Wednesday 21 November 2012

Burnt Bacon Anyone?

I am twenty one days into NaNoWriMo and my life will never be the same again! I kid you not. For those lovely readers and writers who do not know what the above torture is, it is a challenge that writers take on for the month on November to write 50000 words in the month. I started off slow; in fact I didn’t start at all really as I missed the 1st day completely. I also took on launching my 1st collection of short stories, A Bakers Dozen, and had a ball on the 9th Nov. That meant no writing on the 9th. So now I was two days behind. I am also doing a community radio broadcasting course that requires assignments as in, a studio interview, an outside interview and produce a half hour programme. Yes I know, what was I thinking of?
So when I did sit and start writing my story of Hell, I typed out the words like there was no end to them. Sitting at the kitchen table with my dinner cooking on the hob, I worked feverishly at the keyboard. The novel was flowing hot from my fingertips, my characters were sharing their story of suffering and the steam was rising around me. My eyes were stinging from the computer screen, the sweat of hard work across my brow. This was good stuff, the satanic story was taking a life of its own, and I could even smell the burning in hell. Burning? I paused; the dark smoke around me was real. So engrossed in my novel, my pot of bacon had boiled dry and both bacon and pot were black, it all happened around me and I had not noticed! 
So shall I take the challenge next year? Maybe, I don’t know, probably, yeah okay, sure what else would I do with my quiet life in the month of November? Burnt bacon anyone?  

Wednesday 14 November 2012

LAUNCH SUCCESS

LAUNCH A GREAT SUCCESS
The launch of A Baker’s Dozen on Friday November 9th was a great success. It kicked off at 7.30pm. Over 100 people attended at the Library, Main St, Charleville. Special Guests, author Vincent McDonnell and Michael Biggane spoke about what a wonderful thing it is to publish a book. A launch being a celebration of the event. Vincent read a piece from the collection and described my writing as a fine example of how to share a story. His review of the collection can be seen in an earlier post on this blog. He also made a presentation to me of a beautiful Sheafer pen in memory of the night. I was thrilled. Emcee for the evening was Ken Wheeler who did a wonderful job of keeping the proceedings ticking over. There was a wine and soft drinks reception with snacks. Amid music and laughter, the night rolled on and really ended on a high note. Thank you to all who travelled from far and near to mark this extraordinary night and so made it an exceptional night for me. Photos of the event will be put up on a separate page.