Launch of MS Readathon 2011

My stepson and I were at the launch of this year’s MS READaTHON on Tuesday, at the Winding Stair Bookshop in Dublin. A big event packed into a small shop, the place was stuffed with authors, kids, PR people, photographers, television people, children’s entertainers, and folks from the MS Society and the book trade . . . along with…

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Writing for Children

For anyone interested in writing for kids, there are still a couple of places left on the online course I’ll be running for Creative Writing Ink in September-October. Here’s the outline of the course: I will cover the basics of storytelling and the specific aspects of writing for children and young adults. Areas that will be looked at include:…

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Stealing Books

The illegal copying and distribution of digital books. We knew this was coming – in fact, it’s been possible for a while. Ever since book production went digital, and distribution went online. But thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and some handy pieces of dodgy software, any git with a smidgeon of computer savvy can now rip off somebody…

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Holding My Attention – Films

These are aren’t necessarily my favourite films from the last few months, but they’ve stuck in my head, which I suppose is as good a reason as any for talking about them. I’m going to start with a movie, simply entitled ‘Monsters ‘. I just sort of picked this one off the shelf in Xtra-Vision. It seemed to be…

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An Audience with His Purpleness

On Saturday, I was at Prince’s concert in Malahide Castle. It was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. I came out knackered and hoarse. My feet and legs ached from dancing in a confined space for nearly three hours. Actually, it was more jumping up and down – it’s hard to dance very expressively in a…

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