I’ve been laying low recently, working feverishly on a book project as part of an amazing mentorship bursary with this year’s Frank O’Connor Fellow Marie-Helene Bertino (my current state of mind: OhGodOhGodOhGod). But I can’t resist the occasional herding of writing news, so here are a few bits and pieces that might be of interest… Read More The unweekly herding: room for improvement
Honestly, short story collections can be such stress-inducing things. You buy them with the intention of reading them in their entirety. But then, more often than not, you pick out two or three stories with appealing titles and place the book on a shelf with every intention of returning to it. You never do return… Read More The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies reviewed
Just a brief post to share the news that Word Herding has made the shortlist of the personal Books & Literature category at this year’s V by Very Blog Awards Ireland. Imagine, if you will, a conga line made of one – eh – conga? Such was the wild party at Herding Manor when the… Read More V by Very Blog Awards Ireland 2017 shortlist
I have been invited to read my From the Well winning story at the Cork International Short Story Festival, which takes place September 13-16. What a privilege. It was only last year that I first attended it as an audience member, and was blown away by the guest speakers. Any suggestion that I would be… Read More There will be words
Call me weird – alright, there is no need to say it quite that fast – but I like it when summer ends and the evenings start drawing in. There’s nothing like a nice fire and the chance to embrace head-to-toe knitwear. Plus the cooler weather is somehow more conducive to writing. With that in… Read More The unweekly herding: back to school, back to work
The common wisdom is that in order be a good writer, it’s essential to read widely. I would like to argue that it’s also important to be an avid viewer of films and/or TV series. Seriously, you can learn a lot about pacing, plotting and character development while reclining on a sofa with a family-sized… Read More Game of Stone’s Throw
I had a very welcome email this morning saying that Word Herding has made the longlist in two categories of this year’s V by Very Blog Awards Ireland 2017 (previously Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards). The blog is longlisted in both the personal Books & Literature category and Best Blog Post for ‘6 Things I’ve Learned… Read More Longlisted for V by Very Blog Awards Ireland 2017
