Authors Doug Johnstone (checked shirt, greenish jeans) and Val McDermid (blue and green shirt, black trousers) chat about The Ossians at Portobello Bookshop

Smashing evening launching new edition of The Ossians by @dougjohnstone.bsky.social (@orendabooks.bsky.social) with @valmcdermid.bsky.social at @portybooks.bsky.social - chat plus songs!
My review had to be postponed - but there's plenty of cracking reviews on the blog tour meantime!

#BookSky 📚💙

I can spell but I can't write amazing award-winning novels, so you're winning there 😁

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Women laughing eating salad and women laughing drinking water are in every newspaper and magazine health page. People at laptop clutching their head in personal finance sections, piggy banks and stacks of coins if you need a drop-in single column image.

Readers need space to imagine what a character looks like, imho. Plenty of authors don't describe the physical characteristics other than the odd detail, and I'm fine with that!

A tip for male writers: women do not stand naked in front of a full-length mirror assessing their assets.

#BookSky 📚💙

Amen - London is far too expensive to get to and stay in. Harrogate is teetering on the edge, only won by the amount of people I see there who don't come to the Scottish events I go to (I'm in Edinburgh). Oh for a huge lottery win so I can forget the cost and go everywhere!

I'm self-employed so if I don't work I don't get paid, &often get stung by single person rates if I don't have pals going to share an Airbnb. The socialising is the biggest thing for me these days at most festivals, being with like-minded people is glorious. Not sure what the answer is but it sucks!

The rising ticket cost of so many events is irrelevant when the real killer is the massive cost for accommodation and travel. I go to three festivals near/ish me and one that isn't, and that four weekends is my holidays for the year. Going to an extra one this year - in the fumes of the overdraft!

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That is literally what I spend a lot of my day doing - "you said x, but actually what you mean is z, you absolute idiot, learn grammar!!!" Often said out loud with expletives when it's a particularly stupid sentence construction...

Squaredle Squaredle is a daily word building game. Swipe letters in the grid to test your vocabulary every day and rise to the top of the leaderboards!

No boards ofc but a decently speedy one

I played squaredle.com 04/21:
32/32 words (+3 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 27% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 4

Squaredle Squaredle is a daily word building game. Swipe letters in the grid to test your vocabulary every day and rise to the top of the leaderboards!

@scotlandchris1.bsky.social @portybelle.bsky.social got the weekly nailed - last word was a four I just could not see, sigh

I played squaredle.com/p/weekly 04/20 (Special Weekly Puzzle):
91/91 words (+9 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 23% by accuracy

I didn't see that one but anything with bees is going to be awesome - super tiny kit of some kind, I guess?!

The little clip at the end that shows a bit of the process generally boils down to "tons of planning and kit plus people with levels of patience normal people can barely comprehend". One bloke sat in a tent in a river for hours on end waiting for otters...

I thanks you for your selfless service 💕

You're really taking one for the team there

Looks ghastly, I don't know how you can bear being there... 😂

People wonder why Scotland is almost always cheesed off with London...

If the stupid little people north of the border they sneer at can understand how to vote in slightly proportional rep elections, surely it's not beyond the wit of journalists, commentators, pollsters to get to grips with it.

I find the dvd thing frustrating - it's more money for them! And I gave up on buying comics more than a decade ago as £ and storage was an issue even tho I bought only a couple a week. Sadly my back collection got irretrievably damp &had to be ejected 😭 prob inc the 2000ad with your future shock...

Last chance to register to vote in time for the upcoming Scottish Parliament election!

The deadline is 11:59pm tonight ⏰

I've not seen that, must see if it's cheap on dvd anywhere. Second Doctor Strange wasn't bad but The Marvels relied on you having seen the TV series so I couldn't follow it and got bored. And none of the TV has been released on dvd so I'm prob not going to continue with the post-Endgame era

Squaredle Squaredle is a daily word building game. Swipe letters in the grid to test your vocabulary every day and rise to the top of the leaderboards!

Full of errors here as usual...

I've been playing tho not posting, but forgot to finish a couple of days hence rubbish streak again.

I played squaredle.com 04/20:
25/25 words (+4 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 22% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 3

London boss for Scottish branch offices can never get it right (see also London and the north of England). Looking forward to my ballot paper arriving - if the post ever gets round to it...

Some aren't other than as a completist series rewatch, but some are - The Winter Soldier I must've watched a dozen times, and I'm fond of the first Iron Man and the first Captain America.

Bonkers. Also, how many people wear trainers for everyday life, ie walking around the house and on streets - apparently they aren't welcome to buy Nike?

The Ossians by Doug Johnstone @doug_johnstone @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours Source: Review copyPublication: 9th April 2026 from Orenda BooksPP: 276ISBN-13:978-1917764209 My thanks to Orenda Books for an advance copy for review Connor is twenty-four: brilliant, broken, and out of control. He’s the swaggering frontman of The Ossians, a Scottish indie band on the brink of signing a major record deal. Desperate to make their mark, they set off on a two-week winter tour across Scotland’s cities and hinterlands ― a last-ditch attempt to find fame, purpose, and themselves.

The Ossians by Doug Johnstone @doug_johnstone @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours

Source: Review copyPublication: 9th April 2026 from Orenda BooksPP: 276ISBN-13:978-1917764209 My thanks to Orenda Books for an advance copy for review Connor is twenty-four: brilliant, broken, and out of control. He’s the…

Amused by his lack of meeting with AS - I'm not sure which of the two is more toxic and damaging to the other right now 😂

Luscious blues... Beautiful day here but after 15 minutes in the garden in Northumberland I'm now on a train north and am working from lunchtime, boo!

Depressing indeed. Hope you had a tactical voting option!