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I Started Writing Novels While An Undergraduate Student, In An Attempt To Make Sense Of The City Of Edinburgh, Using A Detective As My Protagonist. Each Book Hopefully Adds Another Piece To The Jigsaw That Is Modern Scotland, Asking Questions About The Nation's Politics, Economy, Psyche And History ... And Perhaps Pointing Towards Its Possible Future.

You Need A Great Idea, But Then You've Got To Carry It Through. If You Get It Right, You're Going To Be A Critical Success. But Not Everyone Who Works Hard Gets It Right, Or Has The Success They Deserve: There's An Element Of Luck.

Witches Never Existed, Except In People’s Minds. All There Was In The Olden Days Was Women And Some Men Who Believed In Herbal Cures And In Folklore And In The Wish To Fly. Witches? We’re All Witches In One Way Or Another. Witches Was The Invention Of Mankind, Son. We’re All Witches Beneath The Skin.

My First Novel Was Turned Down By Half A Dozen Publishers. And Even After Having Published Five Or Six Books, I Wasn't Making Enough Money To Live On, And Was Beginning To Think I'd Have To Give Up The Dream Of Being A Full-time Writer.

I Love Short Stories - Reading And Writing Them. The Best Short Stories Distill All The Potency Of A Novel Into A Small But Heady Draught. They Are Perfect Reading Material For The Bus Or Train Or For A Lunchtime Break. Everything Extraneous Has Been Strained Off By The Author. The Best Short Stories Pack The Heft Of Any Novel, Yet Resonate Like Poetry.