It’s summer 2017, or so the calendar says – and while my blog has been quiet, I’ve been busy!

In addition to keeping up with my local writing group’s regular meetings and prompts, the last few months have seen me sending bits and pieces of writing out into the world. As a result, I’m delighted to announce that I have had short stories featured in two recent publications, Southlight Issue 21 and From Glasgow to Saturn Issue 38.

Southlight 21 and From Glasgow to Saturn 38

My story in Southlight 21

My story in From Glasgow to Saturn 38

‘Armour’, the short story featured in Southlight, originally came from a writers’ group prompt where we each had to write a story inspired by Caerlaverock, a local castle and nature reserve. I began with the castle, and had fun playing with character and setting. ‘The Fall of the Leaf’, the short story featured in From Glasgow to Saturn, again came from a writers’ group exercise. This time the group were presented with a selection of paintings and photographs, and challenged to write something inspired by one of them. For me, this produced a piece about a leaf falling down a well … more interesting than it sounds, I promise!

Castle Loch and Lockerbie Writers’ Writing Workshop

It hasn’t all been writing. Following on from the success of a small writing workshop which I ran back on 5th November 2016 (with a fireworks theme, of course!), last month I worked alongside other writers’ group members as well as local charity Castle Loch Community Trust to run a writing workshop. This event was fully booked and the day went extremely well – click here to visit Lockerbie Writers’ blog and find out more.

The workshops have been great fun, both to organise and to run. It’s always fascinating to hear about the participants and to find out a little about their writing background – and incredible to see the work which even the least confident of writers manages to produce in a short space of time, with the right prompts and writing exercises. I can’t wait to run more in the future.

Thank you for reading this blog. This, however, is where my writing life goes on hold … at least for now. If all goes well, then my next little creation will be Baby #2. With the bundle of joy due over the summer, I will now be taking a break from writing submissions and workshops, but I imagine there will be plenty coming up over the next few months to keep my pen scribbling!

Happy writing!