Anyhoo

Newbie Night at the Fringe was a great success. We had some of the guys reading their stories from "The Small Print", along with a fine excerpt from fantasy book reminiscent of "Dune", bitchy drag queens("like a Woman's Institute meeting with the bass turned up"), and some very Scottish superheroes read by our own Kirsti from the Edinburgh writers' group.

Reading in public is scary. I know this. I used to be terrified of doing it. So I was watching out for shaking hands, breathless pauses, and of course the ultimate -- complete corpsification on stage. Where did I hear that word? Gav?

Gavin Inglis organised the event (all the www.underword.co.uk events) and began the evening by reading a story he'd written when he was nine, an SF tale in which a spaceship plunges into a black hole only to encounter an enormous set of gnashing metal teeth.

Nobody died on stage. Most people actually looked very confident indeed, which is amazing when you consider how packed the place was. Well done.

Anyhoo, there are lots more writerly and readerly events to come. So if you're in Edinburgh, get down there. I'd be there every night myself if I didn't live so far away.

See? I'm back on topic already.

Sod it.

I was pretty angry earlier about the release of the Lockerbie bomber, so I posted a political rant which really had no place on a fantasy blog. I swore I'd stop doing things like that because it always starts a debate in the comments that I never have time to keep up with. Please do hit me if I do it again. I'll stick to apolitical topics.

Edinburgh Book Festival

I keep forgetting I'm supposed to maintain a blog, what with real life happening all the time. There's been a lot to think about. Work on the next book continues. My characters are behaving themselves, mostly, and I've battered my plot with a stick until I know where it's going. I'm doing something a bit different with this book, something that I really can't talk about, but that I hope proves to be interesting and fun, even if it was utterly pointless mentioning it.

The Edinburgh book festival has started. The opening party was fine. Highland Park sponsored it, so free malt whisky all round, making me a happy Scot. Only a few faces I recognised, but it was nice to chat with Ken MacLeod and Joe Gordon among others. There was also a large man with enormous hair, who I don't know but keep seeing at literary events. Every time I see him, I feel an urge to introduce myself because his hair is so huge. I don't know why I should feel that way.

I'll be giving a workshop on writing fantasy this Friday -- a sort of Rough Guide for writers to bring with them to imaginary places -- so I've been working hard on refining that. If anyone reading this is attending, I look forward to meeting you, and I sincerely hope I can inspire you.

If you're in Edinburgh during the festival, I strongly recommend http://underword.co.uk/
Tonight is the "Newbie Night", during which a number of local writers will be reading in public for the first time. There must be a lot of shredded nerves in the capital this afternoon. I'll be prowling around the back, ready to thump hecklers. It's at Finger's Piano Bar, and drinks are £4 a pint. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Back to work now. See you at underword, or on Friday, or maybe never.