If you’ve been to any of my talks, you may already have heard me say that, for me, the definition of a ‘Young Adult’ book is something that appeals to both young and adult readers. Looking at it this way, you could say that most of our entertainment – whether it’s written down or shown on-screen – is ‘Young…
When it comes to technology, I often think companies with powerful new applications can fail to see the difference between ‘Can we?’ and ‘Should we?’. As private companies develop increasingly bottomless resources for storing our most personal information, we, their customers, should constantly be asking how much of this is really necessary, and how much we are giving away…
So I’ve been on the road a lot over the last couple of weeks. Children’s Book Festival kicked off for real with two days in Clare at the end of September, doing sessions in Ennis and Corofin, Ennistymon and Miltown Malbay. On the way back, I stopped at the Cliffs of Moher. I think I was there when I…
This is a bit of a mental week (I’m in eight different places this week alone – more, if you count individual libraries in a county), but I wanted to post a few things before I forgot. First off, if you’re a budding new author – or indeed a frustrated old one – Irish PEN are hosting a panel…
This post is a tribute to my Power Mac G4, a machine with which I have had a long and tumultuous working relationship; a machine I have cursed almost as often as I’ve admired. Hold onto your hats, ‘cos this could get a bit nerdy. Despite the numerous break-ups (and one or two break-downs) this Mac and I have…
A few posts back, I mentioned a guy named Mike Matas and his new company called Push Pop Press. A former Apple employee, he and his team are developing some fairly snazzy interactive books for the iPad and iPhone. They’ve been getting a lot of attention, and it seems it has served them well. I found a link to…
Children’s Book Festival – in terms of events, it’s the busiest time in the year for most children’s book authors (and to a lesser extent, illustrators) in Ireland. Officially, it runs from the beginning to the end of October, although it tends to bleed into September and November too. Libraries, schools and bookshops all over the country will be…
Back in August, I posted about the launch of the MS Readathon. RTE’s Elev8 were there to film it and the piece was broadcast yesterday. You can have a look at it here. The whole clip is twenty minutes long, and the Readathon bit is about fourteen minutes in, so you might want to skip on to it if…
I’ve been asked this a few times over the last while – particularly by people who are dealing with the book distributors, and can see that my next two books ‘The Orphan Factory’ and ‘Dead-End Junction’, were scheduled for release this month. The short answer is ‘I don’t know’. But I’ll tell you what I do know (and what…
I was in the lovely setting of Skerries last night, for the opening of the Enchanted Exhibition in Skerries Mills. This is the fifth and last venue to host this collection of work by Irish illustrators, and it’s only on until the 25th of September, so if you haven’t seen it yet, and you’re interested in this kind of…