Sunlight on Green and a Rusty Wheelbarrow

Such a beautiful week - the novel and I are sad to say good-bye.

Feathered and Furred

I've been lucky enough to have another week-long writing retreat in the Perthshire hills.*  Someone asked me didn't I get lonely being by myself like that?  No - it's exactly what I and my novel are needing - and besides, I wasn't alone!  Meet just a few of my friends - a pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, three red squirrels, a ghost deer, two teenage rabbits, and seven baby bunnies (there were grown-up rabbits as well, but they were camera-shy).

 

* Huge thanks to Annie Blaber.

"A Cauldron of Soup and A Cabinet of Curiosities - An Interview with Joan Lennon"

Me again - this time, with Creative Writing MA student Jane Swanson, who I first met at Moniack Mhor on the Writing for Children and Young People course back in 2015.  Now she's taken it further!  It was great catching up, I got to maunder on about books and me, and she got an assignment done and dusted, so win-win-win.  Join us on DURA - Dundee University Review of the Arts - HERE.

Podcasting on Writers Who Inspire Me

Part of being an RLF Fellow is getting the chance to record podcasts on topics such as Why I Write, or How I Write, or Letter to My Younger Self, or Life-Changing Literature.  They've created a lovely collection of 3 minute chats by a wide range of different writers, which you can have a browse-through here.  

This week, it's my turn, with Writers Who Inspire Me.  Hope you enjoy it!

And, since this looks a bit bare with just words, I'm adding an inspirational cow or two to jazz things up -

Dotting About 4 - Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire

Just so beautiful -

Dotting done, for now.

Dotting About 3 - Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Somewhere I've wanted to visit for ages!  A day is not enough - a week wouldn't be enough - what they need is a writer-in-residence or maybe a live-in hermit ...

(William Turnbull's Large Horse, Anthony Caro's Promenade, Henry Moore's Reclining Figures, Two Forms, Chiharu Shiota's Beyond Time, James Turrell's Deer Shelter Skyspace)

And finally, Dotting About 4 - Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.

Dotting About 2 - Garsdale, Cumbria

Next up, Dotting About 3 - Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Dotting About 1 - Moniack Mhor and Urquhart Castle

The end of April and the beginning of May included ten days of me dotting about Scotland and Northern England in a slightly frantic fashion.  First up, Moniack Mhor and Urquhart Castle ...

  

The week at Moniack Mhor with the Pushkin Prizewinners has been captured by tutor and photographer Gerry Cambridge, and you can see some of his images here and here.  And I'll be back with Dotting About 2 - Garsdale, Cumbria.