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#FridayFlash The Crossroads
This is taken from my WIP, currently being subjected to NaNoWriMo The crossroads is broad and wide, half way up a hill. Approaching it with the town at your back the road continuing to sweep upward to the brow beyond the lights. That way leads to the motorway, north to the capital, south to the…
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NaNoWriMo: Feel the fear and do it anyway
By now some of you may have gathered that the advice I dish out and some of you have very kindly said is helpful, is often written for myself. I’m afraid. Of NaNoWriMo. Of wanting to be a writer and not properly getting round to do it. Of striving and never getting a novel published. Of having…
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I’m not dying!
The power of fiction. I just (because of a kind message) realised that I had posted a fictional piece about someone with a short time to live without the #fridayflash hashtag. It was late and obvious to me that it was fiction. But for those of you signed up to emailed posts, please be assured…
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#Fridayflash A life in books
Books I always thought I would read before I died: War and Peace, Rembrance of things Past, Ulysses. Then they told me I was going to die. How long does it take to read a book? I wondered. I tried to read Ulysses once but I found I couldn’t. There had been too much hype…
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All the options: One Stop Self-Publishing Conference
I attended the One Stop Self Publishing Conference on Sat Oct 17th at the Fitzpatrick Killiney hotel Dublin. It was organised and facilitated by Vanessa O’ Loughlin of Inkwell and Eoin Purcell of Green Lamp Media. As a fiction writer I was interested in interested in exploring the self-publishing option as one of the many possible…
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How to do NaNoWrimo when you don’t have the time
Er well….NaNoWriMo. A 50,000 word novel in 30 days? Are we ready, confident, rearing to go? Or are we standing on the edge of a bungee jump saying ‘why did I sign up for this? I really can’t do this and it’s not just the fear of it, it’s actually a physcial impossibility, I don’t have…
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Burgundy, Bolero and Chicken Supreme
Miranda had agreed to come round to Declan’s for dinner because she couldn’t think of anything better to do. Miranda and Declan worked at the same school, she taught French and Home Economics, he taught Science and P.E. The staff room rap was that Declan was a bit of a sleaze and that he tried…
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The Big Book of Hope
I recently was invited to the launch of The Big Book of Hope in Dublin. The book was the brainchild of Hazel Larkin and was championed by Vanessa O’ Loughlin. Together they amassed a group of writers, public figures and celebrities who contributed fiction, memoir and non-fiction pieces to this large volume of 448 pages.…