Saturday 8th October 10.30-12.30pm – Portobello Baptist Church Cafe

Writing workshop – Crosscurrents: writing inspired by the sea

What does the sea mean to you? Sunny holidays, storm surges, separation, connection? In this two-hour workshop, Rebecca, author of Blast Radius, will use the sights, sounds and smells of the sea to inspire creativity, awaken the senses and capture vibrant images. We will visit the Promenade so dress for all weathers and bring pen, paper and imagination. Writers of all levels welcome.

Rebecca McKinney is a Scottish writer who came from America or an American writer who lives in Scotland, depending on your point of view. She lives near Edinburgh with her husband and two children. Her novel, Blast Radius, was published by Sandstone Press in February 2015.

Sean McNicol’s best friend Mitch saved his life in Afghanistan, in an act of impulsive heroism. Now Mitch is dead and Sean has left the Royal Marines with a head full of ghosts and guilt. Mitch talks to Sean from beyond the grave, by turns encouraging him, cursing, singing and leading him to question his own sanity on a daily basis.Turning his back on his life as a soldier, Sean grudgingly returns to the downcast Scottish town of his childhood and takes a job moving second-hand furniture for the Once Loved Furniture Company. He is hired by a former schoolmate to clear her late father’s house at Cauldhill Farm, and gradually discovers that his own life is intertwined in the most unexpected way with the farm and its former occupants. In order to find the thing he wants most- a bit of peace- Sean must confront the unquiet spirits of his past: his alcoholic mother, his absent father, his old (almost) girlfriend Paula, his own fatal mistakes in Afghanistan and, of course, Mitch.