Just like that, summer falls into September

Hello everyone,

September at last! One of my favorite months, as it happens. As well as the kids going back to school, autumn leaves beginning to fall and crisp, apples and blackberries galore in our back garden, it’s time for me to get back to my desk and start writing again. I try to keep my word count going during the holidays, but my productivity is low. I find it hard to get into the writing zone, in between camps and playdates.

So, I’m off to Tyrone Guthrie for a week, something that has become an annual writing retreat for me. Each September I spend a week in their glorious, magical, word inducing home and somehow, find I manage to clock up at least 20,000 words. I can hardly believe that this time I’ll be working on book nine, which has the working title What If! It feels like only yesterday that I spoke to you all about my debut novel, Beyond Grace’s Rainbow. Do you remember?

I’ve been reflecting a lot this week, as it happens, about my writing life over the past ten years. Six years ago, almost to the day, there was a media frenzy as news of my book deal with Harper Collins hit the news. I appeared on national and regional radio shows, and in my home town of Wexford, made the hourly local news for the whole day! I also had my first TV appearance on The Morning Show, with Martin King. I shared my thoughts on that on Twitter. If you would like to have a read, here’s the link!

In other news, you may have noticed if you follow me on social media, that I was more than a little giddy about A Thousand Roads Home chart success. This book has been storming it on Amazon UK, remaining a No1 Bestseller for over fourteen weeks. But last week, my lovely Irish readers made me an Irish Times Bestseller again. If you didn’t see me giddy already, click here to watch a video I shared. 

You know, at least once a week someone contacts me to ask me for writing advice. This was one of the very reasons that I set up The Inspiration Project with friends and fellow international bestsellers Catherine Ryan Howard and Hazel Gaynor. We run two events per year, where we share all of our collective advice and tips on not only how to write, edit and publish a book but also how to make a career as an author! Not easy, not for the faint-hearted, but we are proof that it IS possible.

Our next event is on September 14th, in the beautiful DLR Lexicon in Dun Laoghaire. We have a few spots left if anyone fancies joining us. How I approach the sessions that I teach, is by remembering what it felt like to be me, ten years ago, dreaming of writing and publishing a book. I knew NOTHING, plus I didn’t know a single soul in the world of publishing, which felt like an exotic unattainable world to me. Our aim is to send writers of all stages home, with lots of inspiration and a strong plan on how to get to the next stage in their writing goals. If you’ve always wanted to write a book, or have one under your bed, (like I did for six years!!!), then take a look here …

 

I’ll be sharing some news soon on the publication details of my eight novel – title to be revealed!

I’m so excited about this book, I cannot wait for it to land into the laps of readers.

 

Right, I need to get back to writing …

Catch up soon!

Carmel x

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