Sally Hinchcliffe

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A Beach Hut, a Cup of Coffee, and … Well, Anyone, Really

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on July 30, 2014

Reblogged from my rather more unofficial main blog…

Town Mouse

Kirkcudbright Arts and Craft Trail writers in residenceOn Friday, I shall be fulfilling TWO long-held ambitions: to become a writer in residence and to have a beach hut. Sadly, both only last for an afternoon, which is not so much a residency as an afternoon visit, and the beach hut won’t actually be on the beach but in Kirkcudbright town centre, but hey, let’s not get picky here.

I know have to think about what to do with my short residency. Hopefully people will come and say hello because otherwise I’ll have to spend two hours maintaining my unthreatening and friendly but not in any way desperate writer’s expression as last practised during my one and only bookshop signing event. I will almost definitely have brought the means of making (or at least keeping hot) some coffee because it might just lure people in (cakes, while tempting, might smack of desperation). Does coffee with a writer sound…

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Popping up at WagTongues

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on November 28, 2013

Today and tomorrow I shall be at WagTongues – Dumfries’s latest popup bookshop, the brainchild of the Dumfries and Galloway Writers’ collective.  As well as manning the till, I shall be reading from my own novel, Out of a Clear Sky and also introducing just a few of the many writers who have featured in the Fankle.

preparing the sign for the window

Getting the popup shop ready last night

If the event in September in Wigtown is anything to go by, it should be a great occasion and a chance not just to browse and buy but to meet a great many local authors great and small.

books and comfy chairs

Looking good already

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Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on January 28, 2013

Just a quick note of yesterday’s Fankle workshop – from the Fankle site

The Fankle

We thought we were ready for anything at yesterday’s Burns Fankling workshop – but we hadn’t quite expected the Nith to be all but lapping at the venue’s door.

Fortunately it would take more than a little bit of flooding to stop the Big Burns Supper crew, and we were able to go ahead, with slightly diminished numbers. Mini Fankles, pens, pencils, scissors, glue and scraps of inspiration (courtesy of Luke and John McKay) were all quickly put to use, with soon the only sound in the room being the scratching of pens.

Pretty soon every participant, young and old, had struck some source of inspiration and it was all too quickly time to finish up, share what each other had done … and record it for posterity.

If you’d be interested in attending a Fankle workshop – or having one at an event of your own, then let us know.

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Get ‘Intae a Fankle’ at the Big Burns Supper!

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on January 11, 2013

Big Burns Supper

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.

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Edinburgh Review

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on November 26, 2012

Edinburgh Review Issue 136I’m delighted to announce that the next issue of the Edinburgh Review will include a short story by me: Abigail’s Father (nothing to do with Abigail’s Party …)

It’s the first short story I’ve worked on for some time; I enjoyed the change of pace (and the ability to get something completed!) I’m very grateful to the Review for accepting it and I look forward to seeing the new issue, entitled No Shouting Out, as it looks like it has some great writers in it – I shall be in good company.

I’ll also be attending the launch at Waterstones on Princes St at 6:30 pm on Thursday 29th November. Among others, Thomas Legendre will be reading, a nice coincidence as the last time I was doing anything literary in Edinburgh it was in an event with him. Truly, Scotland is a very small world indeed.

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Meet me at Wigtown

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on October 5, 2012

Anyone who’s coming to the lovely Wigtown Festival this weekend should keep an eye on its growing fringe programme. We’re lucky in Dumfries and Galloway to have a wealth of writing talent for a rural area that’s so thinly spread. I, with others from the Dumfries Writers’ group will be launching our 2012 anthology, Stretch of Imagination, at 12 noon on Saturday 6th October, at the Quakers’ Meeting House. This will be followed by the launch of Mary Smith‘s latest poetry collection, Thousands Pass Here Every Day as well as an afternoon of music and poetry and the launch of the latest Southlight. It will also be a chance to get your hands on the very latest copy of the Fankle.

If you come along, please do pop in to say hello and have a look at what is happening among the rolling hills of South West Scotland

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First Website Workshop

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on August 28, 2012

I’ve long thought it would be useful to others to have a workshop helping people set up websites or blogs. While many people find it easy to work out how something like WordPress works just by reading the help or trying things out, for others it can be a bit daunting and instead they end up paying a lot of money for a website which they then struggle to maintain. So, with the generous support of CABN (Creative Arts and Business Network) Dumfries & Galloway, who provided the training facility, I spent this afternoon helping four fellow local writers set up websites and blogs of their own.

They are:

Please go over and have a look – and encourage them to keep going! Some of them are quite new to the world of websites and blogs (and were looking a bit shellshocked by the end of the day) but I’m sure they’ll all get writing soon and it will definitely be worth hearing what they have to say.

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Another Birding Thriller …

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on August 14, 2012

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.

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Join me for the Nithsdale Creative Hustings

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on April 23, 2012

On Wednesday, I appear to have allowed myself to be roped into chairing the Nithsdale Creative Arts Hustings in Dumfries. This is a chance for anyone interested in the arts in the area to ask their local politicians how they will support the arts.

The event starts at 7pm at the Brigend Theatre in Dumfries. Any suggestions for questions gratefully received!

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Celebrate World Book Day … in Stranraer

Posted by sallyhinchcliffe on April 20, 2012

On Monday 23rd April I will be in Stranraer library to help celebrate World Book Night with a free party!

I’ll be introducing my book – Out of a Clear Sky – with a short reading and also explaining which is my favourite of the chosen World Book Night books. There will be book giveaways and refreshments – so I hope to see you there. The event runs from 10:30 til 12.

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