A PEEBELESSHIRE author has released her first novel for adults after success as a children’s writer.
Janis Mackay, from Stobo, published her latest book On a Northern Shore, which is described as a haunted romance "steeped in Celtic folklore”.
She has written 12 children’s novels including The Accidental Time Traveller set in Peebles, with which she won the Scottish Children’s Book Award in 2013.
“This is my first published novel for adults," Janis said. "I’ve written a lot of novels for children, so this is a new step.
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“I teach a novel writing course and in my teaching I’ve always been doing a bit of my own writing.
“I did always want to write a novel for adults and this is it and it took five years for me to write it.”
On a Northern Shore is set in Caithness in the northeast of Scotland, where Janis lived as a writer in residence while she penned the novel.
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Discussing the novel, she said: “Its essentially a love story and it has a ghostly element to it. It’s got a very strong sense of place.
“I’m using the legend of the selkie, I’m playing with that because in the love story there is a man who is this lonely fisherman and he’s had a bit of a hard time.
“He comes across this woman swimming in the sea, in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
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"So it is kind of the love story and he’s never quite sure if she is human or is she selkie and she is quite mysterious.”
Janis will be at Heron and Willow in Jedburgh on Saturday, January 31 at 4.30pm to read from the book and sign copies.
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There are plans for similar events at Wedale Bookshop in Stow and Mainstreet Trading bookshop in St Boswells.
When she is not writing, Janis teaches creative writing at Edinburgh University.
For more information on her books, visit her website.
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