setting the scene in Pitkirtly
THE IDENTITY ILLUSION – Pitkirtly Mysteries 22 Pitkirtly XXII has now been published. Thanks to anyone who has already got hold of a copy. This is the 22nd novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series, set in a small fictitious town on the south coast of Fife which is definitely not Culross, though quite close to …
At lunchtime today I reached the 50,000 word mark in 'Pitkirtly XXII' (still no title but don't panic - I've always managed to work something out before publishing, up to now anyway). This is significant because by this stage in a novel I almost always have a good idea of how it's going to end, …
I hope everyone reading this will be pleased to know that I've at last got to the point in what I like to think of as my writing schedule where I can start writing Pitkirtly XXII. I plan to begin a new document for this tomorrow, with the rest of today being spent re-reading two …
I noticed there was an article in The Guardian the other day about the difficulties of writing during the pandemic - here's the link in case anyone is interested (it focusses mostly on writers failing to find anything to be inspired by during lockdown, but there is a mention of a problem I had about …
I was complaining the other day on Twitter about not having anything to write after finishing the two things I had been working on, and someone suggested writing a silly short story in a new genre, so here it is in all its silliness (disclaimer - there is no award-winning children's book and I don't …
I would like to wish everyone reading this the best Christmas and New Year season they can have under the circumstances. Apologies for not being more whole-hearted about it. It doesn't mean my wishes are less sincere, just that I know it's already been a difficult year for many people and at the time of …
I see it's some time since I wrote a new post here. In the months following the previous post I've retired from my part-time day job as a database manager, published the 21st of the Pitkirtly Mysteries and taken part in a mad project to write 14 screenplays in 14 days. Fortunately all these things …
Thanks to NaNoWriMo, in which the target is set to 50,000 for everyone, getting to 50,000 words in a novel always feels like almost the end. Actually 50,000 words or even 60,000, which most of my mystery novels conclude at, is fairly short for a novel these days. My writing session this morning has just …
I include this classic picture of Venice, taken by me on a visit there with my mother in about 1972, just as a random example of the kind of place I won't be going to this year, or for the foreseeable future. I still have a plan in my head for a trip down the …
I had a really pleasant surprise when I looked at my Twitter feed yesterday and noticed the word 'Pitkirtly' lurking in among all the politics and name-calling. I don't mind getting into an argument about politics on occasion, in fact as I worked on the family history book I've been writing this month while I …
