Kairos Launched!

The good ship Kairos was launched into orbit with great acclaim and applause on Wednesday, 19th September, 2007!

Well, okay, maybe not 'great' acclaim... but the speeches were very nice, the wine was too and a good many copies of the book were snapped up and signed by yours truly. That's Daire (8) there, holding one of the books!

All the children attended and they were immaculately behaved; if we ignore the investigating of the main theatre, the clomping up and down the main staircase and the hiding behind the side curtains of the small theatre space where the reading and speeches took place. Not during the reading, though, in fairness!

Noel Lennon gave the launch speech, doing a very nice job of introducing me and my work to Dundalkers, Droghedians and Dubliners alike, not forgetting the contingent from Kerry too.

So that's it! The book is launched and is available for sale here: Doghouse Books. You should state if you want your copy signed, but be prepared to wait a week or so for delivery - the publisher is busy honouring poetry commitments in France!

Also, anyone who wants a taster of the poetry is welcome to listen to the interview of Tuesday morning here.

Next week, I'm reading at Chapters bookstore, Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Friday 28th September @ 1pm, with Seven Towers author, Oran Ryan; presenting awards at the Amergin Festival of Writing in Drogheda that evening; and reading on Saturday, 29th @1pm with Doghouse stablemate, Catherine Ann Cullen at the same festival, in the Droichead Theatre, Stockwell Street, Drogheda.

And on Monday I'm registering for the Creative Writing course in Queen's University Belfast - so if it goes a bit quiet here for a few days - don't worry! I'll be back :) Now, I'd better go and get something together for class tomorrow... the handouts won't write themselves!

Bowes Pub, Fleet Street & Seven Towers

Through an emailing contact I heard about Seven Towers, another publishing outfit here in Ireland and was asked to go along to a reading of their authors, supplemented by an Open Mic evening (I can never resist those). The venue was a small pub in Fleet Street, Dublin - not as glam as the London city street, mind you!

Once the main readers, Noel O'Briain, Ross Hattaway and Oran Ryan settled into their pieces, the roar of Dublin buses outside the windows faded into the background. The format accomodated the small end-of-summer crowd very well: we sat around in a circle, like a group of storytellers at a convention and each reader was inspired by the last piece, so that each poem or piece of prose seemed to speak to the last, opening up possibilities. You could say that the theme for the night was communicating!

Oran Ryan's book is Ten Novels by Arthur Kruger - from the pieces read and the play on who is writing, I think this is going to be an existentialist investigation of the human condition - looking forward to reading that!

Noel O'Briain's book is Scattering Day - 21 Sonnets and Other Poems, a book of formal and free verse. Those that he read sounded well crafted and suited the ear of the audience.

Ross Hattaway's collection is The Gentle Art of Rotting, with diverse poems ranging through Ross's experience. He is not native Irish, coming originally from New Zealand, so his poetic voice sounds very different to an Irish one and allows a different reading and hearing experience, through his unique cadences in language.

The Seven Towers website doesn't do the same justice to these books, that physical touch and sight does: they are all in hardback and softback format, but the hardbacks are exceptionally well designed and produced, leaving the reader with a rare thing of beauty (they could well become collectors items), that no amount of my words could ever get across. Needless to say, I bought more books!

I need your help...

...to help me get my publisher really keen on using the internet as a promotion tool, that crosses country, continental and oceanic boundaries.

I would like you to visit the newly set up website, Doghouse Books and fill in the message form and ask about 'Kairos,' when is it coming out and will it be available to buy over the internet. Most important of all - tell him where you live.

It sounds a bit bold, but what I'm hoping this will do is spur him into developing the site, so that people can see not just 'Kairos' but all the beautiful books that have been published by Doghouse: their gorgeous artwork covers, what's been written about them, and indeed samples of the contents. And, most importantly, people can buy the books.

Who knows what might happen...?

And now for my latest trick...

... conjuring a first collection out of nothing. I have been awarded a good whack towards publishing the collection from Dundalk Town Council, through the Arts Act 2003 funding. This is a fund that allows local authorities to back creative projects in the arts, big or small. There isn't a great big pot, so I'm very, lucky to have received what I did!

With that, my publisher has sent me a publishing contract to sign, and we will be meeting up during the summer to edit the MS and get it into tip-top shape for publishing. It's funny how you notice those glaring typos and commas, stops and out of place capitals after the fact...

So, some work done, a lot more to do, as a certain Irish political party used to advertise... or was it the national rail network, Iron roads of Eireann?

Anthology Launch Invite

Next Tuesday, I've been invited to attend a launch for an anthology called Drogheda Writes, an anthology being published in my old home town, which is about thirty miles away from where I live.

I say home town, because I spent a good eleven years living there and felt like part of the town. It was quite unnerving moving back to Dundalk in 2005 after not having lived here for almost sixteen years. But I got used to it.

Anyway, Roger Hudson, one of the co-runners of Drogheda Creative Writers invited me to submit poetry to the journal, so I did! And next week I'll get me grubby mitts on my contributor copy :)

The launch is being presented by Catherine Brophy, an Irish novelist, short story writer, and also a scriptwriter for the long running soap, Fair City, on RTE 1 (think Coronation Street, but with Dublin accents).

I will be rounding up relatives and friends to come along and buy lots of copies to show support for the project. As ever, my camera will be in tow!

Wow, wow, wow!

One of my favourite poets is poet of the week over at Poetry SuperHighway this week. I just found out via Books Inq.

The first link will take you to a piece, Getting Lucky, which is such a cool take on the moon, by the poet Howard Miller, aka Hedgie.

I wonder what he taught in college? I bet his classes were always interesting. And, I've just found this ten questions post which gives an insight into how Howard thinks about poetry - a personal ars poetica.