‘In the House by the Sea’ appears in the Glasgow Voices edition of the International Literary Quarterly.

Pipe Dreams of a Post-Industrial Arcadia is a non-fiction piece, originally published in SHIFTS: Projections into the Future of the Central Belt (The Lighthouse, 2007) and now reproduced in The International Literary Quarterly’s blog.

After They’d Gone is a little romantic and perhaps a little gothic too.

‘Sometimes in the Night’ is a short story that I wrote while UNESCO/Edinburgh City of Literature Writer in Residence at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh in Autumn 2007. It’s inspired by the collections and you can read it in Issue 10 of the online magazine From Glasgow to Saturn, produced by Creative Writing MLitt students at the University of Glasgow.

My friends at the Goethe-Institut asked me to write a piece about Edinburgh Konditormeister Falko Burkert for their Meet the Germans project. You can read the result here. Although their tuition has enabled me to extricate myself from many scrapes in Germany, I’m ashamed to say that in this case the interview was conducted auf Englisch.

Performance dates are 21, 23, 24, 26, 27 November 2010 in the Baxter Theatre, Rondebosch.

Rosemary and I were chatting in advance of one of the forthcoming Unbound nights at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. McSex: A Night in the Gutter is at 9pm on Sunday 15th August in the Speigeltent, and I’ll be reading alongside Michel Faber, Ewan Morrison, Helen Sedgwick, Anneliese Mackintosh, Allan Radcliffe and others tbc. The evening is organised by Gutter magazine and you can find full details here.

There’s also an extract from my novel in issue 3 of Gutter.

The blurb says:

‘Ornithologists Jacq and Fay are on a remote island in the far north of Scotland investigating sudden changes in bird migration patterns. Fay believes these changes signify forthcoming disaster. Jacq thinks the isolation is making her younger lover paranoid. But they were meant to leave the island three days ago, their boat home still hasn’t arrived and their radio has been dead for a week. When the decommissioned lighthouse across the bay shines back into life, the two women are forced to make a crucial decision.

Sometimes tender, sometimes disorientating, Panic Patterns draws on contemporary fears to create an edgy, suspenseful drama for a new decade.’

3pm Scottish PEN WRITERS IN EXILE
We celebrate a year of our on-line magazine, New Writing. Scottish PEN writers Bashabi Fraser, Elspeth Brown and Sue Reid Sexton will be accompanying refugee writers, Kusay Hussein and Abdul Muqadus, for short readings of their work in the magazine and elsewhere and discussion of the experience of writers in exile.

4pm Scottish PEN DEPARTURES and ARRIVALS
Themed discussion and readings from leading Scottish authors: Louise Welsh (The Cutting Room, Naming the Bones); Zoe Strachan (Negative Space, Spin Cycle); and Ron Butlin (The Sound of My Voice, Belonging) to promote the release of the latest Scottish PEN CD, Departures and Arrivals.

The venue is the Bond 09 Cocktail Bar, 84 Commercial Street, Leith. Admission is free but donations to Scottish PEN would be very gratefully received.

The photographer is Tommy Ga-Ken Wan, and the photo comes from his flickr page. The singers are both incredible sopranos as well as very good actors, Miranda Sinani (l) and Lee Bisset (r).

‘There comes a time when you have to stop talking, sit down and write. Each participant will receive two hours individual tutoring during the week, with the rest of the time free for writing. All students will have their own room. You are encouraged to submit the work you want to develop by July 5 – up to 3,000 words.’

Wokring closely, one to one, on people’s novels is probably my favourite kind of teaching, so I’m quite excited about this one. The ‘One to one novel writing residency’ runs from 16th - 21st August; for more details, click here. As usual with Arvon, places are limited and financial assistance may be available.