The writing thing has been on hold for a while now. I have spent the last few days crawling about in the eaves storage of my house, clearing out a load of junk, so I've got space to store a load of stuff for my business. I am quite sure I've got dust, spiders and paper cuts in places I didn't even know I had.....
But despite that, I am really excited, because next weekend (Friday 20th) I am off to Edinburgh! It's somewhere I've never been before, and I'm really excited, but it's not a pleasure trip, oh no. There's no rest for us wicked sorts. I'm going on a research trip :)
Which all sounds incredibly glamorous and wonderful, but it has a practical element. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up the sequel to Spiral; The Finding again, and started cracking on with it. However, I very soon realised (small spoiler here) that when, ahem, certain characters, arrive in Edinburgh (shh, don't tell anyone!) that I didn't have the foggiest clue what the place was like.
Now, it's all very well rummaging around on the internet and trying to find out what was there in the 15th century (of which not a lot of info exists, take it from one who knows!) but without actually going to a place, getting a feel for the atmosphere, and what landmarks you can see from other landmarks, it's a bit difficult to actually write anything convincing. So, I am going straight to the source. Edinburgh itself...for a bit of 15th century history and landmark spotting, some photography, and a bit of filming for the viral film I am currently making to get the word about Spiral; The Finding out there to a bigger slice of the world.
One thing that does make me a bit nervous, however...I am going to be descending into the depths of the Blair Street Vaults while I'm there. If my recent experience in the eaves storage is anything to go by...crawling around whimpering with a torch in my mouth, whilst trying to avoid the spider webs and drag heavy boxes into the daylight....I'm not that keen on small, dark, musty spaces. A trip to the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam when I was fifteen ended on a bit of an anti-climax, because I absolutely refused to go down them. My (at the time) twelve year old sister, who was made of braver stuff, did it...and then gleefully reported that she had crawled across a board covering a hole full of sharpened stakes.....said board then falling away just as she removed her feet. Not my cup of tea.
So I think I'll have to get dosed up on Kalms before I go entering the vaults. But I should get some fantastic footage down there :)
I'm also going to see the castle (obviously) and do a couple of history tours and pick the brains of the guides, take loads of pictures of St Giles and the Mercat cross, try and get to the Edinburgh Museum to see a chunk of the original cross to get an idea for what it would have been like in the 15th century, and just generally walk around with my camera round my neck and notebook in hand like a complete nerd and make a general touristic nuisance of myself. It'll be great :)
Scotland, here I come !
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