From A to Pineapple via Birmingham

Blogging over on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure this week, where I consider the winding roads inspiration takes.

Views from the Roof

A fine sunset and haar over the Tay -

Creating New Worlds - a few places have come up!

Paul Magrs and I are leading a course at the incomparable Moniack Mhor, 23rd to 28th July, on Young Adult SciFi and Fantasy which has been fully booked for a while now.  However, a few people have reluctantly had to pull out, and so there might just be space for you!  Gill Arbuthnott is our Guest Writer, and the week is going to be amazing.  Can't wait!

Here's the blurb:

Creating New Worlds

Have you ever felt put off, thinking you don’t know enough about science, or fantasy – or young people – to write your own YA SF/Fantasy stories? Some of the most page-turning writing being published today is YA SF/Fantasy, and this course will help you become part of it. Learn how to create amazing new worlds, peopled with compelling characters that will engage and enthral the Young Adult audience. Through workshops and individual tutorials, the tutors will help you unlock possible futures and impossible pasts, and express them with your own individual voice. You don’t have to be an expert, a science whizz or a hardcore fan – just come with your ideas.

And you can find out more about coming to Moniack Mhor HERE.

Give it a thought - you won't regret it!

Firth - Free Range Poetry

Firth, brain child of the excellent Beth McDonough, is a new poetry magazine with a difference.  Each contributor is given the challenge of setting one copy of the magazine free - somewhere out in the world - somewhere unexpected.  The hope is it will be picked up by someone, read, enjoyed, and passed on.  I'm extremely pleased to have my poem "The Lament of the Carrot" included in this first issue, and I'm deep in thought on where weird to release my copy.  Cunning suggestions gratefully received.

You can follow Firth on Facebook here - you can buy a copy for £4. including P&P by sending a Message - and you can keep your eyes peeled in unlikely place.  Firth - where will you turn up?