It is no easy task submitting, waiting, waiting, submitting
and some more waiting. Then, like buses, things come along together. This
summer my patience paid off.
In July I was fortunate enough to receive a bursary to
attend the John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh. This event
brought with it a feast of readings, entertainment and friendship. I got to
shake hands with Paul Muldoon, discuss the notion of fiction combined with non-fiction
with Hannah Lowe and receive invaluable advice from crime writer Anthony Quinn,
author of ‘Border Angels’ and ‘The Disappeared’. http://anthonyquinnwriter.com/
Later in July I received news that one of my short stories
had been accepted into Belfast’s The Incubator Journal along with an array of
multi-talented literary folk. Issue six includes an interview with Kelly
Creighton, author of ‘The Bones of It’. You have
to put it on your ‘must read’ list and a review of Paul McVeigh’s ‘The Good Son’
which is on my ‘must read’ list. In
fact I’ve included a link here if you wish to read Issue 6 of The Incubator
Journal free gratis! Yes really a freebie.
https://theincubatorjournal.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/the-incubator-issue-6.pdf
If you want a printed copy you’ll have to shell out a
little.
I have also been honoured to be invited to Belfast on 20th
September to read my short story at the launch of Issue 6 of The Incubator
Journal.
In August I received a nice email, another of my short
stories had been long listed in the RTE Guide/Penguin Ireland Short Story
Competition 2015.
Now, some of you may remember in 2013, I along with five
other writing colleagues, were long and short listed in the RTE Guide/Penguin
Ireland Short Story competition. We collaborated and published a collection of
those award winning stories. Here’s the link if you wish to hold the printed
version in your grasp.
I continue to edit a play I have written with the multi-talented
Mary Bradford, Mary Angland and Mary-Anne Bartlett under the mentorship of John
Sheehy of CallBack Theatre. This play is for staging in November 2015. I am
also editing my crime novel.
All of this is done while life is happening and firing things
at me. Because of these ‘life missiles’ (which I will share further in time) I
have, many times, felt like throwing in the towel. But, I have managed to chase
thoughts of that nature from my mind. It was worth the wait this summer when I
got those nice emails.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and in case
you missed it above here is the link to The Incubator Journal. Please enjoy and
share so others can enjoy.
https://theincubatorjournal.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/the-incubator-issue-6.pdf
