Bucket of frogs

Whether it's gulls, lichen or magpies, ice cream, brick yards or playgrounds, or perhaps, art, death, or war, this vibrant new collection of prose and poetry is indeed just like a bucket of frogs. As Editors we scooped into the brimming mix of manuscripts, a more than healthy number of submissions once again, there's no fear of a drought from Scotland's writers. And, like wee weans collecting tadpoles in those non-PC days when you could get up to all sorts of activities and parents actually encouraged you, it's been a fascinating pursuit. And here we have not merely tadpoles but fully developed frogs. The range of content is wide and sometimes astonishing. And locations? We shift from Seville to Connecticut, flit from Dufton to Mexico. While submission guidelines require writers to be Scottish based, their imaginative landscapes can be without/outwith boundaries. The submitting writers' anonymity has continued, we're delighted to say. It means we're never sure who to avoid because we've rejected a weel kent author; it also means an occasional bear hug from a brand new first time writer. And that's a great moment for us, for them, for the world of Scottish writing - the ASLS antholo