I will be reading at this event alongside my award winning, multi published Paisley Poetry Pals, Morag Smith, Kathryn Metcalfe and Mairi Murphy. Booking required. www.tickettailor.com/events/cultu... @asls.org.uk @byleaveswelive.bsky.social @whatsonrenfrew.bsky.social

Kind of obsssed with the Rennie Mackintosh lights in House for an Art Lover. Met a man whose son is now following him at Glasgow School of Art. He will never know the beauty of the old building.

At 16, Fru Agnes’s nobleman husband bound her to the island of Unst, to her dowry lands of Mossbawn. On Haraldsvik’s shore where her Viking ancestors arrived, she stands like the selkie staring austr, to where he took her surviving son. #Mossbawn #HistoricalFiction #scotwriterpitch2025

King James V escapes his childhood captivity, the Orkney Sinclairs slaughter their Caithness relatives and send the Earl’s head back to mainland of Scotland. As tensions rise, the inhabitants of Shetland’s northernmost isle, Unst must come together to defend their way of life. #scotwriterpitch2025

Mossbawn is a richly detailed historical novel that explores themes of power, identity, and survival in sixteenth century Hjaltland. When the ownership of her dowry lands on Unst are challenged, Fru Agnes, the owner of Mossbawn insists, ‘Ég á heima hér. This is where I belong.’ #scotwriterpitch2025

1529. 60 yrs since Shetland was ruled by Norway. Its northernmost island, Unst is not immune to the political and religious disruption erupting in the northern world. The widowed owner of Mossbawn is fighting to keep her dowry lands, her tenants safe and their Norse identity. #scotwriterpitch2025

Now turned into full blown bird whisperer. A parakeet coming to sit on a branch opposite my study window each morning. We whistle to each other.

Another superb author event at the Book Nook in Stewarton. Crime writer, Alex Gray terrifying as she shared she will kill you in one of her novels if you annoy her.

Translating fourteenth century Norn documents. I learned a lesson. Remember to send at least 5 family members to your new boss as hostages when taking up your new job.

Exotic new residents came for a visit yesterday. Must have enjoyed sitting in my apple trees. Parakeets returned this morning and took control of the bird feeder. Poor little blue tits. This IS Scotland.

When writing up the research gets too much, my stand in takes over.

Thrawn I am a dangerous woman, I have a voice.

A flock of these tiny finches arrived in an explosion of colour and spent a few hours feeding in my garden this morning. Off to explore further north.

You translate sixteenth century Scandinavian letters and weave events from a time of disruption into your Shetland novel. #writinginNorn

Sometimes when you hear the crazy you just need to breathe.

@dunnettcentral.bsky.social Weaving historical figures into Niccolo novels. Found in the Pinacoteca di Brera

@dunnettcentral.bsky.social could almost represent Lymmond's travels across the Mediterranean. Art I found in Cefalu on Sicily is similar to those found on the Akrotiri frescoe.

When you discover your window cleaner speaks Gaelic and your head is still in novel writing mode you swap words in Gaelic and the ancient Norse dialect of Norn. Then talk about the languages expressed in the landscape. You walk away in your happy place. @asls.org.uk

Have a wee vote, folks! Be assured it's not me, Liz Lochhead and Jackie Kay in competition with each other - god forbid! It's you choosing a line by each of us to be carved on the Parliament Wall. www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/2025/02/publ...

Public vote for new poetry quotes on the Scottish Parliament wall

Poetry quotes on Canongate Wall

scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk

Janice invited me on to her BBC Scotland Culture show to discuss the collective Women With Fierce Words which was founded to support women's voice. It exemplifies Janice's support of writers in Scotland. She compared my poetry to Maya Angelou. The biggest accolade I have ever received. Miss you.

I started photographing the mysterious world on the tops of fence posts on nearby farmland 5yrs ago.

8 yrs ago I was invited to write in Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera. I made a return visit in June 2024. This time I got to visit one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, Biblioteca di Brera.

Always scary when you share your novel manuscript for the first time and invite feedback.