Longer nights and shorter days, greyer skies, and leaves off the trees: there's no better time to browse bookshops for a few good reads. This October I'm lucky enough to be spoiled for choice amongst the authors I'm lucky enough to call my friends: Warren Chapman, Sharon Black and Linda McEvoy.

I was very lucky to be invited to the closing event of the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2024, sponsored by the Open University in Scotland, to see: Jackie Kay: People's Poet.

There's a well-known phrase in the craft of writing - whether an author is a plotter or a pantser. Essentially, it's measuring the extent to which planning has gone into the writing. This month I'm extending the concept to writing retreats. Neither of myNot  short retreats were planned more than a few days in advance, and so totally without expectation - all the better when they turned out so brilliantly.

There's not a lot of writing going on this month. Instead, there's a whole lot of 'life' and travel happening, which might lead later on to some words. The common denominator this summer (so far) is sun - not something I say very often from my flat in Scotland - the luxury of reading for pleasure and most of all, spending time with friends.

When I'm tutoring creative writing, delving into a mentoring session or doing a spot of 'book doctoring' I often mention how a good ending is equally the beginning of something else, of what's to come next in the story. Publication of a novel is a perfect example of that.