Legs, home

So, the last two weekends with the Scotland Writers team were pretty amazing. Gothenburg and Vienna, two lovely but contrasting cities – tidy, calm, designed vs sprawling and historically stratified. Our hosts for both trips were hugely friendly, the hospitality excellent – whether it be the astonishing seafood platter in the Dubliner pub in Gothenburg […]

Away games

Nearly a year ago, I had a conversation in a hotel bar in Toronto with Graham Joyce about his experiences playing in goal for the England Writers international football team, a collection of novelists, poets, playwrights and publishing types who play matches against teams from other countries. Brilliant fun, he said. On the back his mention […]

Free Bones

Coming to the end of the BFA reading now (literally, a couple of books and a comic to finish and I’m done), and the writing projects are forming a disorderly queue clamouring like kids to be first into the tuck shop. (And how old exactly is that simile? You see what happens when you don’t […]

Fringe activities #3

Well, that’s the last weekend of the 2013 Fringe been and gone. Had a great one, with two excellent de Saw / Finkle shows on Saturday night, played to brilliant audiences (even the one that seemed to think we were a comedy act), and two beautifully experimental stints as a member of the Creative Martyrs’ […]

Fringe activities #2

So, once again, catching up with the Fringe. Feel like I’ve been skimming it this year. Been through a few times, seen a few things, but not loads. All of what I have seen though has been quality. Last week I was fortunate enough to catch up with Sarah Louise Young and Michael Roulston’s Songs […]

The truth about me and astrology

As part of the pre-publicity for their Astrologica anthology, The Alchemy Press are running a series of interviews with the contributors. When it came to asking about my star sign, I’m afraid I couldn’t lie. It’s not that I think astrology is nonsense…no wait, if I’m being honest, it’s exactly that. It’s one of those […]

Infinity Plus Plus

News from Keith Brooke that Infinity Plus Books have revamped their website. It’s all sexy and easy to browse now, and displays a really impressive roster of authors and books. If you’re a Brooke fan or a fan of Eric Brown, IP is pretty much the go-to-place for their work. Likewise, as a long time admirer […]

The Moon King : Cover

Half a year has gone since I got the news that NewCon Press wanted to publish The Moon King. Gone. Like that *snaps fingers*. Half a year left to go before we launch it at Eastercon in Glasgow. But for those that can’t wait a mere click of the fingers (or six months, whichever is […]

Fringe activities

Wow, the Edinburgh Fringe came round all suddenly this year. Before now I would normally have posted about what de Saw and Finkle are up and what I thought was worth seeing if you happen to be at a loose end and looking for things to amuse you. But suddenly we’re a week into the […]

Sour, sweet

I think I’m okay in announcing that I’ve sold a new story to Chris Kelso and Hal Duncan’s Caledonia Dreamin’ anthology of ‘stories of Scottish descent’. The premise of the anthology is to showcase some of the incredible words available in the lexicon of the Scots language, re-purposing them for a wider and modern audience. […]