Works in progress
Entitled The Bee Dancer, Sharon's new novel will be published in October 2010 by Two Ravens Press (click here for details):
‘I have strange dreams. Last night I dreamed I was in bed with a god…’
Psyche is a solitary child. Isolated – both by her exceptional beauty and her lack of interest in academic pursuits – from the hothouse of Oxford intellectualism that her family inhabits, she escapes into daydreams of love. Lost in a fantasy world peopled with fairytale princes, Rochesters and Heathcliffs, she is pitifully ill-equipped for the real thing. And her stepsister Ann stole the only boy Psyche ever really loved. So, when Psyche returns to Oxford after a failed marriage and a suicide attempt, and meets Ann’s charismatic American husband Sam, the scene is set for tragedy.
Years later, during a long hot summer on the west coast of Scotland, the close relationship of Psyche’s teenage daughter and stepdaughter is fractured by their fight over Jonnie Mackenzie. Psyche – haunted still by guilt – fears that history will repeat itself. And so she creates for her daughter Joy an imaginary movie of the story of her life. Fragmented yet atmospheric, the movie contains all the secrets that Psyche has kept over the years – including the secret of who Joy’s father really is… Populated with a range of fascinating and semi-mythical characters – Diana, who dances with bees; Tom, the blind beekeeper next door; Aphra, the therapist; the mysterious Eleutherios (a nickname for Eros, the god of love) who has been sending Psyche emails for years – The Bee Dancer is a novel about one woman’s quest for love and identity. It is also a novel about fictions – and especially, the fictions we tell ourselves about love.
The Bee Dancer is being written with the assistance of a Writer's Bursary from the Scottish Arts Council.
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Sharon is also working on a full-length nonfiction book about life on a north-west Highland croft, and what it is to live in a wild place.