Wednesday, March 29, 2006

March Newsletter.

Hi everyone and welcome to your March newsletter- only just making it in March!!

At the end of this newsletter, I've put the details of the May 27th readers' day in Deansgrange- so have a look, it promises to be a great day.
Sarah Webb has managed to secure 10 priority places for Writeon-irishgirls members- the first 10 to e-mail her get the place.
For everyone else- the booking details are as follows:

Tickets will be available for this event on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of 2 tickets per caller. The booking line will be open from 10.30am on Tuesday 25th April. Please phone Deansgrange Library 285 0860 or email deansgrangelib@dlrcoco.ie
from this date to reserve your place. Tickets will be given at registration on 27th May. €5 payable at door includes light lunch.


Sarah woudl also like to remind you that Take A Chance is out in paperback and is in proptions in Dubray bookshops aswell as Dunnes Stores.

Judi Curtin is launching her new book Almost Perfect in O'Mahony's in Limerick at 6.30 on Weds April 5th and would love to see you there. (Click on the 'recent releases' link to the right to see her yummy cover!

IRISH PEN Thursday 6th April in the United Arts Club at 8.pm .
Irish PEN in association with Dublin City Council present; Dublin - A Writer's City with Dermot Bolger, Philip Casey Christine Dwyer Hickey and Peter Sheridan. Each will read from their work and discuss how the city has shaped and influenced their writing. All welcome and no admission fee but booking essential. (visit Irish Pen site for details)

And finally:
Thanks to Tracy for this wonderful account of the launch of my own novel-A French Affair
I was lucky enough to be at Catherine's launch last night and it went brilliantly! There was a terrific turn-out including members of the press! so hopefully you'll be able to read about in the papers. Catherine looked gorgeous and amazingly calm, right up until she had to make her speech when her voice wobbled a bit! She read us out a descriptive section of A French Affair and I have to say we were all tempted to rush to the door up to the airport to fly straight over there, her descriptions were so wonderful. John Murray did a great job of launching her book too!One of the most beautiful boquets of flowers I had ever seen was presented to Catherine and her husband Dennis looked suitably modest at our oohs and aahs. Only afterwards did I discover that the flowers were actually from Catherine's brother andDennis was just looking for a bit of unwarranted admiration! Just as well , because if he had sent them, there would have been words had in the Harris-Culleton household later that evening I can tell you!The writers there included Tina Reilly (along with her gorgeous daughter Caoimhe), Mary Bond, Marita Connon-McKenna, Kate Thompson, Suzanne Higgins and Marisa Mackle back from her sojourn learning Irish. We of course said things to her like, 'Conas a ta tu,' and suchlike, and thought we were the very bones of wit, but she had heard it all way too much in the past week to be very imrpessed with us. Afterwards we went to Ba Mizu for further drinks and further chat. I was supposed to be collected by Peter and Tadhg at about 9.30 but when they rang to say they were outside I was too comfortably ensconced (besides the food had just arrived and I was STARVING) and I said for them to park up and join us. So we sneaked Tadhg into the bar (it was totally empty apart from ourselves anyway). Tadhg has a trick at the moment of holding his index finger up to hide behind it and he did this now. Must have worked because the bar staff a)either didn't see him or b) pretended not to see him. We just stayed for another 20 mins or so after that, and regretfully I left just as the real craic was starting. They all looked well settled and I look forward to hearing further news from those who remained.All in all a great evening, so thank you Catherine. And I've got a sore throat and claggy head today so I'm having a duvet day. Nothing to do with the fact that A French Affair was sitting there calling me to read it! I'm well into it now and enjoying it hugely. Well recommended.




Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Libraries in Association with The Irish Girls present

A Sense of Place
A Readers’ Day
Saturday 27th May 2006
Deansgrange Library

With Special Guest Speaker: Bestselling Author, Sheila O’Flanagan

A day you won’t forget!



Readers’ Day Programme

10.00 Welcome - Sarah Webb, Author

10.15 - 10.45 My Favourite Travel Books (Novels, Biographies, Travel Literature)
Chaired by Marisa Mackle

Martina Devlin, Author
Marita Conlon McKenna, Author
Vivienne Whyte, Book Club Member

Followed by - My Favourites from the Floor: your chance to share your own personal favourites

10.45 – 11.15 Award Nominees
Chaired by Sarah Webb

Award Nominees Tina Reilly (IMPAC) and Kate Kerrigan (Romance Novel of the Year) will read from their award nominated books and answer questions on their work

11.15 – 12.00 A Sense of Place - Setting and its Importance in Fiction
Chaired by Mary Bond

Catherine Daly - on France in ‘A Foreign Affair’
Karen Gillece – on Brazil and Ireland in ‘Longshore Drift’
Orna Ross – on Wexford, London and San Francisco in ‘Lover’s Hollow’

12.00 - 12.30 Coffee and Bookshop
With thanks to Dubray Books
12.30 - 1.15 This Writer’s Life

Sheila O’Flanagan in conversation with Catherine Daly

1.15 – 2.00 Lunch and Bookshop
With thanks to Dubray Books
Your chance to buy one of the speakers’ books and get it signed

EFT demonstration with Tracy Culleton

2.00 – 2.45 Dogs and Soda Bread – Researching the Novel
Chaired by Martina Devlin

Tina Reilly on researching vets and other animals for ‘Wish Upon on a Star’
Julie Parsons on researching Garda procedure for ‘The Hourglass’
Kate Kerrigan on researching Ireland in the 1930’s and contemporary New York for ‘Recipes for a Perfect Marriage’

2.45 - 3.45 The Write Stuff
Practical tips on writing and submitting your manuscript
Chaired by Tracy Culleton

Writing Groups, Writing Courses and Other Ways of Getting Started - Marisa Mackle

The Next Step - Finishing your novel, staying motivated and beating writers’ block - Tracy Culleton

Story of a 1st time published writer - Ger Gallagher, Poolbeg
Story of an unpublished writer - Megan Wynne

Getting an Agent and the Author/Agent Relationship - Marita Conlon McKenna

The Editor/Writer Relationship – Orna Ross

Questions from the floor

3.45 Close

Speakers in Order of Appearance

Sarah Webb (5)
Sarah Webb worked in the book business for many years and now writes full time as well as working as a children’s book consultant. She has written five bestsellers, Three Times a Lady, Always the Bridesmaid, Something to Talk About, Some Kind of Wonderful and It Had to Be You. Her sixth novel, Take a Chance has just been published in paperback. She also compiled and edited Travelling Light, a non-fiction travel book in aid of Kisiizi Hospital in Uganda. Sarah has programmed many popular and successful readers’ days including this one. http://www.sarahwebb.info/

Marisa Mackle
Marisa Mackle is the author of Mr Right for the Night, So Long Mr Wrong and The Mile High Guy. Her latest book is Chinese Whispers. Her work has been translated into Japanese, German and Russian and is also on the English Literature degree course at Salzburg University. She is single and lives with her big black unfriendly cat. Her favourite authors are Candace Bushnell, Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella and Sarah Webb.
www.marisamackle.com

Martina Devlin
Omagh-born Martina Devlin started writing fiction after winning a Hennessy Literary Award for her first short story in 1996. This was followed by four novels: Three Wise Men, Be Careful What You Wish For, Venus Reborn – nominated for the Sunday Independent-Hughes and Hughes Irish novel of the year – and Temptation. In addition to writing fiction, she is a columnist for the Sunday World magazine and the Irish Independent. Her latest book is Hollow Heart, a memoir. www.martinadevlin.com

Marita Conlon McKenna
Marita Conlon-McKenna is an award winning Irish children's writer. Her first novel, Under the Hawthorne Tree, sold 250,000 copies in the Irish market alone. Her debut adult novel, The Magdalen, was a number one bestseller in Ireland, followed by Promised Land and Miracle Woman. She lives in Dublin with her husband and four children and is the Chairman of Irish PEN. Her latest book is The Stone House.


Tina Reilly
Tina Reilly (Martina Murphy) is the author of four teenage books, including Dirt Tracks which won a Bisto Merit Award. As Tina Reilly, she has written six best-selling women’s novels – Flipside, The Onion Girl, Is This Love?, Something Borrowed, Wedded Blitz and Wish Upon on a Star. Something Borrowed was recently nominated for the IMPAC Award. Her burning ambition is to write sit-com and in her spare time, she freelances for the Irish Independent, teaches drama and co-manages her son’s under-9 soccer team.
http://www.martinamurphy.com/

Kate Kerrigan
Kate Kerrigan lives in Ballina, Co Mayo with her family. Her novel, Recipes for a Perfect Marriage was short listed for the Romance Novel of the Year Award and has been sold in fifteen different languages.

Mary Bond
Mary Bond’s first novel Absolutely Love was published last year. Her second novel, All Things Perfect, has recently hit the bookshelves. Mary is working on her third book and she fits her writing in around her day job as a Training Officer. Mary lives in Dublin with her husband and has two daughters and a son.


Catherine Daly
Writing was not a lifelong ambition for Catherine, but rather a natural progression from her love of reading and her passion for a good story. A pharmacist by profession, she started writing during a ‘temporary’ career break and her first book All Shook Up was published in March 2004. Charlotte’s Way was published in Spring 2005, and her third book, A French Affair split in location between Ireland and France, was published in March 2006. www.catherinedaly.com

Karen Gillece
Karen Gillece was born in Dublin in 1974. She studied Law at University College Dublin and worked for several years in the telecommunications industry before turning to writing full-time. She was short-listed for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award in 2001 and her short stories have been widely published in literary journals and magazines. Her first novel Seven Nights In Zaragoza was published in 2005 to widespread acclaim. Her second novel Longshore Drift was published in February 2006.

Orna Ross – photo sent – early on – not sure of number, sorry
Orna Ross (aka Aine McCarthy) was brought up in the Co. Wexford village of Murrintown. Amongst other things she has worked as a teacher, a saleswoman, an aerobics instructor, a waitress and as a freelance journalist in Dublin and London. In the late-1990s, while living in Cheshire, she began to write fiction. She now lives in Dublin with her husband and two teenage children, where she combines a career as a novelist with teaching creativity and creative writing. Lovers' Hollow is her first novel.
www.ornaross.com.

Sheila O’Flanagan
Sheila O’Flanagan is the No 1 bestelling author of Isobel’s Wedding and How Will I Know? as well as the short story collections Destinations and Connections. Following a successful career in financial services she now writes full time and her novels are now translated into over 23 languages. www.sheilaoflanagan.net

Tracy Culleton
Tracy was born in Dublin in the last millennium, and now lives in Carlow with her husband Peter and 10 year old son Tadhg (whom she home-educates). She is the author of three novels: Looking Good (which won the 2003 Poolbeg 'Write A Bestseller' Competition), Loving Lucy and More Than Friends. She's also a practitioner of EFT (acupuncture without the needles) and has just written a book giving step-by-step instructions for using EFT to clear writers' blocks (www.unleash-the-writer.com).
www.tracyculleton.com

Julie Parsons (photo on file from last time?)
Julie Parsons was born in New Zealand and has lived most of her adult life in Ireland. She has had a varied career - artist's model, typesetter, freelance journalist, radio and television producer - before turning to writing fiction. She lives outside Dublin, by the sea, with her family. Her new novel, The Hourglass has won much critical acclaim.

Ger Gallagher
Ger Gallagher lives in Dublin with her husband and two daughters. A Life Left Untold, is her first novel. After leaving school she worked as a P.A in the property business for seven years. She attended the Gaiety School of Acting and went on to work in film and theatre for four years. She signed a three book contract with Poolbeg last spring and is currently working on her third novel.

Megan Wynne
Megan Wynne has just completing her second novel. Last year she had her first short story published in Woman's Way and a poem in a local collection. This May she will have a story published in Ireland's Own Magazine. Megan was a teacher and is currently writing full time.

The Irish Girls
The Irish Girls is a group of women writers who meet regularly to discuss books and writing (among other things!). They have also collaborated on several charity books including Travelling Light and Irish Girls are Back in Town. For more details on future readers’ days and other events check out http://www.writeon-irishgirls.com/ or contact sarah@sarahwebb.info


There would be no readers’ day without the help of the following people - thanks to Marian Keyes, Senior Librarian, Culture; Eliane (Marian – second name please!!); all the staff at Deansgrange Library; Paula Campbell of Poolbeg; Susan Walsh of Dubray Books and the staff at Dubray Bookshop, Bray; Tracy Culleton; all the authors; and finally, you, the audience. We do hope you enjoy the day!

Saturday, March 25, 2006

New titles


A French Affair - By Catherine Daly.
"You have no idea, sweetheart," Evie thought nervously as she watched her daughter playing near her, "that our lives could be about to change forever." Because the week ahead, originally planned to be Evie’s first childless holiday since Holly was born, had suddenly developed the potential to bring her past rushing up to confront her.

Evie has a secret she has kept from her family and friends, and even from her best friend. But her past is about to be blown open during a holiday to visit Monique, an estate agent in France's picturesque Dordogne area. And Monique too has a secret, but hers is far more dangerous. It could even be lethal.
Together the friends must come to terms with the past and pick up the pieces of their shattered lives when their fates collide with explosive consequences.




Almost Perfect by Judi Curtin

Jill and Cormac have just hosted a massive party for their precious daughter's first Holy Communion, but now the baloons have all burst, the lawn is a mess of broken wine glasses and mashed cocktail sausages, and Jill feels empty and lonely. However, the reappearance of an old flame brings the memories of a time in life when everything seemed possible...





Will to Win by Suzanne Higgins
From a wedding in Wicklow to the vineyards of Spain, from swimming with turtles in Barbados to the ultimate boardroom battle . . . Samantha White has it all – looks, intelligence and Ireland’s most eligible bachelor waiting for her at the top of the aisle. When her estranged mother staggers into the Hello!-style wedding and stops the whole show, life takes a serious downturn. Sam’s mother has beencarrying too many dark secrets for far too long.Rose Judge, the mother of the groom, is the only one who knows the whole truth but she would rather die than reveal it.While the groom heads to the beautiful white sands and turquoise seas of Barbados, Sam runs away to the Rioja region of Spain where she uncovers more truths that throw an entirely different slant on her life. When Sam returns to Ireland she soon discovers who her real enemies are and what sort of battle she has on her hands.




Take a Chance by Sarah Webb

The story of three sisters, Wendy, Gemma and Mia and their Abba tribute band, AbbaFab. Bittersweet, touching and laugh out loud funny, this is a book to savour.


Thursday, March 23, 2006

Book Launch- A French Affair





I thought I'd post some pics of Tuesday's book launch. I'm doing this on the fly, so I'm not going to put captions on them- You'll have to guess who's who!!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Chart chance for unsigned writers

Want to get some feedback for your unpublished writing? Check out htis BBC report below:

BBC NEWS Entertainment Chart champions unsigned writers

Friday, March 10, 2006

Blackwell Publishing aims to be First Global Publisher To Become CarbonNeutral

Publishing is an industry which has a significant impact on the environment- in paper consumption, energy use and transportation of their product. Blackwell has worked with Carbon Neutral, an Edinburgh based company to examine ways of reducing their CO2 emmissions and of investing in forestry.
Read more:

Response Source Press Releases - Blackwell Publishing Is First Global Publisher To Become CarbonNeutral

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Wexford Book Festival

Just a bit of advance notice about some events at Byrne's Bookstore during the Wexford Festival:


Tuesday, March 07, 2006

New writers join past winner on Orange longlist

Now in its eleventh year, the Orange prize remains the only prize in the English language which is restricted towomen writers. This year's longlist has just been announced and it provides huge variety and months' worth of reading.

Guardian Unlimited Books Special Reports New writers join past winner on Orange longlist

Monday, March 06, 2006

Bibliofemme: Book Quiz

Another Bibliofemme Book Quiz:
Test your knowledge of male characters:

Bibliofemme: Book Quiz

The Observer | Review | Our top 50 players in the world of books

Coinciding with the London Book Fair, The Guardian Observer have come up with a list of the fifty most influential people in publishing in the UK.
It's an interesting list, not just for the people on it, but for the jobs they do and how they exert their influence.
Amanda Ross, the creator and producer of the 'Richard and Judy Show' holds the number one slot (as Oprah did in a similar list last year in the US) and positions two and three are also held by women.

Read the full list on:

The Observer Guardian Review Top 50 players in the world of books

Friday, March 03, 2006

Print on Demand technology breathing new life into old books and encouraging self-publishing

The book world is still wary of the whole 'digitisation' process. From the arguments over Googles scanning project, to dire predictions that the day of the book is numbered, all we seem to hear are doom and gloom scenarios.
But so far, what has really have been born out of digitisation? It isn't the manufacture of hand-held 'electronic books readers'; even audio books, while increasing their share of the market, have yet to put a real dent on book sales. The only industry to have really benefited from digitisation is Print-on-demand - a means of publishing an otherwise non-economic title by scaling down the costs substantially.
Print on demand has obvious advantages for the publishing industry in that out of print titles can be produced relatively cheaply or professionally produced review copies can be printed ahead of the main print run for publicity purposes.
But to me, the one thing that the mushrooming of the print-on-demand shows us is that there is still, and will always be, a huge demand for paper books.
Read more:

Guardian Unlimited Technology Technology Click, download, publish