Recent Posts Tagged With 'scottish writing'

• Son of So who in their right mind writes a sequel?

  Posted on Wednesday August 12th, 2009 at 19:52 in novel, stranger than fiction, scottish writing

  When I finished my first draft of Living with the Truth I was, as all of you who've written your first novel will know, pretty damn chuffed with myself. I had had no aspirations to be a novelist. I had never intended to write a novel in the first pl...

• Aggie and Shuggie 15

  Posted on Monday December 8th, 2008 at 04:08 in book review, scottish writing

  Duggie: [Knock! Knock!]Shuggie: Oh, syoo. Whitya afta? Oor Maggie's no in.Duggie: Aye Ah know that n at. Ah wis achally lookin t'see yoo.Shuggie: Me? Whit fer?Duggie: Well, Ah heard oan the grapefine yoo wisa wee bit doon in the dumps cos yoor Jim ad...

• Aggie and Shuggie 14

  Posted on Saturday November 8th, 2008 at 06:51 in book review, scottish writing

  Maggie: Ma, how's m'da doin?Aggie: E's havin a wee lie doon, hen. E goat imsel inna awffe state aboot that last refyoo yer Unca Jim goat.Maggie: At wis no that bad, Ma.Aggie: Naw it wisne.Magge: Jahink e cud dae wi a wee bitta cheerin up?Aggie: Ah'm ...

• Aggie and Shuggie 13

  Posted on Wednesday November 5th, 2008 at 02:30 in reviews, book review, scottish writing

  Shuggie: FAMELY MEETIN!Aggie: Whit's up?Maggie: Aye, Da, whirsa fire?Shuggie: Ah widneuv cawd a famely meetin if it wernt an ootanoot disasta.Aggie: Huv ye bin sacked?Shuggie: Wurs an at.Maggie: The dug's no deed?Shuggie: Een wurs an at.Aggie: Cairm ...

• Aggie and Shuggie 12

  Posted on Friday October 31st, 2008 at 04:39 in interview, scottish writing

  Duggie: Mags. Mags!Maggie:: Ma da says Ah'm no sposte talk t'you.Duggie: How come?Maggie:: Cos yerra bad influence.Duggie: Ah'm no.Maggie:: Yoos are too, ye wee prick. Ye wis seen doon the gaswurks.Duggie: Ah don know whit ye mean.Maggie:: Ye do too,...

• Aggie and Shuggie 11

  Posted on Thursday October 30th, 2008 at 02:05 in book review, scottish writing

  Shuggie: Ag, whit d'ye know aboot Texans?Aggie: Texan? Is tha no a barra choclut?Shuggie: Aye, it yayst t'be but ye canne gettum ainy mair.Aggie: Cun ye no?Shuggie: Wull Ah've nae seen wan in doankey's years.Aggie: Gud. Ye shudne be stuffin ye face w...

• Wise words of wisdom

  Posted on Monday October 13th, 2008 at 07:13 in poetry, scottish writing

  Me today (yes, I always look that annoyed)I'm feeling my age. Actually I'm feeling someone else's age, a guy of about eighty-four. Suffice to say I'm getting to the age where I'm starting to see how well I might measure up to that eighty-four year-ol...

• What it means to be a writer

  Posted on Sunday October 12th, 2008 at 03:22 in writing, scottish writing

  Me at about 24 years of ageI don't really do the biography thing very often. I don't think I'm an especially interesting guy. I keep wishing I could come up with witty anecdotes like Ken Armstrong but I guess I've either lived a very boring life or â...

• Jewelweed

  Posted on Wednesday September 17th, 2008 at 18:12 in short story, scottish writing

  Where do stories come from? Where do stories come from? I wish I knew. I really do. I'd up roots and move there. There are some where I know exactly where they've come from. Take my story 'Zeitgeist' foe example, I was sitting on a bus coming back fr...

• Aggie and Shuggie 9

  Posted on Sunday September 14th, 2008 at 18:01 in book review, scottish writing

  Aggie: Whur've ye bin? Ah'm freezin ma tits aff waitin fer yoo.Maggie: Sorry, Ma. Da kept me talkin an Ah wis late fer the bus.Aggie: Ah hope so. Jist as loang as yoo wurnae hangin aroun wi that Duggie Scoat character.Maggie: Ah wisne.Aggie: Wull yoo...

• Aggie and Shuggie 8

  Posted on Sunday September 7th, 2008 at 18:50 in book review, scottish writing

  Maggie: Da!Shuggie: Whit's up, hen?Maggie: Mere an luk at Sassy Mama Bear's site.Shuggie: Ah've no time fer weans' stuffMaggie: It's no weans’ stuff, Da.Shuggie: Aye it is, GingerloaksMaggie: She's no that Mama Bear. She's cawd Pennylope.Shuggie: Y...

• Aggie and Shuggie 4

  Posted on Sunday July 13th, 2008 at 04:08 in book review, beckett, scottish writing

  Maggie:  Ma! C'mere, Ma.Aggie:   Whit is it? Ah'm tryin t fix yer faither's tea.Maggie:   Huv ye seen these new reviews af Unca Jim's book?Aggie:   Does yer da know yer usin his comptuta?Maggie:   Ah wis daen skulwork.Aggie...

• Self Publishers Anonymous

  Posted on Tuesday June 24th, 2008 at 08:13 in self-publishing, scottish writing

  In 1912 the English writer Adeline Stephen married the writer Leonard Woolf to whom she stayed married until 1941 when she committed suicide. The couple's marriage was actually a happy affair despite the fact she suffered badly from manic depression;...

• Aggie and Shuggie 3

  Posted on Sunday June 22nd, 2008 at 03:39 in book review, scottish writing

  AGGIE: Shuggie!SHUGGIE: (snore)AGGIE: SHUGGIE!SHUGGIE: Whithefu?AGGIE: Have ye seen Rachel Fox's bloag t'day?SHUGGIE: Naw, Ah don't read her stuff. She rambles an Ah've enough wi wan wumman ramblin oan at me aw day long ...

• Big brothers and blind poets

  Posted on Thursday June 19th, 2008 at 03:04 in borges, big brother, scottish writing

  Seeing has always, to perhaps an extreme extent, been my sense of choice… I couldn't ever see or read enough. – Candia McWilliamBig Brother is back. Yay. I wonder what the ratio is these days between those who associate 'Big Brother' with the rea...

• Aggie and Shuggie 2

  Posted on Thursday June 12th, 2008 at 05:35 in book review, scottish writing

  AGGIE: Whit's qualia when it's at hame?SHUGGIE: Qualia?AGGIE: Aye.SHUGGIE: Is that no a wee burd, like a pigeon?AGGIE: Nah, that's a quail, ye daft bat.SHUGGIE: So where're ye readin aboot qualias?AGGIE: Oan Kay Sexton's bloag.SHUGGIE: Never heard af...

• Aggie and Shuggie

  Posted on Sunday June 8th, 2008 at 18:20 in book review, scottish writing

  AGGIE: Shuggie!SHUGGIE: Whit?AGGIE: Have ye seen oor Jim's bloag?SHUGGIE: Why?AGGIE: It's no there.SHUGGIE: Whidja mean, "No there?"AGGIE: Ah'm tellin ye, it's no there.SHUGGIE: Shove o'er. Let me look.AGGIE: See!SHUGGIE: Wait till Ah find ma glasses...

• Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

  Posted on Sunday May 25th, 2008 at 18:35 in book review, scottish writing

  Okay, Jim so where's your usual incisive and witty blog gone? Good question. Normal service will be resumed shortly. In the meantime I've had the first honest-to-goodness review of my novel and I'd like to share it with all of you. It's by a guy call...

• Confident writing

  Posted on Monday April 7th, 2008 at 07:31 in power, scottish writing

  I know I said it would be normal service again today but bear with me.There are a few things I could be good at in this life apart from being a writer but I don't think I'd make a good motivational speaker. For a writer I'm a pretty poor liar. I'm no...

• Fighting with writing

  Posted on Thursday April 3rd, 2008 at 17:33 in scottish writing

  If life hands you lemons make lemonade, so the old adage goes. It's the theme behind my latest blog which you'll find not here but on the Fighting with Writing blog, a site about a guy learning how to write. Tam, the blog's author, is a young bloke f...

• The Ranfurly Review

  Posted on Wednesday March 5th, 2008 at 18:30 in scottish writing, ranfurly review

  I’m pleased to inform you that two of my short stories appear in Issue #2 of The Ranfurly Review, a relatively new Scottish literary journal. You can download a PDF on their site. The Ranfurly Review is the brain-child of Scottish author and poet, ...

• Buy Fresh

  Posted on Sunday February 10th, 2008 at 08:45 in fresh, scottish writing, a l kennedy, scottish book of the year, mark mcnay

  A lot of attention was given to the Scottish Book of the Year winner, A L Kennedy, for her novel, Day, and I am sure deservedly so, but I never heard a peep about the Scottish First Book of the Year: Mark McNay's Fresh.Canongate, the publisher, very ...

• Expletive Ê„#@%ing deleted

  Posted on Wednesday February 6th, 2008 at 18:03 in swearing, scottish writing

  I don't swear, not real swearing, although I am partial to the occasional minced oath. I have sworn. I can swear. I don't have some sort of physical or mental impediment that prevents me from swearing nor do I support any ideology that either frowns ...

• Just another fence thrown round the field

  Posted on Saturday December 15th, 2007 at 19:22 in tom leonard, scottish writing

  I was trying to remember the first book of poetry I bought. I don't have it anymore but it was a collection by the Glasgow poet, Tom Leonard. I bought it because it contained a lengthy poem with an equally lengthy title, 'A priest came on at Merkland...

• Best Scottish Poems of 2007

  Posted on Thursday December 6th, 2007 at 23:17 in scottish writing, scottish poetry

  Poetry Online's entries for the Best Scottish Poems of 2007 are now up and you should have a wee shuftie as we say here. What I particularly like about the entries is that they contain comments from the poets and the editors, some quite lengthy.If yo...

• English in its underwear

  Posted on Sunday September 30th, 2007 at 15:12 in metaphor, scottish writing

  Scots is English in its underwear. It's difficult to be pretentious in a language like that.I’m sorry to say that the above quote is not one of mine. I’m far from sorry to say that I knew the man who said it. William McIlvanney is a much-respecte...