27 October
A coincidence or what?
I went to the Ayr Writers Club the other day, when Patrick Laurie was guest speaker. He’s well known for his blog post, and for his best-selling book Native, which is about his life as a farmer in Galloway. Now, my sisters-in-law Jo and Catherine Francis live in Moniaive, in Dumfries and Galloway, so at the AWC tea break I approached Patrick and asked him if he knew the place. Cue the following conversation.
Me: Do you happen to know Moniaive?
PL: Yes, certainly, I know it well. Why do you ask?
Me: My sisters-in-law live there, and we visit it quite often.
PL: I used to go to a school on the road between Moniaive and Thornhill.
Me: Really? One of my sisters-in-law taught at a school there, a big school on the left going out of Moniaive.
PL: That might be it. What did she teach?
Me: Geography.
PL: Doc Francis! That’ll be Doc Francis!
Me: [speechless for the first time in decades]
Now, is that a coincidence, or what?
18 October
Sparsile blog
I have written a blog post for Sparsile Books. It focuses on the differences between: a) development editing b) copy-editing; and c) proofreading. Naturally, if you want to find a decent editor or proofreader, go forthwith to the Directory at CIEP. But read the blog post first, so that you can be sure of what you are looking for.
12 September
Ayr Writers Club
I have rejoined the Ayr Writers Club this year, as I am going to do some more writing now that I can call myself a published writer, and because their meetings are held within walking distance of my home. I used to be a member way back... in the last century... but the dates of the club clashed with bridge dates and so... well, as anyone knows, anything that clashes with a bridge club evening or competition just naturally goes the way of all things. I honestly don’t know what I will get out of rejoining. Time will tell. Possibly I’ll end up giving a session on editing and proofreading, which would be rather fun. But in the meantime, just watch this space.
12 September
The Queen
The Queen ascended the throne the same year as I was born, so like many others, I don’t have any memories when she wasn’t Queen. Feels very odd to think she’s no longer around. I shall always remember her skit with Paddington Bear - not her greatest accomplishment while monarch, perhaps, but still.
14 August
Highers
I am glad to be able to report that Dylan achieved 5 A grades for his five Highers, and he is now working like the blazes in preparation for his UCATS test later this month. All I can say is that it seems a very hard test and given that there are a) complaints that the UK is importing too many doctors and b) that there aren’t enough being trained over here, it seems a bit counter-productive. Oh well. Doctor knows best.
08 June
Three Into One Does Go
Some of you will remember that Sparsile Books published my novel Kindred Spirit - originally titled Ghosts - early in 2021. You can read about the excitement this generated by reading through the 2021 blog posts. Well. After more than twenty years, I finally finished writing Three Into One Does Go. It’s by far the best thing I’ve ever written, but at more than 100k words I was pretty sure Sparsile wouldn’t be interested in it, as they like to stick to about 80k words. But, being the cheapskate that I am, I asked if I could borrow one of their beta readers to get some sort of idea of what the reaction might be if I started doing the rounds with the book.They said yes, and I duly sent in the MS to be read over. What happened next is almost worth a story in itself. The reader wrote such a glowing report that Sparsile promptly asked if they could publish the book, 100k+ words be damned. So, Three Into One Does Go, against my expectations, is to be published! It won’t happen until later 2023, as there are a couple of other books scheduled to go out before that. I imagine that this time there will be a proper book launch, now that covid restrictions are pretty much gone. So expect a reminder on here and elsewhere nearer the time, inviting one and all to descend upon Glasgow.