An Interview with Toby Virgo Recently I had the pleasure of taking the Real Sherlock Holmes walking tour of Edinburgh. If you didn't know, Edinburgh was Arthur Conan Doyle's hometown. He lived not far from the town centre, and there's a plaque at the University of Edinburgh medical school honouring him as the doctor for... Continue Reading →
The idea behind my upcoming novel, The Fiend in the Fog, took root many years ago. It was the summer before I entered teacher training, and I was working in a day care centre in Tucson, Arizona. It wasn’t a posh daycare — one of my fellow teachers had an ankle bracelet courtesy of Arizona... Continue Reading →
Today I want to talk about armpits. This top sat in the back of my closet, unjustly, for about three years. I never got rid of it because I like it, but I didn’t wear it because it pinched my pits. The Before Shot. You might think that if a garment is uncomfortable, finding out... Continue Reading →
Originally published in Red Herrings, the Newsletter of the Crime Writers Association The cosy mystery gets a lot of hate these days. Modern cosies tend to be like popcorn: light, tasty, but ultimately insubstantial. The writing can be workmanlike and slapdash. But the most common criticism, in my experience, is that the stories are superficial,... Continue Reading →
I was going to do a Giant Jammies Makeover for April. But then this month got the best of me. Work piled on, and then I had the Fauci Ouchie. I was all prepared for a raft of Horrible Consequences which thankfully didn’t come, though I did feel rough enough the day after to justify... Continue Reading →
Garments should be made to fit the body, not the other way around. A lot of mass-produced garments aren’t made to fit the body at all, not to mention a diversity of body shapes. Instead, they’re made to fit the needs of a factory to churn things out quickly and cheaply. Often this means sheath... Continue Reading →
Hello, and welcome to the February edition of 1212 Garment Rescue. Today’s rescue is this beautiful green shirt. I bought this shirt at a charity shop because I liked the color and the fabric. Unfortunately, the shape is exactly wrong for…well…most people. Seriously. Batwings don’t even look good on a mannequin. So that had to... Continue Reading →
Abigail Gordon Nurse Abigail Gordon co-founded the Cornwall Street Clinic on London's East End. Kind, but with zero tolerance for shenanigans, Abby considers herself the protector of the clinic, its patients, and her fiancé and clinic co-founder, Dr. Gideon Spencer. But the real threat to everything she holds dear is not what Abby thinks it... Continue Reading →
The decorative hood that came with my Big Coat "Snowstorm expected. If you're English, stay inside and wait for the all-clear. If you're Scottish, you'll need your Big Coat." This is the hood that came with my Big Coat. The coat itself is perfect, but the hood is decorative. Decorative! I ask you! Some designer... Continue Reading →
At the heart of Simon’s second story, Slough Dog, is the story of a ghost dog, which workers on a building site believe has killed a man. In the story, an ancestor of the building site owner attempted to throw the family doginto the Firth during a storm. The result was a generations-long curse on... Continue Reading →
