Had to pick these up at the Cork short story festival this weekend. Had the best time and expect a post very soon!
My most recent book purchases
rozz.ie is shortlisted for “Best personal blog” in Blog Awards Ireland 2012
I meant to say that I was shortlisted last week for the “Best personal blog” award at the Blog Awards Ireland coming up in Naas next month.
Thanks to all my fans and people who love me and nominated me to begin with but thanks to the very cool judge at the Blog Awards Ireland who knows a good personal blog when he/she sees one!
Yipee!
Carlow Writers close Penfest Writing Festival 2012
The writing group that I am in, Carlow Writers Co-operative were given the honour of closing the annual Penfest Festival in Carlow Town last Sunday.
Members read new pieces of work in the GB Shaw Room in Carlow Town Library. There was a mix of prose and poetry, which was well received by the audience.
I read a short story which was strongly influenced by the Rose of Tralee and Bad teacher. You will have to wait!
Carlow Writers’ Group read and no one gives any feedback
The Carlow Co-operative Writing Group met back again last night after our summer break. It really was quite shcoking to see how quickly the 2 and a half months had flown by! After a few minutes of chatter about how much we had written that summer(?), we all headed up to our usual cosy bar upstairs for a bit of the ol’ writing, listening and…timing…
The writers’ group is usually the same format. Someone reads, we listen and then we say how much we love it and then how much we would like to change it. We are a naughty bunch.
But, last night felt different and that’s because it was different. tonight the format would be read and get timed by me! Let me explain…We are reading at the Penfest Literary Festival in Carlow and to read successfully, one cannot simply show up and read for as long as one chooses. No, there must be a time limit and I decided that 5 minutes was the perfect amount of time for anyone to hear someone read for. I was armed with my android timer on my mobile and was not accepting anything over the 5 minute mark. Not even a second.
It almost worked out only for a lovely, little story about Katie Taylor, which made us all go “Ahhh” and forget about the time. But, that was it! Everyone stayed under the 5 minute mark and were all well-behaved as well.
Phew.
But, it felt empty and odd. After, we finished reading, I had to move on straight away to the next piece of writing. No time to give positive feedback or debate over the use of a coma or whether a poem was a vignette or not. No, we got on with the job of reading and we finished after two hours, rewarding ourselves with a chat down in the Teach bar.
As I walked home, Simon and I went through the night. At last, we could speak and say how great we all were!
Come see and hear us read at 4:30 in the Carlow Library this Sunday, 16th September. You will be glad you did and I might even take my eye off the timer and allow you give us some feedback!
The website for Penfest is here.
Teacher teachers to teach children how to write!
I am absolutely no expert in the field of writing but I enjoy writing and reading. In my outside life, I am a teacher and really love teaching children how to write, read and love and be interested and curious in life.
This summer I had the chance to facilitate and design a course entitled “Enabling creative writing in the classroom” in Kilkenny Education Centre. I worked with about 25 primary teachers and we got some great writing done! I probably spoke far too much about Stephen King( and maybe, I mentioned Kevin Barry once or twice!) but I aim to remind teachers of the power they command when they go to work every day. What a responsibility!
My husband and I work on an educational technology blog as well as rozz.ie. I will be writing a couple of article on my thoughts, ideas and tips of helping children and the teacher to begin to write.
You can find those articles coming soon on www.anseo.net.
Winner of 2012 Sean O’ Faolain Short Story Competition is announced
The 2012 Sean O’Faolain Competition has been won by Sophie Hampton who is currently studying creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University (UK), Her story “White Socks & Weirdos” came first in a field of almost 1000 entries. There was a 50% increase in entries this year with UK entrants outnumbering US entrants for the first time. It’s also the first time the prize has gone to a British resident. Second place this year went to another Briton Thomas Watson of London for his story “Cafe at the V&A”. The runners-up are Dan Purdue of Britain, Maree Spratt of Queensland Australia, Ferdia Lennon of Dublin and David Mohan of Co. Dublin. All these six stories will be published in Southword next winter. Eighteen other writers have been commended for their entries.
You can read more and book workshops, talks and readings at the www.munsterlit.ie or http://www.corkshortstory.net/ website, where the Short Story Festival 2012 will be held in Cork City.
I am heading down for the weekend, have booked my tickets for as many events as I can! Staying in the lovely Maldron Hotel, where I received a pretty good discount for accomodation when I mentioned the words “Short story festival”
Go on, you know you want to.
Holiday reading
I have spent the last two weeks in the beautifully cool city of Santander, in the region of Cantrabia, Spain. I still had a couple of new short story collections to read at home and was debating to bring them with me but then I thought of using my kindle instead.
I downloaded “Solace” by Belinda McKeon and “Selected stories” by William Trevor and”Broken harbour” by Tana French.
Some explanation is needed, I think! Solace is a novel I have been meaning to read for a while. I hate reading a book just because it’s popular or won some type of award and Solace seemed that type of book. No, I would wait until I felt like reading it. That time came after the West Cork Lit festival in Bantry. Belinda Mc Keon was reading and staying at the whole event in the same hotel we were in. I saw her at breakfast every morning and noted she looked using iPads and twitter and was fascinatingly to look at. Sounds, like I was a bit obsessed, I wasn’t. She just happened to be an early riser like us! So, her little face stuck in my mind and when I downloaded the sample first chapter from Solace, I liked and wanted more. I read Solace in barely two days! Belinda really gets Ireland but especially rural Ireland. I had never thought of the pull of the father and the guilt of the son as they leave rural life, farming and land behind them. She also seems to write very descriptively about modern Dublin life and having a baby! Solace is a must read that reminds me of what a good short story is about:nothing but everything. The novel opens with a prologue which makes you carry on reading until the end. I’m giving nothing away!
The second novel I read in ultra quick time was Broken Harbour by Tana French. She is an Irish(well, we have claimed her as Irish!) crime writer whose first two novels scared the bejesus out of me! This one is as compelling though it seemed to go on a bit too much towards the end and didn’t scare me as much. Maybe, I’m becoming less nervy in older life! I enjoyed it, a very light read that those type of women might bring to the beach. Tana French is no Belinda Mc Keon thought I’m sure both women are happy with their own genre and style. Worth a read but not as good as her first two, though disturbing observations on the Celtic Tiger and what went could have gone wrong.
I am only half way through William Trevor’s Selected Stories. I’ve noticed that be seems to be a very formal, gentlemanly type of writer and his stories could be easily lengthened out into a novella. I’m enjoying him though and learning from him as the master of the short story. He was born in 1928 but he can do it all-old style, modern, funny, sexy…Jealous?
The holidays have been great for not only reading but for writing. Since, my time in Bantry, I have written 9 individual short stories, with two of them becoming the longest I have ever written. Now, the next step is to draft, redraft and then show to the writers group. We have a reading coming up at Penfest Carlow 2012 and hoping to get one into a good state for that!
A chat with Kevin Barry author of “City of Bohane” at the West Cork Literary Festival
Kevin Barry:West Cork Literary Festival, 2012
I got to meet and chat with Kevin Barry,author of “City of Bohane: at West Cork Literary Festival. I’ve uploaded the interview as it is. Kevin was so generous with his time and I think you will find lots of practical, solid advice for the writers out there. I’ve certainly taken it on, since the festival, I’ve focussed myself to writing a new story every day. The idea is that over the year, I’m bound to find a couple of good ideas to run with. And, it happened today! I made a kernel of something that I think I can turn into something, story like! It also occurred to me that writers are mostly inclusive and motivating folk. I don’t know any other aspect of the media world that would be so giving of their time and help. And yes, Kevin has described himself as having a gigantic ego but he absolutely hasn’t. I miss Bantry and all the writers, cannot wait to return next year. In the meantime, we have the Cork Short Story Festival to look forward to, which I will be covering. Kevin is reading at this too. Those Cork people really have it worked out, don’t they? If you haven’t had the pleasure to read “City of Bohane”, I insist you get it and devour it! You can buy it here. 
This edition is the new,swankier cover. I have only got the old, orange original. Anyway, you just want to listen to Kevin. Enjoy! Listen here. kevinbarry1 I will upload part 2 after a few days!
Day 2 in Bantry, the West Cork Literary Festival
We had to check out and check in again due to a long and uninteresting story which I can tell you about, if you really want to hear! We took a walk along the marina, I wanted to reach the Hollywood-style sign that spelt out BANTRY on the hill across from our hotel, the Maritime. We reached it in record time of about two minutes and it started to rain. So, back to the car and up,up,up to Bantry House. We could/should have walked it but I didn’t want to wreck my hair.
Bantry House is gorgeous, apparently it is one of the Top Twenty Houses to visit in the World or Europe. We stood and posed for couple photos and got some nice shots of the gardens. We were getting hungry so attempted to head into the Tea Rooms, which looked rather nice as they overlooked the view of Bantry and the marina. The lady on the desk told us we normally would have to pay €5 to get into the gardens and you couldn’t visit the TeaRooms without seeing the gardens…hmmm. What she said before was quite pointless as then she told us we didn’t have to pay as the rain would mean we couldn’t get a proper look at the Gardens.
So, we went to the TeaRooms free of charge except I don’t think anyone would have cared if we had paid to see the Gardens or not.
We grabbed a quick bowl of soup and I felt all virtuous as previous lunches had involved too much food. When we were finished, we took off into the town again to have a little stroll around the shops and streets. At precisely, 2:53, Simon informed me that we needed to check in to our bedroom. Great.
It was great! In our room, (it’s my birthday on Monday) Simon had organized a big, fat chocolate cake with my name iced all it, a bottle of something bubbly and cold in a bucket of ice…these products were situated in the top of the Maritime Hotel, in one of the Penthouse Suites! Wowee, we had a stunning view of the bay and the Hollywood sign. Life is good!
I didn’t want to leave the room but a very nice and well mannered and tuned out author, Jamie O Connell was reading from his book in MA Murphy’s. Plus, the flyer promised prosecco so the choice was clear! As well, as Jamie reading, there were two other poets. All three are published with Bradshaw publishing. There was a great atmosphere and Jamie read one of his very comic short stories ” On eating grass”. It was hilarious and we all laughed along to the perfectly captured voice of a child who has a crazy life. You can read this very story here on the Lonely voice blog http://lonelyvoiceiwc.wordpress.com/2011-2/february-2011/on-eating-grass-by-jamie-o-connell/
I got to chat to Jamie after, a very nice, pleasant and unassuming guy. He currently working on his first novel but I hope he intersperses that with some more short stories!
I had to get back to the suite, the view from the balcony was calling me. Nah, let’s be honest, it was the iced bottle of something calling me! Derek joined us for a special “Julie’s fish and chips” takeout. Nice. We talked about dreams of living in Bantry for 6 months,then London and then New York for the remainder, one day, we said. In the meantime, we’ll enjoyed what we have!
I had gained enough nerves to read at the Open Mike and with a freshly cooked short story about a horrible man and my well-read Kitty stories, I made my way to the Open Mike. Michael Parkinson had just been interviewed, all the tickets had sold out but we didn’t really mind.
I read 2 of my Kitty stories and my new one about a principal. A sweaty principal who hates his job and life and doesn’t stop to think he should really let it go. No one booed me or walked out so I was happy! Simon and Derek got up to read twice and local comedian, Martin got up to read about his struggles dealing with a paranormal universe. It must be difficult, alright.
I left the lads with music and general song singing, I was tired and happy. I had read at Bantry.
Tomorrow, Kevin Barry is reading and I hope to meet with him to ask him a few questions. Tune in!
Day one of my first time at the West Cork Literary Festival, beautiful Bantry
Bantry-my first day of the festival
I’ve heard so much about Bantry and the West Cork Literary Festival that is held there every year. Our good friend, Derek from our writing group is always telling us to go, this is his fourth year in attendance. But, it is only my first so I was over the top excited when we hit the beautifully “everything an Irish town should look like” Bantry.
The first thing that caught my eye was the Hollywood-esque white letter signs spelling out BANTRY 2012. Placed on the hill above the marina and directly across from where we were staying, in the Maritime Hotel. Lovely idea. Most of the workshops and talks are held in the Maritime Hotel so the backdrop of the marina and the white sign make for ultimate photo opportunities! And, I used this prop well, taking hundreds of photos at different angles!
A stroll around the town of Bantry and a bit of letter writing
The weather was stunning when we arrived, we walked about, taking in the vibe-outdoor cafes with homemade ice cream, seafood eateries and old school pubs. We randomly came across a cute Coffee Shop called Organico, plenty of space and nice food. We got a spelt scone and strong coffee and sat and read. Bliss. As part of the festival, Organico are encouraging people to write letters. 
So, I received a complimentary writing pad, nice pen and wrote a letter to my family in Canada, something I’d been meaning to do for ages. The Coffee shop had left a letter box for any post, saying they would post it for me too! What a nice idea! It felt strange to write, my handwriting is appalling as I am so used to typing but I think my family will be happy to receive it!
Dr Diarmuid Ni Mhuirithe and his research on the death of Anglo Irish language
We decided we would go to one of the afternoon talks, Dr. Diarmuid Ni Mhuirithe was giving a lecture on Hiberno English or Anglo Irish, depending which side of the fence you are on! I did my Irish and English degree in U.C.D and Diarmuid had been the lead lecturer in the field of Hiberno English, he was one of the guys I really enjoyed attending and learning about the history of how we speak English and why. The talk was good, with lots of funny examples of phrases that we use and what they mean in standard English! There was a question and answer at the end and Simon asked him about where the word “craic” came from. Simon seemed to have hit Diarmuid’s raw nerve. Diarmuid spat out the answer( in a nice way) he told us that craic, in fact is a Scottish word and it simply means “good chat”. He seemed annoyed that this word has been changed into an Irish way of getting drunk. Diarmuid ended his talk by saying that Hiberno English would be dead very soon, adding that he didn’t really know how to save it. Simon and I debated this very subject later on, coming to the conclusion that language only stays alive if it is needed and is in flux all the time. Still makes me sad though as I hope that Hiberno English is not replaced by some other random culture or sayings.
Fish Anthology 2012 launch
Fish were launching their 2012 anthology of stories and poems. Fish is an Irish publishing company that runs( among other services) an annual competition. Prizes are pretty nice, but the biggest one has to be reading at the Bantry Festival and being published in their anthology. The evening was really enjoyable, I loved the mix of genres and voices, we heard poetry, flash fiction, memoirs and short stories. We never heard more than a page, which is perfect for my attention span! I bought the anthology for €10, an excellent price for the amount of excellent and diverse reading you will get. Go pick up a copy on the fish website and even better, enter the competition next year! They offer a critiquing service, for a fee, which might be a good idea to start off with.
Seafood eating and a drink with a Welsh man
After this event, we headed off for a bite to eat. We ended up in a place called “The Fish Kitchen”, which was divine! Service was warm and chilled out, while we waited for our table, the owner sent us across the road to the pub, Ma Murphy’s. This pub is the real deal, reminding me of my own local, childhood pub, Dinny’s Ferry Bar and shop in Rossport, Mayo. We had a quick drink in Ma Murphy’s, chatting to the lovely Welsh man who owns the place. When our table was ready, the owner from “Fish Kitchen” nipped over to us, telling us to come along! The food was excellent. I went for haddock and chips, Derek went for monkfish and Simon went for trio of fish. 
We finished off with proper home-made desserts, me a chocolate mousse, Derek a baked lemon cheese cake and Simon an Eton mess. I’d recommend this place.
A shy Rozzie just didn’t get to read at the Open Mike!
Then it was back to the hotel for the Open Mike session, which is held every night as part of the festival. Most of the Fish anthology winners took up the audience and all wanted to read, which is fair enough but us newbies were dying to have a go too so we waited! Derek read some of his poems and did very well, Simon even got the courage up to read some of his Jewish poems and he did extremely well.
He read like a pro, giving some little details to add to the understanding. I know I am biased but he has some interesting things to say about religion and the effect it can have on people’s lives, sometimes negatively. It was nearly 2 in the morning and I hadn’t plucked up the courage to read. I am going to try again tonight! Wish me luck!