I spent the 11th to the 13th of June in a place called Saint Malo, on the northern coast of Britanny, in France. I was there to take part in a fantastic book and film festival, but used it as an excuse to get a family holiday in as well. The festival is entitled ‘Etonnants Voyageurs’ – which loosely…
In its ongoing crusade to make as much of the world’s information available online (an act that is not entirely altruistic), Google have teamed up with the British Library to release 250,000 books online, from the library’s stock. ‘The Telegraph’ reports that the books will cover the years from 1700 to 1870, so the copyright issues that Google has…
I’m only just back from France, having attended the Etonnants Voyageurs festival in St Malo, and then gone on to take a week with the family on the west coast of Britanny. I’ll do separate posts on those two, when I get a chance. Unfortunately, I didn’t win either of the awards I was up for; the Prix Imaginales…
I’m just finishing up two separate residencies for Poetry Ireland, in primary schools in Drogheda and Balbriggan. These two particular courses are what are known as Development Education residencies – all of which have some kind of social justice theme. The theme this year has been ‘Starvation’. I run a project that produces a collection of illustrated stories at…
I read an article in ‘The Irish Times’ recently that told of the massive advance for a two-book deal for first-time novellist, Kathleen MacMahon. In the article, the deal – with its £600,000 advance – for This Is How It Ends and a follow-up book, is hailed as: ‘brilliant news for debut novelists. It’s proof that there’s an appetite…
It seems the French like Irish steampunk stories. The French edition of ‘Ancient Appetites’ – ‘Voraces’ – is up for a second award. This one is the Prix Imaginales 2011. The prize was created in 2002 and is the first French prize exclusively devoted to fantasy writing. ‘Voraces’ is in the ‘jeunesse’ category. Here’s the shortlist for the category:…
Found this on Irish Publishing News. I made it onto the list of Top 100 authors borrowed in Irish libraries in 2010. For anybody who thinks that children’s books are a minor part of what is overwhelmingly an adult book market, the Top 100 list is loaded with children’s authors, with over half the Top 50 consisting of our…
One of the things about being published by a few different publishers in the same market, is that you can end up with a slightly disjointed approach to selling your work. Even within the one publisher, you can find that different types of books are sold in different ways. In some cases, this is necessary; the kind of thing…
So the bit on the telly went pretty well. As ever, it feels like you’ve walked into the middle of a busy kitchen and everyone else knows what’s cooking, and only have time to tell you just barely what you need to know to do your bit. Trying to say everything you want to get said in the three…
I’m going to be appearing on Elev8, on RTE 2 at around midday on Monday (the show is airing earlier than normal because of Easter). It’s part of the promotion for the Drogheda Arts Festival. The Enchanted Exhibition, which started out in the Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford, has now moved to the arts centre in Drogheda, and…