Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to you all
Festive greetings from the team at Kirkcudbright Book Week Society. We hope you have a happy and peaceful festive season.See More
When ideas find you
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I’ve been doing a lot of teaching on the idea of ideas lately and among the quotes I came across during my research was “People always want to know: Where do I get my ideas? They're everywhere. I'm inspired by people and things around me” from Gwendolyn Brooks, an American poet.
That is certainly true for me. Ideas can come from a place, a person, a memory, a thought, anything.
Thou Shalt Kill, for example, was inspired by teenage experiences in a church, The Long Dead by a visit to a former POW Camp and A Breach of Trust by a story I covered as a journalist in the 1980s.
But how do you find ideas if you’re looking for a subject for your next piece of work? Well, you don’t. Asked where he got his ideas, Robertson Davies, the Canadian novelist and playwright, said: “My usual, perfectly honest reply is, "I don't get them; they get me.”
Same here!
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Written in a flash
I am part of the team that organises an annual short story competition for young writers in Dumfries and Galloway, as part of the run-up to Kirkcudbright book week 2025 in March. The competition is run by the event organisers Kirkcudbright Book Week Society and Kirkcudbright Library. Myself and Lesley Garbutt from the Library are the judges and this year we have asked…See More
Festival announces top quality crime fiction line-up
One of the strongest features of Kirkcudbright Book Week right from its early days has been the popularity of crime fiction - and the 2025 event is set to continue the tradition.The programme to run in the South West Scotland town between March 3-9 includes appearances by several best-selling crime fiction authors as well as those starting out on their writing…See More
How to keep a long-running series fresh
Writing a long-running series of novels, as can so often be the case for crime fiction authors, brings its own set of challenges, not least how do you keep the writing fresh for reader and writer alike?As I start the latest DCI Jack Harris novel for my publisher The Book Folks, the twelfth in the series where the action is divided between the North Pennines and southern…See More
An exciting time
Having just completed my latest DCI Blizzard crime novel for my publisher The Book Folks, this is both a nervous time and an exciting time. Nervous because, however experienced you are (and this is Book 25), it’s always a tense time as you wait for feedback from your publisher. You are never too old to learn!Exciting because your thoughts turn to the next book, which…See More
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