Writers need each other.
The new contract between writers and readers is one I'm prepared to sign up to. I've met some fascinating people at events and online. Down with the isolation of writers I say! And long live Twitter.
Copywriters, journalists, mainstream authors, ghostwriters, bloggers and advertising creatives have as much right to think of themselves as good writers as academics, poets, or literary novelists.
The net has provided a level playing field for criticism and comment - anyone and everyone is entitled to their opinion - and that is one of its greatest strengths.
I'm not sure how much easier it is for a mother to balance her life now - have we simply swapped one set of restrictions for another?
The sky was a sparkling succession of black diamonds on black velvet made crystal clear by the blackout.
History at its best is a gritty, dirty business.
Scotland just isn't terribly Tory.
Aunts offer kids an opportunity to try out ideas that don't chime with their parents and they also demonstrate that people can get on, love each other and live together without necessarily being carbon copies.
Writing about the 1950s has given me tremendous respect for my mother's generation.
Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrians Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.
Scotland consistently produces world-class writers.
Researching books gets you into nothing but trouble.
At the end of the day, that's what a family is - a group of different people who accept each other.
Those who have not been stung will hardly fear a bee the same as those who have.
We can learn so much looking outside our core field of expertise.
Change occurs slowly. Very often a legal change might take place but the cultural shift required to really accept its spirit lingers in the wings for decades.
Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to.
My father could talk about the Romany way of life and its culture. He could talk about freedom and the Scottish spirit. But that was all he could talk about. I was desperate for someone to talk to but there was just nobody there.
Often we don't notice the stringent rules to which our culture subjects us.
Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it.
I had loved poetry and the theatre. Now I loved adventure more.
History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not.
I didn't expect to love being online as much as I do. I've met some wonderful people and discovered that however arcane some of my interests that there are people out there who are interested too.
Today women have the rights and equality our Victorian sisters could only dream of, and with those privileges comes the responsibility of standing up and being counted.
