The Written World
Last week I was working on 'The Written World'. This is a project run jointly by the Abriachan Forest Trust and Moniack Mhor writers' centre, which lie two miles apart on a hilltop above Loch Ness....
View ArticleInto the Deep
I'm very delighted to have a new story published in issue 46 of 'Mslexia', just out. The theme this time was 'Into the Deep' and the selector was Christina Patterson - a writer and columnist at The...
View ArticleMailboat
I'm participating in a one of Pat Law's intriguing projects. 'Mailboat' is about communication by wind and current. It has an uncertain timescale and is named after the message-bearing bottles cast...
View Articlemessage in a bottle
My bottle has now been cast adrift in the Minch, with six others. Read more on Pat Law's website here.
View Article'The Searching Glance' number 10 in Salt's 'hit parade'!
I can't quite believe this but it says on Salt's website....Top 10 BestsellersJohn Siddique, RecitalRichard Marggraf Turley, Wan-Hu’s Flying ChairJasmine Donahaye, Self-Portrait as RuthElizabeth...
View ArticleA new school project
I start a new project tomorrow in Inveralmond Community High School, Livingstone. Working with writer Mary Paulson-Ellis and teacher, Michael Stephenson, we'll be helping a third year group to develop...
View ArticleBig Tree Country Awards
September Sun crackled on Gleneagles' greens last Sunday. Pipes played on the lawn. Golfers wore dark glasses and smiles.And in the Barony Room, contenders for Big Tree Country awards arrived for tea...
View ArticleInveralmond International Book Festival
I was very honoured today to read and be interviewed at the inaugural 'Inveralmond International Book Festival'. It was put on at Inveralmond Community High School by a third year class who writer,...
View ArticleThe flow of ink
Hurrah! It's back, according to this article in the Telegraph - 'the timelessly simple delight of handwriting: of pen in hand, ink on paper and skin on surface as thoughts and images transfer from the...
View ArticleLove, water, and the world of literature
Last year a small group of us who are members of Scottish PEN -- and therefore either writers, or professionally engaged with literature -- set up a new online magazine. For each issue (now two a year)...
View ArticleCreative Non-Fiction
The Scottish Writers' Centre recently asked me to run a workshop on creative non-fiction writing (CNF). It was an interesting thing to do as I consider myself quite new to the genre and still...
View ArticleLast Living Writer at Brownsbank Cottage?
There's a lovely piece on Radio Scotland's 'Book Cafe' today (and an audio slideshow on the website) featuring James Robertson re-visiting Brownsbank Cottage near Biggar, last home to poet Hugh...
View ArticleLibraries - oldest and newest
I've written before about Scotland's oldest public lending library at Innerpeffray in Perthshire, but it's timely to mention it again for several reasons. Firstly, it reopened to the public last week...
View ArticleBeing naked: New literary journal
An essay of mine about walking barefoot through a Kenyan village with activist and writer, Philo Ikonya is featured in Algebra, Tramway’s exciting new digital literary journal. Walked in 2009 as part...
View ArticleWriting Huts and Houses
I've been lucky enough to spend two consecutive weeks recently in houses dedicated to words and writing: Tŷ Newydd in Wales and Moniack Mhor in the Scottish Highlands. Each is distinct in feel,...
View ArticleThe Horizon Pool on Radio Four
Britain's' most northerly 'Lido', the sea-water Trinkie pool near Wick, established in a fit of healthiness in the 1930s, is the setting for my story 'The Horizon Pool', read on BBC Radio Four's...
View Articlebad news for the short story
I was all in a warm glow about the short story's radiance on the radio after having one of my stories broadcast in June (see my last post), and not least because it was chosen for Pick of the Week. So,...
View ArticleFestival Season
Two weeks and two festivals. The first was the Biggar Little Festival where I returned to Brownsbank Cottage, last home to Christopher Grieve (poet Hugh MacDiarmid) and his wife Valda Trevlyn. I was...
View ArticleTurning litter into literature?
I've always been intrigued by the fragments of stories that you come across as scribbles on paper - a shopping list for a party; an unfinished love letter; a message passed surreptitiously from hand to...
View ArticleTreasures in Sixty Two Words
Saturday 3rd December sees the launch of '26Treasures', another quirky partnership project from the 26 Writers' collective, this time with the National Museum of Scotland. (see last post for another 26...
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