How ye da’en McFahrenhistas,
Despite the fact that over the last 6 years we’ve evolved into a flourishing Transatlantic Love Cult that majestically straddles both sides of the Atlantic, many of you will know Fahrenheit’s beginnings lie firmly in Glasgow. This weekend we’ve gone back to our our roots to celebrate the fact that the BLOODY SCOTLAND crime festival is taking place this weekend.
To celebrate BLOODY SCOTLAND 2021 we’re GIVING YOU A MASSIVE 21% DISCOUNT on everything in our store this weekend.
Last year Scotland’s biggest crime festival was held online because of the pandemic but this year it’s back live and in hybrid form with both online and in person events held in the beautiful Scottish city of Stirling.
BLOODY SCOTLAND is one of the UK’s biggest crime fiction festivals attracting the great and the good of crime fiction from all over the world and this year there’s a real stellar line-up including Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter, Lee Child, Linwood Barclay, Stephen King, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre, Alan Parks and Mark Billingham to name just a few.
Each year the festival opens with a magnificent torchlit procession through the medieval streets of Stirling - as you can see from this photo, frankly crime fiction writers can’t get enough of this stuff…
This photo was taken a couple of years ago when Fahrenheit author Ian Patrick joined Scottish crime fiction legends Val McDermid & Dame Denise Mina onstage to read from and talk about his debut novel Rubicon (which has since been optioned by the BBC).
Since then of course Ian has gone from strength to strength - as well as publishing two more books in his Sam Batford series with us, he self-published the awesome standalone Where The Wired Weep and has also kicked off the brand new Nash & Moretti series.
That year was also a memorable year at BLOODY SCOTLAND for Fahrenheit because it launched the beginning of our annual Cease & Desist range of merch - where we rip off a famous Scottish brand and try to flog as many t-shirts as we can before the inevitable Cease & Desist letter arrives from the lawyers.
These are all sold out but you can still check out the rest of our awesome merch here…
As well as OFFERING YOU ALL A MASSIVE 21% DISCOUNT ON EVERYTHING this weekend (when you use promo-code BLOODY21 we’re also running a BLOODY SCOTLAND competition.
There are 2 ways to win.
If you’re attending the festival in person keep your eyes peeled for anyone wearing Fahrenheit merch, post a photo to either Twitter or Instagram tagging @FahrenheitPress and using the hashtag #BloodyScotland.
or (if you’re following the festival online)
Take a photo of you or anyone you know wearing some of our awesome merch and post it to Twitter or Instagram tagging @FahrenheitPress and using the hashtag #BloodyScotland.
We don’t want to say too much but we’ll send SOMETHING REALLY COOL TO EVERYONE who posts a photo - trust us, when we say cool - we mean cool…
And finally in this BLOODY SCOTLAND special we thought it might be a good idea to include a quick guide to useful Scottish phrases for any of our English brethren who might be visiting Stirling this weekend…
Gonnae no’ dae that! – Don’t do that.
Pure dead brilliant – Amazing.
Yer bum’s oot the windae – You are lying or exaggerating.
Am pure done in – I am pretty tired.
Am a pure nick – I am not looking my best.
Ah umnae – I am not.
Ma heid’s mince – My head is mince, meaning I’m a bit confused.
Yer oot yer face! – You’re extremely intoxicated from the effects of alcohol.
Yer aff yer heid – You’re off your head – crazy.
Am pure starvin fir some scran – I could really do with some food.
And just a quick word about greetings. In Scotland we tend to use swear words when we say hello to our friends - the more obscene the swear word, the more you like the person your saying hello to so if someone approaches you and says something along the lines of …
“How ye gon ya wee prick?” - don’t panic, they’re probably about to buy you drink.
On the other hand- and we REALLY CAN’T STRESS THIS ENOUGH - if someone Scottish is talking with you and ends their sentence with the word ‘pal’ as in…
“Aye, is that right, pal?” - stop talking and run, they’re about to punch you in the face.
Okay people, if you’re visiting Stirling this weekend have a great time and if you’re following online make sure you’ve got a fish supper and a can of Irn-Bru to hand so you can at least pretend to soak up the atmosphere.
If oyou couldn’t care less about BLOODY SCOTLAND you can still console yourself with the fact that you can SAVE 21% on everything in our store this weekend so it’s not all been a total waste of time.
Whatever you’re doing this weekend, have fun and look after each other.
Better times are coming, we can feel it.
We kiss you.
xx
P.S. We got distracted by Bloody Scotland so we’ll save up our Fahrenheit 13 news till next week.