Monday 29 October 2012

SUE LEONARD, 'BEGINNER'S PLUCK', ON MY NOVEL


"BEGINNER'S PLUCK"

Irish Examiner, on 20th October, 2012.


After school, Ciaran O'Driscoll joined the civil service; then he joined a religious order, leaving after ten years. He went to London where he worked as a secondary school teacher, before studying philosophy. Before retirement, he worked as a lecturer in Limerick School of Art and Design. 

All that time he was writing poetry. He has published six collections; and has written a childhood memoir, some radio scripts, and some essays on poetry. He has won the James Joyce Literary Millennium Prize, the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry, and he is a member of Aosdána. 

Who is Ciaran O’Driscoll? 
Date of birth: 2nd October, 1943, in Kilkenny.
Education: Rochestown College, Cork. University College Cork, BA, University of London, MA.
Home: Limerick City.
Family: Wife, and a son, aged 23.
The Day Job: Full time writer. 
Hobbies: Listening to traditional Irish music and opera. Walking, travelling, watching rugby.


Favourite Writers: Mikhail Bulgakov, Flann O’Brien, Stieg Larson

Second Novel: I’m planning to travel somewhere and live there for a while. I hope this will give me a setting, and some characters. 

Top Writing Tip: I believe immersing yourself into an unusual setting can give you inspiration for a novel. 

Web/Twitter: @CiaranODriscoll

The Debut Novel: A Year’s Midnight. Pighog Press: €13.20 
Kindle: €4.69. 
http://www.pighog.co.uk/titles/a-years-midnight.html


George and his partner, Barbara, move to Italy. George is recovering from a breakdown, and hopes to find peace. But the rural scenery, and in particular, a field, starts to bother him. He falls apart, as memory of childhood abuse starts to surface. He turns to drink, develops obsessions, and has hallucinations about a child poltergeist. 

“We went to live in Umbria, when our son was about four. I went with the intention of writing a novel, and I did complete a first draft. I finished a version, but then the idea of a memoir took over. Recently I rewrote the novel, but in a darker form.” 

The Verdict: An atmospheric tale that toys with dark subjects, told with a lot of black humour.



© Sue Leonard. 2012. 

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