The idea for this book came about during the debate around Ireland’s gay marriage referendum. I was sitting in the pub with my friend Colin, who was decrying the state of gay fiction at the time, and wondering where all the happy stories were. It seemed as if LGBTQ characters had been relegated back to the sidelines after briefly being cool, or as if the mainstream was only interested in tales of gay misery, with difficult coming out stories, the …
Category: Teen & Young Adult
While I was writing my novel, my long suffering agent Harriet was subject to many anguished emails and phone calls about how long I was taking to finish. I would …
When I was a kid, there was a henna plant outside my grandmother’s apartment. It was one of my favourite things in the world, because every once in a while, …
In October ’93 I was spending a few days in Dingle after the madness of the Children’s Book Festival and I took one of the dolphin boats out to see …
Literary journals have thrived in Ireland and have repeatedly succeeded in their goals of finding, supporting, and showcasing new writing. These journals have published works by writers who go on …
I find it absolutely thrilling to pick up a book that’s full of twists and turns even the most experienced of readers will find hard to predict. It takes true …
I’ve always appreciated the fact that while I can read a book in a couple of days, it might have taken the author years of hard work and dedication to …
Dystopia is a big theme in a lot of teen and young adult books. Apocalyptic disasters, zombie takeovers, new world orders, inverted social hierarchies; you name it, you’ll find it …
When I was in secondary school, I had an excellent English teacher who was passionate about teaching poetry. We worked from an admittedly intimidating book, four-hundred pages of works from …
Recently I have found myself returning to my comfort reads because of everything going on in the world. Be it committing to a reread or merely flipping through, I cannot …
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