15th July 2009 Gwen

Gwen Kirkwood 15^th July 2009

This is my first attempt at a blog. You will see more about me and my books on my web site. Briefly I was born on a Yorkshire farm and went to school there but I have lived most of my life in Scotland and my novels usually have a rural Scottish setting. I often write a series of three or four novels following the same family. I enjoy weaving the stories through changing times and generations with subplots and minor characters which may become the main characters of a following novel. There may be sad or scary events but there is always an element of love and romance ending with optimism and hopefully encouraging the reader to await the sequel.

Dreams of Home is my latest novel about a young man who was forced to fight in the war but who dreams of returning to farm Willowburn, with his parents and half brother. In 1944 he is dismayed to find he is no longer welcome there. Megan Oliphant was a schoolgirl when he went away and she has written to him faithfully. He is surprised to finds she is now a lovely young woman with a bright future of her own and admirers who can offer her far more than he could. He begins the struggle to start farming on a government smallholding but the future seems bleak. He considers giving up his dream but a crisis almost tears their world apart.