Celebrating my roots

On this St Andrew's day, it's good to reflect on some memorable moments during this year's Leid week that's just taken place. It was good to see an increase in the number of events - the downside was that I couldn't get to all events due to diary clashes. Still, some were accessible online, with recordings - in particular I enjoyed listening to Anne McMaster's beautiful poem remembering her old primary school.

On Tuesday evening I took part in the launch of the Ulster Scots anthology Yarns5 in Ballyclare town hall.

I'm honoured to have had two poems and a short story selected for this lovely anthology. At the event I read my poem 'Nestin Blakburds'. It was a lovely evening celebrating Ulster Scots culture with highland dancers and a piper (I felt very at home with the tartan stair carpet!)

Highlights from the launch were on BBC Radio Ulster's Kintra programme this evening, along with an interview with the current makar, recorded at the Fragments of Scotch poetry jukebox launch in Belfast last month.

You can hear me reading my poem 'Grannie's Wundaes' on BBC Sounds for the next few weeks. And here's a view I will never tire of, from Grannie's Wundaes. There couldn't have been a lovelier way to celebrate my roots on St Andrew's day.

A good writing weekend

While I was away catching up with friends in Durham last weekend I received good news about a couple of short stories I'd entered in writing competitions. The winners of The Sunday Post's annual writing competition were announced last Sunday. For the second year in a row one of my stories made it to the final ten.

I'm enjoying reading the winning stories and looking forward to seeing 'Sugar Lumps' in print in the coming weeks. It was a delight and honour to be a finalist again and lovely to receive my certificate and book token prize in the post. 

On Monday the World History Encyclopedia fiction prize published their longlist.

I was excited to see my short story 'Court Games' about Mary, Queen of Scots included in this longlist. Fingers crossed for the next stage in the competition...

I may not have done any writing last weekend, but there was plenty of inspiration in our visit to Beamish museum for when I do sit down to write again.

The best of days

Bright autumn sunshine and blue skies were an indicator there was a good day ahead yesterday as we made our way to the Seamus Heaney centre at Queen's University, Belfast.  

It was a different venue for our SCBWI Belfast social get together in the morning. Over tea, coffee and biscuits we caught up on news.

It was good to see new faces as well as welcoming back people we'd met at previous get togethers. We had a varied range of writers working on picture books, MG and YA books as well as editors and translators, all willingly sharing experience in their area.

After lunch we we held a picture book workshop, led by New York Times best selling author, Ann Whitford Paul. I've been working on the planning of this event with Ann for a while, so it was great to be part of the workshop.

We all benefitted from Ann's vast experience and her expert and insightful teaching as well as the discussion and practical writing exercises. 

When I agreed to take up the volunteer SCBWI Regional Adviser role for Ireland, almost three years ago, I had a vision for building our children's writing community.  Thanks to connections I'd previously made, hard work, persistence, planning and new connections I've cultivated over the last three years, yesterday was the best of days for our kidlit community. We were all buzzing after a great day. Here's to many more!

Don't cry over spilled tea

Last night we had a productive SCBWI Ireland Picture This, Write Now session. Armed with seasonal prompts, participants drew and wrote in this creative space for almost an hour and a half, creating something new and special.

It was all going well until I spilled my mug of lemon and ginger tea over my notebook! Thankfully all was not lost. My inky words weren't washed out and I was able to keep writing, spurred on by prompts that kept me interested in the storyline. It's a very rough first draft that I will revisit in time.

Back at Coney with writing pals we used creative prompts on Saturday and I wrote a new piece of flash fiction. Again, it's a very rough draft, but it's something to edit, rather than a tea stained blank page.

It was good to get back to writing and to write something new. We had lots of news to catch up on over coffee and apple and cinnamon muffins. Thankfully no tea or coffee was spilled then...

Ten years of BookWeekNI

This week is BookWeekNI's tenth anniversary. There's usually an exciting programme of events and this year it was excellent.

I celebrated by going to a couple of events in our local libraries. On Monday evening in Ballyhackamore library local writers shared poetry, short stories and excerpts from their novels to a packed room. Louise Nealon also read from her new novel to be published next year, which sounds tremendous. Can't wait to get a copy when it comes out next year.

The second event I attended was on Thursday evening in Carrickfergus library. Crime writer Elly Griffiths was in conversation with LibrariesNI blogger and podcaster Jillian.

Elly talked about her writing career, her writing process and inspiration.

Afterwards it was lovely to meet Elly and get a copy of her novel (hastily purchased from The Secret Bookshelf team who were there) signed by her. 

In line with the Sunday Times pledge to read at least ten minutes a day for the next six weeks, I can report I'm loving 'The Frozen People' so much, it's definitely much more than ten minutes every day I've been reading.

Which week is it?

At this time of year, there are always so many bookish events taking place, it's sometimes difficult remembering which week it is. 

Last Saturday was Bookshop Day when we're encouraged to support our local bookshops. I love this illustration by Ashwin Chacko, supporting the event.

I celebrated by popping in to my local bookshop, The Secret Bookshelf, to pick up a few lovely books, including Sheena Wilkinson's new children’s novel, 'True Friends at Fernside', the Faber poetry diary for next year (so gorgeous) and Rebecca Brownlie's 'Abandoned Ireland' book. I'd recently watched a television programme about her work and am fascinated by her photography. I also managed to be one of the lucky customers to receive a goodie bag.

I also received a report on my work in progress from a very special beta reader. More editing required!

Yesterday was the start of Irish Book Week. I celebrated by popping back to The Secret Bookshelf to pick up the book I'd hoped to buy last week, but due to its popularity I had to place an order. It seems a very fitting book to mark Irish Book Week. I'll enjoy dipping in to it over the coming weeks.

Tomorrow is the start of BookWeekNI - a celebration across libraries with lots of interesting author and bookish events taking place. Not sure when I'm going to get time for some writing -  I'm booked up!

Showing Up to Write

With stormy autumn weather and darker evenings well and truly here, it's been good to take shelter and get back to indoor activities, although it's also been good to be outside enjoying the season after the weekend's gales.

At the weekend I was back at Coney with writing friends, catching up on news over coffee and apple and cinnamon muffins. Later we made plans and did a writing exercise composing some fun poems, in recognition of National Poetry Day which had fallen during the week.

Later I managed to get outside for a spot of reading in the garden in the late afternoon sunshine.

Last night we kicked off the winter 'Picture This, Write Now' SCBWI sessions. While I resent the darker evenings drawing in, I took this opportunity to make space for some writing and was pleased that at the end of the session I'd completed the first draft of a new short story.

It will need a bit more work, but it's something to return to and develop, which wouldn't exist if I hadn't shown up to write.