Creative Writing With Margaret O'Brien

My first prose writing workshop was with Margaret O'Brien Sunday 12th 2013.

Margaret’s workshop taught me the power of silence and setting. After we read our pieces, the writer was not allowed to speak. I broke the rules. But as soon as I followed Margaret’s direction, I could see how beneficial they are for the writer.

Margaret follows the Pat Schneider’s method. I got so much out of this day, learn buckets about beginnings, first drafts, writing exercises, the power of listening and setting. I like to get straight to the action but the other attendees blew me out of the water with their attention to detail and setting. I hope to join Margaret again for her writing workshops in Brewery Lane, Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary in September 2013. 

A Peaceful Mind

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. 

After searching  high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of local children playing outside the barn.

He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded.

Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance.

The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough.”

So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn. After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed.

The boy replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction.”

Author Unknown

Don't forget...... A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and see, how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you expect it to be!



I saw the about on Facebook and thought it was worth sharing.

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The Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013

The Samuel Beckett Summer School is pleased to launch its first Annual Bookmark Competition. The competition is open to students, artists and members of the public, and applicants are invited to design a bookmark inspired by renowned Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. The winning design will be printed as the official bookmark for the Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013, featuring on our promotional stand in Hodges Figgis book store this July. The winner will also receive a €50 voucher for Hodges Figgis. The winning bookmark will be given to all of this year’s Summer School lecturers and scholars.

image source

Competition details:
• Design an eye-catching bookmark inspired by Samuel Beckett, or his works.
• The design must be rectangular in shape and fit within the ratio 5cm x 15cm.
• Submissions should be made in digital format, accepted file formats are .JPEG .PNG .PSD
• Submitted images should be hi-res (at least 800px wide and 300dpi) but not exceeding 15MB in size.
• The design is for one side only and can be in black and white, or colour.

• Your design must include somewhere, our logo and the following text:

Samuel Beckett Summer School. 11 – 16 August 2013

A unique experience for students, scholars and lovers of Beckett’s works.
Trinity College Dublinwww.beckettsummerschool.com
www.facebook.com/beckettsummerschool

• Email your submission to: bookmark@beckettsummerschool.com with the subject line ‘bookmark competition’.

• Entries will be adjudicated by 2 or more members of the Summer School staff.

• Deadline: Monday 27th May 2013 at 5pm and the winning design will be announced on June 10th 2013.

Visit www.beckettsummerschool.com/bookmark-competition for more information, or email bookmark@beckettsummerschool.com

The above is a press release from the South Tipperary Arts Office.

Valuable Video - Thoughts on the Creative Career

A great video with fantastic advice for all the creative professionals.



 Here is some of his advice: 

 If you want to be something, start being it. If you want to write; write.

 If you are not doing that thing that you should be doing? You need to ask yourself why not? If you sit down to write you may feel like getting sick when you sick when you sit down to write, well you need to become more tolerant of that and work through it.

 Consume the things you like; art, poetry, stories, novels.

Get your work in front of other people.

There are a lot of courses out there that tell you if you complete them that you will be a creative professional. But, writing is also a business. You don't always need to feed into that. #

Again, if you want to write then write.

And read. And read critically, revise and question.

John Steinbeck on Art, Teaching and The Mind.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

image source

RTÉ Guide / Puffin Children’s Short Story Competition 2013

This seems like a great competition to enter if you are a YA of MG writer. I have taken all of these details from the  RTÉ Guide  Facebook page.

Deadline is 7th June, and it is open to children, teens and adults of kids lit. The adults category is - 17 yrs old+ and we'd write up to 1000 words.Deadline is 7th June, and it is open to children, teens and adults of kids lit. The adults category is - 17 yrs old+ and we'd write up to 1000 words.

image source

 RTÉ Guide / Puffin Children’s Short Story Competition 2013 '

We are delighted to announce the inaugural RTÉ Guide / Puffin Children’s Short Story Competition, offering a unique opportunity to get your short story published in the RTÉ Guide! 

There are four categories to enter and the story can be about whatever they want to write about: funny, serious, scary or an adventure. 


Categories:
* 10 yrs old and younger – up to 300 words (with an illustration or picture, if you want!)
* 11-13 yrs old – up to 500 words
* 14-16 yrs old– up to 750 words
* 17 yrs old+ – up to 1000 words

There are some great prizes to be won for the Winners and Runners up!

Prizes:
• Each Category winner will have their story published in and issue of the RTÉ Guide
• The Winners will also receive a Kindle E- Reader and a hamper of books worth €50.
• And as an added bonus, the Winner of the under-10 category will be recorded by a TRTÉ presenter for broadcast!
• The two Runners Up in each category will receive their own hamper of books worth €50.
• The Winners and Runners up, along with their parents, will be invited to attend an awards ceremony in RTÉ, getting to meet some of the RTÉjr and TRTÉ presenters and take a tour of some of our sets!



How to Enter:
Entries can be submitted via email or post.
Email entries should be emailed to info (at) penguin (dot) ie  with ‘RTÉ Guide / Puffin Children’s Short Story Competition’ in the subject line. 

Postal entries should be accompanied with a separate sheet with your name, age, address email address and/or telephone number and posted to RTÉ Guide / Penguin Ireland Children’s Short Story Competition, PO Box 1480, RTÉ, Donnybrook Dublin 4.

Closing date for all entries is 5.00pm on Friday, June 7, 2013



Competition rules:
• The competition is open to entrants in the four categories detailed below:
o 10 yrs old and younger – up to 300 words
o * 11-13 yrs old – up to 500 words
o * 14-16 yrs old– up to 750 words
o * 17 yrs old+ – up to 1000 words
• All competition entries must be received in the required format by RTÉ or Penguin/Puffin Ireland before 5pm on Friday 7 June 2013
• The competition is not open to staff of RTÉ and Penguin/Puffin Ireland, their immediate family members or any other persons connected with the promotion.
• Only one entry per person, will be included in the competition.
• Entrants must be aged within the entered age category as at date of entry.
• Entrants under the age of 18 must get their parent/guardian or teacher’s consent before entering.
• Postal entries must be signed by entrant’s parent/guardian or teacher and include contact details
• Email entries must include parent/guardian or teacher’s name and contact details.
• One parent/guardian must be available to chaperone the winner / runner up to the awards ceremony and tour of RTÉ.
• The RTÉ Guide and Penguin/Puffin Ireland cannot accept responsibility for late or lost entries and will not return entries.
• Winners will be selected by a judging panel, nominated by RTÉ and Penguin/Puffin Ireland whose decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
• Winners will be contacted directly by telephone or email within 28 days of closing date.
• The winner in each category will receive the Amazon Kindle with Wi-Fi and a hamper of Penguin/Puffin Ireland books worth €50.
• The 2 Runners up in each category will receive a hamper of Penguin/Puffin Ireland books worth €50.
• The winner and runners up from each category will be invited to attend an awards ceremony and tour in RTÉ.
• All prize elements are non-transferrable. No cash or other alternative will be offered.
• Entrants must be willing to have their story published in the RTÉ Guide and recorded for broadcast by RTÉ.
• RTÉ standard Terms and Conditions also apply, for details see www.rte.ie/about/competitions
• By taking part in this competition, all participants will be deemed to have accepted and be bound by these terms and conditions.

Competition Closes 7th June 2013 at 5pm.

Best of luck with the competition and we look forward to reading your entries!

RTÉ Guide & Puffin Ireland'

Quote of The Day with Danziger

“Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don’t forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.”

Paula Danziger

Stephen King On Twilight, 50 Shades of Grey and More

Don't buy his paper back book On Writing, buy the audio book. Amazing!

Here is Stephen King talking writing, love, life and inspiration.

Roll up! Roll up! Top Five Detectives

Rob Lloyd Jones

Have a look at the other
stops on his blog tour

 Please welcome Rob Lloyd Jones to the blog. 


Those of you that have read Wild Boy will know that this novel is set in Victorian London with a very special main character. Wild Boy uses his skills of observation to gather clues.


I loved, adored and even now try to practice this skill. You simply must read Wild Boy. To tided you over, here is Rob discussing his top five detectives as part of his blog tour. 

I see a correlation between interesting authors and fantastic books. Have a look at the About Rob below.*

Hello, and thanks for having me on the Moloney King blog!

             I am, however, feeling a little sheepish. I wanted to write about detective stories, which made sense seeing as I’ve written one (although my hero – Wild Boy – is a bit different to most detectives. He’s a performer in a freak show for starters). But here’s the thing; I don’t love all detective books. I love some of them, for sure. But too many, especially those from the 1920s and 30s (the ‘Golden Age’ of mystery writing) leave me cold. They’re all about the puzzle – usually some impossible crime – and not very interested in the character that solves it. Every detective story needs a fiendish mystery at its heart, but I prefer the ones that also have heroes we can really root for. So I thought I’d recommend my top five detectives, in no particular order... 

Emile and the Detectives (Emile and the Detectives by Erich Kästner)

There are actually 25 detectives in this wonderful tale of a gang of Berlin boys who team up to bust a gang of thieves. Their plan isn’t exactly ingenious, but it’s brilliantly organised and the gang’s downright love of the hunt is a joy to witness. This was the only one of Kästner’s stories to survive the Nazi book burnings. I like to think that even Hitler didn’t fancy taking on Emil and his pals.

Sally Lockhart (Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman)

Wanna make things really hard for your detective? Make her a woman in the 1800s. At the heart of Pullman’s twisting and fantastically melodramatic mystery is a detective we care about deeply – smashing down social boundaries in her quest for justice.

Claudia and Jamie Kincaid (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg)

Every detective must be good at sneaking and hiding. Few, though, have hidden as well as Claudia and Jamie Kincaid, after they run away from home and take up residence in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. At night they roam the empty museum and become entangled in a mystery surrounding one of the exhibits. They could easily give up and head home, but keep going for the sheer thrill of the puzzle.

Inspector G. Lestrade (created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You can’t talk about detectives without mentioning Sherlock Holmes. But I’d rather give a nod to the downtrodden Lestrade, the bulldog inspector who comes barking whenever Holmes calls. While Holmes only accepts cases that challenge his intellect, Lestrade is presumably solving the others – those murders, kidnaps, and boring old burglaries that the famous consulting detective deems beneath him. Poor Lestrade – no one ever raised a statue of him on Baker Street.

Miss Marple (created by Dame Agatha Christie)

For me, Miss Marple is the queen of the Golden Age of mystery stories. That said, I’ve always been suspicious of the kindly old detective. The body count in her village, St Mary Mead, is staggeringly high. And beside each fresh corpse, there is Miss Marple, waggling a wrinkled finger at somebody else.

*About Rob
Rob Lloyd Jones was born in San Francisco but grew up in London. He studied Egyptology at University where he learnt hieroglyphics, and often goes on digs with the Egypt Exploration Society. He is a senior editor at Usborne, for whom he has written over thirty books – mostly historical non-fiction, but also adaptations of classics such as JEKYLL AND HYDE and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. Rob is also a volunteer reading helper at a primary school in Clerkenwell and wrote episodes of the children’s TV show ‘Bernard’s Watch’ for Carlton Kids. He lives in south London with his wife Sally, and 14-month-old son Otis

Thank you, Rob, for the insightful post about the top five detectives. I look forward to the next book in the Wild Boy series.

Long-Listed for Uniquely Dublin

Wooop! Woooop! A poem I wrote has been long listed, in the Uniquely Dublin Competition, and the feeling is incredible. I won my first ever sports competition only two weeks ago. (I didn't play team sports as a child, just catch) And that feeling of being good at a sport was pretty cool, but knowing a poem I wrote is long-listed is surreal.  A swelling rose up in my stomach, and it wasn't acid or hunger!

Writing is fun but it's work and having something you put down on paper is going to be on exhibition is so worth it. 

More than 2,000 people entered, so there is a lot of love for Dublin. I am not sure how many were long-listed, but I will find out.


They have chosen two poems for the written word section and they are open to public voting now.


My  work, along with the other best long-listed entrants will be part of an exhibition of some of the best entries.

The exhibition takes place in the Little Museum of Dublin at 15 St. Stephen’s Green, and is open from this weekend, Saturday 5th April 2013. 

I may even pop up and have a look see.

A Rant About POV, Back Story, Tense and Publishers.

I'm just using the blog as a place to puke my thought process as I don't have any writers living near me to thrash things over with. So, click on it you don't want to know more.

I don't like the first person point of view! Even though I am writing in this POV.  I'm going to rework my

WIP and change it. Well, I'm not sure if I can do that, the story if very personal to the MC. And she has such an interesting way of looking at situations that it'd be difficult to show that in TPPOV.

Back to my topic. I don't like it, it's too personal, the story is limited to one person, the narration can become stifling, and all the action needs to take place when the MC is present. 

Also, because we are the MCs in our own life and our thoughts and journals* are always in first person annnnnnd because it is the first type of writing we do in story writing in school...I wonder does it show an unsophisticated and naive style?

I don't know. 

I think that I prefer books with third person point of view as I don't align myself with the MC so much. Sometimes fiction is exhausting, especially YA with all the angst  all that me, I, myself and my can be too trying. Also, if the MC is being a winy pup or a cow, at least I don't feel like one too, if the story is told in TPPOV. I'm so use to the visual language of TV that TPPOV sits more comfortably with me.

Mhhhh.

Think I'll try using FPPOV but from two characters and not the traditional one character. But, I really don't like too many FPPOVs in a book; far too confusing. Unless, of course, you are Maggie Stiefvater. (I am such a fan girl for her.)

And you know what grates my guts? Telling a story using the past tense. Am I wrong in thinking it should be present tense, are we not always told to use the active voice?  I don't even like when back story is slipped in using past tense. To go off topic, has anyone seen the latest season of Girls? The way they slipped in the back story Lena Dunham and the whole counting issue? Wow! But that's the beauty of TV, all that visual language of the body gives you more scope that just words on a page. Ya see, if I told the story in third person I could say what their body language was doing.

Hmmmm. Food for thought, for me.

In other booky news, I have realised that as I now do book reviews; I can contact publishers directly and ask them for books that I want...and they give them to me 'cause I'm a book blogger, yo! I will be getting The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland thanks to Constable & Robinson. I am sick with happiness! Sick!

*I do not have a journal. I'm the youngest of a large family and have read my siblings dairies behind their backs after they read mine in front of an embarrassed me.

This is the book trailer to The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland.

Maeve Binchy — Tips for aspiring writers

Salman Rushdie on Novel Writing

Advice for Aspiring Writers with Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman

How Not to be a Writer (Part 2)

I wrote part one here, how I was in love with the business of writing and not the work of writing here. And I wrote of how an amazing person I know gave me some great advice. Well, I have more advice here. I don't know she did it, I can't figure out how she got to the root of my non-writing; all I know is that I now write an average of 1,000 words a day, usually more.


Part two  -
I went to a physics once and he said I was an academic snob, I snapped back, 'What would you know, sure haven't even have a degree!'

The above is a joke*, well a physics did say that to me, but I nodded rather than saying anything back. He also said that I needed academia to back me no matter what I did as my own accomplishments and attempts would never be enough for me. I think this is due to the fact that I always felt that  you don't just become

something; you study it.

Which is funny because I studied Information Technology and Telecommunications in University of Limerick. It was all engineering, programming, mechanics, quantum physics, pure maths, electronic engineering, digital and analogue electronics. And yet, if you were to ask me anything about these subjects, well, I wouldn't have a clue. I have a degree in something that I know little about and all of my actual knowledge in computing and techie things has come from hard-core messing about with technology.

The only thing that degree did for me was to put it out there that I should be good at computers and that intense pressure forced me into faking it until I made it.

I want to write a book but I wanted a masters in something writing related to get some pressure from the world thus forcing me to actually write.

I even set up this blog to try to get the same results. It worked in a way. The more commitment to books  and writing I showed, the more people assumed I was a writer. Now, when out and about and books are mentioned, all eyes land on me. But my response is one of - sure what do I know?

I have been attempting to write for nearly two years. And now that I think about it, I have put in enough time. I know about the publishing industry, the role of agents, the importance of marketing, the necessity of an on-line presence, the demands of writing and book launches, the formatting of a book, character, psychology of the character, conflict, mood, tone, love, hope, plot bunnies, the three acts that make up a book, hook, networking, observing people, jotting down ideas or interesting phrases, discipline, self-motivation, setting goals.....


All of this hiding behind searching for knowledge needs to be tapered.


Writing is scary but I know enough to just let go, feel the horror and just write.

Trouble is that I don't know how to plan, they just become messy. Then when I write the story is just a jungle of words and ideas with nothing coherent. And, no, no I do not want to work with that and re-work it. It would be like brushing your teeth with spat out toothpaste.



Advice from a non-writer friend:

• You talk too much about writing and planing, you are trying to control the story and that's why you can't write. You don't control people in real life so where do get off thinking you can control them in fiction.

• You are only scared in real life when something really matters to you and even at that you are rarely scared. And yet you sit there just about to tell me all your writing worries; I have never seen you so scared. Use that fear, respect that fear. You writing obviously means a lot to you, surely that is incentive enough.

• Plan a plot? That's like trying to plan your life. Did you plan this? Look-it, just have a general plan, a five line summary and then write. You can have the power trip of deleting later.

• Tell me what your story is about in five sentences and then write one scene after another. Then be God-like and glue them together.

• This story is coming from somewhere in your conscious so rather than a one dimensional take on it, why not put more of yourself in the story. Flesh it out in a realistic way.

* I have to explain jokes here as the Irish ironic and sarcastic way can get confusing (and insulting) for my beautiful non-Irish people.

John Steinbeck, Flying Pigs and Latin

source

Ad astra per alas porci


To the stars on the wings of a pig





A favorite saying of John Steinbeck; a professor told him that he would be an author when pigs flew. Every book he wrote is printed with this insignia.

Maeve Binchy — Secrets from the writing club

In Love With The Idea of Writing And Not The Verb

've done a lot of talking about writing for the past year and a half. But, something has snapped in me. A chief kernel has been rewired and now I write.

Someone close to me asked me why I write and I didn't like the answer.

Turns out that I like the idea of interviews, book tours, getting to know writers, meeting writers that I love, blog tours, marketing and social media. I like the business side of writing but I didn't like the actual writing side of it. Sure, I was a good little teacher and I did my studies on creative writing. But actually writing was something I put off. That was until I asked myself why I write.

I am glad that she asked me that question and I am glad of the advice she gave me. Which will be in another post.

I downloaded Scrivener, and it suits me. I have committed myself to write a 1,000 words a day. No internet, just coffee and writing. Then internet. And I did it. It was easy, who knew(?!)




I had poured so much of myself into the craft of writing that just writing is fantastic. I have given myself permission to write. It's OK if I make mistakes. Just write.

I told myself I wasn't writing a book, but that I was writing many related scenes.

To be Reviewed. Cassandra Clare
 has nothing to do with this
 post, but the picture is just so pretty!

I decided to:

• Write first, no emails, no apps. Just write for an hour.
• Don't control the people in your story.
• Stop worrying about the craft and just write it.
• Give yourself permission to write and have fun.
• Make it a world you'd like to hang out in.
• Write scenes and click them together later.

It is easier to write then it is to sit and worry about writing or what everyone else is saying about writing.
It is easier to write for an hour then study writing for an hour.
It is easier to write than to blog, tweet, or read blogs.
It is better for your heart and mind to just write than it is to even make a coffee.



Grab that writing verb by the laptop and smash it into sentences.


Part two is herewith some great advice.

Book Haul March 2013

The best part of reviewing books is opening the door to our post-lady with a nosy look and a parcel of books! I love being a children's books and YA book blogger. You get paid in books. You also get books in that genre that you may otherwise have not have hear about.

Being a YA book blogger opens your mind to all facets of your favorite genre.


Thank you to Walker Books and O'Brien Press.


My book haul for this March 2013:

Cassandra Clare - the Collector's Edition of The Infernal Devices ~ Clockwork Princess. I am delighted with this one!! Walker Books

Richard Kurt - Monkey Wars. I like what I've hear about this. Walker Books

April Henry - The Night She Disappeared. Love this spooky cover. Walker Books

Ian Somers - Million Dollar Gift.  O'Brien Press

Ian Somers The Hidden Gift, Liking the snake. O'Brien Press