New Novels It’s been awhile since I’ve provided an update. Circumstances have changed and I find myself retired from the frontline of cyber security, and attempting to adjust to life with the possibility of time to write on a regular basis. Many folk have noted before, that the reality once it comes around, is never … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 196
Are you a footballer? Playing catch-up here, but I did visit the Whisky Experience at the top of the Royal Mile recently. I’ve been before, but it has changed a bit and was a really enjoyable experience. Also tried the Bowmore 20 year old single malt in the bar later on which was a real … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 193
Robert Burns Portrait I took a trip to the National Gallery in Edinburgh to see what is described as the lost portrait of Robert Burns. As a fan of his work this was quite an occasion. I was fortunate to be able to find a space to see the painting as the lunchtime queue for … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 192
2025 I can’t believe it’s February already and I haven’t written my review of last year. So here it is. It was a good year. I had writing plans and didn’t manage to stick with them, though I did manage to produce some work. It happens. I suspect it’s the same every year. I blogged … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 190
Strasbourg Back on the Rhine, the next stop was Kehl, in Germany. From there a bus journey took me over the border into France and the city of Strasbourg. This has to be seen to be believed. I can imagine looking up the word picturesque in the dictionary and see the name Strasbourg. It is … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 172
Piano Revisited Looking back through this blog I see that in Part 33 from February 2023, I noted, “…something on my bucket list is to play the piano for the public in a railway station. We have pianos in stations here for anyone to sit down at and entertain the public. I thought doing a … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 171
One Hundred Thousand Words A milestone has been reached in this blog series. After publishing I always cut and paste a copy of my latest post into a word document as another backup. That word document containing all the posts from Inside the Fiction Factory to date, now amounts to a little over a hundred … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 170
Croatia I took time out to head over to Croatia, staying in a small place called Mlini. It’s a beautiful place on the coast and a half hour boat ride from Dubrovnik, which was my main reason for the trip. The television series Game of Thrones used Dubrovnik as the main filming location for King’s … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 158
In Between The Gaps I was lucky enough to receive an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this new novel by T.L. Dyer. These ARC’s feature towards the end of the writing process, shortly before the novel is due for publication. They act as a final sanity-check for the author before the public at large can … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 157
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society This was a real treat for me. I had never been inside this establishment in the New Town in Edinburgh, though I had passed by it during my walks around the city. I have a novel almost ready to publish, which features a dystopian take on the city, and has … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 154
