I would quite like to spend all my time in Pitkirtly. It seems a pleasant enough place, apart from all the suspicious deaths and the weather, and once you get used to the people they are fairly friendly. I've always wanted to live by the sea as well, at least when I haven't wanted to …
The Marination Process
No, that isn't a novel title, although having said that it looks a bit as if it could either have a cold war spy theme, or be some sort of bio-thriller. I just thought I would say something about why I always have to leave my writing to lie around doing nothing for a while once …
Pitkirtly VIII takes shape
As usual, 'Pitkirtly VIII' is taking a slightly different shape from the one I expected. One of the characters - a new arrival - has decided to do something very silly. Of course that in itself isn't all that surprising. If characters didn't do anything out of the ordinary then novels would be extremely boring. I'm just …
Newsflash
I bring two pieces of (I hope) good news this morning. After a spell during which I did everything about as quickly as an arthritic slug - my excuse is that the weather was hotter than I am used to! though I expect if we had had a very dark, wet June and July I would …
In between times
After a week in which I spent every evening in the black cavernous space behind the scenes in a theatre, and during the preparations for a week in which I will travel across Europe by train, tunnel, train, ferry, train, ferry and train, give a paper at a conference and return by very nearly the …
Spring greetings
We seem to have reached the end of a week of glorious sunshine in Edinburgh, which coincided with my holiday week and the arrival of a new camera. I even found the first bluebell of spring starting to open out in our garden. I am not sure if it will risk opening fully as the …
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 …
Read an Ebook Week
Apologies for the self-promotion today! But having enrolled in this scheme I thought I'd better do something towards publicising it. I think many readers of this blog will have seen my two 'Quest' novels already, but just in case they haven't, this is a chance to get hold of them for free. As part of …
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 …
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 …
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 