Writing
Imperial Cathedral of Speyer Leaving Strasbourg, I returned to Kehl, and then back on the boat, with the next stop Speyer in Germany. The highlight here was a visit to see the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer, which is one of the world’s finest and largest Romanesque cathedrals and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 173
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
Edinburgh Futures Institute I’ve attended two cyber security in-person conferences this summer as part of my day job. It’s always good to get away from my desk and hear what is current in the industry. Even better when I’m an attendee and not a presenter. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy presenting, but it … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 159
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
GOMA I managed to take in the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art or GOMA as it’s known. I hadn’t been back since the Banksy art exhibition in the autumn of 2023 (details can be found in Part 60 of this series). Fewer crowds this time, but still busy. I was pleased to see the statue … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 149
Kilconquhar Next stop after Elie was Kilconquhar, which I appreciate isn’t the easiest of place names to pronounce. It isn’t on the coast but only a short drive inland. The estate provides a range of bed and breakfast accommodation along with self-catering properties set in a large wooded area. There is also an on-site restaurant … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 137
The Fiction Factory 