New blog!

So I'm starting afresh over at Outright Barbarous... pay me a visit!

Happy 80th birthday, Quentin Blake!

Interesting...

Scholastic's 2013 top trends for children's books... not much use to writers as their schedule will be largely filled by now, but interesting reading all the same.

My eight year-old self's favourite book

Last weekend I had a rummage through my books in storage and found my copy of the pop-up book Jan Pieńkowski's 'Haunted House' - and it captivated me as much as it did the first time I opened it; not least because of the detail - like a picture of Pieńkowski's illustrated character Meg on the mantlepiece if you look carefully:

So much thought went into every double spread:

I remember thinking that 'Paper Engineer' sounded like the most amazing job ever... still does!

Dear Stephanie Meyer...

This is what an Irish vampire is supposed to look like:

Not this:

*rollseyes*

Pamela Coleman Smith's illustrations

You guys, I have just seen the most amazing item in my Dad's shop (it's already sold, so I was lucky I found it when I did)!

As you both know, I am mad about the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Every day I do a reading and I would no more be separated from my beloved deck than my iPhone, which considering the latter is my alarm, camera, internet, MP3 player, eReader, etc, that is really saying something. Anyway, today I saw some original illustrations by Pamela Coleman-Smith as my father has sold some issues of her magazine, The Green Sheaf, which she launched in 1903. The magazine had contributions from people like W.B. Yeats and A. E. (George William Russell). The magazine ran for over a year, with a total of 13 issues. This is super-exciting for me, not least because the first book I wrote, years ago, was called The Apprentice Bookseller, involving an antiquarian bookseller, his Goth daughter and a magickal Golden Dawn manuscript. Where I get my ideas from, I'll never know...

Anyway, here are some of the beautiful illustrations from The Green Sheaf:

At last, a finished manuscript!

Today I've just finished what I hope will be the final draft of my children's novel 'Resin' formerly known as 'The Heart of all Things'. I found it a difficult story to tell - I originally got the idea four years ago, but didn't complete the first draft until the end of last year's NaNoWriMo.

I learned a lot writing this manuscript; it was a steep learning curve. But it was a story I needed to finish. It was inspired by the events of the Corrib Gas Controversy that took place near where I grew up in the West of Ireland. The documentary about it, 'The Pipe', had a very big effect on me. The ensuing revelations about the greed and corruption of the Fianna Fáil government at the time added grist to the mill, while my experiences at my current place of employment also shaped the story.

Stylistically, I was very influenced by 'The Adventures of Mark Twain' (see clip, below), the haunting digital art of Art and Ghosts' and I had the soundtrack of 'Inland Empire' on repeat for pretty much the entire time I was working on it.

Four years is a long time to listen to one soundtrack, so I'm looking forward to compiling some new playlists!