The delights of Glasgow and a bookish bargain

Published: Mon, 09/02/24

Updated: Mon, 09/02/24

Iain: Hello friend, we should update you on what we’ve been doing.

Heide: Hang on, I just need to check that you’re really Iain and not Jeremy Clovenhoof, or three border collies wearing a raincoat. There’s been a lot of interlopers in our newsletters recently.

Iain: I’m not even wearing a raincoat…

Heide: But then again, you haven’t said anything about spreadsheets.

Iain: Oh, funny you should mention that. I’ve just devised a spreadsheet to calculate how many books we should write over the next two years and how many words per day you need to write to achieve that.

Heide: Good. It really is you. What have we been doing since we last wrote a newsletter?

Iain: We went to Worldcon! The enormous science fiction convention that brought thousands of international attendees to Glasgow.

Heide: Yes! It was really something, wasn’t it? So many amazing things both inside and outside the convention. For example, I had no idea that there was a designated bagpipe practice area in Kelvingrove Park. It’s not just a theoretical thing either, there were several competing bands all bashing drums and playing bagpipes like a hangover cure from Hell.

An alternative local hangover cure: IRN BRU

Iain: It was a great city to just hang out in. I rode around on the ‘clockwork orange’ subway system several times to get to various places of interest.

Heide: What about the convention though? There were some tremendous events. I enjoyed the panel on female rage. It’s always great when people can thoughtfully articulate and discuss ideas so that they can come from the back of your brain out into the light, like a shiny plaything. Then there were some thoroughly joyful events like the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.

Iain: For a science fiction convention, there was a lot of performance stuff put on. Dune the Musical, a performance of the Irish Video Game Orchestra and, very entertainingly, John Robertson’s stand up thingy, ‘The Dark Room’ in which he gets the whole audience to play one of those 1980s text-based computer games. You know the sort: “What would you like to do?” “Open the door” “It is locked” “Use key” “You do not have a key.” That sort of thing. It was very funny.

Heide: And in terms of comedy value, did we take anything away from our trip?

Iain: Yes we did. Some day, we’ll need a scene where the descriptions that people put on rental properties stretch the truth to a ludicrous extent. We have some good reference material for that.

Heide: Ah yes. Like a flat for five people where there isn’t even space for five people to sit and eat.

Iain: And we mistook one of the double bedrooms for a single, because the bed and the room were so very, very tiny.

Heide: And the power blew out and we spent hours on the phone trying to get someone to help.

Iain: But at least we didn’t accidentally drive in the low emissions zone and incur a fine while we were in the city.

Heide: Ah. Well I should probably tell you about this letter I just got in the post…

Iain: Oh dear. Well do we have anything book-related to tell people about?

Heide: Yes! Death at Westminster (London Cosy Mysteries Book 1) that we co-wrote with Rachel McLean (under our pen name of Millie Ravensworth) is going to be discounted to 99p throughout September, so anyone who hasn’t tried that series can dip their toe in on the cheap.

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CGVJMC8H

US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CGVJMC8H

Iain: Or they can tell their friends, and be incredibly popular!

Many thanks and we'll speak to you soon.

Heide and Iain

From Heide and Iain

Unit 116378
PO Box 15113
Birmingham West Midlands B2 2NJ
UNITED KINGDOM

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