Authors Electric

Don't get excited about the title, it's pure clickbait, I've not met an agent to discuss my work but rather I’ve just returned from a “meet the agent” event at the local uni. Although my friend did make me sit on the front row with her and it felt very up close and personal, there were probably a hundred other people sat behind us. The talk was informative but the leaflet handed out was copied from the website and I’d done my homework and already looked up the agent and her agency. Doing your homework and researching where to send a manuscript is just one of the pieces of advice she gave us. In fact much of what she said I would consider common sense - maybe I’ve just heard it all before – write, edit, research, query. Only I’ve never really got much further than the writing bit – at least as far as a longer piece of writing is concerned. Perhaps I just get bored too quickly, or I expect to be miraculously found on blogger and offered a lucrative book deal, because ...

Greetings from what is currently a very wet Vancouver, Canada – though the rain is due to stop some time on Saturday, I believe. Never mind the weather – it’s great to be here visiting my daughter, who is now a permanent resident of this beautiful country and may well be a fully-fledged Canadian citizen before next year is out. She came here nearly five years ago, a qualified architect with several years’ experience of working in Glasgow. She found a job and quickly settled here, and I can see why. Vancouver is one of the finest cities in the world – it truly has everything, including mountains, beaches, forests and some wonderful traditional cultures. The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is one of my favourite places on earth and I’ve visited it on every one of my trips so far (this is trip number five), and this time will be no exception. It’s enthralling to see all the wonderful First Nations artefacts, though of course there are some very sad aspe...