Lin Anderson’s Whispers of the Dead is sold as Rhona MacLeod Thriller. Ah, you might say. An established series. That’s good, in a way. Anderson is one of the top ten percent of writers that can afford to write and produce around a book a year. Front cover: The Daily Record labelled it (or her) The Best Scottish Crime Series Since Rebus . I know who Rebus is. I’ve even got a couple of his books lying around unread somewhere (I keep meaning to...

Being in an ‘escape mindset’, fancied an overnight trip to Edinburgh. Maybe get a senior railcard, travel first class for a treat. See the movie costumes at Dovecot, raid the art gallery shops. Check out medieval magical items at the Scottish National Gallery before the Oxford course starts. (What a swot). Go positively mad in Blackwell’s. However, an overnight tourist tax recently started, of 5% per night, so have changed my mind. Even with...

I’ve read J. Oliver Padgett’s work on ABCtales. I’d be able to pick out his writing from others by his measured style and a quirk that stands out like a thumbprint. I didn’t pay much attention to the title page or the title. But it made sense in the end. This is a short book. Just over 200 pages. It can be read in one sitting, which I could easily have done. But I left the last 20 or 30 pages until my concentration was better. And to give it the...

The pathway into the ‘Experimental Mindset’ is to make a pact with yourself. One at a time, no multi-pacting. A pact is not a generic or goal-based statement like, ‘I will write a book by Christmas’. Rather, ‘I will write 300 words each weekday for 100 days’, just to see what happens. Taking notes, recording observations of what happens along the way, not self-negating criticism, just data. In this way, everyday life becomes experimental and...

Camilla Läckberg & Henrik Fexeus’s Cult (2023) has sold more than 30 million copies. I like to say I’d read it, but I haven’t. I read around a fifth. The first 100 pages. For the record. My combined book sales lie about 3 copies, or more, maybe 4. Nordic noir is the new ABBA. Ossian is the kidnapped five year old boy whose disappearance drives the central plot. Frederik & Josefin, Ossian’s parents, are devastated by the abductor being a...

Was reading that people who complain a lot, say about other people’s fabulous movies not sticking verbatim to the book/poem, are responding from a cynical mindset. Of course, reading something nowadays doesn’t make it any truer than watching it on YouTube, doubly so if you read it via AI, but the notion of cynicism as blocked creativity chimed. I spend too much time complaining about complainers. Ergo ; it’s me who is stuck in a cynical mindset...

Filed by Fletcher Moody — Literary Correspondent There were forty-four speeches in that room on the Fourth of July, 1873, and a man killed every one of them with a single sentence, and I was there to watch it done. I was also, I should say at the front, carrying the forty-fourth. The occasion was the Independence Day dinner of the Americans in London, held that year with the full pomp the exiled patriot brings to the business of missing home. I...

When you’re out and about, getting in your 8000 steps, you are liable to cross paths (if not swords) with the crazy that is the dog lover. Not all dog walkers are dog lovers, but when they have their dog in a pram, take my advice, don’t make eye contact. Have come to the conclusion that many dog lovers have a dog for the sole purpose of seeking attention. This is not restricted to the senior dog lover, many of whom are the worst offenders for...

What is love? There was a pop song by Howard Jones that asked the question, 'What is love, anyway? Does anybody love anybody anyway?' It is a question that I have had to grapple with as a Christian. In western culture, the word love tends to be associated with romantic love. In America, young women used to wear a T shirt saying, 'Jesus is my number one (boyfriend.)' If the love of God is simply understood as a romantic feeling, this is unhelpful...

I receive more positive feedback about The Less Miserables than any of my other work... and nothing makes me happier. I love these stories, and I thought that all of you might want a "heads up" about the approaching end of the series. The next story is called "The Less Miserables Find a Way". I think this is the point of the entire series: finding a way . The lessons behind each story are principles of self-mastery. Hopefully, anyone who reads...