About Me

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What You Probably Need To Know (The Short Version)

I write novels: big family murder mysteries full of emotional twists and surprises. They interweave  past with present and imaginary with real-life events into stories that aim to intrigue and inspire.  My latest book is A Dance in Time (Penguin 2008).  I also write, blog, tweet and speak about Creative Intelligence.

Born in Wexford, Ireland I now live in London — though I spent most adult life in Dublin, working as a freelance journalist and teaching creativity, freewriting and creative writing to disparate groups — from addicts in recovery to MA students.

And to the many writers taught and mentored through Font Writing Centre, which I founded in 2002.  Many of those students went onto publishing success through Font Literary Agency and other pathways.

I moved on from Font in 2008 in order to write fulltime and I now spend my time making up stories!  And spreading the word to whoever will listen about creative intelligence and creative living.

Too Much Information.(The-Up-Close-and-Personal Version)

I write.  Novels, poems, essays, feature articles, blogs and tweets.  But mainly novels.

I read.  Novels, poems, essays, feature articles, blogs and tweets.  Plays, biographies, psychology, philosophy and history. Newspapers, magazines, yoga manuals and nutrition labels.  Tabloids, freesheets and cereal boxes…

But mainly novels.

I prefer the Brontes to Austen, Woolf to Joyce, Yeats to Pound, Atwood to Amis.  I prefer the romantics and moderns to the postmoderns.  And not just because they are easier.

I was born in Ireland (Waterford City), grew up in Wexford and spent most of my adult life in Dublin.  I live in London now and am contemplating buying a house in the sun.  Europe or California?  It’s a dilemma… a very nice one.

I have two adult offspring (not allowed to call them children any more).  To me, they are frighteningly fabulous – but please don’t tell them I said so.  They are called Orna and Ross.

Yes, Orna Ross is a pseudonym and they kindly lent me their names.

My father, Con, died too young and very suddenly in 1997.  My mother, Ida, still lives in Wexford. I have three brothers and a sister, all younger than me.

I married well, the man had seven sisters.  He and I have been together for 27 years. (I know. Twenty. Seven. Years.).

Before I wrote fiction, I was a freelance feature writer for newspapers and magazines in Dublin and London. I have also worked as a teacher, a fitness instructor, a saleswoman, a clerk, a waitress, a university lecturer, a barmaid, a literary agent and a writing mentor.

Right now, I’m writing full-time and loving it.  I also love to jog, to walk and to dance; to read, take pictures and swim in the sea; to visit art galleries, parks and old churches; to travel, do yoga  and go to the movies.

I’ve been vegetarian since 1993, when I visited an abbatoir for a newspaper article I was writing. I went vegan in 2008, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and came to the conclusion that my high-dairy diet, and associated hormones, was likely a factor.

I have an MA in women’s studies from University College Dublin.  The title of my thesis was “Hearths, Minds and Bodies: The Commital of Women to Enniscorthy Lunatic Asylum 1916 – 1923″.

Anyone who knows anything about Ireland will know the significance of those dates.  I wrote it in 1997. It taught me how history gets written and how to see silences.  More than a decade on, those women still turn up in my dreams. The character of Nora in Lovers’ Hollow is based on a real life story from that research.

I love the Internet, (especially Twitter).  The words World Wide Web still excite me.  Comes from growing up in a small village in a small country but isn’t it just a miracle?

Each of my novels is a big, big story that takes me years to write.  The plots are full of emotional twists and surprises. They interweave past and present, mixing real-life, historical events (and sometimes people) with things that never happened and people who never lived, outside of my imagination.

I like what all that allows me to say.

The Irish Times said that the  characters in my books “could never be described as ordinary“.  I agree — but only because I don’t think anyone could ever be described as ordinary.

Another critic said that in my writing “Maeve Binchy meets John McGahern”.  I think I might know what that means. She also said “this is no mass-produced chick-lit”.  That is true.  I take pains.

I value my readers. I learn a lot from your feedback.  I know it takes a great reader to make a great book.

I am a freethinker.  I prefer the enlightened to the religious and I believe “Is there a God?” is the wrong question.  I distrust dogma, including dogmatic atheism.

What I do believe in is creative intelligence — that of the world in which I live, as well as my own. (And yours too, whatever you might tell me.)

This intelligence shapes our world and our experience.  In us, imagination is its incubator, enthusiasm its breath, inspiration its voice.

Through it, we – consciously and unconsciously – co-create with life, ordering the details of our existence in ways we often only dimly understand but can always fully experience.

I believe the closer we align our behaviour to its ways of being, the easier everything flows.

For ourselves.  And for everyone and everything we touch.

So long as we fully allow what is… to be.

INTERVIEW on the Publication of A Dance In Time @ “The Irish Independent“