Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Edinburgh

As February draws to a close, I haven't yet completed a draft of that novella set in Edinburgh I'm working on (these things always take longer than expected, as I should have learned by now!). But here's a last set of Edinburgh photos before exploring a new set of photos for March.

Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was born in Edinburgh and attended medical school at the University of Edinburgh. He based Sherlock Holmes on his med school lecturer Joseph Bell. There's a bronze Sherlock Holmes statue in Conan Doyle's honor on Picardy Place, near where he was born.

Not far past the statue is the walk up Calton Hill, which goes past an old cemetery...

...and leads to some of the best views of the city. 

 —Gigi

Edinburgh Through a Fisheye Lens

Today was one of those days where I felt really happy with my decision to organize my photos in this public way through the Gargoyle Girl photo blog. Without publicly declaring that I'd go through more than fifteen years worth of old photos, most of which are negatives, I never would have stuck with the project.

I said at the beginning of February that I'd post cool photos of Edinburgh this month, since I'm working on a novella set in the city. Once I said it out loud (well, I wrote it online, but you know what I mean), I had no choice but to stick to going through my digitized Edinburgh photos from over the years. As I did so, I had the strongest feeling there was a set of photos I'd forgotten. After a few minutes of digging, I found a CD full of scanned negatives from a trip from six years ago, right before I switched to taking most of my photos digitally. One of the rolls of film was shot with a fun fisheye lens. Here are a few of those photos.

Edinburgh Castle in the distance from Princes Street.

The Bedlam Theatre, where I acted in a play during college. I love the architecture of this building.

An iconic British phone booth.

—Gigi

Edinburgh's Alleys

All month I'll be working on a novella with an Edinburgh setting, so here are some more photos of Edinburgh. Today I'm posting a few photos of closes—the shared alleyways between old buildings that fill the city. They're often steep, narrow, and full of mystery.

—Gigi

Edinburgh in Black & White

I'm currently writing a mystery set in Edinburgh. The characters in my first novel, Artifact (released August 2012), make a quick stop in Edinburgh on their quest to find a missing treasure. I love Edinburgh, so I was always disappointed that they didn't get to spend longer in the city. Now that I'm working on a novella with the same characters, I realized Edinburgh would be the perfect place to set this particular mystery story.

Going through my old Edinburgh photographs from over the years, I noticed that I shot a lot of black & white film there. The photos below are all scans of black & white negatives. It's a mysterious city, making it the perfect place for both black & white photos and for a mystery story.

Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street

  

Old Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh

View of Edinburgh from Calton Hill

Looking out at the city from Edinburgh Castle

—Gigi

The Moss-Covered Dunnottar Castle Ruins

I was recently designing a book cover for a book of poetry, and I thought of a photograph that would work wonderfully for it. It was the top image below, a doorway at the Dunnottar Castle ruins in Scotland. When I pulled out my Dunnottar Castle photos to find the image, I realized there was what looked like a face carved in stone above the doorway. I guess I gravitate towards gargoyles and grotesques even when I don't mean to!

I haven't looked at these images for a while, so I'm glad I pulled out these old photos of Dunnottar. This dramatic Scottish landscape is why I set part my first mystery novel in this region of Scotland. I'll talk more about Dunnottar later in the year, but for now, here are some more photos of the moss-covered ruins.

—Gigi

Bookshelf Gargoyles for a Rainy Weekend

It was a rainy weekend for the first time in ages. Perfect for curling up with a good book.

—Gigi

The Year in Gargoyles

Since it's the start of a new year, I thought I'd look back at 2011 through gargoyles. Even though I wasn't able to travel much last year, the year was still full of gargoyles. This post might help explain why I'm Gargoyle Girl.

Early in the year, we found a gargoyle to put on a tree stump in our backyard.

He watched over the construction of our new garden path. 

Friends baked me gargoyle cupcakes.

They had to make up the design of the cupcakes themselves!

Wonder where my fascination with gargoyles came from? Here's a photo of me visiting my parents in Oregon for my dad's birthday last year. 

When I was diagnosed with cancer last June (which is why the blog was on hiatus in July and August), my aunt sent me this gargoyle puppet.

While I was stuck in the house, I began taking lots of photographs at home, such as this one of gargoyles on my bookshelf.

My flying frog monster isn't technically a gargoyle, but since most sculptures we think of as gargoyles aren't technically gargoyles either, he's close enough. 

Stuffed-animal Dorian the Gargoyle is shown here with some books on art theft that I was using for research before National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November.

Several years ago I was given a set of gargoyle Christmas ornaments. I only put up a mini tree with mini ornaments this year, so I put the gargoyles underneath. 

It wasn't the easiest of years, but it ended well and I'm looking forward to the new year. I'll be traveling again by later on in the year, so I'll be posting a combination of old and new photos here. Have a Happy New Year!

—Gigi