By now, I should be posting about how happy I am at the arrival of spring, but I’m afraid that The Beast From The East changed all that.

My home in Limerick was better than much of the country, but even so, we were snowed in for a few days over the weekend. Luckily I had stocked up with plenty of food, and a stack of books, so all was well.

I did some writing, and even found time to make a snowman. I think he looks quite impressive in the first photo, but I’m afraid the second one tells the truth! I suppose that in photographs, as in life, perspective is everything!

Hi everyone

Apologies for the long silence – things have been CRAZY! I had a  jam-packed October, and November has been fairly busy too – including a shortlisting for the Irish Book Awards. (Yippee!)

Anyway, of all the events I’ve done lately, I think my favourite was the day I spent at Childvision in Drumcondra.

We were celebrating the 10th annual fun braille reading day, and it was very well named. Blind and vision-impaired young people came from all over the country to demonstrate their braille reading skills, and I have to say they were all amazing. From little 5 -year old beginners, to teenagers who read as fluently as any sighted people I’ve ever heard, everyone did a great job. Some of the young people read from their own work, which was a delight to listen to.

The guest braille reader was Clare Whelan who warmly encouraged everyone, and the star of the show was her dog Cassie, who behaved beautifully, and only got a small bit excited when he smelled chocolate.

After the event I had lunch with the team who were most welcoming and hospitable, and I found a few minutes to tour the beautiful library with librarian Aideen Brady. All in all it was a great day, and I felt honoured to be part of it.

I think it’s fair to say that when I started to write (way back in 1999!)I had NO idea what I was letting myself in for. I thought that my new job would be all about spending lonely hours at my desk, wrestling with plot-lines and uncooperative characters. And while there has been plenty of lonely character-wrestling, a huge part of my job involves getting out in the world and publicising my books. Events and festivals and social media and blogging have become a huge part of what I do. Luckily, I quite like all of this but sometimes I ask myself – what was I thinking?
For some reason, I agreed to go on live TV today! I’ll be on a very cool children’s programme called Swipe TV. I’m happy that they have a regular bookclub, and I’m <strong>really </strong> happy that they’ll be talking about one of my books – but live TV??
If I don’t post a link tomorrow, let’s never mention this again, OK?

The super-talented PJ Lynch and Eoin Colfer on Swipe TV

This post first appeared on www.girlsheartbooks.com

When I received the first copies of my new audio books, it took me right back to the days when my children were little and every holiday car-journey, no matter how short, took more preparation than your average ascent of Mount Everest. Despite my efforts to buy engaging toys and healthy-(ish) snacks, the cries of ‘are we there yet?’ generally started to ring out before we’d made it out of the car park.
And then we discovered audio books!
It started with the wonderful Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Adults and children were hooked by the first page, squabbles were forgotten and peace came into our lives. By chapter two, we parents could no longer relax by the pool, as the children were constantly nagging us to go for ‘a really long drive.’
Of course it’s easier now, with in-car dvd players and iPads etc, but why should the kids have all the fun? The entire family could engage with an audiobook, and later, at meal-times, there were many ..er…animated discussions over the merits of the books we listened to. It was like a family book club, and those long car journeys are remembered fondly by all of us.
Happy days!

(This post first appeared on www.girlsheartbooks.com)

Anyone who can remember last year’s post about my doll, Carol, will know that, as a child, I didn’t much care for dolls – mostly because they weren’t books. Even so, when I was about six, my uncle bought me another doll, called Honeybunch.
Here’s a picture of me (with very short hair) not looking particularly happy with my new toy.

I didn’t play with Honeybunch very much, and she spent a lot of her life in a dark attic, with her friend Carol. Now though, both Carol and Honeybunch come on tour with me. Recently they’ve been in Belfast, Derry, Cork and Waterford.
Here are some pics:

Packing for the big tour

Enjoying the beach in Tramore

Napping in the car before an early event.

Being read to by Jack Lynch, the real Taoiseach of Ireland.

Carousel fun.

(This post first appeared on girlsheartbooks.com in November 2015)