Mid-term Library Visits

This week I was honoured to be invited on a mini-tour of Dublin city libraries. First up was Rathmines Library, followed by Coolock, Ballsbridge and finally Ballymun. I even managed to squeeze in a visit to the pupils in Scoil Fhursa in Coolock. All the children, librarians and parents I met were wonderful. As usual, I played my creative writing game with them where we all come up with a brand new Viking god. All the new gods were crazy, scary, funny characters but I have to say that a personal favourite came from the crowd in Ballymun. They came up with a 3 million year old Viking goddess who was heavily overweight and therefore they made her the goddess of fat. The best thing about her though, was her name; Fatima the Viking Goddess!

There are lots more events coming over the next few weeks so keep checking back here or better yet, follow me on Twitter for updates!

Skype School Events

Michelle Moloney-King drew my attention to this blog on Twitter yesterday. Essentially it’s a listing of authors – all based in the States – who offer 20 minute Skype calls to schools for free.

It’s an interesting premise and would certainly help raise the profile of your book abroad. But I’m not sure there would be much call for Irish writers to Skype Irish schools. The country is so small that you can travel anywhere, meet a few classes and be back home easily within a day. One of the great things about being a writer is getting to meet the readers who’ve enjoyed your book. I’m not sure if this work quite as well through a computer screen.

So what do you think? Teachers and parents out there – would you be interested in Skype school events? Authors – do you feel that these Skype events could work?

Either way, I’m willing to give a Skype even a try if anyone out there is interested. You can contact me about a Skype event or ordinary school visit here!

Me, My Kindle and I

Back in November, I got myself a Kindle. I had been refraining for a while; pure and simply, I prefer ‘real books’. But a couple of things convinced me to part with my money. Firstly, I wanted to have unpublished short stories and future books available to me for readings without the need of bringing print-offs. Secondly, I wanted to read Stephen King’s new novel. Read the rest of this entry »