Freedom From The Mundane

Image: The Hay Wain, John Constable (1821)

Lately I’ve been re-ordering albums I used to listen to when I was younger but only ever had on cassette tape. Vinyl is covered since I got my USB Turntable, which I use to convert singles and LPs into MP3 so I can listen on the iPod, but cassette [...]

February 17th, 2010 | Tags: 3 Feet High and Rising, Art, artist, beans on toast, chapbook, Day Job, De La Soul, dinner, Family, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, GDR's, I.T., John Constable, landscape painting, marriage, Music, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Silly Poems for Wee People Vol.2, Writing | Category: Art, Day Job, Family, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Writing | Comments (3)

Image: net_efekt

Pay day yesterday—lovely jubbly! I celebrated by getting a pizza for dinner. I’m such a big spender. I had a decent day overall but it wasn’t without incident.
I’ve had a right palaver getting all my pairs of glasses delivered and collected. The opticians rang yesterday morning to say my second pair had arrived. So [...]

February 16th, 2010 | Tags: Australian Shooter Magazine, Day Job, design, Edinburgh Castle, glasses, kids' books, Leith Walk, optometry, pay day, pizza, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Silly Poems for Wee People Vol.2, spectacles, US gun laws, Valentine's Day, Vision | Category: Art, Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Editorial Comment, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Image: mangpage

Scotland’s last minute loss to Wales at rugby on Saturday was a huge blow. For the first time in a long time Scotland played like a team that knew what they were doing. With no fear and renewed determination, they seemed to have picked up their game under the stewardship of Andy Robinson, and [...]

February 15th, 2010 | Tags: artist, Cardiff, Coffee, coffee shop, curry, Dundee Utd, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Football, GDR, glasses, Ian Rankin, Poetry, Rabbits, Rose Street, rugby, Ruth Nicol, Scotland, script writing, Short Stories, Six Nations, soccer, spectacles, Sport, St Mirren, Stage Play, The Damned, Twitter, Valentine's Day, Wales, Writing | Category: Animals, Art, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Scotland, Sport, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Image: ANL.gov

Those lovely people over at Eternal Press, the company that published my latest book, STELLA, are in celebration mode. 2009 was one of their best ever year’s for sales, and to celebrate it they are giving away FREE READS for each purchase of a December New Release title from their website.
Visit their site here: [...]

December 10th, 2009 | Tags: Arts Market, black and white movies, block art, Drill Hall, DVDs, Eternal Press, GDR, Harold Lloyd, Leith, Out of the Blue, Photography, silent movies, Stella, Writing, Writing Process | Category: Art, Fiction, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Image: Florencia&Pe

It’s a dank, drizzly day over Edinburgh and the only thing putting a spring in my step is the fact that today is Friday. And yesterday wasn’t a great day either, leaving me nothing much to talk about in my blog.
I got invited to a ska/bollywood birthday party in a couple of weeks but [...]

October 2nd, 2009 | Tags: art exhibition, artist, Billy Connolly, birthday party, bollywood, Channel 4, Charlotte Square, Comeo Dine With Me, Edinburgh Book Festival, gallery, Glasgow, Madness, Madness Night, New Writing Scotland, ska, television, Trevor Jones, Weather, Writing, writing muse | Category: Art, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Family, Film & TV, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Glasgow, Music, Writing | Comments (1)

Image: EdinburghGuide.com

I had a fantastic evening at the Edinburgh Book Festival last night, the kind of evening that is as much relaxing and enjoyable as it is motivational and thought provoking.
After battling with the rush hour traffic I finally arrived at Charlotte Square, basking in early evening rays of warm sunshine. I met my mate [...]

August 18th, 2009 | Tags: Alan Bissett, Art, author, BBC4, Books, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh Book Festival, Ewan Morrison, Fiction, Generation X, Iain Banks, Ian Rankin, Madness, post-modern art, Reading, Scotland, society, Writing | Category: Art, Books, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Music, Publishing and Marketing, Reading, Scotland, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a comment

Image: Eternal Press/Colin Galbraith

Shattered. I was up late last night doing the promotional artwork for my impending Stella marketing campaign. I’ve ordered a whole bunch of juicy stuff that I will be using to promote the book from one week before it launches to the end of the Book Festival in August.
I’ve got postcards, flyers, [...]

May 26th, 2009 | Tags: competition, cover art, Day Job, design, e-book, Editing, flash fiction, freelance writing, gig review, Jean Michel Jarre, literature, marketing, Mods, News of the World, prizes, promotional material, publishnig, Quadrophenia, Reading, Stella, The Who, Theatre, Writing | Category: Art, Books, Day Job, Fiction, Freelance, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)