Raymond Moore Talks About His Latest Book in the Skye Stories Trilogy

Raymond Moore is a Registered Nurse, living and working in Saudi Arabia with his wife and three children. He also has a house and farm in Thailand. As well as being a writer, Raymond has been a record label owner, band manager, and singer with a band. Born and brought up in Glasgow, he left his parents and moved to the Isle of Skye as a youngster, and his life changed forever.

Raymond, thank you for talking with us. Kindly let me know when did you start writing?

Although I had wanted to write for years life and laziness had prevented me from doing so. Working in Saudi Arabia I had joined a couple of Isle of Skye Facebook Groups and as I had no photographs to submit I began submitting stories of my life there in post-length bites including poetry. These seemed to be popular and when I was in quarantine last year post COVID19 infection I decided to put pen to paper, actually finger to keyboard!

I know that your second book in the Skye Trilogy is just out. Before we talk more about the second book, give us a little bit more info on how and when did you come up with the idea of the Skye series.

Skye is a very beautiful island and very popular with tourists all over the world. I always thought my story was interesting and if done right it could be entertaining. Having left my family home in Glasgow at age thirteen and going to live on an island with my great Aunt and great Grandmother was quite a change from city life and I thought locals and lovers of the island might like to read about my experiences.

Your near and dear ones are the best critics. Even though the first book, The Linciro years was well received, did you receive suggestions from your closest friends once the book was released?

My friend Les who lives in Berlin was the inspiration for doing a book. He was working on a novel and send me chapters to review. I would let him read my work too and he gave me the encouragement to find a publisher. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic my wife, who is Thai, and kids, who had been with me here in Saudi, have been living in our house in Thailand since last year. I’ve been unable to visit them so I have been on my own, apart from work. I was very lucky to find a great editor, Steve Lane who encouraged me and guided me through the whole book writing process.

Tell us more about the second book in the series i.e. The Road to Uig,

Originally I had envisioned it being one book but the publishers thought it worked better as two. Without giving too much away my life took another unusual turn and shifted location to Uig.

What kind of feedback have you received around this book?

It has only recently been published and the response I’ve had so far has been very positive. I had quite a lot of poems that were written about life in Uig and it was there that I met my first love. So far I’m happy with how it’s doing. You can have the book here.

In your view, do you feel that there will be a point where the fiction writers will be out of ideas, or are you someone who believes that there is no end to a writer’s imagination?

With regards to being out of ideas when I finished Volume 2 I felt that I needed to write a third Volume to let people know ‘what happened next?’ Having finished that I found that I had got so used to writing daily that I couldn’t stop. This led me to writing my first work of fiction called Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and Nursing. Set in Edinburgh in the 1980s it follows the life and love of a Student Nurse! My final draft has been submitted to the publishers and I await the editing process.

To keep me out of mischief I have begun working on a ghost story set on Skye called Castledawn. I’m hoping I can finish it before the end of the year. With the help of my phone, I write a lot of poems about Glasgow and Edinburgh and share them on a number of Facebook group pages and they’re quite popular.

Given how well the first part was received, can you let us know when the third book in the series is expected to come out?

Skye Stories Volume 1: The Linicro Years and Skye Stories Volume 2: The Road to Uig are available now in bookshops and online. Skye Stories Volume 3: Not the Skye Years is out in October.