The lovely people at Novelicious.com have published a piece about where I write in their 'writing room' series here. Unfortunately they could only fit in one photo so here are the missing two that they had to edit out. No great loss, I think we can agree. The last photo is the view from my 'old' writing room and has a lot to do with why Ursula's Secret took me three years to write. 
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City flat desk space best described as compact and only for use when no visitors...yes, it's in the corner of the spare room.

Then this little beauty is a folding laptop table from The Futon Company that lets me set up writing camp anywhere I want to - kitchen table, armchair, bed. It even has a drawer tucked underneath - love it.  

I used to spend hours of writing time just losing myself in this wonderful view. Fabulous for soothing any jangling nerves but not so great for productivity. But hey, what is this life if, full of care, we have no time to sit and stare. (Apologies to William Henry Davies.) 

My advance copies of 'Ursula's Secret' have arrived! It is an amazing feeling to hold a book with my name on it in my hands - very, very exciting but quite surreal too. It also means the work I'd scheduled for today on the next book is unlikely to happen as Ursula just keeps getting in the way. Hey ho...guess I'll have to give in and go celebrate!

.I'm very excited to let you know that we'll be launching Ursula's Secret on November 4th at 6pm at Waterstones West End, Princes Street, Edinburgh.

The event will be held in the Cafe W area on the top floor, It's free and there will be refreshments, but as space is limited it would be really helpful if you could RSVP on the Facebook event page where you'll find full details. Thanks and hope to see you there! 

Please RSVP here https://www.facebook.com/events/1504180023240009/ 

A brilliant weekend at another successful Portobello Book Festival. Can't believe how good a programme they give us every year - and the whole thing is run entirely by volunteers. Very impressive.

The opening inheritance-themed event on Friday night included music from the Lothian B'Us Male Voice Choir (I'll never get on a bus again without hoping the driver will burst into song) and a beautiful song from Rosie Nimmo to raise funds for the refugee crisis (Clouds Colliding - check it out) as well as a couple of sets from The Blue Moon Travellers and a few tunes from Doug Johnstone who also read a short story. Other readings included more short stories, essay extracts and poetry, and it was lovely to be given the opportunity to read an extract from Ursula's Secret. Highlights from the rest of the weekend included a writing and yoga workshop run by Meaghan Delahunt and Brigid Collins - hope they'll do more of these - and Val McDermid talking about her inheritance books. For obvious reasons, I was particularly interested in hearing novelists Catherine Simpson (Truestory) and Lucy Ribchester (The Hourglass Factory) talking to Lynsey May about their experiences of having their first novels published and what happens next. Always good to know what to expect...