Human beings are social creatures. We like to feel we belong to something bigger than ourselves. We like to be part of a family or some other group that will protect us and support us either physically or emotionally. And…
Pieter van der Donk
One of the things you learn as a writer is that it is always better to show your readers something rather than tell them about something. I never really give a clear physical description of Pieter van der Donk. He…
Blackhope Scar – Overview
In this first book in the Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome series we meet Finnley McDougall and Hadley Kobayashi, two best friends who live in a quiet neighborhood in Seattle and whose only problems in life revolve around dealing with their difficult parents and…
Munro
Early in the Blackhope Scar story when Great Uncle Hugh McDougall gives Finn the “very special Scottish paperweight” he also gives him a battered old book: Munro’s Scottish-English Dictionary: A compendium of old Scots words and slang phrases. Finn has…
Stinky-The-Bog-Murtle
We meet this rude and smelly creature in Blackhope Scar when Finn described throwing his juggling balls at it in the tree at the bottom of Uncle Hugh’s garden in Tobermory (on the island of Mull off the west coast…
Seattle – Nothing Stays The Same
One problem with writing about things in the real world is that nothing stays the same. People, places, and circumstances all change. But it is also fun to write about specific places and events that some readers can recognize or…