I haven’t written a trilogy before and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s a fresh challenge to keep some story threads alive from book to book, yet make each book read perfectly well alone.
Some of my novels are linked by setting, or a secondary character later getting a book of her own, but it’s always been on whim. This time, I began with a plan. Or, rather, I began with a conversation with my editor, Helen, who talked about the popularity of series books, leading to a long email conversation tossing ideas between Helen, myself and my agent Juliet. A trilogy about adopted sisters, set on a Scottish island, came out the winner, and now the first book, Under a Summer Skye, is ready for publication!
This is the structure of the trilogy:
Under a Summer Skye is Thea Wynter’s story. She’s the youngest of the sisters.
Next comes middle-sister Ezzie Wynter in A Skye Full of Stars.
Last will be the story of Valentina Taylor (née Wynter) in Over the Sea to Skye.
The sisters were adopted by musicians Maxie and Vince Wynter and had a happy upbringing. Maxie and Vince sadly died when Thea was eighteen, Ezzie twenty and Valentina twenty-three. The sisters remain close, although Valentina’s marriage and work life means she doesn’t live in Rothach full-time until the third part of the trilogy, Over the Sea to Skye.
First books first, though – let me talk about Under a Summer Skye. A year after Thea and Ezzie were involved in a road traffic accident in their native Suffolk, Thea decided to escape to a job as head gardener at Rothach Hall on the gorgeous Isle of Skye – also leaving behind her role as a colourful personality in a gardening reality TV show. Ezzie joined her at the hall as assistant manager, and now they live happily and peacefully in nearby Rothach village.
Thea’s spending her lunch hour with the retired donkey and pony that live in the grounds when a dark-haired man sprints across the paddock and vanishes over the fence beside the burn. When he reappears cradling a half-drowned dog, Thea doesn’t stand idly by. In the ensuing confusion, she fosters the dog, who’s uber-cute but has no identifying collar or microchip, and she mistakes the man, Deveron Dowie, as a seasonal worker at the hall.
A summer job in the glorious gardens, parkland, and woods of Rothach Hall above the sea is a boon for Deveron, as it comes complete with staff accommodation. He’s suffering hard times after his business partner caused their news agency to go bust, and then ran away with Dev’s wife. But Dev’s definitely not all he seems. Not at all.
I loved creating Rothach Hall, the village and Rothach Bay, making two research trips to Skye, one summer and one winter. The first was important for selecting the right spot to situate Rothach village, and after a false start, I found a scoop of land in the south of the island on the Sleat Peninsula. Back at my hotel, I planned a paper version of the village, enjoying naming Loch View where there is no loch, and Chapel Road where there is no chapel, though there is a pub called the Jolly Abbot. I’ve made the land steeper, so the hall stands on a headland above, but retained the rocky, gritty beach.
I’ll round off with a few fun facts:
- Rothach is pronounced Rotharsh, rather than the ch being a throaty sound as in words like loch. Sleat is pronounced slate.
- Thea names the dog Daisy, because I invited members of Team Sue Moorcroft to send photos of their dogs to audition as a character in the book. It was a hard choice, but Daisy has exactly the right degree of cuteness, so thanks to team member Jasmina for letting me borrow her pretty pooch.
- The village cottages are painted in various colours. Most Hebridean homes are white or left as natural stone, but there are colourful buildings around the harbour in the island’s capital, Portree, and my editor put the idea in my head that Rothach should be the same. I’m sorry if this contravenes planning laws in Skye, but Rothach is my village so what I say goes.
- Thea’s (thistle purple) cottage is called Thistledome, which stands for ‘This’ll do me’.
- The sister’s full names are Altheadora, Esmerelda and Valentina. Maxie and Vince gave them long names to show how much they were wanted.
I hope I’ve given you a flavour of my excitement over the Skye Sisters trilogy, and maybe piqued your appetite to give Under a Summer Skye a try.
