Hypnosis, research and nerve wrecking experiences!

Chatting with Niamh Boyce, bestselling author of The Herbalist! 

Call HERE and check out the next leg on The Doll's House blog tour. 

Niamh Boyce was the 2012 Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year and she has been shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story competition 2011, the Hennessy Literary Awards 2010, the Molly Keane Award 2010 and the WOW Award 2010. Her bestselling debut novel, The Herbalist, was published this year, and has received rave reviews. 

Niamh Boyce - The Herbalist - Blog Tour Stop 4th July!!

I'm delighted to have Niamh Boyce, author of an utterly amazing debut novel, THE HERBALIST, visit the blog today. It has been receiving rave reviews, and deservedly so!!!

You can read my little old review of The Herbalist HERE

Having gone through the debut publishing experience myself, I was keen to find out from Niamh how the last twelve months has been for her, and what wise gems she might share.

So put on the kettle and settle back!!!

Can you give an overview of where you were at with your writing this time last year?

Thanks for having me over Louise! As for last year - one highlight was winning the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year for my poem Kitty. The other highlight, of course, was when my first novel, The Herbalist, became one of the winners of the Irish Writers Centre's Novel Fair competition. It was there that I met Ger Nichol from The Book Bureau and Patricia Deevy from Penguin, both of whom loved the book from day one. 

So the 'New Irish Writing Page' edited by Ciaran Carty and The Irish Writers Centre both played an important role in my writing life last year. It was a busy and happy time for me.

What is the most important thing you have learnt about your writing during the last twelve months?

What have I learnt about my writing? That's a hard one. I've suppose I've realised there was something very special about the fire and energy with which I wrote The Herbalist, and that each novel I write will bring its own energy, its own method. What works for one book doesn't necessarily work for the next. For instance I wrote The Herbalist by hand, early in the morning. I felt it was the only way to access the voices of the book. But I'm typing most of my current novel as I feel it suits the story, and the voices. For some scenes, however, I find myself switching back to pen and notebook again. I write by hand when I want to go deeper, when I feel a character resisting, when I want to know a secret! 

Rhythm is important to me too, and writing by hand can help access the rhythm of a book in a way typing doesn't. These notions that I have are true for me now, today, but of course by next month I may have changed my mind and be dictating the book by voice recognition... I'm very open to changing my mind, to being wrong. I think that's important for a writer.

What causes the greatest challenge/frustration with your writing?

The greatest challenge is getting the time to write. Like most writers I don't write full time - I have a day job, I have a family, so I am constantly finding ways to juggle them all. But then again there are worse things to juggle than something you absolutely love doing :-)

READ MORE ABOUT NIAMH BOYCE AND THE HERBALIST HERE

And if you want to read a book like no other out this year - Go pick up a copy!!!

The Herbalist - Review

'He just appeared one morning and set up shop in the market square. It was drizzling. Everything was either a shade of brown or a shade of grey. He was the lightest thing there, the one they called the black doctor. He wore a pale suit, a straw hat and waved his arms like a conductor. The men spat about dark crafts and foreign notions but the women loved him. Oh, the rubs, potions, tinctures and lotions he had, unguents even. I went to the market the first chance I got, to see past the headscarves, but all I got was a glimpse of a bottle held high, and the gold-ringed fingers that gripped it. The women crowded around his stall. God, but they’d no sense at all, clucking like hens. ‘One at a time, ladies, one at a time.’’

Set in 1930’s Ireland, an Indian man, the herbalist, appears out of nowhere and sets out his stall in the market square, he brings excitement to Emily's dull midlands town. The teenager is captivated - the glamorous visitor could be a Clark Gable to her Jean Harlow, a Fred to her Ginger, a man to make her forget her lowly status in this place where respectability is everything.

However, Emily has competition for the herbalist's attentions. The women of the town - the women from the big houses and their maids, the shopkeepers and their serving girls, those of easy virtue and their pious sisters - all seem mesmerised by this visitor who, they say, can perform miracles.

But when Emily discovers the dark side of the man who has infatuated her all summer, once again her world turns upside down. She may be a dreamer, but she has a fierce sense of right and wrong. And with the herbalist's fate lying in her hands she must make the biggest decision of her young life.

THE HERBALIST is a riveting story that electrifies and dazzles with wonderful imagery, exposing the shadowy side of Irish life - the snobbery, the fear of sex, the tragedy of women destroyed by social convention and the bravery of those who defied it, but it is even more than that. Featuring a strong cast of characters, including a prostitute, and a woman desperate for a child, this novel is both dark and utterly enchanting. Somewhat like how the herbalist casts his spells on the villagers, Boyce does the same for the reader. You will be completely drawn in, and not only by the secret remedies of the exotic stranger, but by the magical realism within this captivating read.

I fool you not, this novel moved me greatly. The characters are of the stature that will stay with you long after you finish the final page. And just in case some of you out there haven’t yet heard of Niamh Boyce, I can tell you, she won the 2012 Hennessy New Writing Award, as well as being shortlisted for the 2011 Francis McManus Short Story competition, the 2010 Hennessy Literary Awards, the 2010 Molly Keane Award and the 2010 WOW Award.

Dermot Bolger has described the novel as ‘A richly layered and finely realised evocation of the closed world of a vanished Ireland, encompassing its innocent insularity and its hidden corners where sexuality and respectability collide. Niamh Boyce's compelling female characters push against the rigid social parameters of 1930s Ireland, yearning for the light of the outside world, which comes in the shape of a stranger trading in herbs, cures, complications and danger.’

To me there are three elements which stand out about The Herbalist, the power of the magical realism in this story, the strength of the characters, and the ultimate beauty of the prose. Boyce captures both warmth and darkness with a tale that is rich and thought provoking. The characters in Boyce’s novel are fascinating, real, and wholly engaging. And if you’re like me and happen to have a best book shelf, you’ll place The Herbalist on it.

P.S. I'll be interview Niamh as part of her blog tour on the 4th July, so watch this space!!!

How long does it take to write a novel?? Blogtour bus still has plenty in the tank!

Today the blogtour bus arrives with the lovely Niamh Boyce. Niamh won the overall Hennessy Award this year. Her debut novel 'The Herbalist' will be out with Penguin in 2013, and besides both of these very important facts, Niamh is also an amazing friend!!

 

 

But before I hand you over to Niamh, two other interesting facts - firstly, after the most successful launch in the 26 year history of Hughes & Hughes books, there is a very good chance that RED RIBBONS, might get into the top ten in the Irish Book Charts - which would be amazing for a debut novel!  So if you're near a bookshop today or tomorrow, and you pick up a copy of RED RIBBONS, every book will help make this a reality:)

 

Secondly, just for fun, I'm asking people to send me in interesting pictures with Red Ribbons in it. I'll put a couple below, so you get the general idea!!! You can send them via twitter, facebook or email to phillips.louisem0@gmail.com The winner will get a very NOVEL prize!!!

 

So now, I'll hand you over to Niamh, who has some very interesting questions up her sleeve.... read all about it HERE

 

 

NIAMH BOYCE, was awarded the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year 2012 for her poem Kitty. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story competition 2011, the Hennessy Literary Awards 2010 and the Molly Keane Award 2010.

Her novel ‘The Herbalist’ will be published by Penguin in 2013. She blogs at http://niamhboyce.blogspot.com.

Visit Niamh at http://niamhboyce.blogspot.com And on twitter @niamhboyce

 

Launch of Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair

At the Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair 2012 Launch, Jack Harte, Chairman of the IWC, spoke of the delight in celebrating the success of last year’s novel fair, and the launch of the adventure for 2012. He said - they were overwhelmed with the response last year, with a final tally of 570 entries.

A team of judges, professionals from the industry, who knew exactly what would be required, and who had a keen awareness of what publishers would be looking for did a fantastic job, and eventually picked 20 finalists which were show cased at the Novel Fair. 

The job was obviously done very well as the feedback from publishers and agents involved was that the work show cased was of an extremely high standard and of the 20 finalists show cased – currently, 9, have been signed with agents, and one of the final entries, The Herbalist, written by Niamh Boyce, has been acquired by Penguin Ireland. Jack Harte, is confident that as time progresses, this wonderful success will increase.

Launching next year’s Novel Fair – taking on board all the experience of last year, the final listing has been cut down to 10 finalists to ensure sufficient time is allowed for each publisher and agent to review the work on the day.

Patricia Deevy, Penguin Ireland, was also on hand to give some advice about the success of last year, to talk about how tough the industry is at the moment, and what pitching your novel really means.

'Obviously we all know in this room that the publishing world is not immune from the downturn. In the last two years fiction sales have dropped well over 10% each year and it’s proving more and more challenging to make things work. Yet – and I always say this at events so many of you will have heard me say it before – writers are the lifeblood of our industry. It might not always seem like it, but we are always hungry for new voices. There’s nothing more exciting to us than finding someone we believe in and want to present to the public.

It’s that key part of our job that I want to focus on here – bringing writers to the public. When Carrie and June briefed me for this evening they mentioned that it would be useful if I could talk about pitching and I’m very happy to do so because it sort of goes to the heart of what publishing is about. Writers starting out – and those who attended this year’s fair or hope to attend next year’s – might think of pitching as a one-off 15 minute ordeal, but in fact it’s pretty integral to what they’ll be doing as an author.

It’s self-evident, I suppose, but publishing is only half about writing. The other part of the equation is implied in the word publishing – making the writing public. When agents and editors look at submissions and have conversations with writers there are two things going on. They are looking at the quality of the work – whether it be genre fiction or literary fiction or anything in between – and they’re also thinking ‘Is this something we could make work?’

Making something work is about lots of things – the quality of the writing, timing, positioning a book properly so that it finds its audience … and crucially it’s about the conversations you can have about it. Publishing is an intensely conversational business – people who work in publishing love to get excited about a new book. They love it because they’re usually people who are in the business because they love reading. But they also love it because they love an opportunity and a challenge – to be part of making a success of something, whether that be selling lots of copies, or creating waves in the critical community, or in a perfect world, both.

As soon as the publisher starts to have conversations about a text, they’re into the business of pitching – internally – to colleagues in other departments of the company; externally to booksellers like Eason’s and Dubray and Waterstones’s and Tesco and also to the media.

For many of you who care passionately about writing it can be really hard to get past the idea that the quality of your work alone is not sufficient for a career as an author. In the gentlest way possible I’d urge you to simply get over it and figure out how to talk about your work in a way that’s comfortable for you.

It is naturally challenging for writers – many of whom are reflective and even solitary – to hear themselves talking about their work. It may even feel a little unseemly – a bit like they’re cheapening themselves by turning their writing into a commodity. We’ve all seen the satires on Hollywood – Robert Altman’s THE PLAYER comes to mind – that send up the business of pitching as being shallow and cynical.

I can see that these feelings could be hard to get over that but I think there are tricks you can play on yourself. Everyone will find their own method. One I’d suggest is to objectify your book – pretend it’s a book you love written by somebody else. How would talk about a book you loved to a friendly stranger on a bus or a train? Imagine you get chatting about reading and books and not far from your stop you mention a book you really loved reading recently. There isn’t time to go into all the nitty gritty of the plot, but you are passionate about wanting them to read it and you’re sure they’ll like it. So what you do you? You give them the essence of it in a few lines and maybe you compare it to other books out there.

The biggest mistake you can make when pitching a book is to try to explain the plot in detail. People in publishing are bombarded with material and there’s only so much we can absorb. The key is to figure out what the hook of your book – and it doesn’t have to be something very big and dramatic – and to use that as a jumping off point for talking about it. You can weave a certain amount of plot detail around that, but just enough to help draw out its themes.

Thinking about the novel fair and the very intense business of pitching in person, again I’d remind you of what I said at the start about publishers really wanting to find new authors. The people you will be talking to you are there in a receptive frame of mind, only dying to make a positive connection with you and your work.

If you are shy I think the trick is to acknowledge that that’s just who you are and see talking about your work and yourself as something you must work on as part of being an author. If you can become so completely absorbed in what you’re doing in your book, and if you’re confident in it, then you’ll probably feel less self-conscious talking about it. If you know it inside out and love it to pieces that’ll help. Practice will a sympathetic friend. Pitch in the shower. Talk to the cat. Do it on your commute to work.

Once you get rolling and you’ve got an editor’s attention the talk will flow from there and it’ll be a productive conversation.'

Afterwards, I spoke to Carrie King, who with Clodagh Moynan, of The Irish Writers' Centre, will be looking after the submission process this year.Carrie encourages anyone who has a debut novel, regardless of genre, to enter. It is all down to the quality of the writing. So get writing folks, and get submitting!!!

You can find further details about the Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair on the IWC website www.writerscentre.ie/

Novel Fair @ The Irish Writers' Centre

Novel Fair 2011

The Irish Writers' Centre is pleased to announce that the second Novel Fair Competition will be launched on June 27th, 2012. The innagural Novel Fair took place in March this year and attracted over 570 entries. 7.30 pm Irish Writers' Centre Patricia Deevy from Penguin Ireland will give a short talk about what publishers expect from submissions. She will be followed by five of this year's finalists - Niamh Boyce, Ian Flitcroft, Daniel Seery, Jennifer Brady, and Fran Russell Banks - who will read from their own shortlisted work. There will then by a Q&A with the Novel Fair organisers. The Novel Fair was a new initiative by the Irish Writers’ Centre launched in 2011. It aims to introduce up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents. It was proposed as a way to help first-time novelists bypass the slush pile and make direct contact with publishers and agents. By the time the deadline rolled around on November 11th, the Irish Writers’ Centre had received over 570 entries, a figure which demonstrates the vast number of people writing fiction in Ireland today. Twenty writers were selected for the Fair. Of those that attended many of them have signing with agents, a few of the books are under consideration with publishing houses and one of the attendees, Niamh Boyce, signed with Ger Nicholls and sold her book 'The Herbalist' to Penguin Ireland. Due to the success of the Fair we have decided to run it again in 2013, with an additional prize of a place on a seminar on 'How to Pitch Your Novel' to help the novelists perfect their presentations and material for the day. The deadline for the competition this year is October 17th and the Novel Fair itself will take place on February 16th, 2013. This year a judging panel will be asked to select a shortlist of ten successful entries, presented to them anonymously. There is no limitation on style, genre, or target market, the only requirement being that the writer has not published a novel before. Publishers and agents will be invited to come along on the day to the Irish Writers’ Centre and meet the ten selected writers in person. Each writer in attendance will have a stand at the Fair with copies of the synopsis of their novel, the finished novel itself and biographical material.