Will your story be in our tenth anthology? ... Four words which created a legendary story ... -~-~- Picture this: a mother and her four children walking through the streets of Edinburgh as the night begins to close in. They are looking for a room for the night, but each house is full. The stone buildings seem to grow darker as the streetlamps throw out as much shadow as light. Finally, one of the proprietors offers a positive response and the family hurry inside, into a cramped room with metal bunkbeds, but nonetheless comfy mattresses. Frightened at these new surroundings, concerned that she has brought her children into an unsafe surrounding, the mother puts the children to bed and tries to persuade herself to sleep. The room inside is darker than the putrid orange glow of the sporadic streetlights in the world beyond the curtains which are masking the window, and she once more checks the lock on the door before climbing into her own bed. Then it happens. Knock-knock-knock. Willing h...
I'm not a nature writer - I don't know nearly enough to pass myself off as one! But, as this month marks the #30DaysWild campaign, I thought I'd take you on a guided tour of some of my own observations of the natural world and how they impacted on my historical writing... First of all, there was that walk which led to the creation of Caledon . Yes, I've blogged about it so often I won't repeat it all again! But there are things in nature which capture your imagination. The Big Burn waterfall was one of those things for me. Writing the discovery which James made was easy to do because it was just how I had felt. Here it is: Somewhere, only a short distance from him, the sound of a waterfall could be heard, both heavy and gentle in a manner which made his head throb even more. It was the hard work and efforts of these falls which had carved out the ravine where he lay. The trees which had broken his fall on his way down, clung to the sheer sides and gave the April s...