As the flowers blossom and bloom all round me on my daily walks with Cody it seems somewhat at odds with my current writing practise. Rather than growing, I seem to constantly be cutting at the moment. It’s all part of my paring the story back and starting the story later routine, although now I’m worried that I’ve been over…
April Blog: Unexpected Poems
The second draft of Attrition is progressing well, although I’ve been re-reading it more than re-writing it at present. This is the part of the process where I veer from hating it to loving it on the flip of a coin. There’s a lot of note taking involved. Some of it is just tightening up the topography of the story…
Review: Girls in Their Married Bliss
A selection of excerpts from the final book in Edna O’Brien’s acclaimed trilogy, The Country Girls. Childhood friends Kate and Baba have long since left their rural lives and are now in 1960s London, via Dublin. Hoping for happiness or something close to it, they endeavour to find love and a meal or two along the way. Kate (Katie O’Kelly)…
March Blog: March of Many Whethers
I’ve started the second draft of Attrition and am still very much in the preparatory stage. My first task is to rewrite the first 50K words in a third person close point of view. Thankfully this hasn’t been as daunting as I had feared it would be, at least so far, and long may it continue. I may yet make…
February Blog: The Time It Takes
I finally finished the first draft of Attrition in mid-February and to say I was delighted is an understatement. It was a long slog just to get the first draft done, far longer than I had anticipated, especially compared to Bitten By A Dog On Tuesday (the first draft of which I wrote in 6 weeks). At present I have…
Review: The Plot
Lilith isn’t seeking asylum, nor is she homeless is the physical sense, yet she is in need of safety and somewhere to rest in peace. Having died by suicide over 100 years ago she was buried in an unmarked grave, deemed undeserving of a proper ceremony for her alleged sin. Lilith’s death was a complex move to reclaim her own…
January Blog: One Hundred Thousand Words
I’m happy to report that January has turned out to be a hugely productive for me, writing wise at least. I was too busy to have the January Blues and if anything, the long month meant that I actually got more work done! That’s not to say that what I’ve done will be winning a Pulitzer anytime soon but I’ve…
December Blog: Lessons from a Blind Dog
The final blog post of the year is always a strange one; it’s that time when I feel compelled to look back on what was while also making plans for what I want the coming year to be. I’ll just say that 2018 was a very strange year, though each year now seems to fall into that broad category. Some…
Review: The Signalman
In a grim rail side hut a lonesome signalman tends to his duties. An unexpected visitor, keen to learn about the signalman’s job, all but invites himself in. At first tentative and somewhat fearful, the signalman eventually relinquishes to the visitor’s request for information. The visitor, a physician looking for a quieter life, soon realises that all is not what…
November Blog: A Change of Plan
Attrition continues to move in the right direction although I’ve conceded that I won’t get the first draft completed within 2018, barring a Christmas miracle. It really has become an action of attrition itself, in every sense of the word. Sometimes it feels as though the characters are goading me on “come on, I dare you to finish this” so…
David Keane 