Artist in Residence - Paris


I'm coming to the end of my time as Writer in Residence at Centre Culturel Irlandais here in Paris. It's been amazing to have a full month to concentrate on my writing. The residencies are advertised every year, and are open to artists of all kinds. I would urge anyone who can, to consider applying. I began writing when my children were young so I understand not everyone can take a month from their life (or  jobs) to write, I had to wait a few years (more than a few) to be in the position myself, but am so grateful to the centre, for this time. 

I've finished a draft of my manuscript, The Writer's House, and find myself finally free to work on some stories that have waited a long time for an ending - my poor characters! For whatever reason, probably many, my progress with this latest book has been slow but its at The End, or around the corner from it. I was talking to another writer in the kitchen this morning about these kind of challenges - and its often, I think, not that we need to work harder, but that we need to find the joy. I've learnt the hard way, that more hours, more discipline does not always bring a work to fruition, instead its taking the time to find the joy, the zing, the pulse in the writing - and in life, again. It happens off the page.

This year is the 700 anniversary of the Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler. The novel is based on the fate of Petronelle de Midia, and Irelands first 'witch' trial. Due to huge interest from the US, much likely due to the fact that so many people have connections to Kilkenny and Ireland, I've published Her Kind for US readers, its available in e-book, paperback and hardback (which makes a beautiful gift book). The Irish editions are also in bookshops there. As there were so many requests recently, I also hope to have an audiobook for Her Kind available in the New Year.


Library Centre Culturel Irlandais

This Thursday, on Samhain, at 7 pm, I'll be reading from Her Kind in a candle lit library full of ancient books here in the Centre Culturel Irlandais. If anyone reading this is in Paris, we'd love to see you at there, after that I'll be flying home to Ireland, my family and collie, and all those other stories... 


LINKS...






HER KIND...

Amazon.com  

Barnes and Noble


More news coming, fingers crossed, after Halloween - but in the meantime, if you have enjoyed Her Kind, even the briefest of reviews make the world of difference!  

Her Kind U.S.A.

                                    AVAILABLE TO READ NOW...

Amazon.com 




THE FIRST IRISH WITCH TRIAL

Her Kind is based on the first witchcraft trial in Ireland and the British Isles. It was a landmark case and one close to my heart, as I grew up hearing tales of Alice Kyteler, the 'witch of Kilkenny.'  It's often called The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler.

Of course, like most tales it was far more complicated and shocking than the myth surrounding it. I went on to spend many years researching the case, walking the streets and lanes of Kilkenny City, and following in the steps of a woman far less mentioned in relation to the story, who is actually the most central - Petronilla de Media. 

A beautiful UK edition was published by Penguin in 2019, and went on to be nominated for the EU Prize for Literature. I am so happy that a new revised edition of Her Kind is now available for US readers, and to be able to hand her over to you. So, it's back to the writing shed to finish my third novel - please feel free to leave any comments or questions. Happy July, writers and readers x  




ABOUT NIAMH

 Niamh Boyce

Niamh Boyce is a multi-award winning Irish Writer based in midlands Ireland, her novels often explore the lives of suppressed and silenced women. Her Kind was nominated for the EU Prize for Literature. Her first novel The Herbalist was an Irish Book Award winner. Niamh also won The Hennessy Literary and was awarded Irish Writer of the Year.  

Barnes and Noble - Paperback      

Kobo - e-book                               

Amazon.com - all editions


Still here...



Yes, I’m still here! And still writing... I decided to reawaken the blog as I miss its old style, slow style - which suits my own at the moment!

Workshops...

For (Ireland based) readers interested in writing workshops, Fact to Fiction in particular – I’ll be running live workshops this Autumn – feel free to contact me via the blog to register your interest. It will be covid compliant with limited numbers and based in the Irish Midlands.

Lyonesse Literary Journal...

Image by Monika Ruminska Akwarele

I've been trying to read journals and sites that feed my writing mind and inspire at the moment  and Lyonesse is one of them. Its an exciting online journal celebrating women writers who foreground women and weave magic and nature into their work. They ‘particularly love showcasing writing inspired by mythology, folklore and fairy tales.’ It’s run by Sam Young and team. I was delighted to be part of their 'In Conversation' feature - the interview covers fairy tales, folklore, Irish history, poetry, mermaids, silence, witchcraft and a little about next novel...! 

'Niamh Boyce is an award winning writer and poet from Ireland who is based in the Irish Midlands. Using the novel and poem to unearth the witches, ghosts and other buried voices of marginalised Irish women, her writing frequently explores womanhood and the oppressive influence of the Catholic religion and patriarchy on women’s lives. 

In 2012, she was awarded the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year for her poem “Kitty” and later went on to publish her first poetry collection, Inside the Wolf (2018), in which she dissects traditional fairy tales to explore art, motherhood and her Irish ancestry. Boyce’s debut novel, The Herbalist was published in 2013, gaining her Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards the same year. Set in 1930 rural Ireland, it tells the story of how the arrival of a mysterious medicine man to a small Irish village impacts the lives of four women within the community and exposes the culture of shame and silence which oppresses them. 

In 2019, Her Kind was published and shortlisted for the EU Prize for Literature. Taking the title from the Anne Sexton poem, the novel provides a speculative account of the Kilkenny Witch Trial which saw a group of Irish women condemned for witchcraft in 1324. In this interview, Lyonesse Editor Sam Young and Niamh discuss some of her feminist literary influences, the enduring allure of myths folklore and fairy tales, and giving voice to the historically silenced women of Ireland’s turbulent past..... 

to read more - click here

In the Long Read section, there's an fantastic in depth critical analysis of my first novel The Herbalist, by Maeve Eveyln Reilly - (first, spoiler alert, it's best to read this after you've finished the novel!) - to read - click here-   

Image by Monika Ruminska Akwarele

There's also a beautiful feature by Sam Young on hares and their associations with the moon, goddesses and witchcraft - its illustrated by Monika Ruminska Akwarele's stunning watercolours... to read more - click here 

In the meantime, I'm getting to the writing every day, some days only for a very short time - but getting to it day by day keeps the energy of the book alive... 

'In some ways I'm rediscovering the reasons why I wanted to write in the first place; for the pleasure of creating and living in the worlds which belong to me, and no one else until I invite them in...' 

Stephen Wyatt



Writing, Witches and Samhain

Greetings from the writing shed this wild and windy Samhain weekend - I'm over on the 'Shelf Life' blog, where Lisa asked me all about writing, witches, halloween and Her Kind. You can read it Here

Her Kind UK Edition

The Bookclub Edition! 

 Her Kind tells the story of Ireland's first witchcraft trial - the 1324 Sorcery Trial of Dame Alice Kyteler. It was a landmark case in the history of witchcraft trials, the first case of a woman accused of having a demon lover (an incubus) and leading a sect of sorceresses. The case was notorious at the time. The judges of the EU Prize for literature, called Her Kind 'as searing a critique of our own times as is Arthur Millar's The Crucible.'


SOME REVIEWS... 

A masterpiece… Boyce delicately unfolds this atmospheric, magical thriller with pace and juice.  Sunday Independent.

Gripping ... a complicated story of ambition, love and what it means to belong ... evocative and atmospheric.' Irish Times

'Beautifully written and transports us to the 14th century, though its themes loudly resonate today.' RTE.ie

'A beautifully absorbing novel, illuminating the remarkable story of a woman whose life has since been subsumed into folklore. Highly recommended.' Hot Press


                     Her Kind is available from bookshops 


                                                        in the UK....

☝ W.H. Smith ...   here 

☝ Waterstones ...  here

☝ Foyles ...          here

☝ Amazon uk ...  here

                                                          and Ireland...


Easons ... here

Dubray ... here

The Gutter Bookshop ...  here

The Book Centre ... here

Kennys Bookshop ... here


                                                          and also... 

ABE books ... here

Book Depository ... here

Amazon ... here








Witching Season...


Her Kind



Winter Book Tour 2019

20th  Sept        CULTURE NIGHT
Interview  with  Liz Walsh in Kilkenny Libary

29th Sept          FICTION AT THE FRIARY
Run by Danielle Mc Laughlin & Madeleine D'Arcy. The final Sunday of every month in Cork- fun, fiction, jelly beans,  hula hoops, open mic & free book raffle. 
info: here
                             
6th Oct              DROMINEER/NENAGH 
The Witch within the Walls - Nenagh Castle - 4pm
Niamh  will be chatting to Sarah Moore Fitzgerald. Music from singer Dylan Rooney, and cellist Gráinne Higgins
 Tickets = here

Dylan Rooney, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Niamh Boyce












15th Oct            EMBASSY BOOK CLUB
Special Reading with the Embassy Book Club
Embassy of  Ireland, Brussels
tickets : here










16th Oct            SNUG HARBOUR
Karl Dehmelt & Niamh Boyce on stage in Brussels
Snug Harbor is created by Sofie Verraest, hosted by Muntpunt Library, the Muntpunt Grand Cafe, Mont Saint  Eugene, the Brussels Writers' Cirlce & Waterstones
details : here
Niamh Boyce, Karl Dehmelt
.













19th Oct               KILDARE READERS FESTIVAL
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Panel in The Riverbank, Newbridge, with Niamh Boyce, Stacey Halls, & Martina Devlin
Whether it’s horror fiction or historical non-fiction, Witches and Wiccan culture have provided rich material for authors throughout the years.During the season of Samhain, we will be discussing witches within the canon of literature. 
Tickets: Here









26th Oct          IMAGINE LITERARY FESTIVAL
From Fact to Fiction Writing Workshop in Waterford
Details: here



9th Nov             LEAVES FESTIVAL
Conversation, music and readings in Portlaoise  - John Sheahan & Niamh Boyce with Dermot Bolger.
Booking: here

14th Nov           Dublin Book Festival: National Library of Ireland
Writing Ireland's History 
Niamh Boyce, Patricia O'Reilly, Eibhear Walshe & Nessa O' Mahoney
Booking: here
















23rd Nov         Workshop: Freshford, Kilkenny
details on  the way... !



Novel Fair 



I'm one of the Irish Writer Centre's Novel Fair judges this year. I would really encourage anyone interested to enter. I wasn't going to send my novel  in 2012  but a writer friend pushed   encouraged me - and I posted it at the last minute. My novel The Herbalist became one of the  winners that year, and was published by Penguin Ireland the following Summer. So go for it! There's not much to lose, and shortlisted writers get critical feedback...  more info Here






Something Wicked This Way Comes




It really is the season for all things witch related! The figure of the witch seems to resonate more and more these days.  As Madeline Miller, author of the fabulous Circe, says - 'to be a witch means you are a woman who has more power than society wants you to have.'  


The wonderful book editors, Zoe West and Emma Shacklock at Woman and Home Book Club have included Her Kind in their Six of the Best for October. Its a brilliant selection, two of which I already have - perfect reading for the autumn, and very timely - the witch trial at the center of Her Kind, the sorcery trial of Alice Kyteler took place during this season, and came to a head at All Hallows Eve... 

Woman and Home Bookclub Witch Reads

 The Familiars Stacey Hall,  Her Kind Niamh Boyce, The Glass Woman Caroline Lea... 
Image result for the glass woman

Sanctuary V.V. James, The Witches of St Petersburg Imogen Edwards-Jones.Serpent and Dove Shelby Mahurin
The Witches of St. Petersburg by [Edwards-Jones, Imogen]



That Something Wicked...

On Saturday 19th of October - Kildare Readers Festival are having a special Samhain Event - Something Wicked This Way Comes... The panel will be Stacey Halls, Martina Devlin and myself. We have all written (fantastic!)novels based on real witch trials. Tickets can be booked Here

Niamh Boyce (Her Kind), Stacey Halls (The Familiars), Martina Devlin (The House Where It Happened)

I'll be reading at various events as part of the HER KIND Book Tour, and will post the details very soon! Also, I have some exciting new from the Irish Writers Centre but have been sworn to secrecy for now. 

I've been overwhelmed with the positive reaction to HER KIND, in the past month it was selected a book of the month for the Rick O' Shea Book Club- which has 24,000 members last count, it also received a rave review in Historical Novels Review, by Kristen Mc Dermott - 'This is a marvelously witty, cleverly plotted novel... read the rest Here' 

So, back to the writing shed, 
and here's to having more power than society wants us to!




Kilkenny Arts Festival

They've put me in the tower... !

I'm thrilled that my first festival appearance with Her Kind  is set to take place in Kilkenny City.

Next Saturday, at 11 am, I'll be reading in Kilkenny Castle itself - the site of many scenes in the novel, and of course in the real case - The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler. It will be strange and wonderful to read scenes from the story almost on site - even if seven hundred years have passed... 

For TICKETS - click Here




Many thanks to Kilkenny Arts Festival, and to Kilkenny Book Center who will be there with lots of copies of Her Kind :)

Night Swimming - Author Interview with Doreen Finn



   
Summer 1976. A heatwave is gripping Ireland. Nine-year-old Megan lives in a redbrick house in Dublin with her mother, a beautiful and lonely artist, and her grandmother; her father's whereabouts are a mystery that she often thinks about. When an American family moves in downstairs and Megan's mother begins a tentative affair with the father, everything that Megan is sure of starts to unravel…

Congratulations on your new novel Doreen - What a stunning cover! I love the title 'Night Swimming' - I immediately thought of the R.E.M song, is there a connection? There most certainly is a connection between my novel and the REM song! When I was writing the first, tentative draft of what became this book, I was casting around for a title. I was listening to Automatic For The People, REM’s seminal album, and on came the song. It fitted perfectly with the themes within the novel, and with the thread of slipping outside at night to play. I’m a huge REM fan, so it was meant to be! 

Night Swimming is set in the 1970's, it will resonate with a lot of readers that grew up then. What were the reasons for setting it then? Is it an era you always wanted to write about? I chose the 1970s because it was the decade of my own early childhood, and 1976 was the standout year because of the heatwave. I needed to have good weather in the story, because the book is essentially about loss of innocence and a love affair. I wanted to have the weather reflect the passion of the characters, and I knew that if I set the book in a cold January that the chances of a torrid affair would be slim! Also, the seventies are really hot nowadays in terms of their cultural value, and my generation is both nostalgic and protective of that era. I wanted the story of childhood to be authentic, and what could be more authentic than my own experience of that time? To set the same story in the present day wouldn’t work for me, because of technology. There are two missing fathers, an unbridgeable gap between the Irish and the American experience of life, and an ignorance of the wider world, all of which can solved instantly now with a quick Google search. I wanted to keep that innocence, spin it out and see where it took me.

Author Doreen Finn
Your first novel 'My Buried Life' was told the point of view of an adult. This time, Megan your main character, is a young girl. Was her voice easy to slip into? It’s a very different experience. My editor, Noel O’Regan, picked up many points throughout the book where the child’s voice wasn’t childish enough. Because my first novel, My Buried Life, was narrated by an adult female, making Megan’s voice authentic took a lot of work. I had to be careful with things that she would say and wouldn’t say, how she sort-of thinks something may be happening between her mother Gemma and Chris, the American, but she can’t be sure because she doesn’t have the world view or understanding to be fully sure. That sort of thing.  I observed my own two children in their interactions with each other and with their friends, to see how kids see things, what they say in any given situation.  So yes, it was actually harder than writing from an adult’s point of view. My next book will be narrated by an adult, and book 4 will be back to a child’s narration again.

Your writing is beautiful, so vivid and concise - who are the writers you like to read? That you admire? I love good writing. I will cartwheel over broken glass for good prose and well-developed characters. There are so many books being published now that it takes a discerning reader to pick out the books that will appeal to us personally. Mostly, I read women, and within that I tend to read Irish women. It’s not a choice as such, just more the way my tastes lie. My absolute favourite writer of all is Maggie O’Farrell, who I just adore, and who I wish would bring out a book every week so I’d never again have to wonder what to read next! I also admire your good self, Niamh, Julia Kelly, Nuala NiConchuir, Sally Rooney, Claire Kilroy, Anne Enright, Colm Toibin, Janet Fitch, Sadie Jones, Kit de Waal. 

For mystery, no one beats John Banville writing as Benjamin Black, and no author makes me laugh as much as David Nicholls, who is such a sensitive writer. This year, I’ve loved Tin Man, Cape May, Dear Mrs Bird, The Last of Summer, The House on Vesper Sands, An American Marriage, Daisy Jones and the Six. In non-fiction, Constellations by Sinead Gleeson is a standout book. She’s a brilliant writer. Last year I revisited the PD James canon, which I loved, and I'm already stockpiling books for autumn.’ For me, there is no greater disappointment than a disappointing book. It grieves me.

Any tips for other writers? In terms of getting from idea to finished novel? It sounds trite, but the best thing anyone who aspires to write should do is to write. Keep a notebook with you that you can use to write down interesting things you hear or read, nice phrases that you hear someone use. If you have any story ideas, no matter how insignificant they may seem, write them down. And try your hand at writing, in whatever form you feel suits you best. I don’t believe that everyone should start writing short stories before they tackle a novel. Short story writing and novel writing are two entirely different skill sets, and not everyone possesses both. Flash fiction is great for flexing your creative muscles, as is trying something really rigid and structured like Haiku or Tanka. Someone once told me that I should always write with a reader or audience in mind, and actually that was terrible advice – if you’re writing for the first time, write for yourself. Don’t worry about what anyone else will think. You don’t have to show your writing to another living soul until you feel ready, and you won’t feel ready until you’re confident about what you’re doing. 

So keep at it, stick with it, and see where the stories take you. I don’t plot and I don’t draw out maps for my books. I start with a character and a setting, usually a female in a house, and I take it from there. The other most important and vital piece of advice to budding writers is to read. Read, read, read, and then read some more. Never stop reading, because it’s only through seeing what other writers produce that you will learn and understand what you want to do yourself.

   What's the worst writing advice you've ever gotten? As per the answer above, being told to write with someone else in mind, for an audience. It was terrible advice, and it wasted a huge amount of writing time for me. It’s like being told to dress for someone else, or find hobbies that someone else likes. You write for yourself. Always. If other people don’t like it, who cares? You’ll always find your readers, and they’ll love what you write.

  Thanks for coming by Doreen, and best of luck with your next novel. Follow Doreen on twitter for all her writing news - @doreen2cv


  Night Swimming is available from Mercier Press, 
all good bookshops & Amazon 
            
About the author: Doreen Finn was born in Dublin, where she now lives with her family. A graduate of UCD, she has lived and worked in Madrid and Los Angeles. Her first novel, My Buried Life, was runner up for the Kate O’Brien award. Night Swimming is her second novel.

Artist in Residence - Paris

I'm coming to the end of my time as Writer in Residence at Centre Culturel Irlandais here in Paris. It's been amazing to have a full...