Hello there!
Thank you for popping by for a visit. On the brink of publishing my fifth book, Where There's A Will, I'm working my way through the editing process at the moment. Another intense period of hard work, early mornings, late nights and mind-boggling decisions on whether one word will do instead of two etc but the prospect of seeing it on bookshelves around the country keeps me going and helps me stay awake!
Working in the Central Statistics Office during the day and writing in the evenings and at weekends keeps me pretty busy - and buzzing if I'm honest. I'm not great at sitting around doing nothing - and tapping away on my laptop, creating characters and developing storylines keeps me away from fashion websites and my credit card!
Living in the tranquility of West Cork provides the perfect backdrop, inspiration and licence to make things up! And it gives Pat, David and Mark full control of the football channels while I'm drifting away to my made-up world and wondering what I did with my spare time before I became engrossed in this unpredictable pastime.
I can't honestly say I always wanted to write. What I can confirm, however, is my lifelong love of reading and books. As a kid, I scribbled out the author's name and replaced it with mine...so I guess the illusion of being an author was lurking somewhere in the background. The hard work and graft was never on my agenda....my name on the cover was as far as it went for quite some time.
Like alot of my decisions, deciding to write a book was something of a whim, a fleeting comment to a few friends one day as we made yet another New Year's resolution. But saying it aloud brought the notion to life, planted the seed of wonder in my mind. Would I try? Where would I start? What if, what if, what if?
But I did start......and finish! I wrote a book in 6 months, sent it off to publishers and agents (found the time to research a little into the publishing world between chapters) and waited patiently for the offers of publication to pour through my letter box. If memory serves me right, I'm sure I even picked up the phone on a few occasions to check it was actually working! Why weren't they calling? Surely they'd be fighting over it. Eventually, responses poured in as expected. What I hadn't bargained for, however, was that each one consisted of a 'we regret to inform you'.
I won't lie - rejection hurts and is quite bruising to the ego. But copping myself on and re-reading some of the rejection slips, I realised that the news wasn't all bad. A few had taken the time to say they enjoyed the story but I needed to work on character and plot development. A literary agent, however, was the one who provided the key to unlocking the mystery of writing. His advice - the most valuable piece I received - was that writing is all about rewriting. Like a sculptur working on a lump of clay, a writer can continue to mould a piece of work until it's as good as it can be.
And so, I decided I'd write another book but this time I researched the craft of writing, armed myself with some general rules and guidelines, worked really hard on character and plot development, studied the technique of maintaining tension and walked around the kitchen reading dialogue aloud to make sure it sounded authentic. Once again I packed several submissions into brown envelopes (sprinkled some fairy dust on some of them) and popped them in the post. This time I didn't take anything for granted, didn't hang around the phone and didn't stalk the postman! Instead, I kept myself busy and reworked my manuscript -polishing it and polishing it just in case anyone showed the slightest interest.
Rejections trickled in - disappointing but not world-ending. Their criticism was less severe, their encouragement peeping between the lines. So I kept writing, applied any nuggets of advice I received and re-packed more brown envelopes. When the good news finally arrived in the form of a brief phone call in August 2005, I was in a state of shock. A publisher wanted to publish my book - not just one book but three books. Euphoria quickly set in and I told everybody I knew (yes, I'm embarrassed now) that I was going to be a published author!
But I had barely taken a sip from my celebratory glass of champagne when panic took hold. What if I couldn't write another book? What if people bought my book and hated it? The concerns multiplied but at no point did I even consider turning my back on the offer of a 3-title-publishing deal and the opportunity to have my dream come true.
And now almost seven years later, February 2012, I have four published novels sitting on my book shelf - the fifth due to join them in summer 2012. And the sixth, no more than the notion of writing my very first book, is a germ of an idea lurking at the back of my mind.....
