I don’t know if I still like you. You’re familiar, yet different. You’re still the same shape. You’ve reatined your claim to fame: the world’s first. But … But. Your make up. What were you thinking? Who says that was your original foundation colour? And […]
Category: Blog from the Borders
Rickman Reveals
Last Friday, as part of the Church Stretton Arts Festival, I went to a talk by Phil Rickman, author of the Merrily Watkins series of novels. As writers we’re frequently told to write for a specific genre, such as crime, romance, horror, thriller, mystery, fantasy, […]
Outdoor Aberdyfi
Check out the March 2018 issue of Outdoor Photography magazine and inside you’ll find my photo of Aberdyfi in the Viewpoint section.
PLR – People Love Reading
Once a year, authors receive their PLR statements. For those of you who don’t know, PLR stands for Public Lending Right and is a payment to authors in recompense for the loss of sales due to people borrowing their books from a library. While we […]
Hoar Frost Snapper
Found a hoar frost on the summit of Ragleth Hill this morning. Snapped a photo too, which Louise Lear used on the national forecast on BBC1 this lunchtime.
Little Switzerland
Here in the Welsh Borders, we’ve had a lot of weather, recently. Well, I say a lot of weather, but, of course, what I really mean is a change in the weather. Just before I moved to Shropshire from the London suburbs, my urban […]
Snowless Sunshine Snapper
After all the snow we’ve had, a chance to capture some sunshine and green fields!
Stokesay Snapper Simon
Decided to stop as I was passing Stokesay Castle today, to take a photo. I thought it looked gorgeous in the early morning sunshine. Turns out it was a good idea after all, as Shefali used it on the main regional evening news broadcast.
Cræft in the Borders
It’s a dangerous game coming to the Welsh Borders to give an author talk. If you don’t believe me, ask archaeologist and historian Dr Alex Langlands, who’s a friend of this area thanks to the popular BBC2 Victorian Farm television series.
Busses
The world of writing is a bit like busses. Nothing for a ages and then three things come along all at once. Or sometimes four.
Crossing The Threshold
I love the way some projects take on a life of their own. Today, in St Martin’s in the Bullring (Birmingham) the third edition of the Crossing the Threshold toolkit was launched. In 2007 I wrote a book entitled , which explains to community groups […]
Meet The Author – Wellington Library
Writing may be a solitary occupation at times, but not all of the time. Today, I was part of Wellington Festival’s Meet The Author event. A group of us (what is the collective noun for a group of writers?) gathered in the library and set […]
A Numbers Game
Publishing is a numbers game. When a book is published, nobody really knows how many copies it will sell. They might be able to guess a rough figure during its first six months of sales, especially if the author has a track record. (Dan […]
Are You A Pre-Loader, Or An Empty-Stomacher?
If there’s one thing that Ludlow does well, it’s food. Local food. Well, food from the immediate environs of Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and the neighbouring Welsh counties (Powys, Monmouthshire, et al).
Grey Snapper
Our grey skies seemed to be just what Rich Davies was looking for when showing Midland’s Today viewers what sort of weather we’d had today!
NAWGFest Gala Dinner
Last weekend I was at NAWGFest17, an excellent writers’ conference run by the National Association of Writers’ Groups. Saturday evening is Gala Dinner night, when those shortlisted in the annual writing awards gather to find out which of the is the lucky winner.
Grey April
Sometimes you wonder whether it’s worth snapping a grey sky image. Then you discover, it is!
Diamond Is A Diamond!
This morning, I had an email from my Icelandic publisher, Gunnar, whose dog, Diamond, graces the front cover of the Icelandic edition of my book One Hundred Ways For A Dog To Train Its Human. (Well, there have to be some perks to being the […]
Snapping Sunshine
Well, I wasn’t the only one out snapping photos in the glorious sunshine today but, and I know I might be slightly biased here, I think she saved the best until last 😝 (see video below)
Free Range Borders
When is a free-range egg, not a free-range egg? When it’s the wrong side of the border. I know they like to speak Welsh in Wales, and English in London, but sometimes, you’d think the bureaucrats in the big cities (London and Cardiff) would occasionally […]
All Change
Put a border somewhere and there will come a point when it needs to be crossed. Put two different governments in charge of life on either side of that border and life gets a little more complicated when you need to cross that border. Take […]
Evening Snapper
Not much cloud over South Shropshire for the Midland’s Today roadshow at Craven Arms today.
Free Sample – Wunderlist For Writers
Writers looking to get more organised with their writing projects might be interested in my new eBook: Wunderlist For Writers. It draws upon my experience with this free productivity software, which helps me get things done! Download a free sample here: Wunderlist For Writers
Ten Teatime Tales … in print
My digital collection of ten short stories (first published in Uk and Australian magazines) is now available in print format for £3.99. For more information visit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ten-Teatime-Tales-Simon-Whaley/dp/1517174279/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1459008966&sr=8-9&keywords=Simon+Whaley
A Job For Life
The clock in the servant’s hallway chimed six. Havers bent down and picked up the middle of the three highly-polished, black pair of brogues lined up against the wood panelled wall. His eyes lingered on the pair to the right. Mr Birks’ shoes. As Head […]
Spotlight on Snapper Simon
Not only did my photo get used in the weather forecast today … … but I got an honourable mention too!
… Simon?
I’ve lost part of my name! I’m just Simon here, not Snapper Simon 😉
Life After Death
Our Last Will and Testament may not be as interesting as William Shakespeare’s, but Simon Whaley chats to two experts about why every writer needs one. Four hundred years ago, on 25th March 1616, William Shakespeare wrote his last will and testament. This turned out […]
Still Snapping!
It was worth waiting until the clouds started burning off before I did my walk this morning. Otherwise Midlands Today might not have used this!
Snowy Weather
More snowy weather this morning, which meant Snapper Simon nipped out to take a photo … in time for Shefali to use it on her lunchtime broadcast … … and then she used a different one in the evening broadcast … And I had to […]