Category Archives: Writing

Background to writing

Writing effective blog posts ~ I suggest you ‘Do as I say and not as I do’

As I was trying to be organised and think through a plan for blog posts for the next month I realised how haphazard I’d been of late, for various reasons and have vowed to try to do better. I’m sure if I were more disciplined I would follow the following:

  1. Write regularly so that your readers get to know you and look forward to your posts. Personally I admit that I’ve been distracted from writing my blogs, from Twitter and from Facebook in the past couple of years. Firstly real life got in the way as we settled into our move to Fife. Then I was spooked by talk of problems of security with Social Media. (could do better)
  2. Be consistent ~ if your readers want to read about the background to writing, or wish to follow a travel journal, browse comments about health or even the best wines, then they search for it.  A blogger needs to find what interests them and share it in the best possible way ~ prose, poetry, photos, diagrams, lists …. (I’m afraid I’ve failed on this one too. My posts are, at present, spasmodic to say the least and flit from subject to subject as the mood takes me.)
  3. Make your themes within your topic clear ~ Using tabs carefully, which helps you to be found on a search engine too incidentally, you can cover a few themes -categories – within your umbrella topic, but your readers should be able to find them easily. (Oh dear ~ I rather like my cloud of many themes to the right hand side of the screen, but with hindsight it would have been best to plan my posts better and restrict the number of categories.)
  4. Use Tabs and Categories ~ always remember to set up these pesky little details. They appear at the bottom of your post and help the reader to find your posts when searching within WordPress but also on Google. (Hooray ~ Yes, I nearly always remember to do this now.)
  5. Always proof read carefully before clicking the final ‘publish’ button. (I hold my hand up here as I sometimes look back on posts and, though I’ve read it through a couple of times, pesky errors have crept in unbidden.) It also helps to schedule the post in a couple of days in advance, giving you time to revisit meanwhile and scrutinise it with fresh eyes.
  6. Not too long ~( I think I’m OK with this one.)
  7. Do your research carefully ~ (yes I’m fairly good at that too)

I’m sure there are many more, but now I’ve remembered that planning and being organised is the key I will attempt to get back on track.

My next post will be to complete a=the long awaited end to a series I began a few months ago ~ A Virtual Walk Along the Fife Coastal Path ~ I will finally write about the last walk (for me) to St Andrews. After that I’ll let you know.

Happy blogging!

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Filed under Blogs, Social Media Networking, Writing

Glen Clova ~ a gem of a journey for creative inspiration

We were talking about trips to the mountains from Fife with our local artist and friend Douglas Gray and he mentioned Glen Clova and described how to reach it via Dundee. Douglas returns there frequently for inspiration for his painting, but for me it was a taster day to reinvigorate my ‘little brain cells’.

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Around fifteen miles north of Dundee you reach the little town of Forfar, the birthplace of James Matthew Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. Glen Clova can be reached on the other side of Forfar; a beautiful drive through the lowland hills towards the mountains ~ the Cairngorms. A five hour walk from Glen Clova itself will take you to Breamar so I’m told. The settlement itself is tiny; the hotel and various log cabins are dotted up the hill behind it.

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At the base of these foothills is Hotel Glen Clova, a great place for lunch, refreshments to break up your drive or to enjoy at the end of a lovely walk, of which there are many. It is one of those places we will return to, maybe to stay the night on a special occasion when we can set out on a hike for a full day.

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As the view of the hills leads your eyes into the far distance, and you breathe in the fresh clean air, it clears your head to be refilled with renewed creativity.

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Filed under Scotland, Scottish authors, Writing

Who’d have thought it? ~ 60!

images3As I approach my 60th birthday, in between a dream of a lifetime trip to Venice and a quiet celebration with my husband, mum and dad up here in Scotland (God willing), I have been reflecting on my ‘path’ to this moment in time in my writing life.

I have penned stories and poems since my teens for my personal pleasure, much inspired by Mrs Yates, my English teacher to A Level. However, it wasn’t until my late forties, the first time in my life I was made redundant, that I was inspired to write my first novel Riduna, (the Roman name for the Channel Island of Alderney) which was finally published in 2009.

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Fort Albert, Alderney

It was on a family holiday to the island of Alderney in fact, that I learnt about my wayward Great Grandmother Harriet. She tragically lost both parents at sea when she was eight, then in her teens she became too much to handle for her grandparents, who ran a public house and guest house, and was shipped off to live with her aunt on Guernsey. Her misdemeanor was allegedly too much fraternising with the soldiers stationed in the newly built forts of this ‘Gibraltar of the English Channel’!

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My family history inspired its sequel Ancasta Guide me Swiftly Home (Ancasta is the Goddess of the River Itchen, Hampshire), which was published in 2012. Then a series of chance remarks in emails led me to write Murder, Now and Then (published in 2014)a book which linked where I lived in Bedfordshire to the Channel Islands in two time zone murders 100 years apart.

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Nellie Rault’s grave in Haynes churchyard, Bedfordshire

That same year Fife beckoned us, with a work transfer for my husband simultaneously to me being made redundant for the second time in my life. The Healing Paths of Fife naturally transpired from this life changing move north to Scotland. It is  a special book for me and a way of saying thank you to my new community, friends and the lovely Kingdom of Fife, which has welcomed us.

…and so in the months leading me up to my 60th birthday I have been writing once more in earnest. This new novel is a very different venture. It is a mystery inspired by social areas of need pertinent to our age, all of which we are all struggling to address. I hope it challenges perceptions but also that the reader warms to the colourful characters.

I will say no more at this stage because it has a few stages to go through before publication, but I am very excited about this project and feel full of hope for my 60th year.

For a more personal reflection on my 60 years visit http://www.selectionsofreflections.wordpress.com in a few days time.

Thanks for all your support!

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Filed under Channel Islands, Fife, Southampton, Writing