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Several writers from our New Writers Awards programme will be featured on BBC Radio 4's Scottish Shorts, a showcase of new writing from Scotland.

This week's episode will feature Helen Sedgwick's story 'Save the Sea Turtles'.

'Save the Sea Turtles' centres on a retired Professor of Ecology, who is grieving for the loss of his daughter and volunteers at a sea turtle charity based in Kefalonia. The work brings solace, in spite of the uncaring mass of tourists.

Several writers from our New Writers Awards programme will be featured on BBC Radio 4's Scottish Shorts, a showcase of new writing from Scotland.

This week's episode featured RA Martens' story 'Sobek Refutes the Plover Theory'.

As a classically trained Catholic, I can’t help but get that niggling feeling every February that there's something I should be doing, something involving reflecting and penance and giving up something I love. That’s right folks, it’s Lent!

Our Aberdeenshire Reader in Residence, Deborah Leslie, has been hard at work with the local community encouraging them to read, write and engage with Scottish literature and language.

First up was a Burns bonanza, with several workshops, events and even a special lunch at Ellon Academy to celebrate the bard.

Are you sure you know what you were doing the day Elvis died?

The day Elvis died I went to the village shop to see my best friend. Her mum weighed me out a quarter of aniseed balls and my friend stood behind the counter and wept.

I remember it well. And I think of it often.

Except maybe it never happened.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and you want to show your loved one just how much they mean to you. You want to express the wonderful fluffy feelings they give you, in a way that is personal and meaningful and from the heart. But how?

Chocolates are an off the shelf solution, flowers are tricky (what style? what colour?) and a fancy meal costs a pretty penny. It’s not as easy as it looks.

I put to you the simple solution of the noble limerick. Funny but heartfelt, light but personal, a limerick is a perfect way to say ‘I love you, but let’s laugh at our shared flaws’.

Life doesn't come with a soundtrack, but haven't you sometimes wished it would? How many times have you turned up the volume on your headphones and moped down a rainy street to Everybody Hurts? Or attacked the huge pile of rubbish bags by the kitchen door while humming the Rocky theme song?

Music is a sort of shortcut to self-expression and that's exactly why I try and hi-jack it when writing. Of course, before you can start picking out a soundtrack to work to, the big question is whether you're one of the 'silent writers' or not.

When I was young, whenever we sat down for a story at school, at the library and at home there was a strong emphasis on sitting still and being quiet.  In the event that we got too fidgety, we were told to sit on our hands. In the event we got too vocal, we were told to cross our arms and hold our voices in.  Although story time was supposed to be fun and magical, the strict rules and constant scolding negated the magic.  The stories were fun and magical, but the experience sometimes was not.