Celine Kiernan's Blog, page 13

Into the Grey Musical Soundtrack tour: Song Three!

Welcome to post three of the Into the Grey musical blog tour, in which I share videos of  seven songs that feature in my 1970′s ghost novel Into the Grey, and explain what those songs mean to me and to the story. Today the tour is hosted by the lovely Melissa of My World in Books and Pages! This is one of my favorite of the blog entries as its one of my favorite moments in the book, where–to the background of ABBA winning the Eurovision–Pat frantically attempts to have a good time, while underneath secretly falling apart. Off you go now for a another wee taste of Into the Grey and a blast from ABBA as they sparkle their way through Waterloo in 1974.

Dublin: Early Morning July 2013

Dropping from the bus, and the city is quietly alive.

I weave through bicycles, bin bags, and the sleeping homeless.

At my elbow the shadow scented greenery of the park is cool,

the trees above tentatively kissed with sunlight.

I cross the street into eighteenth century shadows, and I think,

This is beautiful

My life is beautiful

I am lucky.

Into the Grey Musical Soundtrack tour: Song Two!

Welcome to post two of the Into the Grey musical blog tour, in which I share videos of seven songs that feature in my 1970′s ghost novel Into the Grey, and explain what those songs mean to me and to the story. Today the tour is hosted by one of the most tireless reviewers in YA-dom, Jim of YA? YEAH YEAH! I love Jim’s in depth analytical reviews, you should check them out both at YA?YEAH YEAH and over at his other site YA Contemporary (as well as the bookbag where he is a regular contributor).  I’m very lucky to have him agree to host the tour. Off you go now for a another wee taste of Into the Grey and a little blast from The Rolling Stones asking for some Sympathy for the Devil.

http://www.yayeahyeah.com/2013/07/blour-tour-celine-kiernan-on-into-grey.html

Into the Grey Musical Sound Track Tour!

Welcome to the Into the Grey musical blog tour in which I share videos of seven songs that feature in my 1970′s ghost novel Into the Grey, and explain what those songs mean to me and to the story. First up on the Into the Grey musical soundtrack is man of many words Niall Alexander! Off you go to his review site the Speculative Scotsman for a summertime blast of the Doors asking Do You Love her Madly? (and a giveway of the UK edition!)

Goodbye my very good friend.

Many years ago I wrote a childrens’ book called The Two Swans. It featured a character called Nolan an Ceoltóir (Nolan the Musician) He was based on a man I knew, loved and respected dearly, Alan Nolan. Yesterday I learned that Alan is no longer with us.

I can only express my great sympathy for Alan’s family, Deborah, Robert, and James, and most especially for his heartbroken parents Patsy and Tony, all of whom I love very much.

Alan, I have no words to express the sorrow I feel knowing I will never again spend time in your company. You have left many wonderful memories behind you, and many irretrievably broken hearts.

Here, for what they are worth, are two of the illustrations I made from The Two Swans, featuring Nolan, his best friend the bear Fergus, and the love of Nolan’s life, the beautiful Tatiana.

Hello July, it’s almost August!

OK, OK, don’t kill me! I’m not wishing the summer away by any stretch of the imagination. But July means that I am hoppity skippiting towards August 1st which is the UK release date for Into the Grey

SO. MUCH. EXCITEMENT.

July is going to be an exhausting and exciting month as  I’m working in the animation studio full time for a while, and also scrabbling to get the next stage edits done on Resonance. This means I may be a wee bit quite around here. BUT, later in the month, I’m going to be doing a blog tour to celebrate the UK release of Into the Grey! (woot! My first blog tour!)

There’s a lot of darkness in this book, lots of chills and talk of death and loss (some have even called it a horror book) But there’s also lots of love and kindness and bravery – lots of human spirit. I thought I’d have a bit of fun with that side of the book on this tour. SO this will be all about music! Why certain songs feature in the story, what they mean to me, what memories are associated with them etc etc. (There’ll be give aways too )

As soon as I have more details I’ll let you know. We won’t be seeing much of each other until the end of the month now, but until then, here’s one of the songs from the book that (due to associated spoilers) couldn’t get a mention on the tour. The fabulous Toots and the Maytals, 54-46 Was My Number.

(Australian and Irish editions available)

A State of Ongoing Imperfection

Every book I write makes me want to go back and rework the ones that came before. It can cripple you: the knowledge that there is work out there you would happily unravel and reknit were you given the chance. But it’s a blessing never to be given that chance. In the face of your own imperfection, you shouldn’t move backwards and you shouldn’t stop. You can only hope that each step leads to greater improvement. As such, you must accept that perfection is impossible; that the flawed pieces will continue to accumulate as long as you continue producing work. In the end, the only thing you can strive for, and this is appropriate to all areas of life, is that the map of your endeavors charts a series of tiny improvements, rather than a stagnancy of complacency or defeat. 

Caroline’s, not Coraline’s, birthday

So I’ve been cleaning up my office (well, ok, I’ve been moving piles of paper from one dust covered space to another in an attempt to find somewhere to sit down) and I discovered some old doodles I did many moons ago to alleviate the boredom of what was then my day job. This is a birthday drawing I did for a much loved colleague, Caroline Fox, as you can probably tell we had both only recently read and love Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

El Trono Envenenado

Hi guys, I’ve always been delighted with the number of mails and messages I get from my Spanish readers – both from Spain and from South America. I get a lot of queries re Spanish language sequels to El Trono Envenenado. Over the course of the last three months three separate Spanish speaking readers have contacted me offering to translate the books. This so flattering. Seriously, I’m speechless that anyone would like my work so much that, out of the goodness of their heart, they’d offer to take on the monumental task of translating these huge books. All I can say is to please remember that the rights are not mine. No matter how moved I am by your kindness and love, no matter how much it means to me that you would want to do this in order to share something that has delighted you – I can’t accept your kindness on my own behalf. Only the people who own the Spanish language rights can do that. All I can do is say, again, how much it means to me that you would care so much to try .

SO many hugs and kisses to you,

Celine

Free From the Cone of Shame

Maaaan, I knew I was far behind in answering my fan-mails, but I hadn’t a clue that I was quite as far behind as I was. I’ve just spent the last few hours catching up. Hopefully everyone has been replied to by now, and all your questions have been answered and those of you who didn’t mind my sharing have had your e’s posted on the website.

Let me just say, though, I’M SO SORRY (see the above gif) I’ll try not to leave folks hanging about so long in future. (there were a few folks whose e-mails looked very familiar but for whom I could find no evidence of having replied. I sent ye wee notes. Let me know.)

Right. I was going to say ‘back to the writing’ but feck that for a game of soldiers, I’m off out into the sunshine.

xox