Edinburgh author Gordon Lawrie’s first novel, Four Old Geezers and a Valkyrie, features a group of retirement-age social misfits who get together for Sunday afternoon jam sessions in Merchiston. The “band” record themselves, post them on the internet, and they have a couple of surprise hits.
However, Gordon had run into a problem: quoting song lyrics in books is expensive. Very. Back in the mists of time, though, he’d filled a weekly slot as a wannabe singer-songwriter in Edinburgh’s legendary Waverley Bar. So he solved the problem by writing the band’s original songs himself. Further novels and a collection of short stories followed – and more music.
Along the way he discovered that it’s fun to be part of the writing community, and he’s made lots of friends. For the past twelve years he’s probably become best known as the Editor of Friday Flash Fiction, an online weekly magazine that has published around 40,000 very short stories by thousands of writers from every corner of the globe. It’s amazing what writers can cram into just 100 words.
Gordon will talk about his books and other writing, in between performing one or two songs. Be prepared for a few surprises!
