Freedom From The Mundane

Image: Brainstorm

A bad day in Cumbria. 12 people dead and 25 injured by a coward who went on the rampage with a gun. As soon as I heard something was happening, and at the point only 3 were dead, my mind shot back to 1996 and the Dunblane massacre.
Who’ll ever forget that day? It was [...]

June 3rd, 2010 | Tags: BGT, Books, competition, complaints commission, Cumbria, Day Job, Dunblane, guns, massacre, newsletter, overtime, political correctness, Publishing and Marketing, Ranfurly Review, Reading, shootings, Silly Poems for Wee People Vol.2, Simon Cowell, Stevie Starr, television, The Grave Tattoo, The Patter, Val McDermid | Category: Books, Day Job, Editorial Comment, Poetry, Politics, Publishing and Marketing, Reading, Writing | Comments (1)

Image: Creaky Toe

I worked through seven chapters of GATECRASH last night. The further I creep into the story the better it seems to get. Some of the writing, though, leaves a lot to be desired. One can tell it was written with speed in mind—quantity over quality—a side effect of NaNoWriMo if ever there was [...]

June 2nd, 2010 | Tags: Books, Fiction, GDR's, NaNoWriMo, newsletter, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Short Stories, The Patter, Writing | Category: Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (2)

Image: Queen’s Uni

The office was like a morgue yesterday. So many people took the bank holiday off as a holiday, it left the rest of us feeling rather depressed and hacked off that we were still in the office. Not to worry, next week I am off for a couple of days to go through [...]

June 1st, 2010 | Tags: Day Job, dining, Dinner in the Sky, Edinburgh Book Festival, End of Writing Year, Festival in the Sky, Fiction, GDR's, Glasgow, Music, newsletter, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, rain, Ranfurly Review, Supergrass, the office, The Patter, Weather, Writing | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a comment

Image: Lunchtime Mama

After Tuesday night up late working on the promotional material for STELLA, then Wednesday’s late one for a theatre visit with my wife, tiredness played a big part in my day yesterday. The day job dragged and I realised in the midst of it all that the week was dragging too. I kept [...]

May 28th, 2009 | Tags: black list, competition, Day Job, e-book, editorial policy, Fiction, marketing, media kit, newsletter, Publishing and Marketing, Ranfurly Review, rejections, Short Stories, Stella, Submissions, The Patter, tiredness, Twitter | Category: Books, Day Job, Fiction, Publishing and Marketing, Writing Process | Comments (2)

Image: BBC Online

Since I was feeling much better yesterday morning, I started the day off with a glorious bap containing a beautifully runny fried egg lain across a spicy and thick slice of black pudding. Washed down with a cup of tar from the coffee machine, it really was a breakfast of conflicting emotions.
Stella is [...]

May 9th, 2009 | Tags: anniversary, competition, Day Job, digital camera, e-books, Eternal Press, Fiction, Freeview box, horse racing, Leith, medieval remains, newsletter, novella, Ranfurly Review, Stella, The Patter, trams, Twitter | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Publishing and Marketing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Bit of a smelly day today weather-wise – which is just how I like it. Cool, drizzly, and grey. It always brings out the best in me. *Ahem*.
One thing me and the other members of my day job team have discovered since moving department and location, is that the problems that existed in the old [...]

June 3rd, 2008 | Tags: Blogging, Day Job, Dog Blog, Fiction, Freelance, Holiday, Non-Fiction, novels, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Ranfurly Review, The Patter, Weather, Writing | Category: Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Freelance, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Scotland, Travel, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)