Over at Old Kitty's

Charlie & The Herbalist

As all good thing come to an end, I'm in the UK today on Old Kitty's blog for my last blog tour stop.

Old Kitty is a prolific, loyal and warm hearted blogger. She's also a poet and short fiction writer whose work appears in 100 Stories for Queensland and 100 stories for Haiti, amongst other publications.

You can read our chat Here

Novel Fair Launch

Novel Fair Launch & Information Night

7pm- Irish Writers Centre - 25th July 213

All Welcome

Are you thinking of entering The Irish Writers Centre's Novel Fair? If so, you might be interested in coming along to this event...

'The Irish Writers' Centre is launching the 3rd annual Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair Competition. The evening will include talks by Patricia Deevy from Penguin Ireland and two past participants in the Novel Fair, Niamh Boyce author of The Herbalist and Janet Cameron author of Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World.'

To read about my experience of the novel fair, click here

The Reading Room Bookshop

I'll be in The Reading Room, in Carrick On Shannon, 

on Tuesday 23rd July at 2.30pm

to sign copies of The Herbalist and have a chat.

 

Everyone is welcome - so drop by if your nearby

A big thanks Orlagh Kelly, & to Susan Mannion for organising this!

New Online Quarterly

 

The Pickled Body  is a new online poetry magazine.
The theme for issue one is The Red Shoes.

 The call out alone is inspiring  - here's what they have to say....

 

 

'We love Kate Bush’s 1993 album The Red Shoes, inspired by a film we adore, Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 masterpiece – itself inspired by Andersen’s timeless fairytale. Among other things, The Red Shoes explores the conflict between dedicating your life to art and allowing the quotidian world to stop the dance.

 

So we want poems that possess or are possessed. Poems that move, that ache, that vibrate with the same energy as the Powell and Pressburger film or the music of Kate Bush. Poems that ask “have you ever seen a picture of Jesus laughing” (Why Should I Love You?); that say “it’s all right, I’ll come round when you’re not in” (You’re the One); that whisper: “just being alive, it can really hurt” (Moments of Pleasure); that “split me open with devotion” (Eat the Music). Poems that sing powerfully with the fire in your own life when you create, and you find those shoes impossible to take off.

 

You write because you must – but at what cost? Show us what possesses you. Send up to three of your best to thepickledbody@gmail.com by September 30th. As for wearing red shoes while composing – we’d particularly like to receive poems written while wearing nothing else.'

 

 

WomenRuleWriter Interview

I'm over at Nuala Ni Chonchúir's WomenRuleWriter Blog in Galway today.

Nuala is an award winning novelist, short story writer and poet.  Here's The Irish Times on her latest short story collection Mother America - ‘Ní Chonchúir’s precisely made but deliciously sensual stories mark her as a carrier of Edna O’Brien’s flame.’ 

One of Nuala's questions was Who are the women writers who make you think yes! and why? You can read my answer, and the full interview here

 Next week I'll be in the UK for my last interview chatting to Jennifer aka Old Kitty.

The Stony Thursday Book...

Wants Your Poems:

'One of the longest running literary journals in Ireland' celebrates its 38th Anniversary Edition this year. The editor is Paddy Bushe.

Submissions in both English and Irish are welcome.

Write your name and address on each page & send no more than 6 poems to: The Stony Thursday Book, The Arts Office, Limerick City Council, Merchant's Quay, Limerick. Or email: artsoffice@limerickcity.ie

The deadline for submissions is Friday 16th August 2013.

Wonderful Wonderful Wagon!

Columnist and writer Gwen Loughman posts with wicked humour and complete honesty about family life, motherhood & running (amongst many other things) on her Wonderful Wagon Blog

 - as she says herself - 'this blog is my attempt at recording the mayhem that is my life with the intention of reading back over it in my Autumnal years and laughing. 

I'm really delighted to be over chatting with her today, you can read my interview with Gwen here

Irish Times Review

photographs of old america

I'm a very happy woman :) There's a wonderful review of The Herbalist in today's Irish Times. It's written by Anna Carey, and can be read here

Here's an extract:
'Boyce’s subject matter may be dark, and she treats it with the seriousness it deserves, but she writes with a lightness of touch not often seen in the genre; this is the most entertaining yet substantial historical novel I’ve read since Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea. You may not expect a book about fear and repression to be not only enjoyable but funny; The Herbalist often is.'


This is a hugely impressive and wonderfully assured debut novel. I can’t wait to see what Boyce does next.

Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2014

 

The IWC novel fair will run again this year! Twelve lucky winners will be selected to present the synopsis of their novel, the finished novel itself and biographical material to top Irish publishers and agents. I was one of the winners in 2012 with my novel The Herbalist, I'd highly recommend entering.

 

It is open to novels of any style or genre but the writer must not have already published a novel. 

 

Here's a few general guidelines, but you need to check out the Novel Fair Website for the full details...

• You must use an official application form.
• Send a 3 copies of a synopsis (max 300 words) and 2 copies of (up to five) chapters of your novel (max 10,000 words.) Attach one synopsis to your application form, the other two should be attached to the copies of your manuscript.
• There's no min word count for the final novel but a minimum of 50,000 words is recommended.
• One entry per applicant!
• The deadline is October 16th, 2013.

You can keep follow the novel fair on @IWCNovelFair or  Novel Fair Facebook page.

Chug, Chug....

I had a lovely time visiting book shops in Kilkenny City today, so for anyone who wants signed copies of The Herbalist (I'm not an egomaniac honest - people have been enquiring after them!) they are now available from  Dubray Books, The Book Centre and Stone House Books.

Liz from Stonehouse Books asked me to come back to the shop to do 'something quirky' in the autumn, so it won't be your average book reading -  I'll keep you informed! I also met Kathleen there, and she's the second person I've been in touch with from Portland, Oregon who's reading The Herbalist! Its wonderful to meet readers, its not something I considered when I wrote the book, but its quickly become one the nicest parts of being a published author. And I'm grateful too, to the reviewers and readers who 'get' my book, and feel for the characters, and have put it at number five in the Irish bestseller charts, which is no mean feat when Dan Brown has returned to push us all around - no offence Dan :)

As The Herbalist blog tour comes to its last few stops, I'm delighted to be over at crime writer Louise Phillips Blog. I met Louise when she was working on the book that became the very successful Red Ribbons. She's about to publish her second novel The Dolls House which sounds chilling to say the least. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions, its nice to know that someone is reading!
One of Louise's questions was....

What is the most important thing you have learnt about your writing during the last twelve months?

You can read my answer and the full interview HERE

WOW!

And from the makers of Crannog... the WOW Awards are back!

There is €2100 in prize money plus publication.
For: Stories up to 3000 words.
 Poems up to 100 lines.

Entries open July 1st 2013 and close November 1st 2013.
Results, prize-giving and Anthology launch Friday February 28th 2014.

For more information click HERE

The Three Question Blog Tour - Stop Five

I'm over at writer Shauna Gilligan's blog today where she asks me some fascinating questions about writing my novel The Herbalist.

Shauna is the author of Happiness Comes From Nowhere, she has been published widely and she has read from her work and  presented on writing at conferences in Europe and the USA.

Here's just one of the questions Shauna asked me...

Writer Vanessa Gebbie asked me this question in relation to my novel and I think it’s a wonderful thing to ask: if you could have a painting of one scene from the novel which would you pick and why? And who would you have create it?

You can read my answer, and the full interview by clicking Here