Spotlight On Writers – Marshall Hughes

Fortunately, I come from a small town on the east coast of Scotland. It truly epitomises everything beautiful in life. I have only just started to write this interview and notice I used two adverbs over two sentences. Oops! I am delirious. This is the fallout of months of editing my second book. Anyway, back to where I hail from? Putting the adverb debacle to one side, I was about to embark on a descriptive passage to describe my hometown of St. Andrews (Fife, Scotland). It is a historic town with cobbled streets, medieval architecture, cathedral, castle and church square. The precipitous coastline, harbour and gorgeous sandy beaches overlook the vast expanse of the North Sea. With numerous golf courses, old university and nature reserves, this is an idyllic place to stay. However, I left to further my studies in Edinburgh and now live within easy access to the east and west coast of Scotland. The landscape to the west is very different: rugged, wild, mountainous, full of salt and freshwater lochs, delicious seafood, and spectacular scenery that is a haven to maintain your sanity in this chaotic world.

This is my type of question. I am a marketing lecturer, teacher, mentor, crime fiction writer, poet and photographer. Since I finished my doctoral thesis five years ago (creativity and innovation within the advertising sector), my own personal brand of creativity has flourished. Not bound by academic code, my imagination went into overdrive. I am in the process of writing a crime fiction trilogy on the darker side of human nature because of my interest in psychology and criminology. Why I decided on a trilogy is beyond my comprehension? It took five years to write two books. Therefore, I have one more to complete. Groan! The editing process is horrendous. However, I now have the confidence to try out some poetry. Due to the inspiration and influence of Jo Ahlberg and Shaun Dobbs who are regular writers on social media, I wrote three poems under the title of Love Hurts on Spillwords (Never Truly Mine, Let It Go and Red But Not Dead). This was a personal journey and one I am eager not to repeat.

I also have an interest in cosmology, theoretical physics and quantum mechanics. Anything that describes the microscopic world to justify the macroscopic universe is an area of interest. The imagination is limitless. Multi-dimensional realities, visible matter, galaxies, suns and planets, born to coincide within the structural framework of the dark matter universe. I do believe that science, religion and spirituality may come together to try and explain the nature of reality, but we will probably never know. As such, I have a cosmic trilogy of poems yet to publish on Spillwords (Beyond, Dark Forces and Beyond Our Sight).

Out with my crime fiction novels and poetry, I am a keen amateur photographer. I use some darker images for my website, have a presence on 500px/Facebook and co-create with other artists to produce creative content. The Scottish landscape is my area of interest, especially seascapes, sunrise and sunsets.

My favourite word is ‘quixotic’.
Definition: “If you describe someone’s ideas or plans as quixotic, you mean that they are imaginative or hopeful but unrealistic.” It derives from the character of Don Quixote and his “hopelessly quixotic code of honour.” (Collins English Dictionary).

I came across this word in Time Magazine to outline the vision of a major sports brand in the 1980s – with an individualistic ideology – to enter a collectivist country such as China. However, despite the terminology to describe the situation, this strategy was a huge success, so not all quixotic endeavours are unrealistic.