Monthly Archives:

The Anonymous Passers-by …

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

As you may know my novel, The Blue Suitcase, was inspired by letters and diaries found after my mum’s death. It is set in Lower Silesia, Germany during the 1930s and 1940s and is the account of an ordinary German Christian girl … Continue reading →

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Celebration Time – Wendy’s Writing Now :)

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

Earlier today I got an email from Wendy. Wendy used to be a student with writingclasses.co.uk (our online writing school). In August this year she set up a blog about her writing. I thought I’d share her blog – and … Continue reading →

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“Treat ideas like cats…” Ray Bradbury on where ideas come from

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

Where do ideas come from? Here’s what the late Ray Bradbury says about them in his book Zen in the Art of  Writing: You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. If you  try to approach a cat and … Continue reading →

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Where do ideas come from? Rod Sterling of Twilight Zone fame tells us :)

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

In this classic snippet Rod Sterling, the creator of the TV cult classic The Twilight  Zone, talks about where ideas come from and what writing is and isn’t – I used to love The Twilight Zone. Anyone remember it? Do … Continue reading →

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If you’d been adrift at sea for 106 days, what’s the first thing you’d ask for when rescued?

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

As you may know, my new crime novel Food of Ghosts is set on Tarawa, the capital of the Republic of Kiribati. I lived on Tarawa for five years and fell in love with the island and the I-Kiribati people. Any news from the … Continue reading →

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Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

If you want to know how to shape a story, watch this little lecture by Kurt Vonnegut. It’s funny and very helpful, at least I think so. What do you think? “If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you’re … Continue reading →

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one year on a big thanks to everyone for 1786 unique visitors in August and a quarter of a million hits this year so far :o)

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

This time last year I attended a Society of Authors in Scotland (SoAiS) conference, which was all about us writers developing a “social platform” and raising our author profiles, without which we’d apparently not be able to compete.  So, I started this … Continue reading →

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Family history inspires debut novel (Stirling Observer 10/08/2012)

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

Ahead of my appearance at Stirling Libraries’ Off the Page book festival  (this Monday 10th, at Doune Library, at 7pm) here’s an interview I gave to the Stirling Observer last month, which talks about what drove me on to write. Family history inspires … Continue reading →

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this is my full, cooked Scottish breakfast, what’s yours?

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

Okay, as promised in my last blog post, here is my full cooked Scottish breakfast: egg, bacon, Lorne sausage, sausage, black pudding, fruit pudding, toms, mushrooms and beans. Sorry about the beans, Rosemary;  and sorry, Juliet, but no tattie scones or … Continue reading →

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what’s in the full, cooked Scottish breakfast, do you know?

Posted on by Marianne Wheelaghan

95% of writers have a day job, including some very well known ones. This is taken from an article called Author Day Jobs in the Huffington Post … “Charlotte Brontë was a grossly underpaid governess before she made it big, and Stephen King … Continue reading →

Posted in For everyone | 10 Comments