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Carol McKay

Goodreads Author

Born

in Glasgow, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.carolmckay.co.uk

Twitter

carolmckaywrite

Genre

Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction

Influences

Janet Paisley; Janice Galloway; Anne Donovan; James Kelman; Jon McGreg ...more

Member Since

November 2012

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Out now, my crime novel White Spirit. Set in the Scottish Highlands, it introduces DI Allan MacIntyre, a good-looking 37-year-old who has to investigate the murder of a teenage boy at the same time as a series of minor explosions. 'a thrilling story... White Spirit excels in plot. The pacing is perfect.' (Arkbound)

Want a feelgood read about life after a pandemic? Incunabulum is for you. I promise you - the characters face their share of scary fights and ordeals, but this is a positive book, fast paced and with a happy ending, and isn't that exactly what we want right now? Incunabulum is epic storytelling about new life. Try it! And let me know what you think of it.

Leela Soma interviewed me about it for her blog, and you can read it here - h Out now, my crime novel White Spirit. Set in the Scottish Highlands, it introduces DI Allan MacIntyre, a good-looking 37-year-old who has to investigate the murder of a teenage boy at the same time as a series of minor explosions. 'a thrilling story... White Spirit excels in plot. The pacing is perfect.' (Arkbound)

Want a feelgood read about life after a pandemic? Incunabulum is for you. I promise you - the characters face their share of scary fights and ordeals, but this is a positive book, fast paced and with a happy ending, and isn't that exactly what we want right now? Incunabulum is epic storytelling about new life. Try it! And let me know what you think of it.

Leela Soma interviewed me about it for her blog, and you can read it here - https://leelasoma.wordpress.com/2020/...

My fiction is informed by people and places. Many of my stories stem from experiences within my hometown but I often find myself inspired by places I've visited. Sometimes my work is classified as urban realism; sometimes it asks the reader to grapple with the misfit in us all.

My short stories have been finding publication for twenty years since I took a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow. I'm very happy to have some of the early ones made available together in an e-book called 'Ordinary Domestic' published in March 2012 by The PotHole Press.

Also available on Amazon, in e-book format and good old fashioned ink and paper, is 'As I lay me down to sleep' which is the first volume of Eileen Munro's autobiography. I co-wrote this book with Eileen after meeting her when she was a student on one of the Open University creative writing modules which I taught between 2004 to 2018.

In 2010, I was diagnosed with a health condition called Addison's disease. It's an auto-immune condition in which the body attacks and destroys the outer layers of the adrenal glands. It's a fairly rare condition, so I got in touch with fifteen other Addison's people to produce an inspirational book on the subject. We've all written about our experience of what it's like to live with this life-changing condition, and this is now available on Kindle in the e-book called 'Second Chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease'.

Also available for Kindle - my e-book of Creative Writing Prompts to Feed the Imagination. I wrote this to answer the question I get asked most often, i.e. 'Where do you find ideas? I'd love to write but can't think of anything to write about.' This little guide gives lots of stimulating ideas for fiction, poetry and memoir writing and it also includes some straightforward advice on plotting and point of view.

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Carol McKay’s books

Average rating: 4.15 · 722 ratings · 40 reviews · 15 distinct works • Similar authors

	As I Lay Me Down to Sleep by Eileen Munro, Carol McKay (Goodreads Author) 4.13 avg rating — 638 ratings — published 2008 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Second chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease 4.24 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Incunabulum 4.70 avg rating — 10 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	White Spirit really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 11 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Don't. Even. Ask. Too. Hot. by Kirstin Innes (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Chris Powici (Editor), Niall O'Gallagher (Editor) 4.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2024	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Creative Writing Prompts to Feed the Imagination 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ordinary Domestic it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reading the Landscape liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ordinary Domestic: Collected Short Stories 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	One Last Tango 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Carol McKay's Blog

Stanzalone and upcoming gigs

Stanzalone is an open-mic night held on the last Wednesday of each month at Auchterarder. It takes place in a building full of memories of great nights - the Auchterarder Picture House (which is, incidentally, undergoing a process of renovation to return it to its original splendour).

I was excited to be invited to be the headliner at the 30 Sept 'gig' (as I like to call these things!). I'd never

Carol’s Recent Updates

Carol McKay wrote a new blog post Stanzalone and upcoming gigs Stanzalone is an open-mic night held on the last Wednesday of each month at Auchterarder. It takes place in a building full of memories of great night Read more of this blog post »
Oct 15, 2026 07:04AM · like
Carol McKay rated a book it was amazing In the Blink of an Eye by Ali Bacon (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This novel uses a variety of different narrators to build up an absorbing account of life in Edinburgh in the second half of the 19th century. Appropriate, really, to build the storyline via these ‘snapshots’ as the novel is about artists exploring t ...more
Jun 30, 2025 09:03AM · like · see review
Carol McKay rated a book it was amazing Invisible Schemes by John McGlade	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dazzling Highly original in style and content. So, some chapters are like catalogue descriptions of housing schemes (aka 'estates'), and these are interspersed with an ongoing narrative about a gangland hardman and his private-school-educated nephew. ...more
Nov 01, 2024 08:41AM · like · see review

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Quotes by Carol McKay (?)

“I was once told that sometimes out of limitation comes our greatest strength.”
― Carol McKay, Second chances: true stories of living with Addison's disease

tags: strength

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“That first week after the crisis that led to my diagnosis, I had the chance to surround myself with family and friends, and to enjoy contact at a deeper emotional level than ever before. Sharing that closeness was almost worth almost-dying for.”
― Carol McKay, Second Chances: True stories of living with Addison's disease

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“It still amazes me how my mental attitude, my outlook, my plans, the energy I put into something, affects MY Addison’s disease. Or the other way round – how Addison’s affects everything else.”
― Carol McKay, Second Chances: True stories of living with Addison's disease

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