The launch event for The Paris Peacemakers will take place in Blackwell’s Edinburgh at 7pm on Wednesday 1 May. Tickets available here.
Paris 1919: they need to rebuild the whole world, but can Stella, Corran and Rob pick up the pieces of their own lives?
Come along for an evening of conversation which promises to range from Thurso to Paris, from out of touch politicians to Scottish rugby players, from the devastated battlefields to the glittering Palace of Versailles.
There’s nothing quite like receiving the first printed copies of my new book!
The Paris Peacemakers will be published by Allison and Busby on 18 April, and is available to preorder now from all the usual places.
Set in 1919 against the backdrop of the Paris Peace Conference, it tells the story of three Scots as they try to rebuild their lives after the trauma of war, as the politicians try to reshape the world they have shattered.
I’m really looking forward to sharing Stella, Corran, Rob and their stories with you!
It’s been an exciting week. I was delighted this week to be able to share that my next novel, The Paris Peacemakers, will be published by Allison and Busby in April 2024, with the sequel following early in 2025.
The Bookseller announcement said:
Lesley Crooks, publishing manager, acquired world English rights from Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown Associates. The Paris Peacemakers will be published in April 2024 with the second book following in early 2025.
“Its backdrop of the Treaty of Versailles, as international politicians attempt to rebuild the world they have shattered, will resonate strongly with our world today,” said Brown. “It also explores the little-remembered fate of the Scottish rugby team, swept up in war fever and mown down in battle.”
Johnston’s novel follows two sisters — Stella and Corran Rutherford — and Corran’s fiancé in the aftermath of the First World War. It was inspired by the Scottish rugby team which was “decimated” during the war and the letters written by Johnston’s great-aunt who worked as a typist at the Paris Peace Conference.
Crooks said: “It was such a pleasure to step into the vivid world Flora created and be introduced to her characters, who you can tell Flora knows inside and out. The Paris Peacemakers was remarkably assured and weaves together three compelling storylines tackling grief and the fragile hope of the post-war period.”
Johnston added: “There are many books about the horrors of war, but I wanted to explore what comes afterwards. How do we pick up the pieces: emotionally, ideologically, politically? It was a particular pleasure to draw on the letters of my great-aunt who, along with many other young women, swapped grubby wartime London for the glamour and intrigue of life a life as a typist at the Paris Peace Conference.”
I look forward to sharing this story with you!
It’s September, it’s officially autumn and the Edinburgh Book Festival is over. August is the month when I appreciate living in Edinburgh most (along with during the Six Nations!)
I’m excited though to share a range of events that I’ll be taking part in over the next few months. First up on 26 September there’s another chance to come along to a Ringwood panel event on Writing, Editing and Publishing. When we held this in Stockbridge Library in June it was a great evening so we’re running it again in Leith Library this time. If you’re having a go at writing or interested in a career in publishing, come along and join in the chat.
On 7 October I’m delighted to be taking part in the inaugural Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival. This exciting venture showcasing women’s writing takes place from 6-7 October and you can explore the full programme here. The organisers have generously chosen to highlight some debut fiction alongside established writers, and I’ll be reading from What You Call Free immediately before the Historical Romance panel with Catherine Hokin and Helen Swan on Saturday morning.
Next up is Book Week Scotland and I’m really excited on Monday 13 November to be sharing in a panel event with some other fabulous Ringwood writers: Rob McInroy, Carol Margaret Davison and L.A. Kristiansen. We’ll be discussing Historical Fiction: forgotten voices. Come along!
And finally (for now) on Monday 20 November I’ll be combining my writing with my day job and speaking to the Davidson’s Mains Monday Club at Davidson’s Mains Parish Church (where I work part time) about What You Call Free. All welcome – I can guarantee these ladies will give you a warm welcome and a good cup of tea!
Full details of locations, dates and times are available on my events page.
It’s been exciting this week to share the news that I’m now represented by Jenny Brown of Jenny Brown Associates, and I’ve been so encouraged by the positive response from the writing community. It’s not surprising though – I’ve been gradually trying to make my way in this world for quite a number of years now, and have always found the writing community here in Scotland and more widely to be a supportive place.
As well as being beyond delighted to have Jenny as my agent, it’s been rather strange this week to have information about my second novel out there in the public domain! I’ve been living in the world of The Paris Peacemakers for the last couple of years, but have so far shared very little about it. The novel was in part inspired by letters written by my great-aunt, who was a typist at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Most of the action takes place in Paris, but I started working on it early in 2020, just before Covid struck. It wasn’t until March 2022 that I was finally able to travel to Paris and see the places that I’d been writing about, and I remember vividly the emotional feeling of walking up out of the Metro Station and right into my novel.
I can’t wait to share it with you.
It was lovely this week to receive some photos of this display in the William Patrick Library in Kirkintilloch. These wonderful pieces of writing were created by participants in the workshop I led in March on using historical sources as inspiration for creative writing. It was amazing to see the variety of writing – poetry, memoir, short story and more – which was created in such a short space of time.
There are so many stories waiting to be told!
I’m really looking forward to leading this workshop in Kirkintilloch on 6 March as part of East Dunbartonshire’s brilliant local history month.
Our archives and museums are treasure troves of stories. Photographs, newspapers, records, objects …. each of these can open a door onto the lives of people of the past. I’ll share a little about how objects and records first drew me to the stories of Jonet and Helen, the 17th-century women who feature in my novel What You Call Free, and then we’ll have a dip into the East Dunbartonshire collections and see where that takes us.
Come along and have a go!
Check out the full Local History month programme here.
‘I am a writer to my core, so if the world decides to reject my writing, what then?’
I recorded a wee piece on surviving rejection in the creative world for Foolproof Creative Arts. Recently they have been running a fascinating series of #FoolproofBites: short nuggets of wisdom and inspiration from people working in all sorts of different creative areas. It’s well worth dipping into the whole series to see what you discover.
You can listen to my musings here or, if you prefer, here’s the transcript:
Hello, I’m Flora Johnston and I’m a writer. My first novel What You Call Free was published in March 2021 by Glasgow based indie publisher Ringwood.
It took me many years of rewrites, disappointment and rejection to get the book published. Rejection is common in the creative world but it can be soul destroying. So much of you goes into this thing you have created, and if people don’t value it, that can be really hard to deal with. So I thought I’d share just a few practical things about how I’ve dealt with rejection. Believe me, I am talking to myself here. It’s not as if the path to my literary dreams has suddenly become smooth. Far from it!
Rejection is part of this creative life, so while we might not be able to embrace it, we can try to make use of it. As artists we can take every experience, the joy and the pain, into our creative process. What better place to express those frustrations and disappointments?
Keep doing what makes your heart sing. I love the line from Chariots of Fire when Eric Liddell says, when I run I feel God’s pleasure. Now, when I run, God’s pleasure is the very last thing I feel, but when I write I know I am where I am meant to be. If that’s the same for you in your area, then whether your work is rejected or not, no-one can ever take away from you the pleasure of actually creating it. Do everything you can to keep that joy alive. Remind yourself why you do this in the first place. That might mean taking a break from the big project and creating something just for the sheer joy of it, for no-one else’s eyes. For me, I know it’s really important that when I’m being worn down by the process of submitting work and refreshing the inbox with dread, that I’m also already working on the next project, even loosely, to keep being creative.
This next point is probably the one I find hardest, and it’s about identity. I think one of the reasons rejection of our creative work is so hard is that it is so closely bound up with who we are. I am a writer to my core, so if the world decides to reject my writing, where does that leave me? That’s when it’s really important to consciously hold onto other parts of my identity. I am more than my creative work, you are more than your creative work. If you have relationships you value, if you are a person of faith, if you have a special place you like to go or other activities you can lose yourself in, hold onto all of these on the wobbly days when you feel as if the thing you want may never happen.
Finally, find someone you can share this with. Your friends and family might care, but they’re unlikely to fully understand. I went on a writing retreat and made some friends there who really get it, who are going through the same sort of stuff, who can encourage me and spur me on. There are lots of opportunities online and in person to connect with others who are working in the same area as you. Seek them out – and good luck!
It’s now a year and a half since my debut novel What You Call Free was published. For most of the time since then I’ve been working on the next novel and I’ve been immersed in 1919: the bright lights of Paris and the depths of Scapa Flow; ghost-filled rugby changing rooms and post-WW1 hospitals where despair meets hope.
I’ve been making early forays into the research for book three too. How did those 1920s aeroplanes ever stay up?
That’s right, they often didn’t.
But the 17th century is calling to me! Between September and January I’m fortunate enough to have a series of opportunities to speak about What You Call Free. As I prepare for these, I remember just how invested I am in the lives of these two real women, Jonet Gothskirk and Helen Alexander.
It’s good to be back.
What You Call Free is available to purchase in paperback and ebook direct from Ringwood Publishing and from your usual book retailer.
For details of forthcoming events see events page.
Are you planning a literary event? Would you like to invite an author to run a workshop or a panel of writers to take part in your library / community / school event?
Live Literature is a Scotland-wide programme run by the Scottish Book Trust. It brings reading and writing to the heart of Scotland’s communities by funding author events including live visits, online workshops and other remote sessions.
I’m delighted to be included in the Live Literature directory and you can see my listing here, with an idea of the kind of events I can offer.
Flora Johnston 