A DEBUT novelist from Uplawmoor was invited to speak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Lindsay Littleson, 55, explained the inspirations behind her Kelpies Prize-winning text 'The Mixed-Up Summer of Lily McLean' to a receptive audience on August 14.

The invitation represented a significant milestone for the Kilbarchan Primary teacher who only began writing the book two years ago.

Set in both Largs and Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae, the novel tells the laugh-out-loud story of Lily and her efforts to cope with a dysfunctional family all while being haunted by a very persistent ghost.

Lindsay, who appeared alongside 'A Library of Lemons' writer Jo Cotterill at the Writers' Retreat, decided to take the leap and pursue her childhood dream of becoming a published author.

And she is extremely grateful to the festival's organisers who have offered her such a prestigious platform to discuss her work.

"It's an absolute honour," she said.

"I'm really thrilled, especially with it being my debut novel. It's something I always wanted to do as a child.

"I decided if I didn't do it now, I was never going to do it. Millport is one of my favourite places in the world and I loved writing a novel with such a familiar but magical setting.

"I went there every year on holiday. My parents always took me, that was where they first met. My dad's family had holiday houses there and my great uncle was the doctor.

"It's a ghost story set in a magical place and it's funny as well. It's about a little girl who has had a really hard time and she's trying to make herself happy; she's using different strategies to help her."

Lindsay now juggles her professional job as a teacher of a composite class made up of five and six-year-olds with her writing "hobby".

It is a task she relishes, as is evidenced by the fact she is currently working on a sequel entitled 'The Awkward Autumn of Lily McLean'.

Lindsay, who lives on the village's Neilston Road, insists the most challenging aspect of producing her first novel was thinking up something worth writing about.

She said: "I still teach full-time, the writing's a hobby. The hardest part is getting the ideas, once you've got your ideas it's straight forward enough.

"Writing the first draft took six weeks, editing took six months. Actually getting it down on paper was the quick bit.

"We're working on the line edit at the moment (for her second book) so by October it should be finished and going to print in December."

Copies of Lindsay's first novel can be ordered online from Amazon by searching 'The Mixed-Up Summer of Lily McLean'.