Oh Marina Girl by Graham Lironi

I look back at Oh Marina Girl, the Glesga cult novel that I felt never got the attention it deserved...

My favourite things of 2021

It's that time of year again where everyone posts a blog about their favourite things of the years. "Things" mean different things to people, but for me it means books, music, film, TV, and moments that stick out for whatever reason. Let's get stuck into the year we're living through, now we're nearly at the…

Tickling the back of your throat with a feather, AKA why I love Vurt by Jeff Noon.

Jeff Noon's Vurt was a seminal novel for me, strange and beautiful, it felt like the future - but not one I'd want to live in. Here's my story with this book...

The weirdness of Penguin Classic Crime art

Whoever said you should never judge a book by its cover clearly has ugly cover art on their books. I like artwork to say something, even if I can't understand what it's trying to tell me. When Happiness was picked up by Fledgling, I immediately knew what I wanted: "Make it '90s inspired brutalism with…

FICTION: Supermarket Sweep

The witch in the supermarket didn’t look like a witch. For a start, she didn’t have a big pointy hat or nose to match. There wasn’t a hairy wart on her chin and her skin wasn’t green. In fact, she had great skin. There was a good reason for her flawless face, and she explained…

I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan – an examination

SPOILERS AHEAD! Lois Duncan was a household name if your house was home to kids with library memberships in the 70s and 80s. Her books for young people were Young Adult before the genre became mainstreamed. Looked down on, these books were known back then as Juvenile Fiction. Not that Lois Duncan ever wrote fiction…

Scotlit Blog Interview

One of the earliest supporters of Happiness Is Wasted On Me was Scotlit Daily, the blog dedicated to all things literary in Scotland. They've tirelessly championed the Scottish scene and thank goodness for that. Last week we chatted about the book and Scotland's publishing scene, plus a few topics that you'll hopefully find interesting... https://scotlitblog.com/2021/10/17/interview-kirkland-ciccone-on-strange-towns-the-scottish-psyche-and-pandemic-publishing/

The Kosuke Kindaichi Fan Club

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,…

Tickets for Kirkland Ciccone’s Totally True Stories are on sale now!

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…

Kirkland Ciccone’s Totally True Stories *Live event at The Book Nook*

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…