Greetings from Scotland where I’m finishing THE LATECOMERS in a 15th century castle–there isn’t any place more conducive to finishing a novel set in yesteryear. I’m here with four other writers who, like me, were lucky to land a Hawthornden Fellowship which provides four blissful weeks secluded in Hawthornden Castle outside Edinburgh where meals are delicacies prepared by a Highland cook, lunches are brought to your door in a wicker basket, silence prevails from 9:30am to 6:30pm and the ghosts of Sir Walter Scott, Ben Jonson and Queen Victoria hover in limestone walls, checking up on your word count.
