How the Next Big Thing blog hop works
An author answers ten questions and then tags authors to do the same thing the following week on the same day, which in this case is a Thursday.
The force of nature June Caldwell tagged me in her post and so here is my attempt ...
1) What is the working title of your next book?
"A Body Apart" is the title of the book I'm not yet finished. So technically speaking it is my 'next' book. If I knew the title, let alone the content, of my actual next book I'd be laughing. Anyway back to the book. A journey, in the mythic sense, of a girl/woman/lady (this is no time to be politically correct) as she attempts to discard the skin of her current life to make way for something that does not yet have a shape, and how scary that is.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
How easy it is for a life to close in around you when your mind and your body are at odds. How easy it is for a person to disappear into the chasm that that conflict creates in a life.
I also went on one of those terribly cliched around the world trips. And it was fantastic in every way. The journey itself wasn't so much the influence as the cahones it took to leave what I had to leave and head off by myself to do it.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
Whats that now?
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Am currently fostering a girl crush on Emily Blunt so I'm sure she'd be delighted to do it.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Fear is the maker of us all.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I can only hope that one day my work and I might have the opportunity to be represented by an agency.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Two years.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I know what I want to say but I don't think I can bring myself to say it out loud.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Everybody writes from a place of their own experience. How else could you do it?
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
There is a very awkward and ungainly sex scene about three quarters in.
Phew .....
I here by tag my fellow St. Andrews Alumni. Kristin Livingston and Mark Cooper.
Kristin writes Young Adult fiction and puts me to shame by having already written loads more books that I will ever write in my lifetime.
Multi-talented Mark is in the bands Distant Signal and Uffmoor Woods Music Club. He is also a fine poet, short listed for, too many to count competitions, including the very prestigious Eric Gregory and Bridport.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Books 2013
Waterstones has released its Debut Authors to watch in 2013. Nice to see Irish author Donal Ryan and Dublin born Kevin Maher in the mix.
Pig's Foot by Carlos Acosta (Bloomsbury, 30 October)
Idiopathy by Sam Byers (Fourth Estate, 25 April)
Y by Marjorie Celona (Faber and Faber, 17 January)
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence (Hodder & Stoughton, 31 January)
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Picador, 29 August)
The Fields by Kevin Maher (Little, Brown, 7 March)
The Son by Michel Rostain (Tinder Press, 23 May)
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland, 27 June)
Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera (William Heinemann, 26 September)
Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (Viking, 4 April)
Ballistics by DW Wilson (Bloomsbury, 1 August)
Pig's Foot by Carlos Acosta (Bloomsbury, 30 October)
Idiopathy by Sam Byers (Fourth Estate, 25 April)
Y by Marjorie Celona (Faber and Faber, 17 January)
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence (Hodder & Stoughton, 31 January)
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Picador, 29 August)
The Fields by Kevin Maher (Little, Brown, 7 March)
The Son by Michel Rostain (Tinder Press, 23 May)
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland, 27 June)
Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera (William Heinemann, 26 September)
Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (Viking, 4 April)
Ballistics by DW Wilson (Bloomsbury, 1 August)
Friday, November 30, 2012
Braille Music
Seems impossible? Luckily its not.
I know Braille but not at this level, with its specific notation and difficulty in sourcing materials let alone finding someone who knows it and can teach it .....
My colleagues recently hosted a Braille Music Workshop Day to great success.
With new technology coming on line all the time its great news when more and more things can be opened up and utilised in such a positive way.
Here's a great video about Braille Music from the Guardian. Fascinating.
I know Braille but not at this level, with its specific notation and difficulty in sourcing materials let alone finding someone who knows it and can teach it .....
My colleagues recently hosted a Braille Music Workshop Day to great success.
With new technology coming on line all the time its great news when more and more things can be opened up and utilised in such a positive way.
Here's a great video about Braille Music from the Guardian. Fascinating.
Friday, November 23, 2012
The Ruins of Detroit
I saw "The Ruins of Detroit" exhibition by the photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre earlier this year in the Fontana Fortuna Gallery in Amsterdam. Industrial Detroit: a forgotten civilisation, a dying world that is still holding on with its steel girders and well built walls. The photos are a beautiful testement to what we are capable of acheiving but also what we are capable of destroying.
The complete annihilation of this part of the city from an industry led economy is enthralling. I marvelled at the audacity, bravery of both its inception and its destruction. They left behind homes, schools, theatres, doctors and dentists surgerys, alongside factories, police stations (including blood sample evidence) and offices. The kind of scene you'd expect to see after an apocolypse. But its neighbours have just stepped back and watched it callopse.
So whats changed? The cyclical and unchanging hounds of history divide and conquer no matter what this generation says about the last.
The artists statement: "Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension. The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires. This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time : being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things. Photography appeared to us as a modest way to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state."
The exhibitions tragic beauty is enthralling. Look through some more of the collection here. Buy the book here.
(Photographs in this post are copyright Yves Marchand, Romain Meffre)
Friday, November 16, 2012
Irish Book Awards 2012
Voting closes at midnight this Sunday (18th) so be sure to stick your oar in where it counts.
Vote here. Five lucky voters will also be in with a chance to win some book tokens.
Support great Irish writers!
Heres the short lists:
Vote here. Five lucky voters will also be in with a chance to win some book tokens.
Support great Irish writers!
Heres the short lists:
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