I’m planning to cover 2023’s reading in my usual “year in review” post, but this is slightly different. Book recommendation site Shepherd asked me for my top three reads of the last 12 months, October to September.
Continue readingPaisley’s Weaver Poets
27 Oct
Ok, perhaps a bit of a niche subject, but something I came across while working on Hugh MacDonald’s Rambles Round Glasgow (he knew a lot of poets, as well as being a poet himself), and thought I might as well get an article out of.
Continue readingDo one thing (or more) that scares you
30 SepMy recent book talks and book trails went very well, and thank you to everyone who has asked about them. It didn’t even rain on the book trails, which was nothing short of a miracle!
Continue readingBook talk at Bridgeton Library
12 AugKicking off my autumn (ok, late summer, but it doesn’t feel like it) season of book talks and walks, I’ll be appearing at Bridgeton Library on Thursday 24th August from 6pm to talk about Hugh MacDonald (who was born only a few minutes’ walk from the library) and the process of annotating the 21st Century edition of his classic Rambles Round Glasgow.
Continue readingArtemis and Parzival – a Love Story
31 JulThose of you who have been following for a while will know that I usually keep a pet bird – but just the one. That changed recently when I realised that my shy budgie Artemis was never going to be true friends with me, and needed a companion of her own species.
Continue readingWhat on earth are county lines?
15 JulNot to be confused with the line dance called “county line”, county lines is a form of trafficking where drug traffickers get kids to ferry their drugs around for them. Child labour is very much a viable business option if you’re someone who’s not too concerned about breaking the law like, you know, drug traffickers.
It’s more common than you would think, and it doesn’t just involved “troubled” kids (not that they are any less valuable or deserving of protection). Anyway, you can read all about it in my new article for Premier NexGen, Premier’s youthwork arm. You have to register to read the whole thing, but it’s free and you don’t have to sign up for updates if you don’t want to.
Be more tourist
30 Jun
Another photo post? Have I been on holiday again? Well, yes and no. (Mostly no.)
Continue readingOh I do like to be a côté de the seaside!
31 May
After a very long winter I finally managed to get away on holiday to somewhere hot and sunny – which means that you are in for a photo post. You can revel vicariously in my photos of sun, sea and quirky ceramics, or you can just skip this one if it would make you too envious.
Continue readingDon’t give up the day job
3 MayI’ve just had an article accepted in principle by a history magazine. How much will I be paid for this meticulously researched piece of work (once I’ve actually written it)? Nothing, nowt, nada and nil. This isn’t as unusual as you’d think, and in this case I don’t mind because it’s on a subject related to Rambles Round Glasgow, so it counts as free advertising. But it’s another example of the complaint I increasingly find myself making: there’s no money in writing.
Continue readingBeing professionally interesting
23 MarI sometimes think I should get business cards made that list my work as “professionally interesting”. Part of being an author means that I always have a random fact or interesting anecdote about anything that comes up, and it also means that I spend time at events, on the radio or in print, talking about the most interesting aspects of my books, my research or even just myself. (I have had an unusually full, interesting and long life for someone who likes to think she’s in her early 30s.)
Continue reading
K C Murdarasi 