Today we shine the spotlight on Elin Heron, whose story John Truslove appeared in issue 11 of Lucent Dreaming, and whose book Jude is forthcoming with Lucent Dreaming.
So, what inspired your piece ‘JOHN TRUSLOVE’? Can you tell us a little more about what it’s about?
There is so much I could tell you about this story because it is filled with things that have fascinated me for years. Corpse paths, churches, fields, trees, horses, death, …all of them are topics I return to in much of my writing. But John Truslove was a real person whose grave was discovered by Callum James, a poet and magician I am close to. John was very young when he died in the 19thcentury and it led us to speculate and research, what happened to him. I write a lot about memory, ancestors and death as well as the spirit of place, so wanted to make sure that John’s story was firmly planted in his landscape. I used Ordnance Survey maps of the area as well as google earth images to understand exactly where John lived, and the farm names – Manor, Gate, Green and Leam – are real. So too is the elm tree mentioned in the story which, unusually, is marked on the map. Writing for me is a spiritual and magical occupation and it can take me quite a long time to settle on the right person to write about, but it was immediately clear that John was a willing participant in the creation of this story. It felt right to have the title be his name.
What are some of your favourite books and art (including shows, videos, music) – of all time or more recently. Why are they favourites?
My favourite author is Alan Garner whose writing is so completely connected to the place he lives and imbued with the type of magic which I am constantly searching for. I researched his writing for my MA in Creative Writing and found the immersive process of reading almost all his published works to be an intense experience that has permanently changed the way I write and how I think.
As a child I read lots of wonderful fantasy including Jenny Nimmo’s the Snow Spider which really plucked the Welsh strings in my imagination and which, along with Joan Aiken, C.S. Lewis, the Alice books, Pat O’Shea’s the Hounds of the Morrigan and much more really made me feel like there was another world to investigate.
In my teens I took a lot of inspiration from Manic Street Preachers who pointed me in the direction of R.S Thomas, Dylan Thomas, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Kesey, Camus, Orwell, Plath, Primo Levi and more. At university I read Welsh literature and am always inspired by the Mabinogion and Welsh poetry from across the centuries. I particularly love David Jones and recently had a bit of a spiritual experience looking at his art in Cardiff Museum. But to be honest, when looking for things to read these days I’m really hunting for that magical element which shows the author is themselves somehow plugged into the ‘other’ place. I’m constantly searching for ‘real’ – a bit of a nebulous concept that means the author knows their story and the characters in it as something more than just a product of their own imagination. It’s something I recognise when I spot it and a concept which I’m hoping to explore a bit more in further study, hopefully in a PhD in Creative Writing.
I have worked in music in one capacity or another for over twenty years now and love so many different types, genres, artists and composers. I variously enjoy funk and soul, 20thcentury English composers including Butterworth and Britten, choral music, Americana and alt country, folk, Hymns Ancient & Modern, the Manics and, of course, Boney M. I love theatre in all forms and try to go a couple of times a year if I can. My husband is also a musician and an artist so there is never any shortage of interesting things to enjoy.
Creatively or otherwise, is there something you’re looking forward to right now and are there any writing/creative projects you’re currently working on?
I am thrilled that Lucent Dreaming are publishing my debut novel for teenagers, Jude, in September and am looking forward to sharing the book with readers and learning how to talk about my stories. It’s a magical story about a missing girl and two boys, Nick and Jude, who encounter the malevolent spirit of the wood in trying to find out what happened to her.
Currently I am working on a new novel project which involves an angry young Welsh man called Aled who has been haunting my subconscious for about twenty years. It has a mysterious death on a train line, spiritual healers in Wales, an odd child and the Mabinogion.
I would love to convince myself to write some more poetry too. During my creative writing masters, I produced quite a bit and was really pleased with how it turned out.
How did you get into creative writing? Is there anyone whose support or encouragement really inspired or motivated you?
I knew I wanted to write when I was eighteen and moved to Wales to study. I had written a lot before that, keeping diaries from a very early age and I was prolific pen friend to people all over the UK and in Europe for many years. I don’t know exactly what it was, but something just shifted and made me know that it was a path I had to follow. I spent hours and hours writing mainly in cafes or libraries, trying poetry, lyrics and drama. I was an early participant in NaNoWriMo and I took creative writing courses as part of my Welsh degree, getting some lovely help from really wonderful teachers at the university and poets from across Wales. But it took a long time for me to really understand what made me tick and it has, at times, been a very hard road. Callum James, the poet and bookseller who I mentioned above, is a constant help and source of support. He has very high quality control standards and I find myself constantly seeking his approval. I know his responses very well these days, so if his reaction is mediocre, I usually take it back and have another think! There have been others along the road as well though and I really hope they know who they are.
Sometimes writing, particularly in the way I try to do it, can look and feel a lot like madness and so I’m glad I’ve had people to be, what the ever-incredible Julia Cameron calls, a ‘believing mirror’. Julia’s work – the Artist’s Way, the Right to Write and lots of her other books, have been endlessly useful for me especially when trying to balance difficult mental health situations with being a creative person. I was delighted to be able to listen to her in conversation online with the London Writers’ Salon and be reminded of how to ‘do’ writing again. I also love Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones which completely changed the way I wrote in my late teens and early twenties.
Where can people see more of you and your work?
I have a website atwww.elinheron.co.ukand am on Twitter @ElinHeron. My short story ‘Burnwater’, about a blacksmith, is online for people to read for free athttps://www.litromagazine.com/editors-pick/burnwater/I’m always happy to hear from other writers, especially if they want a bit of friendly encouragement. JUDE will be published in September 2024 by Lucent Dreaming so please do pick up a copy!
