I got involved in a project recently, to make something of a run-down, overgrown spot in the town of Athboy, County Meath. Formerly the stables of Athboy House and known locally sometimes as ‘the Old Piggery’, the site comprised of a walled square with stone stable buildings round a courtyard at one end. A small heritage garden sits between…
I’m delighted to say to that ‘Voraces’, the French edition of ‘Ancient Appetites’, has been shortlisted in France for the ‘Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2011′. It’s in the category ‘Roman jeunesse étranger’, (number six on the list of categories on the award’s site). I’m up against some pretty tough competition. Here’s the full list for the category: Le Sortilège…
This post is dedicated to various aspects of not doing things the normal way. I’m going to start with a recent article in the Meath Chronicle about a class in St Fintina’s Post Primary in Longwood, County Meath. Each of the first year students has been provided with a Fizzbook Spin tablet-style laptop. The school worked with The Educational…
It’s always nice to see someone doing things differently. I can only imagine the persistence, patience and downright bloody-mindedness it would take to teach a cow how to jump fences. But someone’s done it. This girl’s parents wouldn’t give her a horse, so she trained her cow, Luna, for show-jumping. And what it lacks in height, it makes up…
I’m reluctant to even post this, it’s become such a ridiculous situation, but I can’t help myself. Here’s what can happen when you respond to a review . . . and keep responding . . . and keep responding. To any other writers out there: just be glad it ain’t you.
I am reminded of that famous line from the trashy classic, ‘Robocop’: ‘You have twenty seconds to comply’. Except in this case, it’s: ‘You have twenty minutes to reply’. After that, you know that new email you’ve just received is getting knocked down the list in your inbox. I went into business for myself just a few years before…
I do sessions to promote my books – as well as a few workshops and residencies – throughout the year, but it normally doesn’t get too mad except for round October, when Ireland is overrun by the Children’s Book Festival. Lately though, I’ve taken on a lot of sessions, and with World Book Day (or at least the one…
I was delighted to hear that, in a recent poll of readers in libraries in County Offaly, I was voted Favourite Irish Author, ahead of some serious stars. The list went like this: Me! Marita Conlon-McKenna David Donohue Eoin Colfer Dolores Keaveney John Boyne Roddy Doyle Judy Curtin (Joint Place) Derek Landy, Maeve Binchy and John Connolly Of the…
On election day, I joined the mass of people who turned out to put their stroke of a pencil on the ballot paper and turf our greedy, corrupt, incompetent, hopeless excuse for a government out of Leinster House. It wasn’t what you’d normally consider a revolution, but it got the job done, and got the tossers out. Even as…
So we did it. Actually, the ten barbers led by John McGuire did it, the rest of us just sat in the chairs and stayed still long enough for them to lay our heads bare. The Ray D’Arcy Show’s attempt at breaking the record for the number of heads ten barbers could shave in an hour, was an odd…