Fire and Ice is honored to be today’s stop on the official Lulu Blog Tour featuring a guest post from author Hilary McKay and a fun giveaway. First, read what Hilary has to say about her Memories of the Beach…
“Or rather, memories of the coast. I am not keen on beaches when it means those sandy banks covered in towels and temporary volley ball pitches and parasols and windbreaks and humans. I like beaches without any people (well, I can put up with a few quiet ones reading books or drawing the seagulls. I suppose).
However, although I am not fond of traditional sandy beaches, I do love to be on the coast. Until my last move, which brought me to my current high and dry position in the centre of England, I always lived near the sea. My first coast was salt marshes, where my friends and I swam in creeks and made driftwood fires and watched the seabirds fly in at evening against an apricot and lemon sky. The skies are huge beside a salt marsh at night, and lit with stars you do not see inland. I remember the bright sweep of the milky way and someone, flat on his back remarking, “I see Jupiter and four moons.”
Next I went to Scotland, to St Andrews, an ancient and sea bound city. I was at university there, and the sea was part of our life. We battled against North Sea winds to lectures, walked the medieval pier to make wishes at the end, and waited by the castle walls to hear the eider duck gossiping in the dark. It was hard to leave that cold and salty place when the time came to go. I still have the box of sand I collected there before I left. Under a magnifying glass you can see that it is entirely made of fragments of shell.
The next coast I found was in the west. It was a shingle beach. We used to live so close that at high tide at night you could hear the shingle grinding as you lay in bed. That was an eerie and wonderful sound. On stormy days cloud puffs of sea foam blew down the village street. You would see them scuttering past the front door and know that the sea must be boiling.
One of the things best things about being on the coast is the edge feeling of only three directions you can go without getting wet. I didn’t realise how much I liked this feeling until I moved inland and suddenly found myself with four directions. Very disconcerting. I manage by more or less ignoring East but I have to admit it isn’t the same.
Writing is a way of remembering. Now that I am inland and missing my lovely edges, I send my characters to the places I cannot go. Then, for the time that I am writing, I am back there again. It’s one of the perks of the job!”
About the Author: Hilary McKay was born in Boston, Lincolnshire and is the eldest of four girls. From a very early age she read voraciously and grew up in a household of readers. Hilary says of herself as a child “I anaesthetised myself against the big bad world with large doses of literature. The local library was as familiar to me as my own home.”
After reading Botany and Zoology at St. Andrew’s University Hilary then went on to work as a biochemist in an Analysis Department. Hilary enjoyed the work but at the same time had a burning desire to write. After the birth of her two children, Hilary wanted to devote more time to bringing up her children and writing so decided to leave her job.
One of the best things about being a writer, says Hilary, is receiving letters from children. She wishes that she had written to authors as a child, but it never occurred to her to contact them
Hilary now lives in a small village in Derbyshire with her family. When not writing Hilary loves walking, reading, and having friends to stay.
Learn more about the book at Hilary’s website/ Albert Whitman/ the ebook at Open Road
Stop by Book Aunt tomorrow: Thursday, April 04, 2013 and be sure to visit all the stops on the tour for more chances to win!
Also check out book 3 which will be available Fall 2013, and stop by here to learn more about Lulu and the Duck in the Park which is nominated for a Kiddo Award.
Thank you so much to Albert Whitman and Hilary McKay for choosing us as a stop!
As part of the blog tour, they have offered one copy of Lulu and the Dog From the Sea for a giveaway. Must be 13 or older and have a US or Canada mailing address. Winners will be chosen at random and prizes shipped by the publisher.
Fill out the rafflecopter form below to enter!
Good Luck.
