The Bookshow on RTE Radio One

Nuala O Connor is  guest-presenting The Book Show on RTE Radio 1 next Sunday 21st at 7pm. I'm delighted to be joining her and writer Paul Lynch  to chat about historical fiction, research, and my novel, Her Kind, which was inspired by the Kytler Sorcery Trial of 1324. Andrew Miller will join Nuala on the line from Bath.

During the show, I'll read a short excerpt from Her Kind. It will give a sneak preview of the novel, which will be published next April by Penguin Random House. Its exciting to have the novel finished - it was over four years in the writing, not quite the time span I expected when I began back 2014!

Next week, I'll be interviewing writer Orla MacLinden on the blog, and after that, I'll be taking a rest from social media ( especially Facebook which cannibalizes writers!) -  so this winter, I hope to work on a new novel without (too many) distractions. 

Till then, happy writing :)

A Place Called Perfect

 

 

 

 

I'll be chatting to talented Helena Duggan soon about her debut novel, but in the meantime, here's a little more about her wonderful debut-   A Place Called Perfect ...

 

 

Take a journey into Perfect, a town that is anything but...

Violet Brown didn’t want to live in a place that was perfect. How would she ever survive? She’d have to be neat and tidy, would definitely have to brush her hair. She’d have to be perfect and that was boring.

But when her Dad is offered the best job an optician can get, to fix a strange problem in this odd little town, Violet has to obey. That’s the thing with parents, they only ever did what they wanted!

From the beginning Violet hates her new home, it’s too clean, the people are too friendly, everything is just too nice...

When her Mam begins to act a little strange, her Dad disappears on a mysterious business trip without telling a soul, she almost gets expelled from school for picking up a pencil without permission and starts hearing voices in her head, Violet thinks she’s going mad.

Until one day she meets BOY... 

 

 

About the Author

Helena Duggan is a writer and graphic designer living in Kilkenny, Ireland. If you have any questions about Boy or Violet or anything in the whole world, please contact her. She loves talking, never really shuts up actually! These are her websites Helddesign.ie (that’s for all her design work) Helenaduggan.com (that’s for all her writing stuff)

Finding Penelope

Finding Penelope, a new novel by writer James Lawless will be launched in Hodges Figgis, Dawson Street on Tues. Oct. 30 at 6.30 pm.

" I thought ‘Finding Penelope’ was brilliant. I loved the heroine, Penelope Eames, a modestly successful romantic writer who is a sort of everywoman of our times and a wonderful mix of insight, diffidence and foolishness. I also relished the milieu in which Finding Penelope is set, the expatriate Anglophone world of the Spanish Mediterranean, where lonely English widows and gangsters and Irish novelists and aspiring starlets all get jumbled up together and make a fine old mess of their lives in the process. This is a really, really fine piece of sharp, precise and accurate work. A novel that will give deep, literary pleasure." Carlo Gébler, author



THE BOOK
33 year old romance novelist Penelope Eames moves to Spain to avoid her oppressive father and drug-addicted brother, Dermot. When she meets Ramón, a young Spanish school teacher, she is immediately attracted to him and feels the happiness that eluded her all her life may at last be hers. However, she receives a distress call from Dermot saying he is at the mercy of Charlie Eliot, a pimp and drug dealer on the Costa. Ramón, whose mother was killed by a drug addict, tells her to have nothing to do with Charlie Eliot. Penelope must decide: is she prepared to compromise herself with Charlie Eliot and jeopardise her chance of happiness with Ramón for the sake of her drug addicted brother?


THE AUTHOR
James Lawless was born in Dublin. His first novel Peeling Oranges (2007), a paternal quest set in the Liberties of Dublin and Franco’s Spain, was highly praised by Gabriel Byrne, the Hollywood actor and cultural ambassador. Lawless is the author of two other well-received novels For Love of Anna (2009) and The Avenue (2010), and an acclaimed study of modern poetry Clearing The Tangled Wood. Kildare, Ireland, and is a full-time writer

Red Ribbons

Louise Phillips is soon to launch her novel Red Ribbons! Louise is an extremely talented and hard working writer who is also incredibly supportive of other writers and bloggers. She has shared her writing journey, in particular the writing, editing and pitching of Red Ribbons from the early days to publication, on her very popular blog 120 Socks. So a massive congratulations to Louise! And here's the details...

RED RIBBONS TRAILER IS HERE

THE SERIAL KILLER
A missing schoolgirl is found buried in the Dublin Mountains, hands clasped together in prayer, two red ribbons in her hair. Twenty-four hours later, a second schoolgirl is found in a shallow grave …her body identically arranged. A hunt for the killer is on.

THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGIST
The police call in profiler Dr Kate Pearson to get inside the mind of the murderer before he strikes again. But the more Kate discovers about the killings, the more it all feels terrifyingly familiar . . .

THE ACCUSED WOMAN
As the pressure to find the killer intensifies there's one vital connection to be made. . . Ellie Brady, a mother institutionalised fifteen years earlier for the murder of her twelve-year-old daughter. She stopped talking when everyone stopped listening.

THE BAD MAN IS
EVERYWHERE....BUT CAN YOU SEE HIM....

LINK TO PRE -ORDER VIA AMAZON HERE

THE AUTHOR

Born in Dublin, Louise Phillips, returned to writing in 2006. Since then she has been published as part of many anthologies, including County Lines from New Island, and various literary journals. Louise won the Jonathan Swift Award for her short story 'Last Kiss', and was a winner in the Irish Writers’ Centre Lonely Voice Platform, short-listed for the Molly Keane Memorial Award, Bridport UK, and long-listed twice for RTE Guide/Penguin short story competition. In 2012, she was awarded an arts bursary for literature from South County Dublin Arts
Council. Launching this new voice in crime, Ciara Doorley, Editorial Director of Hachette Books Ireland, says of Louise. ‘With overtones of Sophie Hannah and Tana French, Louise is a supremely talented writer. She subconsciously creates parallels between her characters, and this really challenges the reader. Her writing is tense, atmospheric and we’re really excited to be launching a new voice in Irish crime.’

Voting Day 4 Novelicious

Today is the first day for voting for the Novelicious Undiscovered Competition. (Voting is open from 6th-20th June) Winners will be announced on the 26th June... and there's an Irish entry! Blogger and writer Brigid O Connor of Sort of Writing is a finalist for her fantastic novel; 'The Irish Poet' and you can vote (for her!) HERE! Best of luck Brigid!

The Irish Poet

Brigid O Connor at Sort Of Writing has made the shortlist for the Novelicious Undiscovered competition! Her exciting and witty novel The Irish Poet is showcased on their site today, and you can read it HERE. 

A massive congratulations to Brigid on such a brilliant novel!