On 31st December 2016, I completed the first draft of Pax Caledonia, my children’s novel set in Roman Britain in the aftermath of the battle of Mons Graupius. This was my ninth completed novel – completed to first draft, at least. Five years ago, I’d started loads of novels, but never managed to get beyond 15,000… Read More
writing
This is my fourth year of writing up the status of my books – see 2014, 2015, and 2016. So what’s been happening this year? Let’s take a look. The Beast on the Broch In January I submitted sample chapters of what was then called The Dragon on the Tower to new independent Scottish publisher Cranachan. A… Read More
When I was eight, our family moved to Tarbat Ness Lighthouse, where my dad was a lightkeeper. This wasn’t his first posting – his first lighthouse was Inchkeith, on an island in the Firth of Forth, but for that assignment he’d go out to the lighthouse for a month, then come back home to Edinburgh… Read More
I’ve always been fascinated by the Pictish Beast. The Picts left behind very little of their culture, with the exception of the amazing carved stones you can find across Scotland, and while most of the animals on those stones are recognisably snakes, wolves, eagles, salmon, and so on, two-fifths of the creatures carved on the… Read More
When I was at school, a long, long time ago, one of my favourite subjects was History. But for me, the older the history the better – the World Wars and the Russian Revolution, the agricultural and industrial revolutions, these were all very well, but what I really wanted to study was the dawn of… Read More
Yesterday was the Wolves and Apples event in Leicester, a one-day series of workshops and talks run by Leicestershire-based Mantle Arts concentrating on children’s writing – picture books, middle-grade, YA. The event was targeted at “emerging writers”, which is a great term – I hate calling people “aspiring writers” because if you write, you’re a… Read More
The excitement is over – the beast has been released. I’ve done my short promotional tour of Scotland (and Newcastle), and now there’s nothing left to do. Except stop looking at the Amazon rankings, because that way lies madness! So far it’s safe to say that The Beast on the Broch hasn’t set the world… Read More
Last year I went to the UK MG Extravaganza in Nottingham as a civilian – my first novel had only just been published, and I wanted to go along and see how the pros did events like this. This year, with the event being held in Newcastle, I asked if I could come again –… Read More
It’s UKYACX tomorrow, September 17th, in Newcastle – I’ll be there along with loads of brilliant children’s and YA authors to talk about my books The Wreck of the Argyll and The Beast on the Broch. As part of the UKYACX blog tour, Fiona from Independent Book Reviews has posted an interview with me.
Last week I went on my annual trip to Scotland. This year had three purposes – to visit our relatives, to talk about my first book The Wreck of the Argyll at the Arbroath Signal Tower Museum, and, most importantly, to launch my new book, The Beast on the Broch. After the Arbroath talk and… Read More