setting the scene in Pitkirtly
First of all, a slightly belated happy New Year to all my readers! I'm afraid I may have set the tone for the rest of the year by delaying this message, but this time I do have a ready-made excuse for lagging behind, as I had an operation between Christmas and New Year and am just …
This post is part of a historical fiction promotion by a number of writers on the 12th and 13th of November 2016. Here are some links to take you to cheap and free ebooks that fall into the historical category: The 99cent Historical Fiction eBooks http://www.histfiction.com/history-blog/99-cent-historical-fiction-promotions The free Historical Fiction: Free Historical Fiction eBooks http://www.histfiction.com/history-blog/free-historical-fiction You …
The significance of the first of November, which unfortunately falls on a Tuesday this year, is of course that it's the first day of the annual trial of strength known as National Novel Writing Month. When I say trial of strength, I really mean it's a trial of persistence and stubbornness against all odds. I …
Recently one of the earlier novels in the Pitkirtly series received an excellent review here: http://ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/cecilia-peartree.html (many thanks to the reviewer! - you may enjoy some of her other reviews too). This reminded me that the novel in question was one of my personal favourites of the series. I won't reveal what my 'top 3' are at …
While we all (including me) wait for 'Pitkirtly XII' to be finished, I thought I would write a bit about how I keep track of the characters in the Pitkirtly mystery series. This was something I didn't even think about until I had already written at least six of the books. It was only then …
I had a slight panic attack earlier this morning when I realised that my favourite notebook - the one in which I unexpectedly wrote 'Mysterious Pitkirtly' - had mysteriously disappeared, probably during The Great De-Cluttering of spring 2016. Last week I had to carry out an excavation to find the little case on wheels without which …
I couldn't find any pictures that expressed what I wanted to say on the cover of 'Pitkirtly XI' so I have had to carry out a special photo-shoot. Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that this didn't involve glamorous partly-dressed models, mocked-up dinosaur landscapes or both. Instead I had to make the supreme …
Although my latest novel is rather frivolous compared to the real world setting it attempts to depict, I thought some of my readers might be interested to know where I looked for information about the background. I usually go online first these days to see if I can find any sources that seem both relevant …
I seem to have been 'almost there' with Quest IV ('A Quest for Clemency') for much too long, but I have more or less finished my final round of editing and all that's left to do is to format the file in a couple of different ways, and publish. As so often happens, I have …
I like to use this limbo between Christmas and New Year to get organised for the year ahead, although the time tends to be taken up instead by a mad rush to fill in my tax return, an excess of sleep and biscuits, and more often than not by some sort of family emergency. This …
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 