Monday Miscellany of Scotland and Shorts

Thanks to all for your kind comments and e-mails following my recent painful experience.

I thought it was time for more photos of Scotland, so the pictures accompanying this blog post are of a gorgeous place called New Lanark.

Get your Allan Guthrie news here in a profile by Jedidiah Ayres of the marvellous Hardboiled Wonderland. And if you'want to get into Al's shorts, here's a handy post for you.

Talking about short stories, there are a couple of new ones up at the Edinburgh Book Festival site - one from Denise Mina and one from Doug Johnstone.

As well as appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Doug Johnstone will also be appearing at Words Per Minute - at Creation Studios, in the Trongate in Glasgow on 1st August at 4pm. Described by Doug as a "fantastic literary crossover club thingy" it's a mix of poetry, prose, film, music and theatre, with performances of 5-10 minutes. There's also a DJ set from Miaoux Miaoux. Sounds good - I think I'll give that a visit. He's also going to be appearing on a crime writing panel being chaired by Ian Rankin at the Portobello Book Festival on 10th October at 2pm. More details of that when I have them.

And I've mentioned this before, but the lovely people at Glasgow based Cargo Publishing have a rather excellent sounding short story project - The Year of Open Doors - out on 27th July - with stories from Doug Johnstone and Alan Bissett amongst others. I'm not sure how many will have a crime element (if any), but I always love trying out short stories.

A couple of reviews of Philip Kerr's IF THE DEAD RISE NOT - one from Tampa Bay Online and one from the Toronto Star. And a lovely reviewlet of Chris Ewan's most excellent GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO LAS VEGAS.

Fancy a signed first edition of Conan Doyle's A STUDY IN SCARLET? Have a spare £400,000? Sorry, I've unfortunately misplaced my wallet - guess I'll have to give that one a miss.

Craig Sisterson over at New Zealand's Crime Watch blog has an interview with Liam McIlvanney and one with Craig Russell.

And, finally, in my Google Alert for Scottish author Alice Thompson, Polishing Peanuts, popped up. I have no idea if it's the same Alice Thompson that the blogger mentions, as I can't find the piece he is referring to online, but I thought it was a lovely post so I'm linking to it anyway.

His experience in Uganda, mirrors my own in the villages in Alaska to some extent. The students there were so bright and funny and creative, I wish they had access to things that I take for granted - gigs, theatre, cinema, being able to go and hear authors talk about their books, go to a comedy show or visit a museum. They put on a wonderful arts festival while I was there and they entertained me no end. If I ever win the lottery I'd love to repay the favour and send over a couple of bands, some authors and a theatre company. That would be fun.