My creative writing has taken a backseat lately – as you can see from the gap in posting. Life is a constant juggle of tasks, as it for many people. Family, jobs, household chores, paperwork, pets. The list is seemingly endless sometimes.
Scottish Art
Our business, the Spey Bank Studio, is thriving. Christmas was busy, January a bit quieter. In December, Angus attended a few craft markets to sell his products. You might think that’s an odd thing to do, given that we have a physical shop. Customers come to you, right? Well, yes and no.
Angus has taken part in these sorts of events for many years. Through them, he has built up a fan base that returns and looks for him every year. It’s nice to see familiar faces who have supported him through the early years.
Another factor is the newness of our gallery. We’re only two years in and we want – and need – to spread the word about what we do to attract new customers. Grantown-on-Spey, as lovely as it is, can be seen as a little off the beaten track. The town is not beside the A9 Inverness-Perth road, like Aviemore. That village is a honeypot for tourists, because of its travel advantages (it also has a train station) and its proximity to the Cairngorms and other attractions.
Grantown is on the fringe of the Malt Whisky Trail and perfectly situated for two ski areas and the Moray Coast. Even Aberdeen is a possible day trip from here. But we still have to work to bring people to the town.
Craft fairs are a great way for us to do a bit of PR in Inverness and beyond. Angus loves to talk to customers and we have a handy wee flyer to give out. No chat is wasted, even if you don’t sell anything. One day, that person will need a gift and maybe they will think of the Spey Bank Studio.
Freelancing
As well as the business, I have additional freelance contracts this year. I’ve been working for the Cairngorms Trust as a minute secretary for more than a year. This is a charity giving out grants to local community organisations in the Cairngorms National Park. I attend their meetings four times a year to take down notes of the proceedings and then write them up.
And towards the end of last year, I got two more jobs, one as part-time project officer for the Grantown Business Association and another as admin support for Anagach Woods Trust.
I’ve been doing wee bits of work for the GBA for a couple of years now. This has mostly involved content creation and social media management for @DiscoverGrantown on Facebook and Instagram. This new position expands that work to include advertising and events. It’s a varied role. This month, I have been involved in helping to promote a foodie event in the town, The Great Grantown Menu.
And with Anagach Woods, it’s lovely to be involved in a small way in looking after this area. The forest is community-owned and there is a board of trustees that makes decisions and organises maintenance. I attend the meetings and do the minutes, plus I monitor the email. It’s been unexpectedly hectic so far but incredibly interesting to see the breadth of activities being undertaken.
Writing is on its way back!
Yes, honestly. I am trying eke out a bit of time for a few writing projects: two fiction, one non-fiction.
The fiction one is closer to starting. Myself and an English teaching friend are starting a writing group at the studio. There’s been a fair amount of interest so far. It’s definitely going to include writing and reading out that writing. I am nervously looking forward to it.
What Three Words
To get into the practice of writing regularly, I have set myself a challenge to use the navigation app, What Three Words to provide prompts for small pieces of writing.
The rules are:
- I will use each of the three words in the story.
- I will move from square to square each time, creating a wee journey through the map.
- I will write one story a month.
- The next square will be chosen by asking someone to pick a random number, between one and seven.
My first one is justifies.cabbage.numeral – one of the What Three Words squares for the Spey Bank Studio. Look out for it in the next wee while.
Jane Candlish 