Saturday, January 25, 2014

Burns Window Project

(image by Hugh Bryden)

How good are your eyes?  Somewhere on one of these windows in Dumfries is my poem "Nail Sick" - part of a project running from 17 January to 17 February that was inspired by a bit of Burns vandalism (below).  Contemporary poems are on display in the windows of the Globe Inn, the Coach and Horses, and the Robert Burns House Museum.


(image from Visit Scotland website)

There's an article on the project here on the PBS site.  

And, just to save you squinting, here is my haiku -

        Nail Sick
Slate roof, squared slices
     of deep time mud, let down by
          yesterday's iron.


Happy Burns' Day!


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Also coming up this year ...



Bring on the obligatory, un-historical horned helmets - two (not one but two!) adventures of Leif Frond will be on the shelves later this year (14 August 2014).  With the heart of a hero and the shoulders of a ferret, Leif does battle with his (probably) half-troll sister, survives Queue the Artificer's lethal inventions, flees from the Widow Brownhilde's terrifying bosom, and crashes into cows.  And that's just the beginning ...  

Look out for Leif Frond and the Viking Games and Leif Frond and Quickfingers, published by A&C Black. (Fancy dress while reading is optional.) 

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Coming up this year ...


The History Girls' anthology Daughters of Time is edited by Mary Hoffman, aimed at readers aged 9+, published by Templar, and due out 1 March 2014 - which, if January is anything to go by, will be with us very, very soon -

I'm chuffed to bits to have my story Best After Storms included - it's about Mary Anning, 19th century fossil hunter and it begins like this:

Outside the window, lightning ripped across the blackness of the night.  Thunder battered their ears, and when it faded, they could hear the roaring of the ocean, flinging itself hungrily at the cliffs ...

And if you want to know what happens next - and read 12 other extraordinary stories about exceptional women - watch out for Daughters of Time in March! 

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Images from the end of one year and the beginning of the next













P.S.  I'm over on The History Girls today - about January!