Cook Your Own Stories
Literary Diet, the final dayTomorrow it won't be January any more, which feels rather abrupt. But there are still a few hours left of the month in which The Guardian…
Book Week Scotland 2020
Book Week Scotland 2020 is upon us like the softest of eiderdowns, fashioned from a patchwork of fabric cut from the frocks in a dress-up chest. This year's theme is…
Enchanted Lands
What is an enchanted land? Does it have to be outside, like a forest or a wild-flower meadow, or can it be inside, like a kitchen in which a pie…
The Short Story: Opening Lines: A Perfect Day for Bananafish
‘There were ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost…
An Apology, of Sorts
I've put the following message on my Home page, but thought it worth putting in a blog post too, mostly because I don't suppose many people look at my Home…
Literature Ambassador: Writer Opps: Tom-Gallon Award
If you've been writing short-stories for long enough to have at least one published, you'll have discovered there's very little money for those of us who favour the genre. So…
Valtos Rocks
Research & Motivation (or is it the other way round?)
I'm currently writing a novel about a shit-storm that ensues when a small Scottish community decides to buy the island it inhabits from the wealthy, always absent and appallingly neglectful,…