Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sewers, bell towers and catacombs!

Writing is a distinctly solitary business, so I enjoy doing an "event" now and again. Last week I visited Perth Academy to run a ghost story writing workshop with a group of S1 creative writing & drama students, and this week I gave a talk to the Rotary Club of Crieff. The topic was "Finding inspiration: sewers, bell towers and catacombs." It was all about the places that have inspired my books, past and future. I'm happy to talk on a variety of topics but the Rotary club fancied this particular one, though I did wonder whether they regretted the choice when dinner ended and I launched into a description of decomposing corpses contaminating the water supply in 18th century Paris! They're a staunch lot though, and managed to keep their haggis, neeps and tatties down.

The photograph is by David Smart (thanks, David!) and shows me with Vice President George Penny.