thirty years before taking early retirement in order to concentrate on her writing.
She describes herself as a subversive old bat – but she also tries to maintain a kind heart. She hopes this comes through in her writing.

Anne loves to hear from and keep in touch with her readers. She can be found on Facebook and Twitter and you can also find out more about her, her writing, and her latest book news on her blog and on her website.