Support your Sisters! Raven McAllan talks about sisters under the pen

Support Your Sister ~ Nikki Prince Pa... Support Your Sister~ Michaela Rhua ta...

Support your Sisters! Raven McAllan talks about sisters under the pen

Sisters under the pen….

Raven’s Ramblings.

Of that probably should be sisters under the type these days. However, we’ll stick to saying under the pen, because one of the people who gave me faith to be me, to stick up for what I want, died long before the computer came into general use.

If she hadn’t my great aunt would have been one of the first to embrace the age of the Mac. (or whatever your personal choice)

GA Nell, was definitely born before her time. She learned her French from the sailors who came to London during the great war, amongst other things, and was open informative and not afraid to call a spade a spade. (or a penis a prick) If I wanted to know anything about anything, she was the person to ask. Like my very own Google.

She was certainly a big influence on my writing, even though she was only with me in spirit. For one thing, we both loved history, and I still do. As she was a died in the wool cockney, (so was my mum) GA Nell was determined I would know my heritage. Off we went, just the two of us, for a cultural week to the ‘big smoke.’ And in those days, believe me it was well named. We sightsee-ed, until our feet ached, there was a lot of walking involved I tell you.

We went to the ballet and the science museum, checked out where various writer had lived and when. I wanted to go to Dickens’ House. We went and once the staff accepted it was my idea, not hers, I was given a late nineteen century copy of David Copperfield. Not valuable, not in good condition, but mine. And valuable to me, because, as GA Nell told me, “one day, you’ll hold a book you’ve written in your hands.”

Well it might have taken almost half a century to do it, but she was right.

Now let’s fast forward to the last few years.

I was off work, bored, and happen to go on Facebook to see a write a chapter competition. I duly joined up and got into a sub group of new writers. Subsequently, a good few of us morphed into UCW, my crit group. Now my first chapter got nowhere, and quite rightly so, but it did give me the itch to write again.

The problem was, what to write. We were chatting on Facebook and I suddenly typed. ‘I’m going to write a Regency, about two women and a bloke.’ Well before I had a chance to say, ‘just joking’ or ‘who typed that?’ someone came back with, ‘I dare you’. So I did. Then they helped me tidy it up before I subbed. They were my driving force cheer leaders.

Today, I’m very lucky, that we’re all still there, we all help and encourage each other, and I think most of us, if not all are now published. It’s that hugs and virtual wine that keeps us going.

And, for me, the mother of my grandson, Doris O’Connor. You can imagine how honored I was when Doris and her hubby asked me to be an honorary grandma to their youngest. He’s a wee gem. Sometimes you meet someone, and you click. That happened with Doris and I. We are each other’s harshest critic, which we like, and ‘redit’ each others work before it is submitted. In case you think ‘redit’ is a typo, it isn’t. It’s our expression for red pen editing. Where we highlight repetition, ridiculous scenarios and DDS. Aha DDS. Snigger I coined this for a deadly Doris sentence. One that you faint through lack of a comma to take a breath with. Knowing there is someone who is one hundred percent honest with you over your writing is brilliant. In fact the book I had out just this week, became what it is due to Doris, who told me on no uncertain terms, they had to make love or else. (They did.)

So Sisters under the pen. Boy do we (well I) need them. It’s the knowledge, that someone is there to commiserate, celebrate, and berate you, at the appropriate times. Someone to laugh and cry with you, hand over virtual chocolate and wine, and someone to be happy for when they achieve a star, or an acceptance.

And as for my Great Aunty Nell? Well she’s with me in everything I write, and I have promised myself I’m going to write her story soon…

*****

Raven lives in Scotland, along with her husband and their two cats—their children having flown the nest—surrounded by beautiful scenery, which inspires a lot of the settings in her books.

She is used to sharing her life with the occasional deer, red squirrel, and lost tourist, to say nothing of the scourge of Scotland—the midge.

A lover of reading, she appreciates the history inside a book, and the chance to peek into the lives of those from years ago. Raven admits that she enjoys the research for her books almost as much as the writing; so much so, that sometimes she realizes she’s strayed way past the information she needs to know, and not a paragraph has been added to her WIP.

Her lovely long-suffering husband is learning to love the dust bunnies, work the Aga, and be on stand-by with a glass of wine.