Producing and distributing a professional ‘product’ takes time and effort (or a lot of spare money!). One of the issues asociated with being a niche, part-time creator therefore, is that competing priorities generally constrict you from achieving the things you want to achieve (in the time you want to achieve them). Add in family, other… Read more »
I’m finishing up this year with a beautiful photo from Aida Pascual that summarises my feelings for 2020 and 2021 far more effectively than words probably could. 2020 was extremely hard for everyone and although there’s hope for stability and peace in 2021, for many that remains a distant goal across a dangerous traverse. On… Read more »
This is an interview I had with Finbarr Murray of Capital Irish – the Irish Access Radio channel in Wellington – back in 2016. I actually spent a few years as one of the presenters on this show but had to give it up a year before the interview due to competing time commitments. In… Read more »
Two years have passed since I published the most recent book in the Celtic Mythology Collection Series. I had hoped to run another -slightly amended – competition this year but events, unfortunately, conspired to prevent it. The original purpose of this series was to try and educate people about Irish mythology and to establish some… Read more »
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost four years since I published FIONN 3: THE ADVERSARY – the book that completed the first three-book arc of the Fionn mac Cumhaill Series. The above image is an alternative cover for that book (developed from a series that the artist went off and created predominantly to satisfy… Read more »
Three years ago I was complaining (albeit, not particularly bitterly) about the workload that tended to occur over the New Zealand Christmas holiday period. That workload was mostly self-imposed of course. Holidays offered the only real opportunity to do intensive writing and strategic thinking for various creative projects I wanted to work on – something… Read more »
It’s always fascinating to learn how other people have interpreted something you’ve created, particularly when it’s something as complex as a novel. I’m still a bit surprised at times when a reviewer comments on my books and adds an interpretation that I really didn’t have in mind when I was writing the story. Facebook… Read more »
I got shot in the arm once when I was living in Lille (Northern France), walking from the metro to my place of work. Fortunately, it was with an air-rifle so I wasn’t badly hurt although my arm hurt like a bastard for the rest of the day. It took me a moment or two… Read more »
The accepted view is that you can never go back to the past and of course, to a degree, that’s true. Personal experiences aren’t something you can really replicate, particularly the more intense ones, the formative ones that influence or create the core of your character and make you who you are. I managed to… Read more »
About twenty years ago when people first started wishing me a ‘Happy Saint Paddy’s Day’, I felt a bit left-footed and unsure how to respond. Back then, most Irish people didn’t really use that expression as Saint Patrick’s Day wasn’t really a celebration you ‘wished happiness’ to someone for and, in English, the term sounded… Read more »
I learned this morning that Dermot Morgan (the Irish actor who played Father Ted) died twenty years ago today. Back in the late 90’s I used to let my young kids watch Father Ted with me as a way to familiarise them with Irish humour, something that was a bit of a challenge as we’d… Read more »
Back in the eighties in Ireland there was a famous ad going around from the Irish Development Authority (IDA), a government agency responsible for developing enterprise and attracting foreign investment. A component of one of their marketing campaigns, it consisted of a series of photos taken around some of our more famous prehistoric monuments (stone… Read more »
