Goodreads!

As the publication date for Happiness Is Wasted On Me approaches, I've decided to sort out my Goodreads account and start to take it a bit seriously. I've got a lot of books to catalogue, so over the next few months I'll be sorting and sifting through them, adding reviews and entries. If you have…

The Bravery by The Bravery

The Bravery were a song and a video but definitely not an album. Goodness, why would I buy that? They weren't my thing at all, so I thought. My opinion was based on nothing other than a photograph of them in NME. Back in the noughties, I tended to identify what I liked and hated…

Why I love The Doctor AKA The Jodie Whittaker Fan Club

Doctor Who is my favourite thing in the universe ever since I watched Ace beat up a Dalek with a baseball bat on my old black and white telly. Over the years, I've supported the show through cancellation to the revival and all the major changes in between. When I discovered The Doctor would be…

Ping Pong Bitches by Ping Ping Bitches

The Sunday Mail seemed to live at the side of the couch until the next edition appeared. At this point in my life, when I was heading to college, the Sunday newspapers felt like a mandatory part of working class life. Everyone read the News of the World and (here in Scotland) the Sunday Mail.…

Bad memory people

DORA - My mother had this really nasty friend who once tried to get into the bathroom while I was having a bath. I never liked her and couldn't understand why she had all those boyfriends. What did they see in her? Her appeal was completely lost on me. All those men cheating on their…

The books that didn’t make it

For every book that gets published, there are books that didn't make it. For whatever reason, they just didn't make it. An agent couldn't sell it. A publisher went cold on it. Bad timing. Bad luck. Sometimes the author decides to bin the book. I have four YA novels published and an adult novel soon…

I’ve laminated my Dorit Kemsley fan club badge

I can't pretend The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills is my favourite show from the long-running, mega-successful franchise. My heart belongs to New York. However, I watch most of the various different shows in the Real Housewives umbrella. Beverly Hills is often regarded and referred to as 'lifestyle porn' because it presents the cast in…

Books I love you might not know but should know because I love these books

I feel like a hunter when I'm in a book shop. I get the same feeling when I'm in a record shop. I want something. I must have something. It's there somewhere, hiding, so I've got to find it. That means exploring the surroundings. When I get a book or a record/CD that I didn't…

Do you feel the need for tweed?

There we were, laughing and chatting, when suddenly we realised we weren't alone. This isn't unusual in a public building, in our case the local library. I'd been put on a shift with Andrea and we were enjoying ourselves. I'd always found it easy to chat with Andrea, whose sense of silliness matched my own.…

Mr. Magic gets on his bike

I'd heard stories about The Cumbernauld Flasher from friends but none of us really believed he existed. He was an urban legend, constantly shifting shape and location, a threat we didn't actually take too seriously. And then one day I did. Nearly a decade ago while working in Abronhill Library, close to the school where…