Writers Blog Tour

My thanks to Caroline Gill for inviting me to join the current Blog Tour.

My understanding is that I have to answer the four questions below and then invite a fellow writer or two to do the same. So here goes ...

What am I working on?

My main piece of writing at the moment is a novel about climate change refugees in a future, independent and much flooded Hebrides. I'm relatively happy with the first 2/3 of this book and the ending, but between lies a black hole which I'm currently trying to fill. I have the ideas, all I need to do is write.....

I'm always writing poetry too, and perhaps foolishly have signed up to NaPoWriMo, the National Poetry Writing Month, which takes place in April.  The idea being that this will help me to capture more of the inspiring ideas i have before they escape.... (My poem 'Influential Poets' has just been added to my page at Verse Wrights).

I write haiku all the time, mostly inspired by nature. 

I've just come to the end of a term of teaching creative writing at the Ripple Project in the Lochend area of Edinburgh. This is a brilliant class to teach, everyone is so keen to join in discussions about writing (though we sometimes veer off topic!) and everyone in the class is talented and imaginative. Another class will start just after Easter, so I'm looking forward to that. 

For the past 8 years I've enjoyed editing Bolts of Silk, an online poetry journal. I recently decided to bring this to a close though and the last poem will be published there on the day that swifts return to Edinburgh this spring.

How does my work differ from others in the genre?

My novel takes a more internationalist approach to the topic of a future climate changed Scotland (there are a few good novels already out there on a similar theme, most notably Angus Dunn's Writing in the Sand).

Why do I write?

I enjoy the process of writing (I have surprised myself by how much I'm genuinely enjoying writing a novel, though admittedly there are times when it's not going well, but overall, definitely an enjoyable experience). 

I feel I have things to say that I want to share with other people.

How does my writing process work?

I write haiku when inspiration strikes, which is usually at least a few times a week.

With longer poetry I have a box of ideas and half worked poems which I add to and work on on an ongoing basis. I also write poetry in response to prompts I find on websites or for competitions.

My novel started out as a NaNoWriMo work a couple of years ago and was largely made up of very bad dialogue, because that was the easiest way to keep up the word count! I have since then entirely rewritten it into something much more readable and have quite thoroughly rewritten the first 2/3, with the help of Crafty Green Boyfriend, who has given me a lot of very useful ideas. Currently I'm a bit stuck, though I have worked up some ideas of where to take the story next, but I just need to write these into the narrative and find the impetus again.

I'm going to pass this on totwo Edinburgh based writers: 




Nasim at velogubbed.
Marianne Wheelagan - read her answers here.