It’s my birthday in a couple weeks. So if anyone’s looking for gift inspiration – (I’m sure most of you are!) – I quite fancy this dog and this Tickle Me Elmo. Thanks!
New Blog!
I’ve redesigned the blog a bit.
Well, quite a bit.
I figured it was time to move away from the dark and dreary cave of Arthur Quinns world since this blog has come to be more about me than about that one book. (Although I will continue to blog about said trilogy!)
Anyway, what do you think?
2011; What it meant to me
The past 365 days have been a particularly great year for me.
There are all the obvious things that most of you already know. I’ve had my first book published to critical and public acclaim. It was even shortlisted in the BGE Irish Book Awards – (that was a shocker!) Because of the book, I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of new and fascinating people, including several fellow writers who have had nice and encouraging things to say. But the real joy has come from my many visits to schools and libraries. Meeting the children to have read or are reading my book is a pleasure incomparable to anything else. The enthusiasm kids today have for books is infectious and makes me want to go home and read/write even more.
I’ve spent a lot of the time in the past year learning how to be a writer. When I wrote the book in 2010, I kind of just stumbled into everything, feeling my way blindly. But at the start of 2011, I set myself some writing targets and got into a habit that I keep to today. Right now, I have the first drafts of the next two Arthur Quinn books complete and am working on a whole other story that I hope people will get to read one day.
My friends and family have been so supportive to me all year long that I can’t thank them enough. The same must be said for my publishers, Mercier Press, fellow authors and all the kids book enthusiasts I’ve met along the way.
But what else did 2011 mean to me? Well I thought I’d have a look back at some of my highlights. What were yours?
Antonia’s Bookstore book club 30/11/11
This is the first time I’ve met a book club who have read my book and it was a very fun experience. The members had some really great insights into the book, noticing the tiniest of things that even I hadn’t! They were full of questions, asking me to clarify certain parts or to give them hints for the rest of the series. A couple of them even took guesses about where the story would go… (I tried dodging these as much as possible!) Read the rest of this entry »
St Josephs Mercy Primary 30/11/11
A few weeks ago I got a missed call. When I listened back to the voicemail, it was from a teacher in Navan telling me how much her class had been enjoying ‘Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent’ and how excited they would be to have me visit. I, of course, promised that I would visit them and on the 30th of November I was true to my word.
Like the Hunt School, this was one of the first school visits where the class had read most of the book and had questions prepared. As soon as I was in the door, I was asked for a few high fives! After talking about the book and writing for a bit, I discovered that the class had drawn pictures based on their favourite scenes. (A few of them are below!) They had also studied the history of the Vikings and their myths in great detail. Read the rest of this entry »
Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2011 – Report
It’s over a week since the Book Awards and I’m only getting around to writing about it now. (I’ve been in Berlin in the meantime!)
The night began by meeting my publisher Clodagh Feehan and fellow Mercier author Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc whose book Revolution was shortlisted in the Best Irish Published. We were all decked out in our black tie wear, ready for the night ahead. We got to the RDS just as the president, Michael D Higgins and guest of honour of the night, Seamus Heaney were arriving. So we got a really close view of them and had to crawl in the door with some of our fellow nominees minutes after.
(Above: Michael D and Seamus Heaney among others) Read the rest of this entry »
Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards
As some of you may have heard, my book ‘Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent’ has been shortlisted in the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in the Best Children’s Book, Senior section. These are very prestigious awards and being shortlisted with my debut novel is a very exciting experience. My category has some strong competition. It’s all the best of Irish children’s writers; Three-time previous IBA winner Derek Landy, hugely bestselling author Darren Shan, Denise Deegan and Anna Carey. These awards are different from many others as the public get a say in choosing the winner as points are given based on both judges’ and public votes.
So, with that said, I’ll ask you to please vote for my book here. Everyone who votes is instantly put into a draw for a €100 Book Token, too!
(I feel I should also point out that there’s a great children’s writing competition on the site too. Check it out here!)
Win my book!
Rollercoaster.ie and Mercier Press are giving away copies of my book ‘Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent’ to five lucky winners. Closing date is November 7th. To win, just head over to this site and enter your details. Good luck!
They’re here!
It’s real.
So, as you can guess from the post below, I got the first copy of my first book in the post the other day.
It’s a strange feeling, finally holding it. It’s real. I can flick through the pages, I can smell the ink, I can even crack the spine if I was so inclined. The words aren’t on a screen anymore; the characters aren’t running around my head. They’re there – on the pages of a real life book for all to read.
Read the rest of this entry »