The school I spent nearly six years of my life has changed beyond recognition, but I've changed too. For years I wrote books for young adults, but somehow against the odds successfully switched the writing adult fiction. But while I wrote books for teenagers, I found myself touring, hitching my way around schools across Scotland.… Continue reading Return to Horror High
Trends change, fashions leap around, forever leaving millions of reviewers and bloggers to catch them. Sometimes, however, it isn't up to us to catch these trends, but to catch up with them. In the case of Bis, a band whose magpie musical styles made them impossible to categorise outside of 'pop' (a whole universe in… Continue reading Social Dancing by Bis
Really, I should have been in a college rock band. The problem was that I came from the wrong country, turned teen in the wrong decade, and my college was a stout tower block rather than a bustling campus with a radio station where all the best songs could be found left of the dial.… Continue reading College rock: a confession
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… Continue reading I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan – an examination
The very nature of a break-up album is that of catharsis, that journey the artist takes you on from the first note to the last second with the whole gamut of emotions in-between. The music becomes your guide through some intense feelings. Some of the greatest, most critically acclaimed albums ever recorded have been inspired… Continue reading Resolver by Veruca Salt
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
This week is Christmas for authors, really. I've been stuck in my house seething at the Covid-19 lockdown that's keeping its heel on our throats, but still trying to keep busy. A few weeks ago I had my live digital launch, which mostly went rather well, if you ignore the bit at the start where… Continue reading Book Week Scotland!
Juvenilia is an EP by Liz Phair released in 1995 by Matador Records. Ostensibly a single for Jealousy, a track taken from her second album Whip-Smart (which I still listen to quite often), it also shows a more playful side to a singer/songwriter often written off by male journalists because she never quite became what… Continue reading Juvenilia by Liz Phair
Tape Loop is a downtempo masterpiece of mood and atmosphere. I say that with complete confidence. Whenever I listen to it, I reckon it sounds like the most ‘90s song ever. Yet other times, it sounds like a time we haven’t quite reached. It melds so many elements into one track, yet it sounds unfussy.… Continue reading Songs To Lose Your Wig Over: Tape Loop by Morcheeba
Years before Prodigy released their seminal Fat Of The Land, there was Atari Teenage Riot making a racket with their acerbic digital punk. The Future of War, their second album, was the logical conclusion of the futuristic fusion of aggressive guitar riffs and skull-caving beats. Atari Teenage Riot's original incarnation - Alec Empire, Hanin Elias,… Continue reading The Future Of War by Atari Teenage Riot
Kirkland Ciccone 
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