As 2023 draws to a close, I find myself looking back on the lessons another year has offered. Looking back often comes more naturally to me than looking forwards – in reaching back, I find meaning that enables me to find myself anew. In previous years, I have chosen words like growth and curiosity to propel me into January. 2023 has taught me the universe has its own plans, and such words might be better felt on reflection, at the waning of the year. If I had to choose words to describe 2023, terms like unsettled, challenging and loss most closely fit with my experience. Yet challenging times ..read more

Towards the end of December, I like to share my favourite books from the year preceding. In the past, I’ve kept track of the number of books I’ve read, but in 2023, in common with a few other things, that practice has been lost. Suffice to say, I’ve read a lot of books, a mix of fiction and non-fiction across a wide range of genres. If I had to pin myself down to favourites, nature writing blended with memoir tends to appeal most, both in terms of the books I like to read, and what I personally like to write. What follows is a bookish tour of my year, highlighting some of the publications that ..read more

‘I’m so sorry, it’s bad news.’ It was the outcome every dog owner dreads, a call from the vet informing us our beloved Hungarian Vizsla Brody had cancer. The scan Brody had undergone that morning had revealed a large tumour, and quite suddenly, there was nothing left for our eleven-year-old boy but time. As I dissolved into sobs on the other end of the line, the vet gently explained that we should pick Brody up and spoil him for the time he had remaining. It was already clear that time was limited – after a sudden downturn in his health, Brody was losing weight rapidly. Our strong, energetic d ..read more

Back in January, I posted about my writing plans for the year (generally, I find, a good way to engender some sort of personal accountability around intentions). December feels like a good time to revisit some of those intentions – if only to remind myself that I’ve probably achieved more than I might think. 2022 has brought changes I hadn’t anticipated back in January, most notably a shift from full-time writing to working part-time for a local mental health charity. Domestic arrangements have also played into my capacity – my husband regularly working away from home means less flexibili ..read more

Towards the end of each year, I tend to write a round-up of my ten favourite books from the twelve or so months preceding. However, 2022 has been a different sort of year for me in terms of blogging – a new job and changing domestic arrangements have meant that many of my old blogging routines have fallen away. To date, I’ve only posted ten articles this year, and although I am of course still writing (I maintain a practice of thirty minutes to an hour of daily weekday work, I’ve co-authored a children’s book, I’ve had the odd piece published), the way I channel my creative energy has had to a ..read more

Earlier this summer, my husband and I made an evening visit to the harbour at Dunbeath on our way back to Caithness after a day of appointments. In the preceding days, I had been reading Neil M. Gunn’s Highland River and wanted to reacquaint myself with the information boards on Gunn – who was born in Dunbeath – and the memorial statue of the book’s protagonist, Kenn, who is captured in a struggle with a salmon he lands in an early chapter of the book. At the time of our visit, tourism season was already well underway, and several motorhomes were parked up around the harbour. A box fixed to a ..read more

In 2021, Isla, a student of creative writing at the University of the Highlands and Islands, asked me to share my experiences of writing my first novel Castles of Steel and Thunder in this author interview. I’m happy to say that Isla also seemed to enjoy the follow-up book, Pieces of Sky and Stone, and recently asked me to take part in another Q&A session in a similar vein. Isla shared the interview with her newsletter subscribers earlier this month (you can sign up to her list here), and also gave me permission to share it here on the blog for anyone interested in reading more about my bo ..read more

One of the surest things about writing, or indeed any kind of creative pursuit, is the experience of rejection. Offering work up for any kind of scrutiny, be it through books, competition entries, submissions to agents or publishers – all of it entails the risk of someone saying ‘no’. Rejection isn’t as clear-cut as the word ‘no’ though, and can arrive in different forms – a mediocre book review, lacklustre sales, a less-than-fizzy book launch. All of these things (and more besides) can feel like rejection to the sensitive writer (and if there is another kind, I’m yet to meet them). At differe ..read more

Earlier this month, myself and fellow writers Andrea Wotherspoon, Ian Leith and Charlotte Platt launched our new book Finn and Friends at John O’Groats – A Collection of Verse and Stories. The launch marked the culmination of almost a year’s worth of work, which started with us meeting at John O’Groats to discuss how three new model animals near the landmark sign might fit into a children’s story book – and ended at pretty much the same spot as we gathered for photos on a sunny Sunday afternoon in June. After several pictures with the finished book at said sign (and a few other places), we hea ..read more

Implicit in my writing plan for the year (which I wrote about in this post back in January), was a desire to focus less on social media and more on the other writing I could send out into the world. As engaging as social media is, events towards the end of last year made me wonder about the kind of validation that feels important to me – and to consider if my time could be better spent elsewhere. I decided to focus my energies on writing for books, blog articles, competitions and submissions, and to direct more attention towards my readers’ club newsletter. As someone who can spend thirty or m ..read more