Gail Anthea Brown ·

Beginnings – Ice and Rain

By: Gail Anthea Brown January 21, 2023January 23, 2023

Opinion, Reflections, UncategorizedCaithness, Home, Rural memoir, Scottish Author, Scottish Blogs, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Writers2 Comments

January, the month for setting goals and intentions. The new year brings opportunity – thoughts, ideas, plans. I’ve always struggled with new year resolutions, of committing myself to targets that feel contrived and anchored to a sense of scarcity. Resolutions seem to involve giving up on things or pledging to do things I don’t enjoy.…

Castle at sunset in in winter, Caithness

Writing, Life and Joining Up the Dots – My 2022 Review

By: Gail Anthea Brown December 21, 2022December 21, 2022

Author, Author Business, Reflections, Uncategorized, Writing and BloggingBooks, Books set in Scotland, Books to Read, Caithness, Scottish Author, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Writers, Writing Plans4 Comments

Back in January, I posted about my writing plans for the year (generally, I find, a good way to engender some sort of personal accountability around intentions). December feels like a good time to revisit some of those intentions – if only to remind myself that I’ve probably achieved more than I might think. 2022…

My Ten Favourite Books of 2022

By: Gail Anthea Brown November 30, 2022December 4, 2022

Author, Reading Lately, Uncategorized, Writing and BloggingBook Reviews, Books, Books to Read, Caithness, Reading, Scotland2 Comments

Towards the end of each year, I tend to write a round-up of my ten favourite books from the twelve or so months preceding. However, 2022 has been a different sort of year for me in terms of blogging – a new job and changing domestic arrangements have meant that many of my old blogging…

Lost Solace: Tourism, Social Media and Our Shifting Sense of Place in the North Highlands

By: Gail Anthea Brown August 28, 2022May 9, 2023

UncategorizedCaithness, NC500 Problems, Neil M. Gunn, North Coast 500, Opinions, Reflections, Responsible Tourism, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Tourism, Social Media, Sustainable Tourism23 Comments

Earlier this summer, my husband and I made an evening visit to the harbour at Dunbeath on our way back to Caithness after a day of appointments. In the preceding days, I had been reading Neil M. Gunn’s Highland River and wanted to reacquaint myself with the information boards on Gunn – who was born…

Pieces of Sky and Stone Author Q&A

By: Gail Anthea Brown July 26, 2022July 26, 2022

Author, Author Business, UncategorizedBooks set in Caithness, Books set in Scotland, Books to Read, Caithness, Motivation for Writers, Scottish Author, Scottish Folklore, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Writers, Writer Mindset, Writing TipsLeave a Comment

In 2021, Isla, a student of creative writing at the University of the Highlands and Islands, asked me to share my experiences of writing my first novel Castles of Steel and Thunder in this author interview. I’m happy to say that Isla also seemed to enjoy the follow-up book, Pieces of Sky and Stone, and…

Winter sunrise over sea, Caithness, 2021

On Coping With Rejection As A Writer

By: Gail Anthea Brown July 14, 2022July 14, 2022

Author, Author Business, Opinion, Uncategorized, Writing and BloggingScottish Author, Scottish Blogs, Scottish Writers, Writer Mindset, Writing Tips4 Comments

One of the surest things about writing, or indeed any kind of creative pursuit, is the experience of rejection. Offering work up for any kind of scrutiny, be it through books, competition entries, submissions to agents or publishers – all of it entails the risk of someone saying ‘no’. Rejection isn’t as clear-cut as the…

Finn and Friends at John O'Groats Cover Image

Launching Finn and Friends, A Collection of Verse and Stories

By: Gail Anthea Brown June 15, 2022June 16, 2022

Author, Uncategorized, Writing and BloggingBooks, Books Change Lives, Books set in Caithness, Books set in Scotland, Books to Read, Caithness, John O'Groats, Kids Books, Reading, Scotland, Scottish Author, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Writers3 Comments

Earlier this month, myself and fellow writers Andrea Wotherspoon, Ian Leith and Charlotte Platt launched new book Finn and Friends at John O’Groats – A Collection of Verse and Stories. The launch marked the culmination of almost a year’s worth of work, which started with us meeting at John O’Groats to discuss how three new…

In the (Fieldfare) Press

By: Gail Anthea Brown May 13, 2022May 13, 2022

Uncategorized, Writing and BloggingCaithness, Poetry, Scotland, Scottish Author, Scottish Blogs, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Writers, Writer, Writing1 Comment

Implicit in my writing plan for the year (which I wrote about in this post back in January), was a desire to focus less on social media and more on the other writing I could send out into the world. As engaging as social media is, events towards the end of last year made me…

Finn and Friends at John O’Groats

Back in January, when I wrote about my writing plans for 2022, I mentioned a project that I hoped would come to fruition before the summer. Well, here we are in May – and apart from wondering how on earth time passed so quickly – I’m delighted to say I have some new book news…

International Women’s Day – We Can and We Will

By: Gail Anthea Brown March 8, 2022March 8, 2022

Lifestyle, Opinion, Reflections, UncategorizedAnxiety, Caithness, Depression, Health, International Women's Day, Menopause, Mental Attitude, Mental Health, Perimenopause, Women's Health4 Comments

The last few weeks have been a busy and sometimes difficult period for our family. Illness and bereavement marked the final months of winter, and it often felt that life was as stormy as the winds that raged outside. As winter trickles a path into spring, snowdrops pepper our garden and early daffodils peek out…

Gail Anthea Brown

Scotland’s Year of Stories, Wick Voices, and Our Cultural Landscape

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Poo, Potholes and Park-Ups – Why Highlanders Are Tired of Scotland’s North Coast 500 Route

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Where Stories Come From: Caithness Lore and Legend

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The North Coast 500 and the Summer of Discontent

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Caithness and Coorie – Embracing the Seasons in The UK’s Most Northerly Mainland County

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Lighting Candles and Other Notes on Happiness

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Beginnings – Ice and Rain

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Writing, Life and Joining Up the Dots – My 2022 Review

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My Ten Favourite Books of 2022

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Pieces of Sky and Stone Author Q&A

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On Coping With Rejection As A Writer

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Launching Finn and Friends, A Collection of Verse and Stories

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In the (Fieldfare) Press

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Finn and Friends at John O’Groats

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International Women’s Day – We Can and We Will

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