Anyone for a spot of creative writing?

Yeah folks it's another competition for y'all to enter. This time the prize is a copy of Anyone for Me? written by Northern Irish chick lit author Fiona Cassidy.All you have to do is in about 500 - 750 words finish off a passage from Fiona's latest book.  

What happened to Ruby Delaney ?     Why was it so important she got a copy of her long birth certificate?                   What secrets is she about to reveal? 

Yup, all you have to do is continue the story. It can be in any genre, I'm hoping maybe horror or crime fiction, or even chick lit.

Ready yet?

WRITE ON!

£300 cash up for grabs in creative writing competition
AN Ulster journalist who is part of a team of online writers is appealing for short story enthusiasts to enter their work into a competition which the members have organised.
Gillian McDade from Ballyclare, Co Antrim, is one of six novelists, journalists and short story writers who run the highly successful Strictly Writing blog which is visited daily by readers across the world. And not only will The Strictly Writing Award showcase the best in short stories penned by people around the globe, but there is also a fantastic sum of £300 up for grabs in this free-to-enter competition. Gillian said: "We want to celebrate short story writing, and bearing in mind the many great Irish writers who have been so successful through the years, it'd be great to have someone from the Province scoop the prize. And it's not often a competition comes along which is free to enter, so for that reason, we're encouraging people to send their work to us."

Ulster Voice

http://verbalon.com/magazine

Verbal celebrates the life and work of Sam Hanna Bell, writer and broadcaster in this month’s issue. They also interview Joseph O’Connor – author of the Richard and Judy phenomenon, Star of the Sea - in advance of his upcoming appearance at the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s.
Other highlights include interviews with Maureen Gibbons and Joan Lingard - author of the seminal Through the Barricades. Two local writers share the secret of their success – including how to use the internet to
catch the eye of a publisher! With more reviews than ever of local books – including Bernie McGill’s haunting The Butterfly Cabinet and the delightful Paperboy, a memoir of growing up in the Shankill.

Poetry @ the Thyme & Co Cafe, Ballycastle.

from my inbox...

Ciaran Carson accompanied by Deirdre Carson Née Shannon will read in Thyme & Co Cafe (beside the Park) 5 Quay Road, Ballycastle on Thursday 26th August at 8.00 pm. (B.Y.O.B.) Advanced Booking Recommended
Ciaran Carson is the Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University and the author of many books of poetry, prose and translation. His poetry collections include Belfast Confetti, which wonThe IrishTimes Aer Lingus Award for Irish Poetry, and Breaking News, which won the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Other prizes he has won include the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Weidenfeld Translation prize. His most recent collection is Until Before After. He is a traditional flute player and has written extensively about traditional music.
Deirdre Carson, née Shannon, is regarded as one of the best traditional fiddle players of her generation. Reared near Antrim town, she first learned from her father Paddy, and subsequently from the older players in the South Antrim region and further afield. She has been playing music with Ciaran Carson for over thirty years.

Tel: 079 8904 0450
Admission: FREE

Ballycastle Creative Writers Group

Darach MacDonald comments on Omagh.

Sometimes comments on blogs are ignored and sometimes are as important if not more important than the blog post itself. One comment was left on this blog a few days ago which I feel is worth sharing again...

Darach MacDonald said...

Place and identity are inextricably linked for most Irish people and I feel almost as linked to Omagh and its story as I do to the place where I grew up. Yet it seemed strange at first to say I live (and work as a journalist/writer) in a small town with a name that was almost as familiar to friends I left behind in Canada when I returned home – and readers in America where my words were being read – as it was to me when I wrote about that horrific atrocity in its immediate aftermath. I came to live here not long afterwards and, in a real sense, the town became my own. I have noticed that, while many outside dwell on a version of its past that revolves only around that particular event, other episodes have moved it aside in the local collective consciousness.

@ ADF on Royal Avenue, Belfast until 24th September.

I always like keeping an eye out to see what's happening at the Forum. This month...

Arts & Disability Forum in association with August craft month presents

Ancestral Threads by Roisin O’Hagan

Ancestral threads
by Roisin O’Hagan
19 August to 24 September


An exhibition of new fabric works by Roisin O’Hagan will be at the Arts & Disability Forum on Royal Avenue until 24th September. The show will be open to the public from 20th August until 24th September at the usual ADF public opening times, Tuesday to Friday, 11am-3pm. There will be an exhibition preview with refreshments on Thursday 19th August, 5pm-7pm.

Best Before:23/08/10

If you didn't get to listen to Arts Extra tonight on BBC Radio Ulster you have the opportunity to listen again and I'd suggest that you do.There's a chance to hear Charlie Herron read a short extract from his book McCauley's War  and finally get a better sense of the author himself. There's been, in my opinion, too many polished profiles/ reviews written about Charlie and  his novel that leave the reader wanting to know more about him.This interview I feel helps us to meet the real man himself. Well done Marie-Louise.
Also near the end of the programme one of Northern Ireland’s best emerging Authors, Jamie Guiney from Co. Armagh, talks about the 'app' used on Apple’s iPhone and iPad that makes it possible for iPeople to download/buy and read a couple of his short stories. He also mentions that he is more popular than one of the Beatles, did I hear that right.


To listen again to the programme, up until 23/08/10, just click on this LINK 

           

Omagh Day.

Some people might call the 15th of August here in Northern Ireland the Fenian 12th.Others list it as being Victory over Japan Day.  For me today is the day I always  remember the people of Omagh, it's twelve years since the largest loss of life of any single incident in the history of the Northern Ireland troubles.

As I'm calling today, the 15th of August, Omagh Day it's a good excuse to mention a poet and rising photographer from Omagh. Aine Mac Aodha was born Ann Keys in Omagh in the North of Ireland in 1963. Her sense of place growing up amid the war in the north, and the beauty surrounding it, inspires her writing and her Photography.

photo stolen from Aine's blog

Aine's first collection of poems spanning ten years is entitled Where the three rivers Meet refering to the three rivers in Omagh that meet in the town’s centre, The Strule, Drumragh and the Camowen. She also draws much of her inspiration from The Sperrin Mountains, in her native Tyrone.Her work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies throughout Ireland, USA and the UK.The book is available to buy from Amazon.Com and @ http://stores.lulu.com/ainemacaodha

Fox in the Box, tonight.

The winner of the All Ireland poetry slam 2009 is launching his first book of poetry tonight.The poet Séamus Fox  who's web address is http://www.fox666.com has a book launch on Friday the 13th, yes tonight, in the BLACK box. If you can't make it to the launch at least buy the book, entitled As Seen Through Staggered Eyes You'll want to, even need to, buy the book after reading the blurb for it...

YES HE CAN!

The 2008 U.S. presidential campaign slogan of Barack Obama was 'Yes We Can' which might have helped him in some way become the President of the USA. As I'm campaigning for a local Northern Irish sci-fi author Owen Quinn, campaigning for you to back his book THE TIME WARRIORS. I think it's time now that we can start using the slogan YES HE CAN! A few reasons I believe that he can were clearly shown in an interview with him earlier this year. First published on BooksNI.Biz, here's why he can...

...

Why Authonomy, aren’t there more conventional routes to getting a book published?
Getting a publishing deal is bloody hard and you usually need an agent. Most publishers won't look at you without it. I was offered a deal in February this year by a London publisher (pretty big and well known) except it turned out to be a Vanguard contract where I had to pay £4,600 over 10 months and they would publish it. Not having that sort of money I said no, so they came back and offered to drop it to £4,000 over 15 months but again I said no.

For Irish Eyes.

When I visit a bookshop if I find a book I'm interested in I'll take the book down off the shelf and check out the back cover and read a couple of pages of the book before I'd buy the book. It's good to see this available to us shoppers who buy books online. It's also great to see local Northern Irish authors realising how important this 'browse' feature is and making this feature available for us to use. An author I'm glad to see using this is Colin T. Mercer a poet and writer who grew up in “The Village area” of South Belfast. He's currently working on a second volume of poetry and a collection of short stories.  His first novel he hopes to have ready for publishing in  2012. To read a few poetic experiences from Ireland check out excerpts from his book 'For Irish Eyes'...

Gerry's Story.

On  the 28th of April 2010 Gerry McCullough's  'Belfast Girls' was number five on the Harper Collins (publishers) website: authonomy.com . It stayed in the top 5 until the end of April and made Gerry McCullough the first writer from Northern Ireland to have the opportunity (via authonomy.com ) for her book  to be read by Harper Collins, with the possibility of a publishing deal with them.In July the book had been read and reviewed...

The writing flows smoothly, although the scenes are often short and take place over a number of years. The prologue is fast paced and full of action, bringing the reader right into the story. But the main strength of the writing is the care and detail that is taken with the female characters’ lives, Sheila in particular. The trajectory of her ascending life contrasts nicely with that of her friend Phil, who does not seem to have made the best choices. 

No publishing deal was offered by them at that time but now, the news just in from Gerry...

Belfast Girls has got a publishing deal! 

As readers of this blog may remember, I recently spent six months on Authonomy.com, the Harper Collins online slush pile, and worked my way, with my book Belfast Girls, from 6,000, at the bottom of the list, to the top five, with a guaranteed read by Harper Collins, and the possibility of a publishing offer. 

Another short story for you to read...

I hope you've enjoyed, as I have, the stories posted on this blog from the Fermanagh Creative Writing Group. If you missed them JUST A COUGH by Dianne Trimble was posted here and you can read  BLIND FAITH by Anthony Viney here. Here's another one written by Mariette Connor who is a native of Blackrock, Co. Dublin. She has lived abroad for many years and moved from Spain, to retire in Enniskillen, in 2003. She has had stories and articles published in newspapers, magazines and anthologies in Spain, U.K. and Ireland. 

 Enjoy...

HARRY’S BAND
by Mariette Connor 
                   
We had our first band date in the winter of 1955. Our fee wasn't very much. It just covered our travelling expenses and divided five ways gave us enough for a light meal! Still, it was our first date and we were determined to make a go of it. Even the fact that it was a bitterly cold January night and our destination was high in the Wicklow hills couldn't stem our enthusiasm. We loaded up our ten year old Bedford van and an even older Ford Prefect with our equipment and, dressed in powder blue jackets with gold ties we, the 'Mellowtones', prepared to wow the folk of the village of Kilmarrin in County Wicklow .  

Yesterday

All my troubles seemed so far away...

Yesterday was an historic day for Northern Irish literature with the publication of Bernie McGills debut novel The Butterfly Cabinet. Already reviews, published in glossy magazines, for the book are flooding in...

 ‘An utterly compelling tale of hidden secrets and culture clashes played out against the backdrop of a large country house in Northern Ireland…it’s a haunted tale, eerie with recrimination, illicit passion and frustrated motherhood. Pitch-perfect in tone, McGill captures, in counterpoint, the voices of two women as they declaim a melancholy murder ballad.’
Marie Claire

 An absorbing story of marriage, motherhood and murder.’
Woman & Home

‘a dramatic and haunting novel…this is an enthralling and beautifully written debut.’
 Good Housekeeping

@ Charlie’s Bar, Church Street, Enniskillen

Charlie's Bar

Just to remind you, the Fermanagh Creative Writing Group present an afternoon of Readings By Local Writers in the back room of Charlie’s Bar, Church Street, Enniskillen this incoming Sunday, 3-5pm.

This is another good excuse to post a copy of one of the stories written by a member of the group. This time it's  a story written by Anthony Viney who's originally from London, a social worker living near Enniskillen who's particular interest lies in writing short stories with a historical angle.Enjoy...

BLIND FAITH

by Anthony Viney  

“Hey Ari…nobody can better Hanna’s Baclava.”  

The young boy didn’t need an education on the marvels of his aunt’s pastries, neatly positioned in his open knapsack. The sweet smell of sliced almonds, crowning a cake skilfully constructed from delicate layers of phyllo, packed with chopped nuts, and drenched in honey, spoke for itself.  

An Old Castle Standing on a Ford: One Yank’s Life In An Almost Peaceful Belfast

Another book I'll definitely want to read...
An Old Castle Standing on a Ford  is at once an exploration of Northern Ireland in the years following the peace agreement, and a story of a woman in a foreign land searching for peace within herself.

available from Strategic Publishing

Wanderlust and curiosity drive Caroline Ryan to leave her life in Los Angeles to live in Belfast, Northern Ireland to see what newly planted peace looks like. It is 2000—the Northern Ireland peace agreement is only two years old, and Ryan assumes that after thirty years of violent troubles, Belfast will be little more than a sad and burned out shell.
But many surprises await the author, as both she and the North struggle to make peace with their pasts.

Readings By Local Writers.

The Fermanagh Creative Writing Group have recently had a series of stories and poems printed in the Impartial Reporter and are stepping into the spotlight again. They are presenting an afternoon of Readings By Local Writers in the back room of Charlie’s Bar, Church Street, Enniskillen on 8th August, 3-5pm. At this event members will read a selection of their stories and poems – funny, thought-provoking, poignant and heartwarming. Admission is free and all are welcome. It will be informal and good craic.The event will include stories like this, from Dianne Trimble...

JUST A COUGH

by Dianne Trimble

Standing very close to the heavy oak door, Lori tucked her chin almost to her chest,
to peer down at the small porch through the glass pane in the door. Soft fluffy snow swirled across the concrete.

Now available in the UK