Freedom From The Mundane

Image: Jan Ramroth

I found myself on the bus going through Edinburgh at the unfeasibly early time of 6:30am yesterday morning. I was to spend the day working in an unfamiliar building on the other side of Edinburgh and it was one of my longest working spells in many a day. 12 hours without a lunch [...]

July 9th, 2010 | Tags: Amsterdam, Books, buses, Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Family, fiction competitions, Football, Holiday, Holland, Netherlands, poetry competitions, Portugal, Reading, Sleep, soccer, Travel, Val McDermid, weekend, World Cup, World Cup Final, Writing | Category: Books, Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Reading, Sport, Travel, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Image: Donald MacLeod

Long day yesterday, which by the end of it I’d to deteriorated into fatigue induced sickness. Nothing serious, mind you, just that I felt sicker the more the day the wore on until I had to admit defeat and collapse into my bed by 9.30pm. Not like me, but hey-ho.
The day job [...]

June 19th, 2010 | Tags: alcohol, beer, Books, Clark's Bar, Day Job, Edinburgh Book Festival, England, Football, Gail Galbraith Photography, portrait pictures, Sleep, special offer, tired, wedding photos, World Cup | Category: Books, Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Photography, Poetry, Sport | Comments (2)

Image: Clare Savory

The holiday bug has bitten. I’m not talking about taking a few days off work to relax, do some writing or work around the house, I’m talking about going somewhere the sun always shines, the sky and sea merge into shades of blue, and long sandy beaches sprawl for miles lined by hotels [...]

April 21st, 2010 | Tags: Albert Camus, Books, crime fiction, drafting, Editing, Fiction, insomnia, re-writing, Reading, Sleep, summer holiday, vacation, Will Self, Writing | Category: Books, Family, Fiction, Reading, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (2)

Image: J Greig

As I write this you are sleeping. The sun is far beyond the horizon, the birds are asleep, and not a house light is on as far as the eye can see. Except, that is, for the one in my office. The smell of coffee being made in my automatic coffee machine is [...]

February 27th, 2010 | Tags: coffee shop, Day Job, Editing, flood warning, GDR, overtime, Publishing and Marketing, rain, Sleep, Water of Leith, Weather, Writing | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, I.T., Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Image: Metal Minnie

I felt much better yesterday morning. I‘d got a great sleep the night before and was into work bright and early. Working early means I seem to get more done; less distractions and people sapping my time.
My week is turning into an obsessive nightmare with all the technical problems at work pushing me [...]

January 15th, 2010 | Tags: creativity, CWA, Day Job, Fiction, GDR's, I.T., ideas, Poetry, Sleep, Val McDermid, Writing | Category: Day Job, Fiction, Freelance, I.T., Music, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Image: Heavenawaits

Busy; that about sums it up. Work, work, work but it’s been at a good pace this week so I’ve not been burning myself out as I have felt I have been doing recently. And I’m lapping up literature, which can’t be bad either.
I’ve not been sleeping too great this week. I’ve found myself [...]

November 27th, 2009 | Tags: articles, Day Job, insomnia, Reviews, royalties, Scruffy Dog Review, Sleep, Stella, Thanksgiving, Writing | Category: Books, Day Job, Fiction, Publishing and Marketing, Reading, Writing | Comments (2)

Image: Vox Efx

Exhausted.
Up early and working by 7:30am on The Company’s network. It was almost 3pm before I was finished. A full day in other words, and it wasn’t the most stress-free of occasions.
By the time it (part 1) was over, it was almost time for the Grand National at Aintree. I had a tenner [...]

April 4th, 2009 | Tags: Aintree, Betting, computing, Day Job, e-books, exhausted, gambling, Grand National, horse racing, Hotel Rwanda, I.T., movie, Sleep, tired, Twitter, working | Category: Day Job, I.T., Sport | Comments (1)

Image: Spike

I feel like I’ve been away for ages. Life over the past week has been as hectic as it could possibly have been. I’m not going to go into it all, let me just say that life, sometimes, has to come first and my literary aspirations have to take a back seat.
All that is [...]

March 21st, 2009 | Tags: Barrowlands, Books, Day Job, e-books, Fiction, friends, Glasgow, Music, Publishing and Marketing, rejections, Shawlands, Sleep, Stiff Little Fingers | Category: Day Job, Fiction, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Glasgow, Music, Publishing and Marketing, Writing Process | Leave a comment

Image: The Punch Pizza

I had six hours of sleep before I had to log back into the Company network to complete yesterday’s marathon software installation. It felt like I’d had half an hour. Thankfully, it all went reasonably well, despite me running on autopilot for the first hour or so.
My boss came to see me [...]

March 3rd, 2009 | Tags: Anderson Close, birthday, Cowgate, crime, Day Job, Devil, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Editing, Family, Fiction, ghost, Grassmarket, history, Major Weir, meal, pizza, Publishing and Marketing, Ranfurly Review, rejection, Research, Sleep, West Bow, witchcraft, Writing | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Family, Fiction, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (3)

Image: Looney Tunes

I missed my blog post yesterday because I never got time to write it. Can you believe it? The little time I had to write I used for actual writing on Blood Ties and doing research for the next Stella novella.
I worked long hours on Monday, not getting home until half past seven. [...]

February 17th, 2009 | Tags: Blogging, Celtic, Day Job, Editing, history, journalism, Old Firm, Rangers, Reading, Research, Short Stories, Sleep, Wyle E. Coyote | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, I.T., Reading, Writing Process | Comments (3)

Image: Star Dust

I couldn’t sleep last night, and today I paid the price; heavy eyes and a grumpiness not seen since someone stole Stig of the Dump’s toilet seat. I wish that life could be simpler sometimes, but despite all I do to try and make that happen, things only seem to get more complicated.
I’ve [...]

November 17th, 2008 | Tags: characters, concert, e-book, Fiction, NaNoWriMo, novellas, novels, problems, Publishing and Marketing, ska, Sleep, synopsis, Writer's Group, Writing | Category: Fiction, Music, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

My head was a veritable hive of buzzing nonsense today. After the intensity of last week’s Muse Conference, a high load of freelance work, and coping with a busy day job, I ended up sleeping in slightly this morning. Waking up to rain and gales battering the window didn’t enthuse me much either, so I [...]

October 20th, 2008 | Tags: agents, Black Plague, cinema, De Niro, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Editing, novellas, novels, Pacino, publishers, Research, Sleep, submission, tired | Category: Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Film & TV, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

An odd day.
For some obscene reason I’m suddenly finding it difficult to rise from my kip in the mornings of late. It’s not like I don’t get up; this morning for instance, I got up later then normal and after ten minutes went and lay back down again. I never got up again until an [...]

October 9th, 2008 | Tags: busy, Danish pastries, Day Job, Dean Martin, Fiction, flash drive, GDR's, Glasgow, ideas, novella, panic, poems, Queen, Reading, School kids, SECC, Sleep, tired, work, Writing | Category: Day Job, Editorial Comment, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, I.T., Poetry, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (2)