Rae of Light

This summer I’m wending my way up to Edinburgh with my best Sheffield buddy for my annual ‘summer’ holiday.   The weather isn’t exactly playing its part in my idea of a summer break, but then choosing to take a holiday in the UK is the price I have to pay for that.  So no bikini or sunblock. There are two reasons why I’m heading to Scotland.  And no, one of them isn’t my defection north of the border due to Brexit, though I was sorely tempted.  Nor is it because the knuckle-biting good looking redheads up that way are more plentiful.  I have certain friends who would argue this second is exactly why I’m going, but I insist there are two more pressing reasons.  These are: I’ve always wanted to visit Edinburgh and decided after being in the UK for over 20 years it was about time I finally did it. I need to do some research for my prequel – Palindrome.   The research will take place in and around Haddington but it seemed like the perfe...

As promised, here is the first of my writing about writing posts.  I believe I said we'd be starting with Setting.  So here goes. When I was 15, my very first novella was set on a farm in South Africa.  The reason for this was the characters felt as though that was where they wanted to be.  Perhaps there was also an element of my own desire to be in that particular landscape.  I’ve never lived on a farm but was lucky enough to know people who did and had watched an abundance of Little House on The Prairie .  Young and naïve as I was at this writing lark, I thought that was all I needed to know. Now however I never think too much about where I set my writing.  But countries, cities and particular areas I visit, work and play in, always predominate. During my university days and for a while after, I studied and lived in Manchester and its surrounding areas.  So I have a great fondness for tit North.  It will come as no surprise ...