Writer's Blog Tour

Right, so I was sitting on my couch there about a week ago and I got a tweet from the talented David Baillie about something called the Writer's Blog Tour.  

This is the way one writer put it to explain the Writer's Blog Tour, 'The idea of the Writers’ Blog Tour is for bloggers to answer the same four seemingly simple questions and then pass the challenge on.' which is a direct quote from Edinburgh based writer Laura Anne Anderson.  So to her a big thank you.  You can read her very interesting answers on her blog too.  

I was trying to come up with a way of explaining it and 'the Irishman giving directions' came out in me. I typed several weird and wonderful but not quite clear ways of saying it.  She said it best.  

Should you wish to read David's very interesting and insightful answers do go here.

Um, so I guess I better answer the four questions...

What am I working on?

Very good question... I am stalling here, um, well I am working on a few different things.

I have just gone freelance full-time in the last couple of months which has been a little bit of an eye opener.  I spent the first few weeks getting kids around the island of Ireland to think about writing short stories.  Then they draw them as three to four panel comic strips in schools and libraries about the place.  These are done bilingually, in Irish (Irish Gaelic) and English depending on the school or group in question.  I've had great fun with these especially seeing people who would have never written anything before write and draw some amazing stuff.

Also a group of us in Ennis are working on a festival for October 24th and 25th to highlight storytelling as well as writing in all it's many forms.  More about that again.

Currently working on editing the next issue of Rírá, our Irish language anthology comic for 8 - 14 year old kids which has been taking flight as well as our website where we will have a weekly web comic going shortly.

I am writing and drawing a comic for younger kids that I started when I was off for a year with the auld 'sarcastic doses' as my cousin calls it (sarcoidosis).  It was the only thing keeping me sane just drawing it out as a thing to keep me from going bonkers and now I am finishing it off.

I have a third of a novel that I have been working on the past couple of years written which means I now should have time to finish that.  It's a fantasy project.  I have been writing short stories the past while again.  I missed that when I was working in the bookshop for the past number of years having the time to write again.

Mike Lynch (of Abandoned Comics, Freddy Mercury comic on Sky News and writer of many different projects fame) and I have been working on a script for the past year or two on and off which we have threatened to finish for ages.  Soon.

Sometimes I write articles (last year wrote an article in An Consantóir, Irish Defence Forces magazine, about the relationship between comics and the military) and give a wee talk from time to time.  So in June I am giving a talk on comics and Celtic Languages at a conference in Waterford Institute of Technology where the NAACLT (North American Association for Celtic Language Teachers) will be hanging out.  I have to write a paper for that which means tons of research which I am looking forward to.

I used to do a weekly book review thing for Clare FM but now I do the odd Friday talking heads panel on their Afternoon Show which is fun.  Not really writing I suppose but I do google what we are going to be talking about and write notes, that kind of counts, maybe?  I have no idea really.  But I like radio and there is a wee project or two I have in my notebooks I would like to do.

Well, there you go, I thought I had nothing to say.  Now I am petrified. I have to finish all these things.  Anyway a coffee before the next question.

How does my work differ from others in my genre?


That's a tough one.  Really I don't know.  I've never really had a genre.

I have in the past written several different things.  From short newspaper/magazine comic strips, which are really just short scenes converted to visuals to other things, like the odd article for a magazine to a humorous book review in a small regional newspaper.  I once worked for a wedding magazine, as a writer, in Toronto while backpacking in Canada for a bit.  I have no idea how that came about either.  When I was about nineteen or twenty I wrote a radio play about a car crash and then entered it into the PJ O'Connor Awards.  It got long listed.  It was exciting to me.  After that I had a short story about a guy turning invisible on BBC Radio 4.  It was supposed to be a stand up comedy piece I wrote in art college.  I remember writing it on a sketch pad page.  I didn't have the guts to do stand up but converted it to a short story, it got rejected by a few magazines but the BBC said it was grand.  I remember buying the Radio Times to see it to believe it was happening.  Radio 4 doesn't broadcast in the West of Ireland but I got to hear it on the internet.  I near wet myself with disbelief and glee.  I do love listening to radio plays and audio books.  So I don't really have a genre as such.

I would like to think my work differs because I think I like writing to entertain.  I hope it shows that I am having fun and it entertains when it is meant to be and informs when it needs to too.  To be honest that is a tough question.  I love reading and writing.  I always have.

Why do I write what I do?

I like to get a story down and it helps get it out of my head.  Many times I have been lying in bed about to fall asleep and a thought slaps me awake.  I need to grab a notebook and write down the thought no matter how bizarre down on paper.  I say notebook.  It could be a receipt or whatever.

To be honest it's a wee bit of an addiction.  I do it because it is fun.  I like it and I have always been writing since I have been a kid.  I have notebooks and copybooks from when I was very young.  They are either filled with drawings, where maths problems should have been worked out in a crisp clean manner, that escalated into comics or rough comic strips.  Or they were stories written in the, terrible but frantic, hand writing of someone who doesn't want to forget the words locked in their noggin.

For non-fiction, and I really don't do enough of it, I try to write a fun non-fiction piece.  I wrote two articles for An Cosantóir last year on the relationship between the military and comics.  As someone who loves comics and I was originally applying to them as an illustrator I pitched the germ of an idea to the editor for an article which grew into two.  I really enjoyed it and I tried to make the article fun, informative as well as a little nostalgic in parts for the reader.  I imagine (and I could be wrong) that most members of the Irish Defence Forces would not normally read comics but I hope it entertained and made them think about reading a few again.

I do like to write things that I would like to read.  I suppose that is true of anyone who writes.  If I write non-fiction I would like to think it's interesting and fun.  If it's fiction I would like to think someone has either smiled at the very least at a terrible gag I wrote (prefer a mucus coffee snort through the nose laughter though).  Or feel a chill if I wrote a horror.  I like the idea someone has read something I wrote and they enjoyed it.  It's a very strange thing to enjoy doing I suppose.

I have tried to stop but it's just not doable.  I keep destroying blank sheets of paper by writing or drawing on them.  The question might be more 'Why can't you stop?'

How does my writing process work?

I am finding my feet as a full-time freelancer type person.  Before it used to work where I would come home from work.  Wind down for a few hours then start work at ten and go on till about twelve or one in the morning.  Now, I am doing it full-time, it depends on the job.

If I am doing a short comic strip it means lots of words.  Fiddling with them and trying to string them into a coherent pacing in about four panels if I can.  I do odd jobs for newspapers or even recently someone wanted a comic for a family friend with them in it for a birthday.  I had to take everything they liked and make a scene.  I know that doesn't sound like much but it is still a narrative that needs to be played out.  I then draw the comic strip and tweak the script or writing because when you are drawing sometimes you can see the pacing changing.  If I am writing a longer comic, I find I write in a notebook on one page and thumbnail on the other just to see how the script will look beside a very rough drawing.

If I am writing a short story or radio play I write the bulk of it out by hand in a notebook at a hazardous pace and type it later.  Get it all down.  Read it back and wonder where that particular sentence was going for half an hour, then give up and continue to get  the rest of it down.  The ideas come from odd things I have read and just wandering about the place eating an ice cream or whatever.  Then the panic hits as I try to get to a writing thingy (pen and piece of paper).  I have discovered though I can just put the notion on my phone.  Then sometimes I look at it a month later and feel furrows form in my forehead as I haven't a clue what I was on about.

The novel thing that I have to finish I have a plan to write 1500 words a day and just finish it.

Non-fiction bits and bobs is much the same.  I research, collect interesting data and then write a kind of plot or a map of where I want the article to go.  Then I just try to link all the things together with words (I am reading this and wondering if any of this makes sense at all).  I write in a light manner I guess.  I like to try to use humour where I can.

No matter what I am doing, I always go back about three times to edit.  I sometimes call on someone I know to give a read of whatever I have written.  When someone else looks at something you have written they can see things you might have missed.

I sometimes go back and look at my sketch pads, pieces of paper in boxes or copybooks to read back old ideas or stories.  Sometimes I play with these for a few hours too.

Anyway I think that is my Writer's Blog Tour.  I have no idea if any of that made any sense at all, at all.

First person on my list of people is Mike Lynch.  He started out writing comics with Rírá and went onto other things like Zarjaz, Freddy Mercury published by Bluewater Productions, Button Press Publications and other places.  He is co-founder of Abandoned Comics where he wrote Blackstar and co-wrote Nestor.  Mike writes all sorts of genres but he is a joy to read.  If you wish to read his blog you can here www.abandonedcomics.com/blog/

Next on my list is another Irish based talent, Mr. Alan Nolan.  He writes graphic novels for younger readers published with O'Brien Press, publishes the wonderful Sancho comic for adults and also works for several publications around the country, like the Irish Times.  He writing is fun and always entertains.  His blog is found here www.alannolan.ie

The final guy on my list is Seán Michael Wilson a comic writer who writes a ton of stuff and works in Japan for Kodansha.  In the United Kingdom he has worked in the past for Classical Comics  and more recently been the co-writer of Fight the Power published by Seven Stories Press.  You can read his blog here www.sean-michael-wilson.blogspot.ie


Anyway thank you so much for reading this.  And a big thank you to David Baillie for getting me to write this.  Hope it makes some kind of sense.

Comixology, why? Oh why!? And a promise to use this blog more.

So at the start of the week I signed into my Comixology account on my iPhone and it said that I had to download a newer version of the app.  So, with no thought at all to the recent acquisition of Comixology by Amazon, I deleted my Comixology app and downloaded the newer version.  It hit me as I tried to browse through the store of the newer edition of the app I could not browse through the new titles.  I thought it was just me so I proceeded to pound the screen with my bruised digits with venom for half an hour.  After much blustering, heavy tears, scratching my head a lá Stanley Laurel I went back to the app store and tried to see had I downloaded the wrong version of the really handy digital way of buying digital comics.  I looked to the reviews and noticed that one person had commented that they could no longer by  comics with the app.  Maybe it was a bug.

So I googled the issue, 'Why can I not buy comics on my Comixology app?'  It was then in the news section I came across some articles that made my heart sink.  Since then it has been reported in Forbes and in the United Kingdom by the Guardian newspaper.  .

I downloaded the Comixology app when I was bored in hospital one night and had nothing better to do than read.  What I wanted was a comic.  It was about eleven o'clock at night and I had just wrapped me head around the fact I had a smart phone.  It was a Samsung yokey-me-bob and I can't remember what I bought first but at about three in the morning my bank texted me to say there was some unusual activity on my account.  I had to get out of bed and explain over the phone in the hospital lobby to a quite amused bank security person that I was reading the Justice League in my hospital bed.

After a pause: 'Excuse me?'

'I am reading comics on my phone.'  It's very hard to explain that to a lass sniggering on the other end of a phone who is monitoring strange purchases on a card.

'Justice League?'

'Yes, you know Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash...' I slowed down around here as I realised I could hear her holding her laughter in.

'No.  I am afraid I don't know that.'  She laughed a little.  'I will register the purchases as comics.  You shouldn't (little titter of laughter here) get any more calls about this again.'

I remember being in a dressing gown standing in the lobby looking at my phone thinking, 'she thinks I am crazy,' followed by 'must check out some other stuff on Comixology now.'

I then moved to a iPhone and it was great.  Easy to use.  I could purchase a comic and read away no problem.  It was the beauty of the app I could, if I was in the mood, check online on my phone a wee book that I would might not have thought about sampling.  I don't live near any comic shops.  I worked in a bookshop for years and could get a graphic novel edition but if I wanted to check out a comic I could just sample it on my phone.  People who would not normally buy comics could easily just go to the app and try comics out.  It was a great way for people to just try out a series.  Don't get me wrong I still love the smell, feel and getting comics as physical things but for the digital just get a comic as a casual thing to buy Comixology was brilliant.

I know there are other ways of reading comics digitally but I did enjoy using it as I am sure others would too.

Such a pity really.

Oh and as I said above.  I promise to write on this blog more.  I have just recently gone full-time into freelancing and the first eight weeks has been interesting and fun.  Between workshops, chasing work and doing the odd freelance gig it has been fun.  I have tomorrow to answer a few questions from David Baillie

Free Story Download

Hi, for the next five days until the end of April 30th Sandra Dwyer and The Squatter is available for download for free from Amazon.  Sandra Dwyer and The Squatter are two short stories of over 10000 words altogether. They are adult short stories in English with tiny bit of swearing. 

Sandra Dwyer is the story of a young doctor who learns her father, the local doctor has died back in a village in the West of Ireland. Her past is something she doesn't want to get involved in again but her local parish is more than a bit superstitious and her father was slightly more open to it. Over 7000 words.

The Squatter is a kind of parody of a priest who calls around to someone who is not quite themselves. Over 3000 words.

So if you want to download these work away: Sandra Dwyer and The Squatter

If you like this Spoons and Feathers is available to download too.  Though not for free at the moment. 

Small frustrations in life

I finally start a post after ages of not posting and it won't let me post. Oh the humanity.

Caint Campaign Check it Out

A man by the name of Paul Feeney has set up a website where his vision of more Irish people speaking Irish on a regular basis is an achievable thing. The website is www.caintcampaign.com and he is a man after my own heart. He is all about people giving it a go and helping people who have an interest in the language. He is not trying to teach Irish or force it on people but just make it more accessible, fun and give people the chance to use whatever little they have. I think it's great. Check out his website. They have t-shirts and all sorts of Irish language related fun stuff on it. He has actually put a little button with us on it on his site which is class and thanks to him for giving us a spot on it.

I myself am learning Irish again with good reason of course, there is Rírá but I don't want to lose the bit of teanga I have at the moment (another reason I started Rírá I wanted to read more Irish language comics because I do read French and Dutch comics when I get my hands on them). I once sat an Irish interview for a job and surprised myself when the Irish interview went better than the job interview (I didn't get the job one lousy double meaning question anyway I digress) but when the results came back I had scored high in Irish. I punched the air I hadn't spoken any Irish since school which was four or five years before. When I lived in Canada for a bit I found that I spoke more Irish than I did here for the longest time. I met a really nice lad at my work from Quebec who's first words to me were 'Conas tá tú?' and I used to have disjointed but long conversations in Irish with him. I am out of practise again but I am improving everyday. I am making many mistakes and sometimes when talking to people I get embarrassed instead of just talking through it instead of thinking 'Jaysus, my Irish is awful and they are judging my Irish,' when I can murder French and be quiet happy with myself. In time though you do get better.

Caint Campaign is a non-profit group. I like their idea and I have a list of info here below for anyone interested in advertising or helping the campaign out on www.caintcampaign.com :

TO ADVERTISE ON WWW.CAINTCAMPAIGN.COM

The Caint Campaign can provide irish businesses a unique portal to all lovers of the irish language whether they speak the language or not. The Caint Campign promotes the irish language daily to everybody through a youthful marketing strategy.

ONLINE ADVERTISING
Reach thousands of people worldwide through 'caintcampaign.com'
One Month €10
Six months €45
Per Year €70

The Caint Campaign keeps its advertising prices low as to encourage as many irish groups, organisations and businesses to advertise on its website to help promote the irish language. The Caint Campaign was not created for profit and all proceeds go towards maintenance of the site and store.

FREE DESIGN SERVICE
Don’t have your own designer? We’ll design your ad for free.

The Caint Campaign is updated and promoted daily.
Email 'paul@caintcampaign.com' for more information.

What did we do before computers?

Right that's it the computer is going out the window. Either that or I find the evil little gremlin that hides in this godforsaken nest I call an office. I'd swear when I come home from there's one here who turns my computer on and then fiddles with the keys mucking up some tiny little thing that makes some sites (like www.coimicigael.ie) inaccessible to me and ruining my evening followed by the air turning blue everytime I see this:


Network Error (tcp_error)
A communication error occurred: "Operation timed out"
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.
For assistance, contact your network support team.

I'd swear I can hear the little dingbat snickering in the pile of books, paper and god knows what in the corner that I call a filing system. It's lucky I'm too bloody tired to bother looking and destroying the very carefully laid out system I have too.

Anyway on the plus side we have confirmed that twelve branch libraries under Fingal County Library are going to be featuring the magazine on their magazine stands. So that's a bit of good news. Apparently the shop is nearly done but I can't see it because my computer is giving me the evil eye. I just don't know what to do with it.

Lady talking on phone

Some people are just plain odd. I was in town today just gawking around the place seeing what there was to see and happened to venture into a card shop. A lady in her mid-thirties was there. She happened to be talking to the shop assistant at the counter. I have no idea why I was there to be honest, cards are not my thing. However, there I was looking at cards of varying degrees of sappiness all provided by mostly the big guns of card world, Hallmark, Gibson, Carlton and so on.

Anyway, the lady was looking for filo-fax refills for her, um, filo-fax I imagine. The assistant being the professional that she was pointed out that they were in the corner above the padded envelopes and that they were running low on them, as there was rush on the yokes since the start of the new year. She practically skipped her merry way to the stone age version of an iPod, iPhone or whatever it is people use now to file away notes, dates and appointments that couldn't be forgotten on pain of death.

I had moved on from sappy cards and I was looking through some rather amusing ones. I had found a quite nice example for ladies birthdays that involved being able to touch one's toes without having to bend over any longer. She came back again to the young woman behind the counter and as she was about to pay for the item she thrust at the assistant it occurred to her that she needed a New Years card. The cards she sought happened to be beside me. I glanced down at them. I shuddered slightly at the thought of being on the receiving end of a New Years card, then went back to another card about projectile vomiting and drinking but not in that order.

The assistant pointed over at me and said much the same as she said about the New Years cards as she had about the filo-fax refills. There was a mad rush on them seeing as the New Year is nearly not new any longer. The lady twittered with delight. She gushed thanks at the assistant, turned and made her way towards me where she stared at the wall trying to find the New Years cards.

I looked up from the card I was holding with an image of a young man bent over facing away from a cake with hundreds of candles alight on top, his rump level with the candles and a look of concentration on his face (the title of the card said 'Puff up your cheeks and...' you can guess the rest). She nodded at me then went back to staring at the wall blind as a bat. I looked directly at the cards then back to her. She stared a little bit longer still not seeing anything and caught my eye again.

She knew I knew where the cards were but like all people who were in a situation like that she wasn't going to ask me to point them out. We continued our little dance for a moment or two longer before I returned to glancing at the New Years cards as I put back the card I held. I glanced long enough so she could follow my eye line but she still didn't cop it. The assistant tried to help by acting like the guidance system for the amusement arcade claw machine that picked out teddy bears: 'Left! Left! No too far left! Right! Right! Up a bit!'

I gave in and put my finger on them. She laughed and thanked me. While my hand rested upon another card as witty as the previous one I had held in my paws she looked at the few 'Happy New Year' cards that they had left. Now at this point I don't really know what kind of card it was I was holding in my hand (I assume it was about some bodily function failing due to onset of old age) as her phone started ringing as she was glancing through the selection. I had taken in the cover but to the left of me on one knee I could hear a cold business like voice come from below. I was just opening the card but had gotten distracted by this icy voice coming from the lady who a few seconds before was like your one at the end credits of 'Little House on the Prairie' skipping through the fields except on happy pills.

My ears pricked up:

'I rejected her application for membership.'

(Obvious pause for person on other end of the line.)

'Yes. I filed it and sent out a letter to her this morning. The reason I left a message on your phone this morning is you know your one that came in this afternoon?'

(Pause)

'Yes. Well she also fits the criteria. Didn't you go to school with her?'

(Pause)

'Well then I will leave it up to you. You can vouch for her membership?'

(Pause)

'Okay then. Well you can tell her then. You handle that.'

She went on for a few more moments and I tried to zone out of the conversation but this flip in personality change was immense. Her voice sounded stony. I eventually looked at the punchline within the card and didn't get it at all. I had forgotten the opening line as well as the cover artwork. I flicked it back but again I was distracted.

'I am going putting Sharon on probation.'

(Pause)

'Yes. Just like David.'

(Slight pause)

'He missed his flight.'

And after that she agreed that the probation would stick. I didn't hear anything else as my mind started to race I felt for these people. I wanted to know what did Sharon do to deserve this. Did David deserve to be put on probation? Where was he flying from? It might not have been his fault. Was he held up by traffic? He could have been kidnapped or even had local militant nationalists take him prisoner. What was his job? What are they members of?

She had hung up. I was looking down at her and I couldn't ask. I wanted to. Good god I needed to know. She had that grin on again like the world was lollipops, candyfloss and kittens. She went back to the assistant laughed that (now I found) chilling laugh following it up with very positive banter with the jaded assistant who looked like she was not enjoying this encounter at all. Overly positive people can be exhausting.

When she left out the door the assistant sighed like it was a relief. She looked in my direction and smiled the knowing smile of someone who sees all kinds of mad mental cases come in to her. I smiled back with an answering nod and shrugged too for effect.

'Assassin or life coach.' I said.

This went over her head as that jaded look came back on her face and I realised I just joined the ranks of the mental cases.

'She's probably one or the other.' I tried again.

This time the assistant found something better to be doing and picked up some cardboard that when pressed became a box. She went rooting behind the desk, stood up ripping back some parceling tape, looked in my direction with an expression that now said, 'Are you still here?'

I made my exit.