Lari’s Writing blog

This is my first attempt to write a blog, and as a writer who normally rereads and edits my novels at least 100 times before letting anyone read them, writing something so immediate, something which I can’t look at again next week and rethink next month, is a bit scary!

But I’ve decided to put a blog up on my website because I realised that my website itself wasn’t changing that much, except when I publish a new book and put the cover on the homepage.  Also I do a lot of events in brilliant places, and meet fascinating readers who ask really interesting questions about writing, and I thought a blog would be a way of sharing that with you.

In fact the visit that finally made me decide that I really would get round to a blog was at the very end of January, when I spent a day in Aberfeldy in Perthshire, at a very new library in the Breadalbane community campus.  It was such a beautiful library, in such a fabulous place, with such an enthusiastic librarian, that I thought I should shout a bit about it.

The library isn’t in some dusty old building in a corner of the town which no-one visits.  It’s in a huge new building which also has a café, a swimming pool, squash courts and both the local schools – primary and secondary.  The library is right at the front of the building so you have to walk past the library door to get anywhere else.  And the library has a massive wall of windows, so as you walk out of the car park all you can see are these lovely shelves of books, just beckoning you to come in and browse and borrow!  It’s a lovely library, and I wish more libraries were like that.

There is a great central library in Dundee, which is attached to a shopping centre (how clever is that – go and buy your messages, and borrow some books, at the same time).   But most libraries are in very old buildings, often with no parking anywhere near, and often not near anything else useful.

And given how little money is spent on libraries, it doesn’t look like many other towns will be as lucky as Aberfeldy, and get a shiny new modern library any time soon.

And that’s the other reason I decided to start a blog …

I spent most of last week, having got back from the lovely library in Perthshire, writing emails, letters and press releases, trying to firstly stop Edinburgh Council cutting secondary school librarians’ hours (a battle which I think we may have won!  So get out there, and campaign – sometimes it actually WORKS!) and also supporting a brilliant Scotland-wide protest at the Scottish parliament last Saturday about all cuts to libraries.

And the more people blog, and twitter (I don’t twitter – a website is enough for me just now!), and campaign, and contact their local MSPs and councillors, the more chance we have of saving our libraries.  Libraries, whatever kind of building they are in, are vital to our education, to our culture, to our authors and our readers, and if we don’t fight for them then they will fade away.  And making a bit of noise online is one way to do that.

So – if you want to comment at all, or link to this blog, then please follow the instructions which I hope appear below.  Let me know what you’d like me to blog about (let me know if this reads like a blog at all!) and let me know which is YOUR favourite library.

(And if you have any problems either linking to or commenting on this blog – because I freely admit I have NO IDEA what I’m doing when I’m putting this up, then just email me!  (info@laridon.co.uk)  Because even a techno-idiot like me can open an email…)