Jane Wallman-Girdlestone

History has been made.  Forever more Margaret Kirk (runner up of the Bloody Scotland Short Story Award 2015) and Helen Forbes (IN THE SHADOW OF THE HILL) and myself (SAUSAGES AND TRASH and THE THREE GRACES and Flip Artists Award Winner 2015) will be the founding members.  Terrific to see the women who played an important part in my residential course at Moniack Mhor.  I didn’t get to know either of them well, but I loved their work.

We have the encouragement of our tutors from Moniack, Louise Welsh (A LOVELY WAY TO BURN, DEATH IS A WELCOME GUEST,  NAMING THE BONES, THE BULLET TRICK and so many more and Val McDermid (SKELETON ROAD, SPLINTER THE SILENCE and around twenty-eight other best selling titles).  It was great to compare notes on how we had found the course and what we now need to work on as a group.

I’m sure in time we will welcome other people into the sessions as we get to know other local crime writers.  For now, I didn’t sense any particular hurry to expand as we are viewing the group as an exploring technical aspects of writing – but not through exercises and reading aloud – a sort of advice shop and sharing trials and triumphs.  I think this sounds refreshing and enables us to go deeper and be more supportive of each other.  Numbers do rather inhibit this process.

Great to hear of the recent work in the group.  A monthly opportunity to touch base with others mad enough to write seriously and think they have something to say that’s worthy of being read.  I shudder to think what they will say when I admit that the next few novels I’m working on don’t have murders.  I’m suspecting I may be interrogated before they quietly dispose of my body somewhere.