The McManus as You've Never Seen It Before!

This is what the camera saw ...

And this is what I can do with it ...

Pencil Sketch!

Neon!

Heat Map!

Picasa Power - bwahahahaha!

Victorian Detective in the Victorian Gallery

Today I was at the McManus Museum in Dundee, in the gorgeous Victorian Gallery, talking about my Victorian girl detective Slightly Jones, as part of this year's Dundee Literary Festival.  It was great!  And because we needed to wait a little so that some of the audience who were at a different venue could arrive, there was even time to play the How Many Dogs Can You Find in the Paintings in This Room? challenge.  I'd been round earlier and was pretty smug about my 17 dogs spotted.  Nobody got 17.  That was because they were too busy getting 26 ...

Sigh. 

Here are some photos from the non-dog-spotting part of the event!

(I know it looks as if I've broken into song in the last one, but don't worry, it's just random enthusiasm for all things Victorian!)

Many thanks to the Dundee Literary Festival for inviting me, to the lovely staff at the McManus Museum for welcoming me, to my friend from Waterstones for selling my books and taking the photos for me - and to the kids and their adults who came along and were fabulous!  (Even the ones who found more dogs in the room than I did ...)

Tomorrow I'm going to be posting Pencil Sketch, Neon and Heat Map versions of the top photo ... why?  Because I can!

Clouds, sky, sand, waves ...

Turnberry on an October afternoon - a photographer's delight.

Children's Writing Competition!

So, if you know anyone aged 5 - 17 who fancies one of these great prizes - or who just fancies having a go - please pass this on!

And tomorrow I'll be back with clouds, sky, sand, waves ...

A Room Full of Writers

This week I had the pleasure of going back to the Turnberry Resort in Ayrshire (to be reminded of my slightly hysterical enthusiasm over my last visit, have a look here ...)  For this, the third Turnberry Children's Book Event, I was leading a Writing Workshop with a fantastic bunch of 6-12 year olds and some equally fantastic grown-ups.

Writers in pain?  No.  Writers looking inside their heads and watching a scene unfold so that ...

... they can get stuck in getting it down on paper!

So many writers showed up we even had to use the tiny table!

I wish we'd had time to hear every story starter read out, but if the buzz as the Room of Writers emptied at the end is anything to go by, this is just the beginning!

Well done, everyone!

(Tomorrow I'll be posting the details of a writing competition that was launched at the Book Event, run by The Herald, Turnberry Resort, and the Scottish Book Trust - with some amazing prizes.  If I could convince anyone I was aged 5-17, I'd be going in for it myself!)

The Mess and the Method

Two things are coming together in my mind this week - the first is a quote from Tolkien* which puts the stage my current Slightly Jones novel The Case of the Hidden City has reached right up there with some very illustrious company.

"The Lord of the Rings was beginning to unroll itself and to unfold prospects of labour and exploration in yet unknown country as daunting to me as to the hobbits. At about that time we had reached Bree, and I had then no more notion than they had of what would become of Gandalf or who Strider was, and I had begun to despair of surviving to find out."  (Introduction to Tree and Leaf.)

Mess.

And then I was sent a thank-you present through the post - a pocket-sized art book called Die Kunst, aufzuraumen by Ursus Wehrli.**  I can't show you the book but I can show you this:

Method.

Like the man said, "Only connect."

* via Lucy Coats on Facebook - thanks!

** via two Jamies in my life - thanks to both! 

P.S.  Over on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure this week with some images that are begging to have their stories told.

You Asked For It ...

These are for those hardy souls who said, "Can we have more photos of Shetland?"

Cheers, Joan.

Farlin Photos - The Exhibition of Work In Progress at Bonhoga Gallery Shetland

Chronologically this post makes no sense but not a lot of September did either, so here we go - these are photos of the Farlin Project Exhibition - Work In Progress at the Bonhoga Gallery in Shetland from 4 August to 16 September 2012.  To remind you about this project you could have a quick look here.  I apologise for the photos not being as clear as I would have liked - I haven't figured out photographing through glass yet.  But it gives you at least an idea of the amazing stuff so far!