Monday 17 July 2017

New Scottish Collection

Now that we're more settled here again after all the decorating, new carpets and deciding where all the pictures were going (too many!) we're making a point of visiting interesting places on at least one day at the weekend. Also getting the garden a bit more manageable and very grateful it's easier than our previous one, although some of it has grown a bit out of control!

I'm trying to get my writing projects gradually organised, although I always work better in the autumn and winter. The first to be completed is my new Scottish Collection of historical non-fiction articles. I've been a contributor to The Highlander magazine in America for many years and I thought it a bit of a waste having all these articles lying in a computer file. I've just had another article accepted by the editor (not in this collection) so will probably write more in between the fiction.


I have now put together fifteen articles, many of them previously published, in the hope that others might find some of them interesting. They are all about different aspects of Scottish heritage and history, from Robert Burns and James Watt, to castles and steam trains and such like. More than one has inspired my fiction, or ideas for future stories.

I always provide my own photographs as illustration for the published articles and I've used one of those, Dumbarton Castle, for my cover. Some of the other photos are now on my website, if you want to have a look at them. I might add more once I've reduced the high resolution they had needed for the magazine print. The kindle Scottish Collection is now available on Amazon worldwide and I might eventually get around to publishing a print version if I think anyone would want to read it.

Now it's a matter of keeping up the momentum and trying to finish the next couple of projects, both of which have been badly neglected of late. At least I'm sorting all the outstanding work into some kind of order and only need the discipline and time to finish them!

Rosemary

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm enjoying finding out things I never knew about people from, and places in, my own country. Hopefully I'll discover them for myself - one day! Congratulations Rosemary, Catriona.

Joanna said...

Congratulations, Rosemary, on this beautiful looking book. It sounds absolutely wonderful. How good it must feel to complete such a brilliant project after all the upheaval of moving and settling in, and especially in the summer. I also find it harder to get things finished at this time of year, so this is really impressive. Wishing you all the very best with this and with your next round of writing plans too xxx

Wendy's Writing said...

How satisfying to now have all those articles in one place for people to read. I missed you at the RNA conference this year but met up with some of your lovely friends x

Carolb said...

Congratulations on the book of articles, and I do like the cover image.

Moving house and settling in is always time-consuming, but you'll be settled for the autumn/winter writing.

Looking forward to hearing about the new places you'll be visiting. x

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Thanks a lot for your continuous support, Catriona!

Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Joanna - I think we've turned a corner!

Thanks - I missed you too, Wendy, and being at the conference! Joan and Kate mentioned speaking to you and I'm looking forward to hearing more about it.

Many thanks, Carol! Yes, I'm looking forward to autumn and getting into a routine.

Rae Cowie said...

Well done, Rosemary on pulling together this collection. You say you work best in autumn and winter but it sounds as though you're highly productive, in all sorts of ways, during summer months too! : )