Mary Smith was a good friend and a great supporter of writers across the region and it has been a privilege to work on this publication and event in memory of her.

Mary was the first person I let read a draft of Hare House and it was her response (and advice) that encouraged me to continue with it. She will be missed enormously.

Thanks to the Thornhill Rotary Club for inviting me to speak at their meeting on Wednesday – I enjoyed the meal and the chat, and a really interesting discussion at the end! I was too busy to take any photos, but I really enjoyed my first introduction to a Rotary Club and I’d be happy to speak at any other local groups of a similar nature if they’d have me! You can get in touch with me here or email me on sallyhinchcliffe AT gmail DOT com

Big Burns Supper | World’s Biggest Burns Night Celebration | 25th – 27th of January 2013 | http://www.bigburnssupper.com | Box Office 0800 689 9405

I’m delighted to announce that local poet JoAnne McKay and I will be running a short workshop as part of the Big Burns Supper. We’re giving people a chance to unleash their inner bard with a Burns-inspired Fankling Workshop – and it’s suitable for all ages of aspiring (or indeed accomplished) poets. Find out more on the Fankle website – or you can book now online via the Big Burns Supper site.

And there will be plenty more going on as part of the Big Burns Supper event – which is way more than just Rabbie Burns. It’s a festival of music, comedy, art, drama (and of course haggis), and probably the biggest thing to hit Dumfries in a long while.

You would have thought that, ‘birdwatching thrillers’ was a fairly narrow genre – but not so narrow that there isn’t room for more than one. Just recently I was contacted via the magic of Twitter by Charles Stubbs whose e-book, Web of Deceit, is another thriller with a birdwatcher as a protagonist. From the blurb (I haven’t read the book) it sounds interesting:

Six weeks ago George Travis was living quietly in North Wales in the UK – keeping himself to himself, bothering no-one, walking and birdwatching in his spare time. Now he’s on the run: wanted by the police, vilified in the national press, and hiding from a man he thought was his friend. In desperation, Travis seeks help from a woman he has met only once before, hatching a plan that will lure his tormentor out into the open. But to make the plan work he has to stay one step ahead of the police, the press and the man he eventually comes to know as Yr Hen Was, ’The Devil’. Played out against the stunning backdrop of the North Wales mountains, this is the story of how one man fights back against the media and their power to distort facts, exploit innuendo and ruin lives…

A different sort of premise from Out of a Clear Sky – but if you like your thrillers to come with a birdwatching background, one to look out for.

Wow – apologies for the radio silence, it’s not that I’ve not been writing, or doing things, just nothing much to report on this site

Anyway – appropriately enough – I’m writing now because I will be literally breaking my radio silence, by appearing on Dumfries’s community radio station Alive Radio 107.3 FM on their regular Friday Book Review slot at 1:30pm tomorrow, talking about Out of a Clear Sky and reading a few extracts from it.

If you miss it – or you’re not in Dumfries you can listen again as it will be available as a podcast (details coming soon). And if you can’t wait till tomorrow you can catch up on some of their earlier podcasts – such as this interview with Margaret Elphinstone, or this one with Mary Smith