A watery day

The first geese of the season, skeining overhead with echoing cries, caught me on a fresh damp walk up and out of Ballater (seen here looking back with Craigendarroch looming) on the South Deeside Road, Patrick Napier's commute to see his patients at Pannanich Wells Hotel. The air is still a tonic, and the wells are still there beside the hotel. These days they are cared for by Deeside Mineral Water, who bottle the blended produce of the springs and send it around the world, proof that it is a pleasure to drink. Fiona arranged the visit and Rob, the production manager, showed me around. The water, which runs clear and colourless but leaves russet iron deposits as it goes, is said to rise from the level of the Dee itself, far below, pumped by natural pressure: it never changes temperature nor force all year round. The hill runs with burns, but this is the magic one.

Back in the village I walked the same street as H.M. the Queen did the day before, as she visited those whose homes and businesses are still suffering after last year's floods. Deeside Books is still not open, though operating on line. Barry the Butcher, or Sheridan's, is up and flourishing. Everyone has to go at a different pace.

Though the rain had eased, I popped into the centrical church, too modern for Hippolyta just yet even if she were Presbyterian, and was greeted by two friendly flower-arrangers. The stained glass is a lovely mixture of old and modern, and this one in particular caught my eye, portraying as it does the Dee in spate past the town. It was gifted by Mike Sheridan in 2006.

'I am the Light of the World', it says: 'Is Mise Solas an T-Saoghil'. A delight.

Very first Murray of Letho book receives new cover!

Helen's done it again! I was very attached to the original cover of Death in a Scarlet Gown (I'd never quite managed such a good bird picture before) but once again Helen has nailed it. The little building is part of St. Andrew's Cathedral, and of course the scarlet gown is the gown all undergraduates of St. Salvator's and St. Leonard's Colleges (not St. Mary's, which has a rather sophisticated black with a purple saltire) wore and, on many occasions, still wear (if I turn at my desk I can still see my own). They are thick and woolly, have an inside pocket just the right size for a half-bottle of whisky, and are the subject of a number of very strict traditions.

The cover will be available shortly on Amazon and Smashwords, and after the usual bit of cursing on Kobo, too.

I'm now two fifths of the way through Death of a False Physician, the second of the Hippolyta Napier books. The first in at the reading and editing stage - never before have I tried to produce two books so fast, but I have to try and hit a particular deadline, the anniversary of last year's awful flooding at Ballater and Aboyne. Next week I hope to visit Ballater once again to do some particular investigations - if they go well I'll no doubt talk about it here!

Steaming along on the Speyside line

All a bit modern for either Charles Murray or Hippolyta Napier, but there's nothing like a steam train. This one goes from Aviemore to Broomhill (a.k.a. Glenbogle) and back in about an hour and a half via Boat of Garten, where we were staying.

The weather was fine and the dogs full of energy, but not so much time for walks. That gate through to the woods was too good to resist, though.

The whole monthly book blog and monthly shelfie have rather gone to the wall as I've been working so hard. I can say I've recently finished Rivers of London, The Third Rule, and The Art of Staying Dead, all of which I have enjoyed.

I'll stick in a shelfie, too:

This is part of the recipe book collection, almost all extensively used!

And I have broken the ground on Death of a False Physician, the second in the Hippolyta Napier series - one and a bit chapters done! Now I need to go and write. Have a lovely middle of September, everyone!
 

Book for honest review!

A quick reiteration, in case somebody didn't get past the frog:

If anyone would like a PDF of the new book in advance in exchange for an honest review on Amazon and / or elsewhere, please send a request to contact@kellascatpress.co.uk. The PDF should be available on 28th. October, and the release date is (at present, anyway, and it's not likely to get any closer!) 30th. December. All published reviewers will be entitled to a free PDF of the second in the series, Death of a False Physician, due out on the same date (assuming you want one!).

And thanks to those who have already volunteered!

A plague for frogs

 

No.3 Cat is really going to town on frogs at present. He doesn't seem to hurt them, but he definitely traumatises them. We caught and put out three on Sunday alone, then heard squeaking outside. We found him with his paw on a fourth, which was lying flat on its stomach with its paws / claws over its head, squawking. Removed cat.

They don't seem particularly bright, frogs. Perhaps it's a local thing: I've been worried for a while that rescuing those two batches of frogspawn from the gutter in the spring was perpetuating a local inferior genepool. However, they are easy to catch and put outside, and come in a wide variety of attractive colours!

Not sure why I'm blogging at all, as I'm in a race to finish A Knife in Darkness by the end of the month, and I can't do Sunday or Tuesday and not much on Saturday, either. September is looming, that insane month, during which I have to start the next in this series to have two ready to read through before publication at the end of December (I hope), and then I can start the next Murray book.

By the way, if anyone would like a PDF of the new book in advance in exchange for an honest review on Amazon and / or elsewhere, please send a request to contact@kellascatpress.co.uk. The PDF should be available on 28th. October, and the release date is (at present, anyway, and it's not likely to get any closer!) 30th. December. All published reviewers will be entitled to a free PDF of the second in the series, Death of a False Physician, due out on the same date (assuming you want one!).

The weather is fine and I should probably be at the allotment, guarding my brassicas. But instead I'm writing about thunder and lightning, rain and gales, and feeling rather chilly! 

Festival of Edinburgh, and domestic life

Well, survived a day of the Edinburgh Festival - never used to enjoy it much! However, a visit to Dynamic Earth, a paddle in the pools outside the Parliament, and a few hours sitting writing and people watching in Princes Street Gardens was tolerable, even fun, on a very hot day. Greetings to the lovely lady from Bedford who rescued two shield beetles from the busy footpath, then politely asked me if I was writing a novel. I had to confess I was, and she very kindly took my card. I hope she enjoyed the Tattoo!

It's hot again today, and the cucamelons have taken over the end of the kitchen to such an extent it's difficult to hang laundry up on the lines there. I'm going to cull a hundred of the little fruits today again to try to encourage the others to grow: we've harvested four so far and they taste like lemony cucumbers, though rather petite. Not sure I'd grow them again as a food crop, but it's been very amusing watching them grow so rapidly: one suspects that if anyone sat still for long enough at the kitchen table one would return to find them absorbed into the plants.

Unfortunately we seem to have two frogs in the kitchen now. I've liberated three, but unsourced croaking continues. I'm scared of crushing one of them in my searches, so I'm going carefully - I did see one, but it panicked and fled in the wrong direction and I lost it again.

One of our official household (as opposed to the frogs) has sadly died, but peacefully and at the great age of three and a half - great, that is, for an adopted dwarf hamster. Known affectionately as Heidi Custard Girl, she was fond of spending time upside down, and had the most beautiful silky grey and white coat. Funeral has already taken place.

Busy, busy, but interviewed!

Just been doing a blog interview with the likeable Wayne Tummel - now I'm looking forward to reading his book, The Count of the Sahara! His amiable blog includes interviews with much better historical fiction writers than me, so take a look.

Meanwhile reading the latest Shirley McKay, and nearly finished Rose Tremain's Restoration at last. And I have sixteen chapters of the Ballater book written: just nine to go. It's been giving me serious grief, but I think I'm on my way at last!