Congratulations to Literary Community member Louise McIvor on her publication in The People’s Friend Magazine!

We’re delighted that the first instalment of Louise’s new historical serial, Escape from The Dark Ruins, has been published in this week’s The People’s Friend magazine (24^th October, 2026). Set in the 1850s, Dark Ruins will run for seven weeks and this is Louise’s fifth serial for the magazine.

Louise is a long-term member of our Literary Community and we are so thrilled to see this successful publication of her work. Do go out and grab a copy whilst it’s still in the shops..

Louise writes:

‘I love writing historical fiction and am grateful for the encouragement of Jacqui, Jacqueline and my fellow members of The Writing Coach Literary Community.‘

Louise is a writer and teacher of creative writing in the Open Learning Dept. of Queen’s University, Belfast. She worked for many years as a sub-editor at The News Letter, a daily newspaper in Northern Ireland.

She has been writing fiction since 2009. Her short stories have been published in a variety of publications including in the arts magazine Verbal and regularly in The People’s Friend.

You can find out more about Louise and her work on our ‘Success Stories’ page here.