Would You Live in a Castle?:

 RHYS BOWEN: My new baby book, THE CASTLE IN THE GLEN,  is now two days old. I’ve had some lovely feedback already including a review that says “Rhys Bowen knocks it out of the park again.” Not bad, huh?

This story centers around a castle on a lake shore on the island of Skye off the West Coast of Scotland.  A young writer is sent there when she agrees to complete the final novel of a very famous writer, now suffering from dementia. But is the fictitious murder really fiction? The more she digs into the story, the more she finds real clues and a family who might do anything to keep her from finding out more.

Atmospheric. Suspenseful. Romantic. These are three adjectives that have described the book by those who have read it.

So the story is about a family who has lived in a grim castle on a remote shore for many generations. This made me think: who would want to live in a place like this? Would the dark, oppressive atmosphere of such a building not shape your outlook on life? 

It's based on a real castle, or actually several real castles that families in Scotland still live in: They are grim and cold and dark and gloomy. this makes me wonder who would want to live there?

On social media I sometimes see some pictures of various houses and am asked which one I would choose (and thus reveal my true personality).  A cottage, a mansion, a lakeshore cabin, a mountain retreat, or a modern home on the sea shore. I find it hard to decide: I love being at the coast, watching the waves and smelling the salt air, but I also sense that coastside living is dangerous with climate change (ever practical as usual). I love the mountains but would I want to find myself snowed in? Avalanches? Lakeside cabin? Again beautiful setting but remote… what about bears and if I needed to get to a hospital emergency room? You see, my true personality is being revealed. Practical. Sensible. So I’d probably choose the cottage because the mansion would be too much to clean and heat. And the cottage would be in an English village which would suit me just fine.

To tell the truth I woud happiy live in my sister-in-law's manor house in Cornwall. Or in any cottage in Cornwall for that matter!

What about you, Reds. Which would you choose? And would you ever live in a real castle like the one on the island of Skye?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Absolutely no on the castle, Rhys. Ditto mansions. It may be fun to watch those restoration shows where people do up crumbling villas, but I've never had any desire to do that in real life. I am cottage all the way. In an English village, of course, so maybe we could go in together and do a time share!

But I have also always been fascinated by tiny living spaces. I have no idea why, as I live in a fairly big rambling house. My latest obsession is the Kris Atomic YouTube channel, where a couple give up their London life to live on a 70 foot narrowboat. I would do that, in an alternate universe.

RHYS: I'm obsessed with tiny houses. I'd like to see if I could live in one.

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ll do the cottage too, but not as a timeshare–I want to be in the village at the same time as you guys! Debs, when Hayley Snow and her hub were renovating a little houseboat, I had the most fun searching around online, including Pinterest, to find exactly the right features. The litter box was always going to be a problem…

Rhys, the new book is wonderful, but you sure did make that castle sound grim. And ditto for the little writer’s cottage! It was lovely to visit Skye and I am always in awe of your plot twists!

DEBS: Okay, we’ll just buy the whole village!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I have dreams,  and I can describe them completely, about living in a very very modern glass-walled house in the mountains on a lake. (Hey, it’s a dream, and that’s how it is.) I’m not sure what that means, but the house is amazing, so gorgeous, and I could draw every bit of it. Where did it come from? No idea, I have never been anywhere like that. So–talk  about a dream house, there it literally is!

Living on a houseboat or narrowboat? Or in a tiny house?  Yikes, no. Living in the Jungle Red village? In a heartbeat. What would we call it? Redlands?

HALLIE EPHRON: No castles for me, either. I’d be thinking about the house in the Sherlock Holmes story, The Speckled Band. Or more specifically, the snake’s head that descends from its fake bell-pull by the bed. Not a glass-walled house, either, thank you very much. 

But I love taking a “trip” to Rhys’s castle and letting my imagination run wild, just not a sleepover. Writers have fertile imaginations.

JENN McKINLAY: I’ll take the castle! When I traveled in Ireland, we stayed in Ballyseede Castle near Tralee and I loved, loved, loved it. Castle life is definitely for me – so long as it’s fully staffed and I don’t have to pay the bills. Otherwise, move me into a cottage in Redlands forthwith!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ll take the castle as well, Jenn, or an English Country House, and since we’re dreaming, I’m imagining I have SO much money I can pay for all the heating, upkeep, and a small staff consisting of a butler, housekeeper, cook, laundress, gardener, two garden assistants, two maids. I’m not fancy, I don’t need footmen or a chauffeur. 

I feel I’ve read about a group of either friends or relations who bought up a bunch of wonderful old houses in a French village and brought them back to life. Maybe that could be our JRW settlement! Terre Rouge if it’s in France, and if in England or Scotland, Redstow, because -stow (I looked this up!) means a gathering place in Old English!

RHYS: Leave it to Julia to come up with the perfect solution... of course we need staff to take care of the big house. But the idea of a Reds commune sounds so appealing to me. Restow, in the Cotswolds, right?

Or maybe Chateau Rouge and we'll take a floor or a wing each?

It's lovely to dream, isn't it?

But what about you, dear Reddies? What is your dream home? Are you living in it?  I have to say that I'd find it hard to beat my view right now...

Oh, and a request... If you read my new book and enjoy it, please do leave a review on Amazon or Audible. Reviews matter so much . And do let me know too. I love hearing from all of you.