Won’t feel it now…
Hello all,
As I write, there are a mere 95 sleeps to the publication of this beauty:
Original publication date has been shifted from June 7 to June 28 – bit disappointing to have to wait a little longer but I’ll have to assume the publishers in their wisdom know what they’re doing. I do love the cover though – hope you do too. I’m putting the final polish on it now before sending it off to be copy-edited, so we’re nearly there. I’m already thinking of the next, and wondering if it’s time for a return to Roone……..
In other news I’m off to the sun shortly with a trio of pals. Lots of walking, eating, wine and sea – really looking forward to the break, seem to have been writing this one forever!
Hope all’s well with everyone – and thanks to those who get in touch to say nice things about the books, always appreciated.
Be good, mind yourselves, here’s to a sunny Irish summer – we can dream!
Roisin xx
New baby on the way….
Hello to all – just checking in, a while since I wrote. The good news is that the next book, The Anniversary, is taking shape; I’m about two thirds of the way through the first draft so there’s still a long way to go but it’s heading in the right direction. Still not sure where everyone is going to end up, but I’m trusting that they’ll let me know at some stage! I’ll soon be seeing a cover, always a scary prospect…..hopefully I’ll breathe a sigh of relief when I see it! And of course I’ll share it here as soon as I’m allowed. The Anniversary is due on the shelves next May or June, all going well. Hard to believe it’s number 15 – where do the years go? I do hope anyone who was kind enough to read The Street Where You Live enjoyed it.
In other news I’ve been laid low since April with some muscle condition – doctors are still scratching their heads to give me a diagnosis but I’m on steroids so hopefully it’ll go as quickly as it came. I’m stiff and sore all over – I suspect I need my dose of miracle drugs upped – but I’m able to write, thankfully. The mixed bag of an Irish summer was a little disappointing but I’m off to say hello to the Spanish sun for a week soon, and I intend to do serious battery recharging as I lie on the beach and lap up the vitamin D, or pretend I know how to swim in the sea!
Hope all had a good summer (or winter, if you’re from Down Under). Till next time, take care and mind yourselves,
Roisin xx
Launched!
All done! Great night was had, usual loyal family, friends and neighbours put in yet another appearance – they must be blue in the face from my launches! Here’s an account from the excellent I Love Limerick people who always turn up too: http://www.ilovelimerick.ie/2017/the-street-where-you-live/
Next Saturday I have a lovely event coming up. An afternoon in Gallagher’s Restaurant at Bunratty, about 8 miles from Limerick city. Complimentary bubbly and nibbles, books for sale if anyone wants them, and a short talk from me about all things booky. Do come if you can, no obligation to buy, just come and chat. For destination info, check out here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1900506540218379/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%22106%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D
And now it’s back to business. Book 15 is taking shape, growing slowly. From now till Christmas I’ll be aiming to put a first draft together – fingers crossed. All I can say at this stage is that it involves a couple who used to be married and their two adult children…..watch this space!
Enjoy the summer. Weather is beautiful in Limerick today, looking out at a clear blue sky and blazing sunshine. Long may it last.
R xx
It’s in the charts!
The Irish original fiction bestseller charts, that is! (Original fiction, for those of you not familiar, is what they term the large size paperback.) Delighted to report that after one week of sales (they work a week behind) The Reunion has gone in at number six! Which means that sales from the launch on Tuesday will feature in next week’s charts – fingers crossed they bump it up a few spaces!
A huge thank you to all who contributed in any way to this, and thanks so much to everyone who put up with my incessant bleating over the last few weeks – I promise to ease off a bit now……for the moment!
Launch was wonderful – over seventy faithful souls turned up to pack O’Mahony’s bookshop to the rafters. Here’s me and Mam in the middle of the madness:
I told everyone in my speech that she was going to be 88 on the 15th – she was delighted, loves the limelight! (Think I might have inherited a bit of that……!) Incidentally, the top I’m wearing was made especially for me by the wonderfully talented Caroline Mitchell, internationally acclaimed Irish knitwear designer based right here in Limerick. I approached Caroline when I was writing The Reunion and asked if I could pick her brains as I was planning to have a knitwear designer in the book (the fact that my character is called Caroline too is entirely coincidental, by the way.) The real Caroline agreed immediately, and was literally at my beck and call anytime I thought of a new question for her. Worth looking up – http://www.carolinemitchellknitwear.com/ – if you want a really special garment made (don’t go by me – I’m SO not a model, and the snap isn’t showing the beautiful beading detail, and the pants are all wrong with it – I’m a celebrity, get me a personal stylist!!!!)
Oh, and we had a Gospel choir at the launch (excuzez-moi) thanks to Caterina, a member who works in O’Mahony’s, and Gretta, the very generous choir director. They blasted out the tunes as I signed and chatted: don’t they look the biz?
Among the local celebs who attended was my pal and co-writer Judi Curtin. Judi has written about a gazillion children’s books (well, maybe not quite a gazillion, but watch this space) and we co-wrote one in 2007 called See If I Care, aimed at 10-13 year olds. We had a bit of fun with a few snaps at the launch:
So life is calming down somewhat now – although I have two more bookish events in the next couple of weeks – Saturday next, 16th, in Gallagher’s Seafood Restaurant at Bunratty, Co Clare, an afternoon (2-4) of chat, music and nibbles, (and books for sale at a special price!) and Friday 22nd July in the bookshop in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, 5pm for a reading from The Reunion and a chat: if you’re in the area for either of these do come along, I’d be delighted to see you.
No rest for the wicked: I’ve been working on the next book, tentatively titled The Choir, for the past couple of months, and so far so good. It’ll keep me busy over the summer, which has turned out pretty blah weather-wise, after three weeks of glorious sunshine in May/June. Ah well, the small price we pay to live in beautiful green friendly Ireland!
Happy summer/winter, depending on your hemisphere!
Roisin xxx
The Eagle has Landed!!!!
Whoop! The Reunion has gone on sale! Spotted today by eagle-eyed pals in the Ennis Book Shop and in O’Mahony’s in Limerick city – and I presume it’s in a few other bookshops around the country too! Delighted! As soon as I heard I ran into town – well, walked very fast – and snapped it in O’Mahony’s window, and on the shelves inside. Always great to get a first sighting of it on the bookshop shelves….and now the nail-biting begins, waiting for reviews and feedback from readers, and HOPING it’ll get into the bestseller list…….!!! FINGERS CROSSED, EVERYONE!!
Do let me know if you spot it in your local bookshop – it will be in selected UK stores, and of course in Australia and New Zealand too – and if you live elsewhere and want to buy online, the good people of http://www.kennys.ie tell me it should be up on their site in a few days. They don’t deal in e-books, just the real thing, but their prices are generally competitive and they offer free worldwide postage so they’re worth checking out.
Exciting times!!!
Roisin XX
WON’T FEEL IT NOW!
Sorry for shouting, but with fifteen days to go till I see The Reunion on the bookshop shelves, I’m like a cat on a hot griddle! Book number thirteen, and I have myself convinced that this will be the one that breaks all records! (And yes, I did think that about all the others too, but I was wrong, OK?) At any rate, do let me know if you spot it in your local bookshop, could be a few days before the official publication date of July 1 – first sighting, complete with photo, gets a chocolate reward! And if you’re in Australia you should be seeing it soon too, my Irish publishers tell me it’s got the same publication date of July 1, but something tells me it might be slightly later…..and UK readers, I’m told that my books go into the bigger bookshops like WH Smith and Waterstones, so you may not find me in your smaller local bookshop (but you could always ask!!) I’ll be in the Irish and UK libraries in due course, so you can hunt me down there – and as usual The Reunion will be on sale in book and e-book formats on the usual online sites in the hopefully not too distant future – don’t forget to try http://www.kennys.ie which offers free worldwide postage (not sure if they do e-books though). And that’s the end of the business talk!
I’ve moved on. Writing books is like working in the fashion industry; you always have to be thinking ahead – and since I sent the manuscript of The Reunion back to Hachette for the final time (there is NOTHING like the sense of relief when that happens) I’ve been trying to come up with a plot and a structure and characters for the next. I recently signed a new three book deal (thanks Hachette!) and the first draft of the first one has a deadline of January ‘or sooner if possible’ (ed) which doesn’t give me a lot of time. But I think the plot is almost there, so (deep breath) I’m about to begin writing the narrative. Always a daunting time, with a word count of zero, and all those as yet unwritten sections and chapters stretching out ahead, all the hours and days and weeks of head-scratching and tentative paragraphs and scribbling out and rewriting and sleepless nights while I work out the next part….so I try not to think too much about what hasn’t yet been done, and focus on what has. I have a main character, a woman in her 50s, and I’ve pretty much formed her fully, with a history and a family and a sort-of storyline…I say sort of because I like my plots to be loose, with not too much decided. I have an idea of the ending but I prefer the story to find its own way as I go along, rather than have it set in stone from the start. So – fingers crossed that number fourteen comes out right!
My wonderful mother gets home from California today, after two weeks of holidaying with one of my brothers who lives there. We’re currently waiting for another brother to collect her from the airport. Mam is nearly 88 with the outlook of a 20 year old, so we’ll be dying to hear all her news from across the Atlantic. Hope I’m that lively when I hit my eighties! Dad will be 90 in September, and while his health is very good considering his age, he doesn’t have nearly as much get up and go as Mam, so he happily stayed at home and enjoyed the peace and quiet while she was away!
And finally . . . an invitation to anyone close enough to pop into O’Mahony’s bookshop in Limerick for the big celebration:
All are welcome, the more the merrier – and I’ll organise some nibbles in a nearby hostelry afterwards. Love to see you there!
Roisin xx
Countdown is on…
Forty-three days to go! Official publication date for my thirteenth novel is July 1 – on that date (or shortly before it) copies will be putting in appearances in bookshops throughout Ireland, and as far as I know it should be coming out in Australia and New Zealand around then too. It SHOULD also be available online from the usual sources, both in book and ebook formats (don’t forget http://www.kennys.ie which offers free worldwide postage) but I know some online sellers have their own rules about when books become available, and unfortunately I have no control over that. Do let me know if you have problems getting hold of a copy – I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to help but I’ll certainly try.
And if you’d like a little preview….
I really enjoyed writing this one – I love stories that span a fair bit of time, so you can let your characters grow and change, and you also have great scope for storylines to develop.
In other news, I’m thinking about the next book (as you do) and a character is taking shape. I’m heading to Lanzarote at the weekend to fluff her out a bit as I lie on the beach for a week or so….tis a tough life!
Happy summer (or winter, if you’re from the other half of the world!)
Roisin xxx