Sometimes there is no guarantee that you can make a life’s work out of doing what you love. Sometimes in spite of good intentions the time you need to keep the momentum going that is needed for being a serious novelist just won’t be there. Sometimes the money or programme or encouragement to be able […]
Category: Musings
Easter – Return to Social Media
Part of the South Leinster Way going through Inistioge Forty Days in the Desert From Ash Wednesday to today, I chose to abstain from social media to mark Lent. (With a four-day interruption caused by the Arch-Tempter Himself, Mr Amazon) This was because I wanted to live more meaningfully and in the moment. I wanted […]
Protected: Somebody Somewhere Is Trying To Breathe
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Morning, Excellent and Fair
Happy New Year to everyone. These past few months there’s been a quiet revolution going on in my head. I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic a little while ago (a wonderful, kind, positive book for writers and artists) and one passage resonated with me. She mentioned a botanist saying that many people were saddened at the […]
“Let Me Hear You Say Yes”
Today’s clip has been brought to me courtesy of novelist Arlene Hunt‘s twitter feed – her editor Ciara Sidine is also a talented singer and recently re-recorded Curtis Mayfield’s civil rights classic “People Get Ready”. She recorded it for the “Yes to Equality” campaign which is being held in advance of the referendum in Ireland on […]
The Water Diviner – Russell Crowe’s Gallipoli Film
TL-DR: It veered towards greatness, then lost its nerve (taking troubling historical liberties en route.) ETA. Worth reading Athena Andreadis’s take on the film. She has a lot more skin in this game, and her account is a passionate (and convincing) indictment.
Lisa Fischer Sings Samuel Barber’s “Sure on this Shining Night”
I am supposed to be working on a redraft of a short story and it’s going well. But a few days ago, a certain member of the household brought to my attention the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, which is about backing vocalists, their talent and harmony, and the power they brought to the rock songs […]
A Cracking Review – And Why I Took Some Time off Twitter
I’ve been off twitter a few weeks. It was having a not-great effect on my mental health. It’s not people I chat to, you are all wonderful and I miss you! But there are certain things that will always trigger me when discussed. That isn’t all my fault – much of it, I angrily maintain, […]
Testament of Youth – Film Review
Thanks for everyone who left comments or kind tweets after my post yesterday about mental health. I’ve been privately told it helped other people that I spoke about it, and that’s really the most important thing of all. Sanity is not an absolute, it’s a spectrum, and most of us who are not utterly phlegmatic […]
2014: It’s Hard Out Here For a…Female Debut Novelist
2014 was a good year for me. On a personal level, my family added a generation when O arrived. Born in April 2014, he was the youngest guest at my launch. I had just referred to him in my launch speech and he’d disappeared and suddenly just materialised again, right on cue, along with his […]
