In all honesty, I prefer detectives who treat murder like an elegant puzzle to be solved. For me, the golden age detectives are the greatest of the genre. They were sophisticated figures, usually privileged well-dressed forces of nature who arrived at a location (a country manor for the most part), looked around a crime scene,… Continue reading The Kosuke Kindaichi Fan Club
Tickets for The Book Nook's first live gig *it's me* are now available! It's going to be a brilliant night, and we want it to be a success, so please snatch tickets now. Details are available on The Book Nook's site: https://thebooknookstirling.co.uk/events/ This is my first live event in two years and the first ever… Continue reading Tickets for Kirkland Ciccone’s Totally True Stories are on sale now!
MY FIRST LIVE GIG IN TWO YEARS! is happening on October 15th at The Book Nook in Stirling. It's called Kirkland Ciccone's Totally True Stories and is a rejigged version of my life story in books. Basically, we're all sick of digital events on a screen when everyone knows authors should be in book… Continue reading Kirkland Ciccone’s Totally True Stories *Live event at The Book Nook*
Sometimes a book becomes so impossibly huge that the author runs in the opposite direction. The Beach is one of those books. Alex Garland is one of those authors. I remember seeing his debut in Borders, the Glesga branch I spent most of my college years hanging about in. Oh, you could lose yourself in… Continue reading The Beach by Alex Garland
Every author has to do it. It isn't something we can't avoid, and many of us have tried. Sometimes we might even feel flattered that someone cares enough to need it. You see them online, on posters, in brochures, and of course sometimes even in books. The author portrait. That's the official looking photograph of… Continue reading The author portrait of Dorian Gray
One of the problems I had with Happiness Is Wasted On Me was the question of how to make a coming-of-age novel sufficiently different from the rest. If we're honest, we have to face the fact that all coming-of-age novels are similarly built. The protagonist struggles against life, valiantly battling through their teen years, facing… Continue reading We Run The Tides by Vendela Vida
Dear independent bookshops, No matter how listless I've felt, or how boring everything seemed, you were always there to make me happy. From The Scan Bookshop in Cumbernauld, Scotia Books in Kilsyth, Edinburgh Bookshop, and The Book Nook, you've all been there for me in different ways. Not all of you are here any more.… Continue reading Indie bookshops, this is for you!
I live in a strange area which I won't specifically mention because I'm still hiding from the debt collectors, but it feels very apart from everywhere else. The transit system is infrequent, with buses forgetting to pass by on their route, but when they come, they take me to Glasgow, Stirling, and Falkirk. All of… Continue reading Library Lurking in Scotland
Most writers arrive fully-formed, their debut novel hailed as something special and original. That or they're just ignored and left to fend for themselves. The word ‘debut’ carries a special cache around the publishing industry. I started off performing live shows, writing my own stories, hoping to be published one day. Twilight was a huge… Continue reading The Path to Happiness
Blame Joe Meno. I was going through a period of obsession with his work because I enjoyed The Boy Detective Fails so much. This happens when I find someone new whose work sparks something, a need for more. Hairstyles of the Damned came next. I read that in a few days, turning the pages until… Continue reading Zazie dans le Métro by Raymond Queneau
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