Happy New Year! During the last few of weeks of 2017 I had so many plans for 2018. I had a more frequent blog schedule worked out, a local bar has a poetry night once a month I thought about going to and maybe even reading at it, I was going to the cinema at least...
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Going Home
We moved from our seaside cottage in Machrihanish to a flat on the fringes of Glasgow’s west end just two weeks before Christmas. It’s been a fraught couple of weeks. We still have boxes everywhere, at least 1/3 of our pictures have still to be hung and I have no idea...
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Judging a book
I love to read and I also enjoy reviewing what I read. I've been an active Netgalley user for several years and have discovered many wonderful new authors. I've also tried to read a lot of trash, but they always seemed a good idea at the time. Recently, there has been...
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Moving on. Again.
We moved to our little seaside cottage three years ago. I love it here in Machrihanish. At night I can lie in bed and listen to the waves crash on the shore, a two minute walk fro the house. We are blessed with a rich variety of wildlife on our doorstep. So why do we...
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RAWRR!
In the 1970s I remember watching game shows where the (always) male host would ask female contestants what their husbands did for a living. You know, the half of the marriage who wasn't on the TV trying to win £50 and a radio. Last night on the BBC TV news, the highly...
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Flashes of Creativity
Last night I spoke to my husband about my recent burst of creativity. I suggested that now I've lost the physical ability to create life, my need to create has found new outlets. I mentioned this to my lovely, creative friend Mairi and she said that she, too, had...
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I’m Still Here
2016 has been a dreadful year for many of us. It seems that everyone has lost an idol: so many stars of the entertainment world have left us with naught but their ghosts on screen and whispered songs on our radios. Many of us have lost someone in real life. Several of...
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A Christmas Ghost Story
‘Know whit’s traditional at Christmas?’ he said. ‘Ghost stories. Everybiddy loves a Ghost story’ I swirled the beer at the bottom of my glass and smiled. ‘Load a shite, in’t it?’ ‘Naw, naw. Look at Dickens and A Christmas Carol. Classic ghost story that.’ I raised an...
read moreWe need to talk about Collin*
I was recently talking to a friend about depression – we have both suffered with it off and on and they are one of the first people I go to when I'm 'having a sad'. Talking to them made me think about my own history. I have always tried to be open about my mental...
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No Looking Back
I’ve been doing some research recently for a novel I’m beginning. It’s a crime fiction set in Glasgow and I’ve been using Google Maps to investigate the streets where the story takes place. I had two possible locations in mind: the Southside, where I lived last in...
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A rose by any other name…
When it comes to ideas of what to write about, I am never short of ideas. One of my main problems is choosing one from among the many ideas flashing around my brain at any given moment. I can usually get a quick grasp on the most important elements of my characters; I...
read moreI like books.
Why do I have so many books? No, seriously, I want to know. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought recently and I have to say I’m not exactly sure. Not only do I have shelf after shelf of books, most of them are unread. I gave up buying fiction in a physical format...
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My Top 5 Scary Movies
Last week I blogged about my top five favourite scary books. This week it’s the turn of the silver screen. I love a good horror movie. There’s nothing to beat going to the cinema and sharing a “jump” with the audience, inevitably followed by a wave of nervous...
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My Top 5 Horror Books
Do you like to be scared? Not the oh-my-gawd-there’s-a-madman-with-an-axe-chasing-me-down-the-corridor type of scared, but the ‘safe’ scare of a good horror film or book, the type of scare where the monster stays safely inside the cinema or the pages of your book? I...
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