July's Shetland Life is on two wheels - but no engine

This has been a hard magazine to get together, mainly because of bicycles. Or one bicycle in particular, the Surly Long Haul Trucker I rode from the Mull of Galloway to Muckle Flugga. The mull2muckle, as we're calling it. Full story in this month's magazine, and a great wee video from Precious Productions here:


In addition, the magazine has a new Sigurd The Tentative, Bohemian Viking cartoon strip, Rosa Steppanova on geraniums, A further instalment in Jon Sandison's important series on the World War One Shetland Territorials, and Jim Tait on the shetland connections with the Titanic.

It's available to buy in most Shetland shops and you can get one copy or a subscription as a full colour pdf online, instantly, here:

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=Ha317Z0w02iJ&PBID=de01e547-eb57-4f3d-b176-72e3640a506f&skip=

Editor, sub thyself!

Pleased with the new Shetland Life but more than a touch annoyed with myself for my lack of ability to sub-edit myself. In particular, the editorial is littered with stupid grammatical slips and extra words, all of which went unnoticed through readings on computer, on pdf files viewed on an iPad, on finished proofs.

I mean, I think I'm quite good at subbing other folks' copy. And SL is unusual in that there is no-one else to copy edit but me. However, friends, veterans of the professional subs table, tell me that you just cannot do it. Writing uses a different part of the brain from subbing. It's a neurological fact.

I bet there are a few mistakes in this little post. Eh?

April's Shetland Life - out online and in Shetland Friday 6th

Sl 378 Cover Corrections

March's Shetland Life - out on Friday

Shet Life Preview March

Front cover of new Shetland Life - but where is Dave Jackson?

This is a screen print called Da Slockit Light, by Dave Jackson. I bought it at Aberdeen Art Gallery nearly 20 years ago, and thought it would be an ideal cover illustration for the magazine, which has a mjor piece in it about...stoves.

Da Slockit Light was a mixed-media 'event' which popped up in Shetland at the Town Hall during the Folk Festival one year. Dave, an excellent guitarist, was often at the festival. But he has left Aberdeen and no-one in the art scene there has seen or heard of him for years.

I decided to use the illustration without getting his permission, in the hope that he wouldn;t mind and that maybe he would get in touch when the magazine was published. Can anyone help? He's owed a reproduction fee.

New Shetland Life Magazine and a wee picture

In the shops now!

Stoves - the return of solid fuel. Get scranning and casting!

Between Blethers: As yet another pie-in-the-sky movie idea for Shetland (third sequel to The Wicker Man) is floated (if you can float a pie, and of course you can't), Neil Riddell looks at the saga of Between Weathers, and Marsali Taylor reaces the history of Shetland on the big screen.

Zheehpz - debut of the Shetland cartoon written and drawn by one of Spain's top cartoonists, now resident in the isles

The Shetland Marilyns - hillwalking agogo amid the Zetlandic peaks

Cars, gardening, travel, music and more. Just £2.30 from a shop either near or very far from you...

And that wee picture: Is this the UK's most spectacularly-sited Tesco? Picture taken today...

Some top January stories now online

Check out The Shetland Times website here: http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/category/shetland-life

Also, the interactive, Pagesuite-driven online version of The Shetland Visitor is online...and from next month, we expect both The Shetland Times and Shetland Life to be available, complete, in the same way for subscribers.