Put over a hundred writers in a hotel for a weekend and what do you get? A wonderful opportunity to greet old friends, meet new ones and generally be around your tribe with the same vibe. Yes, it’s that time of year again- my annual jaunt to the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference at the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld.

Some members of Angus Writers’ Circle (on their best behaviour!)

I actually booked an extra night with my chums, as a way of winding down and separating the world of work and family from the ‘serious’ mission of the weekend- to confirm who we are as writers, because sometimes it all gets a bit lost in the mists of modern living!

I took some spare minutes to edit my current manuscript The Back of Beyond and generally unpack my case and drift from bar to lounge before it was time for registration. Each year we get a lovely tote bag as a memento of our weekend, and of course there is the book shop, because you cannot have too many books! There’s also the traditional room party…I was mortified at the amount of gins-in-a-tin that graced my bin the next day…

There’s no party like an AWC room parteee!

The weekend is packed with competitions, workshops and opportunities to talk about everything writing related. Our speakers and adjudicators were amazing, my favourites being the lovely Marion Todd (author of the Clare Mackay series), talented writer and academic Conner McAleese and the wonderful playwright John Binnie. I would definitely recommend Caroline Logan’s workshop- who knew making worldbuilding maps with rice could be so much fun?!

We members of Angus Writers’ Circle acquitted ourselves well with a total of 14 placed competition entries and two trophies- well done to all. We are quite competitive (and quite argumentative) especially when it comes to the Big Conference Quiz! I was absolutely chuffed to win the Dorothy Dunbar Rosebowl for Poetry (adjudicated by Alison Chisholm) with my poem ‘Not Black and White’, a tribute to the magpies in my garden. Here are a few lines from it:

At night their peculiar cant frightens me.

They speak together in strange tongues,

planning murder by moonlight.

So, it’s all over for another year. Time to start saving for 2027. If you would like to find out more about SAW and the conference, click here. You can join as an individual member and take part in some of the competitions and maybe even attend the conference next year. Writing is a lonely business, so it helps to have friends in the right places!