Cork writer Billy O’Callaghan is probably best known as a short story writer: winner of the inaugural Short Story of the Year prize at the Irish Book Awards in 2013, runner up for the 2016 Costa Short Story Prize and the 2017 choice for Cork’s One City, One Book with his collection The Things We… Read More My Coney Island Baby author Q&A
Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted one or two mentions of Cork literary salon Fiction at the Friary on this blog in the past. Among the many interesting people I’ve met there is Cork-based writer Catherine Kirwan. The very first time we spoke, Catherine had just had some interesting news about a manuscript she had tentatively… Read More Darkest Truth author Q&A
Roller coaster doesn’t begin to cover this year for me. Writing has contributed most of my highs, while the lows have been of a more personal nature. I’m glad of this blog, which reminds me that actually quite a lot has happened since my last end-of-year round up. I even got some writing done. Much… Read More A farewell to 2018
I had an unexpected Christmas present yesterday when a very short flash fiction piece of mine was published online. The Drabble is a literary journal that specialises in micro fiction of 100 words or less. My story is called ‘Socks for Samuel’ and it was inspired by this year’s WWI commemorations. It came about after a… Read More ‘Socks for Samuel’ in The Drabble
What with all that present buying and mince pie tasting, you probably don’t have much time for writing at the moment. However, if you have a tiny thing lying about, looking for a good home, perhaps one of these upcoming flash fiction competitions might be just the thing? At least with something brief you can… Read More Bitesize flash fiction competitions
A short story of mine, called ‘A Simple Loss of Balance’, was published a few months back in a UK literary journal called The Nottingham Review. It’s now been added to their online archives, if you fancy giving it a read. This story also earned a Highly Commended in the Colm Tóibín International Short Story… Read More ‘A Simple Loss of Balance’ online
Great news – I returned home elated from the UL winter school with 214 words and having ditched my WIP! On the surface, this might not seem like the best of yields, but in fact I have more than achieved my goal. When I tentatively applied way back in April, I was flummoxed by the… Read More UL winter school, epilogue
