It’s Snowtime!

Hello! Do you have snow? We woke to quite a dumping of the white stuff yesterday morning, which was a shock as it hadn’t been on my radar.

It all looks lovely, of course (well, until It starts turning slushy) but it’s not great if you’ve got to get anywhere, is it? I am extremely envious of the people who’ve been posting pictures of a book, a box of chocolates and a fire and are definitely Not Going Out.

Bonnie loves the snow. She skids around in it like a puppy. Here are some action shots of her today. You can tell she was running pretty fast by the angle of her ears!

Not a black and white photo. It was just a monochrome day!

‘Harrogate Crime Festival’ Anyone?

If you’d like to go to the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in July next year (and it always looks and sounds fab from Twitter, so who wouldn’t?!) but it’s out of your price range, author Lauren North is very kindly sponsoring a place for a crime writer (whether published or unpublished) who hasn’t been before due to cost and perhaps other reasons.

She’s offering this great prize in memory of her dad who died in 2021, as he was kind and generous to others during his life, so that’s a lovely thing to do.

All the details are here (you can also nominate someone else but make sure they’re able to go, first!). And you have until 14th January 2023 to apply.

Glencairn Glass Crime Story Competition (closing 31st Dec 2022)

Those lovely people at Glencairn Crystal are running another short story competition for a ‘crime story set in Scotland’ (2000 words or less, open worldwide), which is free to enter, closes on 31st December (eek, not much time but sorry, I’ve only just spotted it!) and has a tasty first prize of £1000.

All the details are on the website and good luck if you decide to have a go. You can also read last year’s winners here, which is always a good idea, if you’re entering a competition. It’ll give you a flavour for the kind of stories they’re likely to pick.

‘The Highland Girls at War’ – Paperback coming!

And still on a Scottish theme, here’s a wee reminder, that the paperback of ‘The Highland Girls At War’ will be out on 22nd December, just in time for Christmas.

I suspect that if you pre-order it, you will receive it on that date (at least, that’s what happened with the last novel) but I suppose, given that it’s Christmas and there are postal issues and stuff, that can’t be guaranteed. So, I’d better not say that it would make a great Christmas present for anyone who’d like a fun, uplifting read about WW2, romance, friendship and girl power, then. But if you want to chance it, then you can pre-order it here.