I wrote here a while ago about my obsession with trains. I'm afraid this is about to become even more pronounced, as I am in the middle of making bookings for another train safari round Europe. I have decided to give into the obsession instead of trying to fight it any more, so I've set …
It might (as well) be spring
It's a good idea to be cautious about the arrival of spring, as most Scots are only too well aware! But with two lovely bright weekend mornings having happened one after the other, I've definitely got the feeling that it might be time to crawl out of hibernation. That doesn't rule out the possibility that …
Grand plans
I was tempted to label this post 'The best-laid plans' on the grounds that my plans have a way of not working out the way I expect, but maybe that would have been tempting fate! To prove I even make plans at all, here is my plan for 2014 in my special plan-writing notebook, complete …
Why I wrote ‘Adventure on the Scotch Express’
The first impetus to write my novella ‘Adventure on the Scotch Express’ came from the re-enactment, in 2009, of a suffragette procession that had taken place in Edinburgh in 1909. I took part in the re-enactment myself, adorned with a sash in Women’s Freedom League colours (green, gold and white) in memory of my suffragette …
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Trains… and trains and trains
I'd better start with an apology to anybody waiting for Pitkirtly VII (A Tasteful Crime). I am gradually working through the editing process but for various reasons it's taking a little longer than I would have liked, although one consolation is that the first draft turned out to be not nearly as bad as it …
12 days of Christmas
Welcome to my 12 days of Christmas free gifts extravaganza, if you haven't already come across it. If you have, then read on for the next instalment! On my Facebook page and across at my McCallum Ogilvy blog (http://mccallumogilvy.wordpress.com) I have already mentioned my two seasonal free downloads, one from Amazon and one from Smashwords. …
Blackberry Crumble – the path to publication
Today my (long) short story ‘Blackberry Crumble’ is launched on Kindle as part of ‘Off the KUF Volume 1’, an anthology produced for and on behalf of the Kindle Users Forum: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GDLGTCS/ and http://www.amazon.com/Off-KUF-Volume-Fiction-Kindle-ebook/dp/B00GDLGTCS To mark the occasion, I thought I would write a little about the processes of writing and editing that led up …
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Re-focussing
I realised, waking up last night in a panic, that November is now advancing on us very quickly. Unlike some people this doesn't remind me that Christmas is just round the corner, because I prefer not to acknowledge the existence of Christmas until a couple of weeks before it takes place. In my case the …
Research and me – a love-hate relationship
I usually enjoy spending time on research. These days, with the internet, it's so much easier than it used to be and yet somehow a bit more tricky, with lots of unattributed information out there and annoying gaps too. Then there is the constant fear that you'll overload your novel with information just because you've …
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A sort of experiment
Every time I leave a novel I'm working on to marinate for a while and then re-read it, I feel as if it's a bit like a philosophical experiment along the lines of Schrödinger's Cat. The novel could either be dead or alive until you actually open the file to see for yourself. Because of …
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 