Helen Susan Swift
Author Helen Susan Swift
Biography
Born in Edinburgh and bred in the Scottish countryside, Helen Susan Swift currently lives in the north-east of the country. Happily married, she works two jobs as well as writing in a variety of genres. Her interests include folklore and history, as well as hill-walking, nature and football, following Aberdeen FC and Ayr United. She grew up visiting castles and stories, which gave her books a slight quirk when compared to others of the genres in which she writes. It is foibles and cares of people that interest her, the impact of image over reality and the realisation of the true depth of love rather than the shallow desire for material advantage.
When Helen Susan wrote her first book, The Handfasters, she intended it to be a one-off, but one thing led to another, her love of history intervened and others followed. She thinks the same about each book she produces: this will be the last, so it is a surprise when the desire for another arises.
Helen Susan is one of the shyest people it is possible to meet. Very few people know she writes. She keeps herself to herself and does not encourage photographs.
From her small house, Helen Susan can see the North Sea on one side and the country on the other. The moodiness of nature inspires long walks along the coast, with its shattered castles and splintering waves, coves where Vikings once landed and houses that once sheltered smugglers. The hills constantly beckon, where the wildlife is more important than humans. Above, Helen can contemplate the void of the sky. Yet at home, one person awaits, always.
Her Dark stories reveal her interest in the supernatural, the impact of superstition on the mind of man and woman. Life on this planet is a constant battle between good and evil, in whatever guise that takes. Sometimes good is victorious, as in the romance stories, sometimes the other side triumphs.
Perhaps Helen Susan's life walks along the shaded fringe of both, as her writing can be cosy and fun. . . or dark.
In The Blog
Bibliography
Lowland Romance Series
Tales From The Dark Past Series
Author’s note: The Handfasters
This book took years to germinate with various ideas coalescing in the muddle that I call a mind. First was the idea of an engineer with a steamboat on Edinburgh’s Nor’ Loch. That appealed to me with the mixture of the Auld Toun as a backdrop to what was then the most progressive branch of engineering. It encapsulated the Scotland of the period.
Second was the Auld Toun of Edinburgh itself, with its crazy tenements and steep closes reeking with history, dark deeds and so much romance that they can take your breath away. Add that to the austere purity of the Georgian New Town and there could hardly be a better city in which to set a romantic story – an oxymoronic combination of the old and the new, the cluttered and the cultured, the past and the future set around an ancient castle and with the buzz of the Scottish Enlightenment as an engine.
To that I added the rural surroundings of the city. I happen to know the Pentland Hills fairly well. They are not high and they are not particularly wild, but they have an amazing charm of their own, and a couthy atmosphere that I have never encountered anywhere else. Dotted with country houses that resonate with history, specked with history and legend, they are sufficiently remote to bring my character some hardship yet close enough to the city to be reachable.
Fourth and most important was the main character. I wanted somebody with a combination of fire and naivety to mirror the duality of the setting of Edinburgh and the Pentland Hills. Alison answered my search. A Highland girl, she would possess hard-headed reality while not being used to the rumbustious morass of Old Edinburgh or the fussiness of the New; she would have Highland fire that could lead her into unfortunate circumstances and then out again. I know my Highland women well.
For the main male character I already had the engineer; all I needed was a back story and a family. I took the name Willie as being both common in Scotland and Royal, with a number of Kings of Scots bearing the name. The surname was Kemp, the name of the man who designed Edinburgh’s Scott Monument. Overall it was a good combination: it worked.
Finally there was the plot and the voice.
The main plot had been in my head for some time, with the idea of a handfasting relationship. The idea was intriguing and only had to be woven into the story.
The voice was fun. Rather than use the conventional approach of ‘Alison said’ and ‘Alison did’ I used a picture frame from the future, as an elderly lady looked back at her own life. That approach gave me the freedom to comment on the naivety of youth even while pushing impulsive Alison into yet more situations. I can happily admit that more than one of her scenes came from my own life. I will not say which! I will say that the eventual outcome was similar.
And with that I will close.
I hope you come to read Handfasters and if so, I hope you find it as enjoyable romp to read as I found it to write.
Happy reading!
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