When I call this 'warming up weekend' I'm certainly not referring to the weather, which is cold and wet with traces of snow. I don't feel encouraged to go out, and the only thing to do seems to be to sit in the conservatory and prepare for April's writing challenge. I did wonder whether to …
Spirit of Christmas (and birthdays) Past
Having spent yesterday afternoon out shopping for Christmas presents, my thoughts turned to what sort of presents I remembered receiving in the Fifties. (No, Fifties month won't go away even now that it's turned into two months.) One of my best ever presents was a birthday gift from my parents: a large doll called Sally, …
In Praise of the Wireless
Although many people across Britain bought television sets specifically to watch the Coronation in 1953, some families held out against it for much longer, including my own. Listening to the wireless had certain advantages: you could picture the characters in dramas much more vividly in your mind than the primitive black and white screens of …
Steam and Rails
As I mentioned in my previous post, in the 1950s we had our own branch railway line. When I say it was our own, I mean there was a station in our village which we could actually see from our front window. My mother hated so much to waste time that she often refused to …
Good old days or what?
When some people talk about the 'good old days' I just know they are referring to the Fifties, a decade when time stood still and some people could pretend they still lived in an idyllic rural Britain where children could play safely outside from dawn until dusk, and when summer was a succession of long, …
Under blue skies
As I wait for my novel to marinate, I've mostly been stuck indoors looking at rain pouring on to the conservatory roof, but today I should be able to get on with some long-postponed gardening which I am hoping will encourage me to mull over the story-line and come up with some inspired improvements! Of …
Milestone in the snow
The badge I'm about to copy in below demonstrates that I've 'completed' my Camp NaNoWriMo novel 'Frozen in Crime'. Don't get too excited - I haven't actually written 'The End' yet and also there will be a few months of editing before it can be released into the wild, but the basis of the first …
keeping winter at bay
Of course the best part about a holiday is actually being there - arriving on the TGV, lounging by the pool, sauntering along the Canal du Midi, trying to use a language you're not entirely confident about. But the next best thing is remembering the holiday and looking at the pictures, especially if the holiday …
the age of steam
I visited Culross again at the weekend - you would almost think there was something drawing me back there - and I noticed the car park was very busy and there were lots of people on the path that runs beside the railway line towards Longannet power station. Something quirky was about to happen - …
filling out the plot
Now that I've finished with my Camp NaNoWriMo novel, the next task is to carry on with my edit of 'A Reformed Character', the next in the Pitkirtly series. This is a story which revolves around the theme of whether people can really change. The main plot starts with a murder, said to have been …
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 