I’m really busy at the moment, but feeling guilty at how little I’ve been blogging here lately. So here’s a copy of my recent post from Girlsheartbooks.

(And by the way, that’s an amazing site with some brilliant posts, so be sure to visit soon.)

Happy New Year – hoping all good things will come your way in 2012!

BENEATH THE SURFACE

When I do readings, I’m very often asked the same question – ‘Are you writing a book at the moment?’

Almost always, the truthful answer is ‘yes’. I started to write seriously in 1999, and since then, I’ve always been pretty much ‘writing a book’. But this morning I woke up and had a few horrible thoughts:

* I’m not writing a book at the moment

*I haven’t written anything for a few weeks

My computer screen looks a lot like this lately:

(and a third horrible thought has just come to me – I hope my publisher isn’t reading this post!)

Anyway, the shock of all these thoughts drove me out to my back garden, which is where I always go when I need to calm down.

There I saw the broad beans and garlic that I sowed a few months ago. They grew really well at first, but for the last two months they haven’t budged – it looks like they are just sitting there, doing nothing.

Garlic, apparently doing nothing!

Broad beans, relaxing in the sunshine.

But then I realised that I was only looking at the surface. I know that, deep under the soil, my plants are building up strong roots, so that when the weather warms up again, they’ll be ready to burst into life.

So I’ve decided that’s also what’s happening inside my head. Even though I haven’t written a word lately, my mind has been busy. I’ve been planning a sub-plot for a third Eva book, and I’ve been thinking very hard about a time and a place to set the third Friends Forever book. I know that once I get back to writing, all of this mental groundwork will make my work much, much easier.

So I’ve decided not to panic ……… yet!

Here is Domino keeping a close eye on the Christmas presents - just in case there's one for her!

Hope everyone has an amazing, happy and peaceful Christmas.

A friend drew my attention to this amazing clip of the beginning of Alice next Door. I absolutely love it.

LPS :Alice Next Door Chapter 1 Part 1

Since finding this, I’ve come across lots of other LPS videos. I think they are totally cute, and really, really wish that the technology for that kind of thing was available when I was a child. But then maybe it’s never too late…..

I’m just back home after spending a lovely few days in Cork.

First I went to Berrings to visit the amazing National School there. In the hall, I was greeted by a huge welcome banner, with my name in the biggest letters I’ve ever seen. (They’ve promised to send me a photo, and I’ll post it here when I get it.)

Next it was off to Rushbrooke, by the sea. It was especially nice to visit here again, as much of ‘The Time Spell’ was set in the area. I left with a huge bundle of letters, which I’m still working my way through -and really enjoying.

Next day it was off to Bandon. There I was welcomed by Gerry from Bandon Books, and hordes of eager readers. A couple of American tourists wandered in, and stayed for my talk. Afterwards they bought one of my books for their grand-daughter. The gentleman came up to me before they left. ‘I’d wish you good luck,’ he said, ‘except I don’t think you need it.’ I thought that was really sweet.

Best part of my trip was that I moved back in with my parents for a few days. I fear that I ‘treated their house like a hotel’ but they are far too nice to point that out. Every evening, my dad prepared a delicious dinner, which was followed by one of my mum’s legendary cakes. By the second day, I was wondering why I’d ever left home at all!

PS When I got back to Limerick, my children told me that I’ve re-acquired my Cork accent – result!

Now that Book Festival 2011 is over, it’s time for a leisurely look back, and this is how it went for me:

• Number of events – 20
• Number of Counties visited – 6
• Kilometres travelled – 1900 +
• Times I got lost (on my journeys, not during my presentations) – 3
• Times I asked for directions – 3, thus proving that my brain is 100% female
• Cups of tea served – 20
• Cups of tea I actually had time to finish – 0
• Biscuits eaten – that’s a secret, but I will point out that chocolate goldgrain seem to be the biscuit of choice for the librarians of Ireland
• Teachers who chatted amongst themselves for the entire duration of my talk – 2 (!!!)
• Amazing questions asked – 100’s. But the best has to be this- ‘since films are rarely as good as books, if someone offered to film one of your books, would you respect your characters or sell out and take the money? (if anyone’s interested, I answered that the chance to find out would be a fine thing!)
• Days left to Book Festival 2012 – 334 – looking forward to it already!