I would normally have done this post earlier today as I'm well aware that most bloggers and readers "go home" at weekends. But today I'm late because I have been out gallivanting around town with a long-time friend. We've been friends since we were twelve years old, and that's a long, long time ago, let me tell you! A splendid day with lunch somewhere new, a discussion on books and a promise of Wolf Hall just as soon as she finishes reading it. I really should read it soon as its about Thomas Cromwell and almost "my" period of history.
The pic is what you would see if you stood where I was standing in the last pic - ie leaning on the Beheading Stone. It will enlarge if you click on it, and then you should get a good idea of Stirling looking south with the castle probably just out of sight on the extreme right.
Work goes on in between these jolly jaunts. I'm up to chapter eight of the wip, on what is really a third draft since I went through each chapter several times on what I laughingly referred to as the first draft. It is coming along nicely, and I think it is the best thing I've done so far. Still a way to go. Almost everything I read these days is connected to the wip in some way. My latest read is partially set in Stirling - The Merchant's Mark by Pat McIntosh, an author I've never noticed before. It is set a little before my period, in 1492, but interesting for all that. And I am having great fun working in all my little bits of research - but not making them info dumps, oh no no. The trick, I think, is to look at the info through the eyes of the POV character. Would they think it was interesting, out of the ordinary in any way? Or something they see or smell every day of their lives? Then write it as they think of it. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
Heaven preserve me from info dumps!
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