Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label bookshelf

A Happy Halloween Gothtail (cocktail!)

You may remember our delicious Scottish-themed cocktail: Caledon , which we shared on Christmas Eve in 2024. This remains one of our most popular blog posts, so we thought we would share another one for you on this All Hallow's Eve! With that in mind, I am pleased to introduce you to: The Raighvan Park , inspired by Judith Crow's novella, The Folly at Raighvan Park, which you can find here . Here are your step by step instructions for creating this gothic beverage (have we just invented the gothtail ?!) It's deliciously dark, as you might expect, with a hint of the upper-class style of the novella. You will need: 1. Port  2. Patron Xo Cafe (you could use any other coffee liqueur) 3. Soda water with lime 4. Ginger ale 5. Pepsi Max 6. Liquorice Time to put them all together... 1. Pour one shot of coffee liqueur into a large wine glass. 2. Add one shot of port. Remember, a gothic gentleman loves his port! 3. Now onto the non-alcoholic additions... include two shots of soda wat...

#IndieApril Craggy the Coo: Nicol's #ShareYourShelf blog!

I was warned ahead of this week that the theme of one of my blog posts would be “Share Your Shelf”. And, if I’m honest, I’ve been putting this one off because it was always destined to out me as a nerd of the highest (or should that be lowest?) order. My bedroom shelf contains very little in the way of fiction. It is largely stocked with books that have gathered more dust than an Egyptian mummy, and might one day find their way into a Museum of Nerdery. Specifically, my shelf runneth over with titles relating to either Scottish history and geography, or to seabirds. In some cases, my books are dedicated specifically to Scottish seabirds. As a boy, I was obsessed with how many pairs of Manx shearwater bred on the Isle of Rum, or how many gannets occupied the Bass Rock as opposed to St Kilda or Ailsa Craig. I was consumed by a need to visit all of the major seabird colonies around our shores. Ailsa Craig regrettably remains on my bucket list, but if you haven’t set foot on Hirta or the B...

#ShareYourShelf for #IndieApril - Meet our first guest author: Paul Lafferty

Throughout #IndieApril, we're inviting indie authors to share their bookshelves with us so that we can share them with you! We asked indie authors to share some information about their pictures, too. A look at anyone's bookshelf is fascinating, but a look at an author's  bookshelf is like discovering why and how their world turns! Our first indie author is Paul Lafferty, a crime writer from Ontario. Thanks for joining us, Paul! So here is the first of 5 bookcases around the house. This is the second one that deals Crime. A lot of non-fiction titles here than in the other bookcases. Bike gangs, organized crime, local corruption, research (my own and books from others) on these subjects. For now my writing deals with crime fiction. Although there are plans to write a few non-fiction books in those areas. I spent over 20 years working as a bouncer/DJ/bodyguard managing various strip clubs in Niagara Falls, Ontario. All of these memories form the basis of my first novel Down th...