Festive Fun

It was a busy weekend catching up with several groups of writing friends for the final time this year. On Saturday our writing group met up for some festive food and fun. We caught up on news, reflected on the year in our group and listened to poems and short stories some of us had written before enjoying a lovely meal.

That evening I took my nieces to a local musical society's production of one of my favourite festive tales - 'A Christmas Carol'. It was an excellent show and really got me in a festive mood, albeit a panic over all the things I still need to do.

On Sunday there was another festive catch up with another group of writers. We caught up on news and talked about writing plans for 2026 over more delicious food.

Last night we had our final SCBWI Ireland zoom meeting of the year. With holiday prompts we wrote some festive stories and caught up on news.

I feel very blessed to have made so many good friends through writing and to have several groups for support. Like most writers, there have been many times during the year when I could have very easily stopped working on particular projects. But having supportive writing groups helps get through those difficult days. I know there will be countless difficult writing days ahead. My gift from a Christmas cracker on Saturday is surely a sign to keep going - a tiny notebook and pencil!

Here's to more fun writing times with friends next year.

Flying Visit

I'm just back from a very special, though short visit to Edinburgh - celebrating the launch in Scotland of the UlsterScots poetry jukebox at The Scottish Poetry library.

Earlier this year I was commissioned by the Linenhall library to write a poem in this 'Fragments of Scotch poetry' curation. Along with nine other poets (including the current and former Scots makars) we were asked to respond to a specific poem by Robert Burns. The poem I was given was 'To a Louse'.

At first I struggled to be sufficiently inspired. But on re-reading ‘To a Louse’ I became fascinated with Jenny’s ‘Lunardi’ - a fashionable ‘balloon bonnet’ inspired by Italian balloonist Vincenzo Lunardi. In 1785, the year before ‘To a Louse’ was first published, Lunardi made the first aerial voyage in Scotland taking off in his balloon from Edinburgh and landing near Ceres, Fife, a village close to Cupar, where my late mother was schooled. I don’t recall older generations of my family mentioning Lunardi, yet my Fife great, great, great great grandparents must have known about him and probably knew someone who saw that balloon flight. This connection and the Weaver Poets referenced in ‘Fragments of Scotch Poetry’ who worked in their cottages led me to think about the bonnet maker and the unintended consequences the poem ‘To a Louse’ might have had.

Earlier this year I visited the site where Lunardi's first Scottish balloon flight landed.

I'd driven past it countless times while visiting my family in Fife but had never noticed the plaque in a field.

Yesterday I traced the spot in Edinburgh where Lunardi took off in his hot air balloon just over 240 years ago, the garden of George Heriot's school.

I've been blown away by how this project has emphasised just how poetry can make all sorts of connections. I've made new connections meeting some of the poets in person at both launch events in Belfast and Edinburgh. I've strengthened existing connections with other poets I knew, UlsterScots academics and the Linenhall library and UlsterScots agency teams.

Through the project I've connected with my roots. I like to think some of my Fife ancestors might have witnessed the balloon landing near Ceres. If they didn't I'm sure they knew someone who had winessed it. This would have been a phenomenal sight and something everyone in the area would have talked about for a long time - a bit like twentieth century moon landings. Lunardi's balloon journey started in the city where my parents met as students - across the road from Edinburgh university. 

And today I really connected with Lunardi when my flight arrangements home didn't go to plan. Due to an IT problem at Edinburgh airport, the air traffic contol system wasn't working for a while. Flights were diverted and cancelled. Planes were in different locations from their crews and for a while it was a bit chaotic. Eventually it all worked out ok. I escaped from the chaos by immersing myself in my book - and I couldn't have made a better choice - about an Edinburgh bookshop in December, with chaos and delayed flights - art imitating life?

It's been very special to be part of this project. The Poetry Jukebox is in the Linenhall Library in Belfast until the end of January and in the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh until the end of February. If you can't make it to either venue before then, you can listen to the recordings here, including my poem 'Ballooning':

https://m.soundcloud.com/the-linen-hall/sets/test-fragments-jukebox

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.