Writers Group

It’s nearly three months since my last post.  For a while, I found it difficult to find the right words so I wrote nothing.  To be fair, I concentrated on my novel instead.  ‘Riverdale House’ has now been dispatched to beta readers, who will either come back to me telling me it is complete drivel and not to embarrass myself by showing it to anyone else, or they will tell me that it is a great story and that I should seek publication or maybe that it’s good but needs more work on certain aspects.  More than likely it will be somewhere in between those scenarios, at least I hope so anyway.  My stomach will be in a permanent state of nerves until I hear something back.

I have been preoccupied of late with ‘Ink Tank’ a creative writing group based in Newbridge library.  We got together last November from a workshop facilitated by Niamh Boyce, author of ‘The Herbalist.’  She will be launching her new book ‘Her Kind’ in Athy Library on 12^th April and it promises to be an interesting read.  Anyway, our newly formed creative writing group have named ourselves ‘Ink Tank’ and we meet once a fortnight to debate, practise, critique and generally discuss everything literary.  We are an eclectic bunch with a range of ages and backgrounds which makes for some interesting discussions.  I have had my eyes opened to the joys of poetry and the thrill of fantasy, always good to open your mind to new possibilities.  Writing, by its very nature, is a solitary occupation.  To meet and chat with other like-minded people is wonderful and I would highly recommend it.  If you are interested email us inktankwriters@gmail.com

We are working towards publishing an anthology of our work.  Exciting times!  It will contain a mixture of historical and contemporary short stories, poetry, memoir and essays.  We hope to launch it during the Readers Festival in October with any profits going to a local charity.  Further details as they come to hand.

So, I have a lot to work towards this year.  I will be scribbling (pounding the keyboard) on a regular basis, whilst downing copious amounts of coffee and chocolate (what about the diet!) to fulfil my commitment to Ink Tank, to keep writing short stories for competition and to start another manuscript.  Wish me luck!