A good week for writing

It's been a good week for writing. Although there have been a few rejections this week, there have been several high points, some of which have been the fruits of labours undertaken earlier this year.

On Monday evening we had great fun at our SCBWI Ireland quarterly Zoom meeting with our special guest Shirley-Anne McMillan, Children's Writing Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University, Belfast. Shirley shared her writing process with us and then set us a challenging writing exercise.

Yesterday was Bookshop Day, so I called down to my local bookshop The Secret Bookshelf to have a chat with Chris and Jo, browse what's new and of course I came away with a bag full of books. Among the purchases was a Christmas gift and one of Shirley-Anne's novels, ' The Unknowns'. I also got a lovely goodie bag filled with all sorts of writing/ reading treats.

And today I was absolutely thrilled to see in print that I'm one of The Sunday Post's short story competition finalists. 

As children staying at our grandparents' Fife house we couldn't wait to read The Broons & Oor Wullie in this paper. Almost as exciting as it was today to track down a copy of the paper and open it to read my name alongside the other finalists in black and white 😀

Just the motivation to start writing another story....

A week of writing related activities

It's been a busy week of fun writing related activities. Monday evening saw the launch of Sheena Wilkinson's new Middle Grade novel, 'First Term at Fernside' in the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. 

The occasion was joyous from start to finish, with Fernside school themed cakes and biscuits, sweetie goodie bags, spot prizes which included a tuck box and Sheena being interviewed by Shirley-Anne McMillan and reading from her book. It was good to catch up with local writers there, and I was thrilled at the message on my signed copy of the book.

Thursday was National Poetry Day. I was (pineapple) delighted to have my poem 'To a Pineapple ' included in a celebratory poetry upload on the Dirigible Balloon's website.

https://dirigibleballoon.org/  

This is a fantastic children's poetry resource with over 200 poems from over 100 poets participating in the National Poetry Day upload. Thanks to Jonathan Humble for all the work he puts in to planning, organising and promoting the Balloon. 

On Friday lunchtime I attended an event at Belfast's Linenhall library with local Young Adult author, Shirley-Anne McMillan in conversation with Wendy Erskine. It was great to hear about Shirley's writing journey and her plans in her new role as the new Seamus Heaney Children’s Writing Fellow. It was good to catch up with other local writers at this event too.

And yesterday I was back with my writing pals at Coney Island, catching up on news over coffee and apple and cinnamon muffins. While a wild sea crashed outside we got stuck into some fun writing exercises.

                                                

Having a 'tribe' and attending events like these with other writers encourage and support us on our writing journeys and help strengthen the local writing community. But now to get on with some writing.......