Tag Archives: beauty

Creative adventures

Posted on by vgemmell

After what felt like a slow start to the year, Spring has raced forward at light speed (with some lovely sunshine along the way).

The past couple of months have been very busy for me as I’ve been working on final book edits, cover design chat, and more proofreads.

I also took part in the Paisley Book Festival Schools programme in April. This meant a lot to me as I lived in Paisley for many years and I wrote lots when I lived in the town. A couple of my flash fiction pieces were inspired by observations around town and I used to love sitting in cafes writing notes and reading and going wanders taking photographs of some of the beautiful buildings. I also wrote my first two books when I lived in Paisley.

Delivering creative writing workshops to a range of S1-S3 pupils was fun and I always love seeing what story ideas they come up with. As part of my sessions I had given the groups real-life news headlines for inspiration and the most popular one by far was ‘Girl finds criminal living in her attic.’ I really wanted to read the finished stories for that prompt!

School Workshop in action

After my workshops were over my husband and I headed across to the Isle of Arran, one of our favourite places to visit. We lucked out with the weather and it was so relaxing going walks along the beach and sitting outdoors for meals/drinks. I always think there is a real sense of calm on the Island and could happily spend weeks there writing and doing creative things (but sadly had to return home to my day job!!). Sometimes I dream about being successful enough to be a full-time writer and if it meant being able to spend more time hiding away on islands like this that would be the biggest motivator for me!

Beautiful Arran

Later this week I’m going to be doing a Cover Reveal for Young Blood, my new young adult crossover thriller and posting the trailer for this.

It’s always nerve-wracking releasing work out into the world but also exciting to see a project ‘come to life’ and now I can’t wait for the book to be published and story to be read.

Dear Winter

Posted on by vgemmell

Today’s prompt: write a post celebrating Winter. I do moan about Winter if we’re cursed with relentless rain and hate it when the alarm goes off in the morning for work with the recurring thought it can’t possibly be time to get up, as it’s still the middle of the night, clearly… But this post has reminded me of the more lovely aspects too. (Photos above are mine from the trip I mention below) So here we go…

Dear Winter,

One of my most beautiful memories of you was during a visit to Arran in 2016, where days awoke with spectacular sunsets, and ended with marshmallow pink skies. You scattered frost across gravestones, accentuating the ethereal beauty of carved forgotten names, the silence more acute amongst the sleeping trees.

Mist curling around houses and hillsides added a sense of the dramatic to an already beautiful landscape. The standing stones were bathed in a late afternoon orange light that my lens never could quite capture. I can still feel the peace and beauty you radiated on every stop we made around the Island.

Even on your darkest, most stormy days, I can still love you from afar. You make me appreciate the warm glow of light and indoor comforts found under warm blankets, wooly socks and jumpers, and when I cradle a hot mug between my hands I burrow down further into the warmth as I listen to your howls outside whipping the last of the autumn leaves away.

The trees become spindles stretching up to the sky, pointing out your beauty when you bestow the skies with blue depths only you can master, casting a magic hue across the streets before the night turns to black, and then sprinkles of stars explode, again and again, the longer I look.

You smell like cinnamon and hot chocolate and fresh pine and German sausages (from the Christmas Fayre I walk past every day I exit the subway station). You taste of soup, turkey, pigs in blankets, Brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes, velvety chocolate, and my mum’s homemade trifle. You feel like love and comfort and give me permission to watch absolute cheesy sentimental nonsense and enjoy it.

You are wild and dangerous, and dark and beautiful… no wonder you make it difficult to get out of bed in the morning.

Dear Paris

Posted on by vgemmell

Today’s prompt is to write about a city I love. So here’s my love letter to Paris.

Dear Paris, I found you at a time when I craved adventure and was feeling brave enough to hop on a plane alone to go and find you. Wandering your streets I fell in love with your beauty and you made me feel at home, like we were old friends and you were reminding me of the magic in the world, telling me to stop and look and enjoy being in the moment. The lights at night dazzled; stars exploding inside the Eiffel Tower, carousels spinning gold against a darkening sky. Shakespeare and Co. captured my heart, a treasure trove of words and wonder, notes from travellers pinned up on the wall of a typewriter nook, hellos and dreams from all corners of the world. A Parisian melody played imperfectly, but beautifully, upstairs in the attic room where the piano was always occupied by amateur musicians, their music a soundtrack to the shelves packed with stories waiting to be read.

Your metro signs are more beautiful than some of the art work hanging in your galleries. Your buildings are breath taking masterpieces. Jardin de Luxembourg is as grand as it sounds and the children racing boats in the pond and the old men playing chess under the trees were some of my favourite observations during the time I spent wandering and just sitting, watching.

Along the Seine you showed me artists who were attempting to capture a part of you…like me, with my camera taking hundreds of photos which will never do you justice, as my real memories are tied up in feelings and sounds and the tiniest of details that can never be put into words or printed onto paper.