Here I sit, waiting to tie up any loose ends with The Early Birds. The publishing house wheels are grinding slow and the typescript is out for copy-editing before the editor has finished her final structural edit, which is not at all how things should be but hey, nobody asked me. The trouble is I…

I’ve almost finished faffing with The Early Birds. Peggy has been granted a bit of love interest (credible, I hope) and I’ve trimmed some of what my editor deemed to be excess baggage, but not all. We don’t always agree. One moot point in this book has been how many characters I should kill. I…

Here I am, back from my jolly hollies, sand purged from my shoes and ready for a bit of light re-writing. My editor enjoyed the first draft of The Early Birds and has requested just one thing: that I insert some love interest for Peggy, now in her late seventies. Ah well. It’s at times…

  I should begin by saying that my desk never looks likes this. When I started out with this writing lark I still had young children, so the table where I wrote was often littered with Lego and orphaned plimsolls as well as my own clutter. These days I have no such excuse but my…

Book-wise I’m at what my marathon-running children tell me is around the 20 mile marker, also known as Just Shoot Me Now. I’m about ten days off finishing first draft and still, somewhat worryingly, making major decisions. Yesterday I tossed a coin to see who would inherit the worm farm. So much for a carefully…

I have no idea whether this link will work beyond the Irish sea but for anyone who has ever lain awake nights thinking, ‘Damn! I wish I knew more about Laurie Graham’, toss and turn no more. Here is County Dublin’s answer to Desert Island Discs.   

Thank you all for your good wishes following my last post. I had a lovely break, which is just as well because I’ve come back to pandemonium, but sure doesn’t everything come with a price tag? Today let’s talk about critics.   In my thirty year career I’ve enjoyed some very generous reviews and few…

I’m about a month behind on delivering first draft but we’re nevertheless nearing the time when the jacket designer has to be briefed.  My editor and I had the following exchange yesterday: LG: Bearing in mind that my principal characters are now in their seventies and eighties can we please have a jacket that reflects…