Hello everyone,
May – how on earth did that happen? The months of 2022 are skidding by. Spring has packed its bags and summer has well and truly sprung, with buds and blossoms and blooms everywhere I look – and just today I was sent the final version of the cover for Life Before Us, which I think looks mighty fine indeed. Number twenty, if you can believe it: little did I imagine, flying off to San Francisco in 2001, determined not to come back to Ireland without some class of a novel under my arm, that I’d still be at it twenty-one years later. I hadn’t much of a clue about writing a book then, and I’m not altogether sure I know what I’m doing even yet, every time I set out to begin a new story. The same terror lies in wait until a worthwhile idea surfaces; the same uncertainties accompany me well into the first draft, till I feel, at ten or twenty or thirty thousand words, that I’m getting to grips with my characters and my storylines. I’m currently grappling with a plot for the next, and I have a few thoughts and ideas that may or may not come to pass …. watch this space. But of course I wouldn’t have it any other way – and in a few weeks I’ll be taking delivery of my box of author copies of Life Before Us, and the writing will be set aside for a day or two around publication day, June 9, to see the new arrival safely onto the bookshelves. Always a happy time, and I’m looking forward to it. Fingers crossed it finds favour.
Nothing much to report otherwise; have been flitting around the libraries of Tipperary over the past couple of weeks telling stories to kiddies, one of my favourite occupations – and earlier this month my regular storytime in my local library here in Limerick resumed, first time since covid hit, so that’s a really good development. I’ve got myself an e-scooter to use around the country roads of west Clare over the summer – let’s hope I don’t break my neck on it, like my poor mother is convinced I will!
I hope all of you are well. 2022 hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory thus far, with a horrible war in Europe topping the list of bad news items …. let’s hope the rest of the year brings hope and brighter days, and above all peace.
love
