On Sunny Days

On sunny days I think I live in the most beautiful place on earth.  In my head I know there are probably more beautiful places, but on sunny days even if there are, it doesn’t matter. 

I get frustrated at times that I can never quite capture it with my camera.  It must be a trick nature plays, for no matter where I stand or how long I wait, I never get what my eyes send to my heart. 

When I first came here, I thought all about the mountains, the lives they had seen go by, and how they stood magnificent.  Later I fell for the trees, like you would fall for a new lover, bare or laden with leaves, red berried or blossomed; they had a way about them, a way different to the mountains.  There were quiet times, when I would watch them sway, listen to them creak, but on sunny days when all is still except for the hum made by the hovering bees, they can just be.

There is a mist, or a veil up here, it lies as if caught in the silence of snow, settling over places further away, changing the colour of the mountains from black blue to pink powder grey. 

You can hear the bird song too on sunny days, not like in January when it falls like drops of rain.  No it too is different now, more a celebration, an eager tease, even the odd jackdaw cawing loudly disturbed from sleep.

I think about all this as I drink my coffee, as I look at the plants we will soon put into the ground, plants that will hopefully survive the sharpness of the winters here, and will gain their place in this small piece of the most beautiful place on earth, at least on sunny days.

Listowel Writers Week 1st - 5th June 2011

Celebrating 40 Years of Books and Culture in Listowel

 

Listowel Writers’ Week will celebrate its 40th anniversary festival this year, commencing on 1st June and continuing until 5th June 2011

The ruby year celebrations will have performances by the very best in writing including, Robert McCrum, Richard Dawkins, Alice Sebold, David Sedaris, Rita Ann Higgins, Michael Holroyd, John Connolly, Gerald Celente, Blake Morrison, John Lynch, Catherine Dunne, and Edward St Aubyn to name a small selection. Festival Chairman Michael Lynch stated that “the festival is renowned for having no airs and graces, yet it gives festival goers an intimate opportunity to meet and mingle with the biggest in the local and international literary world within the confines of a small town where every venue and performance is within easy walking distance.

For details of workshops, event, bookings etc click HERE

Cracked Eggs - Magpie Prompt Week 62

Below visual prompt from Tess @ Magpie Tales - To read other contributions this week's click HERE

Courtesy of Tess @ Magpie Tales

Cracked Eggs

‘Your father’s back,’ I hear my mother say.  But I already know this, his anger seeping through the cracks in the door long before he turns the key.  The cups on the dresser rattle as the door slams shut coffin-like. The air in the house is sparing, threatening.  I sit and wait, hoping I might drift into the faded flowery wallpaper.  His eyes speak first, firing. No dinner yet, no plate filled, no place set.  He is not pleased, he never is.  I watch him untie his boots, big strong hands with nails of ingrained dirt and lines that mirror a rugged, ragged face.  I hear the splash and sizzle from the kitchen as the knife cracks the shells, and then the smell of fried eggs.  
We both wait while he eats; him first, always first. Through the corner of my eye, I watch him, his knife upright as the food from the willow patterned plate gets shoved into his mouth.  Then the blind raging anger that has hovered since the moment he turned the key releases itself, spitting out the food he roars.  ‘Bloody woman, can you do nothing right?’ And the plate with fried eggs goes flying through the air.  She says nothing, she never does.  The door slams shut once more and he is gone, leaving us as castoffs in his broken wake.  I sit in silence, in case he might come back, bruised that way only children know.

Crime Writers in Conversation - The Gutter Bookshop

This sounds like it will be a great night, with both Brian McGilloway and Sean Black talking about their novels and their writing. Not one to be missed!

Brian McGilloway is the author of the bestselling Inspector Devlin novels “Borderlands”, “Gallows Lane”, “Bleed a River Deep and “The Rising”. His new novel “Little Girl Lost” will be published in May. Sean Black’s first two thrillers “Lockdown” and “Deadlock” were critically acclaimed and favourably compared to work by Harlan Coben and Lee Child, his third novel “Gridlock” will be published in August.  

Brian McGilloway and Sean Black in conversation
@ The Gutter Bookshop
Friday 6th May – 6.30pm until 7.30pm

Admission FREE, everyone welcome  

The Lonely Voice @ The Irish Writers Centre

Small piece of news

I'll be reading my short story 'Hello' at the Irish Writers Centre on the 27th April.  The event is part of the centre's programme called 'The Lonely Voice'.  There will be four readers on the night and the readings will start at 7 o clock.

If any of you are in Dublin, please come along, and for those of you that have not had the misfortune to meet 120 socks in person before, at the very least you will be able to put a face to the name.  I promise not to wear all 120 socks on the night!

Detailed below is some information on The Lonely Voice platform from the Irish Writers Centre

At the Irish Writers’ Centre we are committed to supporting writers at every stage of their development.  With this in mind, we are delighted to present a monthly event for emerging writers.

The Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions will take place on the last Wednesday of every month.  Up to four short story writers will be selected and invited to read their work at the event.  We are particularly interested in providing a platform for emerging writers, who previously may not have had the opportunity to read their work in public.

Thought for the Weekend - Samuel Beckett

Now I know lots of people have heard this quote before, but just like the reason why clichés become clichés, many people can relate to it.  The quote below is a slightly different one to the normal one, so I guess Mr Beckett was asked about failure more than once!

'Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better.'

- Samuel Beckett - 

Laundry Day - Walking/Photo Journal

Laundry Mountain Style

Who needs a clothesline?

Hennessy Literary Awards 2011 - Winning Stories & Poems

Firstly huge congratulations to all the winners of the Hennessy Awards 2011.  The Hennessy Awards in Ireland are like the Oscars of the Literary World, and from this point onwards all of the winners will be referred to as Hennessy Winners!

Later in the month I will be doing an interview with the wonderful Eileen Casey, winner of the Emerging Fiction Award, so keep a look out for that.

But if like me yesterday, you are keen to read the winning entries, here are some links to each of them. 

First Fiction Winner Siobhán Mannion with her story 'Lighting Bugs' can be read HERE

Emerging Fiction Winner Eileen Casey with her story 'Macaw' can be read HERE

Emerging Poetry Winner Afric McGlinchy two poems 'Do not lie to a lover' & 'Under the heart, a horseshoe shape' can be read HERE

The overall New Irish Writer 2011 Award went to Siobhán Mannion, and the Hennessy Hall of Fame Award went to the wonderful Sebastian Barry.

SNAP - Written & Directed by Carmel Winters

I went to see Snap at the Irish Film Institute last Friday primarily because I had heard so many great reviews about the film and also because the director, acclaimed Irish playwright Carmel Winters was doing a Question and Answer session afterwards.


Before going to the movie I knew the film had a very harrowing story to tell, and one which would be difficult to witness, but a part of me believed, (and as it turned out rightly so) that if lots of great people had so many great things to say about this movie, then it was not one to be missed.


SNAP is a taut, suspense-filled psychological drama about three generations of a family poised it would seem to repeat the mistakes of the past. In this harrowing tale, different cameras tell divergent stories as the documentary style revelations are presented through fragments of memory, recall, and down right 'telling it as it is', specifically in the character of Sharon, played by Aisling O Sullivan (Raw - The Clinic) , who gave an absolutely amazing performance, probably one of the best and at times most sensitive characterisations I have seen in a very long time. 

Aisling is supported by Stephen Moran who again is rather brilliant in the role of Sharon's son, the teenager who sets out on a path that will change everybody's future, a path inextricably linked to the past.  Even the toddler in this movie played by Adam Duggan is tremendous, and if Oscars could be given out by yours truly, I would give each of them one without hesitation.  Alongside these are celebrated Irish actress Eileen Walsh (EDEN, Winner: Best Actress, Tribeca Film Festival 2008), and the wonderful but sadly late Mick Lally, who's last performance was in this film, a performance that personified the man's acting career, being utterly believable, moving, brave, and perfection in the craft of acting.


SNAP is the kind of movie that through its power, encourages you to rethink what you're witnessing, and from the opening track of the song 'You are my Sunshine', I was hooked. There were parts of it that had so many subtle references, that you were constantly trying to fill in the whole story, whether from a flashback with little or no dialogue, an expression on someone's face, a rush of anger, then sadness, or old family movie clips where often, all you got was the sound from the clip, the imagery being something that your imagination filled in itself.


During the question and answer session afterwards, Winters explained, this was something she wanted as part of the movie experience, that in the dark of the cinema, when it was just you and the unfolding story , that as you pieced together all the bits into a cohesive understanding, you too were part of this movie. 


For me, this film reached a point that not many movies are capable of bringing you to, the point where you know that you have been changed by it, and it will remain with you for a very long time afterwards.


When the movie/Q & A ended, Carmel Winters stayed on for a little while afterwards just to chat.  I had a question that I knew would play on my mind for a very long time if I didn't get a clear answer to it, so with Carmel still there, I went over and asked her my question. 


Firstly, just to put in here, Carmel Winters came across as an utterly lovely person, so when she turned to me and said 'What do you think happened?' , I knew she was again connecting me back to my experience of the film, so when I gave my answer as to what I thought might be the actual back story , she said 'absolutely right',and just like when you have finished a great book, I knew I would revisit this movie again.


If you haven't seen this film, go see it now, don't wait for DVD, it won't give you the same connection.  You need to see this movie in a cinema!  So you're been warned, don't miss out on one of the best Irish films of the decade!!


I'll end with a quote from the good lady herself, after she was asked was the film challenging to create, which I think gives us an inkling as to why this film ended up a success of creative ambition, direction, writing, acting, and performances that will change you.


'I love when something cuts right to the bone, right to the edge. I am interested in that place because I think it is rarely done justice to. When people do go to the edge of things it is often done in an exploitative and sensational way, so I love the challenge of actually going to places that very few people do, but actually in real life people find themselves in, wholly alone.'

LINK to MOVIE TRAILER  -

http://entertainment.ie/movie-film-trailers/Snap/1560.htm

Magpie Tales - Butterfly Wing

This week's visual prompt from Tess at Magpie Tales set me down a path of wine and wonder, but then I read a response from the fab Jinksy, and all I could see was a butterfly in the glass, so I got to thinking about a short story I wrote a while back called Butterfly Wing.  Below is the opening paragraph.

Butterfly Wing

The tiny droplet slid down Larissa’s inner thigh, barely noticeable at first, touching her kneecap with the gentleness of a butterfly wing.  A car sped past catching her unawares as the bead of the embryonic fluid reached her swollen ankle. She stood quite still, the sounds of an oblivious outside world pounding on around her as Larissa understood with certainty that the life she had hidden inside her for so long would soon have to leave. The cold Moscow night bit hard against her skin.  She placed a hand beneath her coat and held the underside of her engorged belly.  Larissa’s dark hair carried itself rebelliously in the wind, the only part of her now believing it was free to choose.