I chose to set this novella within the landscape of the Cornish moor, my home. The perfect backdrop to illuminate emotional truths.
Years of witnessing loss and kindness, coercion and compassion, injustice and generosity, left me with one persistent question: how can such opposites exist side by side? Why do we so often believe darkness is more powerful than light? Have we mistaken greatness for spectacle, overlooking the quiet beauty of ordinary lives?
Unable to find language big enough for these contradictions I turned to story. Tea Stains and Light Trails began to emerge.
This is a story of fragmented relationships, first love, a warm millstone and a terrifying school play. Three generations are set to steal their wonderfully ordinary selves back onto centre stage, for all the world to see.
The novel explores lives marked by loss, intimidation and injustice. It is an invitation to rediscover awe in the ordinary, to question the pursuit of status and validation, and to wonder if it is sacred companionship, not achievement that allows us to become fully human.
Flo is offered an alluring remedy for the invisibleness she feels, and a new chapter in her life begins. But other stories are unfolding in the wings. Hidden players, drifters and dwellers, draw near, and a great rescue begins. Flo finds herself on a quest to recover lost sounds and invisible places.
