Scotland the brave - or braving Scotland

No distractions

Scotland is a better milieu for writers than SW France - official. Why is this, you may ask? Is it the rich cultural heritage: Walter Scott, RL Stevenson, Robbie Burns, not to mention JK Rowling? (Incidentally, if anyone else says to me by way of encouragement, 'You know, she had several rejections before she was published', so help me I'll club them with the nearest set of bagpipes.) Is it the availability of first class libraries, inspirational writers' groups, numerous Starbucks? Well no, actually, it's the diabolical weather. I haven't been out for three days. Well no, I tell a lie. My daughter-in-law washed up (literally- she was absolutely soaked) on my doorstep yesterday afternoon with my beautiful howling grandson. Scottish infants grow up hardy. After a cup of tea for her and a nappy change for him, I helped her struggle home in a deluge. It was gruesome out there. But daytime television being what it is, the weather helps me write. It's no hardship to spend days on end at my laptop when the only view from the window is horizontal rain and driving sleet.

When is final final?

Today I completed yet another final edit on a novel. My Documents file has at least half a dozen versions of this novel, produced over the past year and all optimistically labelled 'final edit'. Only the date shows me which is the most recent. Tomorrow I shall do an 'out loud' or more accurately a whispered read through of this latest version. My husband is a longsuffering man but he too works from home and hearing a novel declaimed from the room next door can prove distracting. Reading out loud always throws up further glitches, and you guessed it, another final edit. When is a final edit final, I ask myself? Maybe when it stops raining in Scotland.