Digital Mist update

I've just tweaked the Kindle version of Scotch Mist a little to include the rewriting of the first two chapters which I did a couple of years ago.  Basically, I always felt the opening wasn't up to scratch - it didn't really set the tone for the rest of the story - and although most readers won't notice the very subtle changes I made, I still wanted it to be the best I could make it.  It should be available on the amazon site by Sunday.  Feel much happier about it now its been sorted!!

Busy week...!

SUNDAY:  Just checked: it's there and ready to be read!!!

Grouse and Partridge Country part 1

I love being on holiday.  And being on holiday when it is raining like the second flood means there's no requirement to go outside!  So as well as overhauling this blog  this week, I've been tinkering with Pinterest.  It has to be the biggest time-swallower known to creation, but it is strangely addictive and I've really enjoyed pulling together my 'Mist Broth and Pine' mood board!  I'll be adding some of the photos I've collected over the years of writing about G & P in the next few weeks.  Of course it's a work avoidance tactic: my 'office' front room looks like a disaster zone, strewn as it is with 20 years worth of teaching materials I've now started bringing home from work!  This was supposed to be the week I made a start on clearing it all away...  But I've been far too busy playing with the internet!

Looking through the photos I realised I'm really missing Scotland.  It's six years since I was last there on holiday, which is where most of the photos came from.  I was very aware that we were touring 'Grouse and Partridge' country and the innovation of a brand new digital camera meant that I photographed anything and everything I thought might be useful as a memory-jogger.  So I thought I'd share some of them here as well as on Pinterest - kind of a 'virtual tour'!

I thought we'd start with Hamish's 'home' village: the place where Nancy and Bessie ran the tea shop. When we arrived in Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond I knew it was the place I'd been describing. I could imagine the Bonnie bumping down these roads with Partridge waving from the side car!

The gate of the church in Luss  eventually appeared as the wee village church at the end of Scotch Pine.  I liked the shadows on the wall and the shade - it was actually a really sunny day when I took this, very warm and summery.  We'd just had tea (and cake!) in a coffee shop which was very much the way I'd imagined The Pear Tree Cottage tea rooms, complete with (very tasteful!) tartan crockery.   

This is the view looking back up into the village from  Loch Lomond and the church graveyard (where Bessie is buried) is below: you can see the Loch clearly at the back and the hills beyond it.  What a spot for a final resting place! 

It's a very small village and yet within ten minutes of arriving, I'd bumped into someone I work with -   It's that sort of place. 

Just a passing thought...

If a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, a book of 140 000 words may well start with a single sentence...

Why has something this OBVIOUS only just occured to me now??

(We've had a bit of a face lift to mark the relaunch too - hope it is to everyone's taste!)

Forget my feeble efforts - this is the real thing!!!

Big announcement from Orion books about ten minutes ago!http://www.ianrankin.net/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=180

I have just let out a whoop of joy and fallen off the sofa in excitement!!!  Can I wait till November????  This is just the BEST news of the year!

Welcome back, Rebus!  I've really missed you!

Broth and Pine go Digital too!

Never let it be said that I wasted the long Diamond Jubilee weekend! Scotch Broth has joined Scotch Mist as an Amazon Kindle book and Scotch Pine  should be available within the next few hours!  I am really excited by this.  I'm also terrified that I'll have done something incredibly stupid and they'll come out all mangled and horrible!  If you are a fan and you want to leave an Amazon review, it would be gratefully received, by the way!

I've now spent the best part of three days on my laptop - time to give it a bit of a rest, I think!!

Mist goes Digital!

STOP PRESS!!!!!

'Scotch Mist' has just gone digital! 
I've just finished uploading it to Amazon - it's Kindled and ready to set the publishing world on fire! 
Well, maybe not the last bit, but certainly the first bit! 
Please spread the news!  Tell everyone you know! 
Grouse and Partridge should be available to buy from Amazon in less than 12 hours...!  Woooo hoooo!!!!

Right.  Now I've calmed down, I'd better get started on 'Broth' and 'Pine'!

The good news is...

I've been sitting on this news for over six weeks now and it's become a really badly kept secret, but I think I'm ready to face the world with it at last.  After 19 years in the same job I'm moving on to pastures new, to a brand new post in a not so brand new place - the school where I was taught from the ages of 11 to 18. 

Lots of people I know have asked me why I'm going and my answer is a simple one.  At the moment I commute upwards of 3 hours a day - walk, bus, train, long walk, work, lift to station, train, bus, walk. I am spending 35 days per year on public transport just getting to and from work.  Instead, I'm swapping for a ten minute door-to-door stroll there and another one back again.

I'll be sad to leave somewhere where I've been so happy - the place which was responsible for Grouse and Partridge existing in any form at all and which encouraged me so much when I started to write 'for real'. But I'm more than ready for the next adventure - and the fact that I'm gaining some 'me' time will be a huge bonus.  And I really won't miss the cold, decrepit and dirty trains, the delays and cancellations, the cable thefts, the germ ridden atmosphere, the horrid railway 'station' (and I use the word advisedly!) and the hours wasted hanging round Costa coffee till it's time to go home.

I've got half a term left to work: it's going to be strange.  But I really couldn't be happier about it!

I feel more creative already!  Cheers!