Celine Kiernan's Blog, page 20

Three Step Trilogy Analysis, Radio Interviews, Record Breaks & shhhhh

Many thanks to the folks over at Yellow Brick Reads for chosing The Moorehawke Trilogy as the subject of this month’s Three Step Trilogy. I love YBR’s indepth, thoughtful approach to reviewing and I especially like their new Three Step Trilogy series which takes YA trilogies as a whole unit and analyses them as such. (See their detailed break down of The Hunger Games,Catching Fire & Mockingjay, and keep an eye out for next month’s series which is – I think – Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking Trilogy [though I may be wrong!]) Go check

out what they had to say about Moorehawke :

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 You will hear me on the radio this week. I’m heading to Dublin tomorrow to record an interview with RTE Digital for their Little Pages programme. Grainne Clear, a young friend and I will be chatting about Into The Grey. Not sure when this will be broadcast but I think Friday 15th? (I’ll let you know!) If you’d like to check out Grainne’s previous excellent book discussions you can find many podcasts here.

On the morning of Thursday 14th I’ll be over at the Newstalk studios chatting to Chris Donaghue for the Newstalk Breakfast Show. I’ll be on air around 9.20 or so. If you like, you can pick up the show on the newstalk live broadcast here.

On Friday I will be participating in the writers centre’s attempt to break the world record for the most number of writers reading consecutively from their own work There will be 111 separate Irish authors, inc myself, John Boyne, Roddy Doyle, Sarah ReesBrennan, all reading for 15 minutes each for 28 hours The entire thing will be webcast from the writers centre website, so even if you aren’t in the area, you can pop in and out over the course of the 28 hours to hear your favorite authors reading ( If you’d like to tune in – and I’d love you to! – I’ll be reading from Into The Grey at 2am (Irish time))

This week’s TV3 AM appearance has been postponed until August 15th, so I’ll remind you of it nearer to the time

After all this chatting, I’m going to be a little quiet for a bit.  I’ve been finding it very difficult to work recently (I’m blaming my lack of a laptop – but there are other factors involved too) and I need to retreat for a while in order to give myself space to concentrate on the WiP before the next round of edits start on Resonance. So I won’t be around the interwebs too much in the next few weeks. I’m on a wee bit of a drawing kick though – there may be the occasional illustration to punctuate the silence

Names, names, names redux

On a recent visit to Kings Hospital School in Dublin, a lovely young woman called Cassie asked me about the names used in Moorehawke. I had meant to link her to this post from  August 2010, but I had forgotten how ravaged the old blog was by those damned hackers. So, Cassie, rather than send you over there, I’ll just reproduce that old blog post here – free from hacker slime I’m sorry it took so long, but hope it answers all your questions.

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Below 1st posted August 2010

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This morning I got a lovely e-mail from a young Australian woman called Maia, saying how much she has enjoyed the Rebel Prince. As part of her mail she asked me where I had come up with the names in Moorehawke. I thought I’d share my reply. ( Thank you for the lovely mail Maia! It made my day. And thanks to all of you who have written to let me know that you’ve enjoyed the Rebel Prince – it’s such at thrill to know it was a satisfying end to the trilogy for you!)

Moorehawke Names

Wynter is an old medieval/renaissance nickname meaning ‘miserable’ or ‘misfortunate’ (literally the word ‘Winter’) I chose to use the old spelling of the word as it’s much prettier to read and less confusing than just plain Winter ( and can be shortened to ‘Wyn’)

Iseult is the name of a legendary Celtic princess.

Christopher is just Christopher  (he would have been called Coinín by the Merron only. It is their nickname for him and means ‘Rabbit’), Garron is the place his adopted father was from. (When dealing with ‘foreigners’ Christopher and his Father would have shortened their names from Christopher mac Aiden an filid as tí­r na Garron, and Aiden an filid mac Oisín an filid as tí­r na Garron to just Christopher Garron and Aiden Garron.)

Razi is an Arabic name meaning ’supporter of the King’ or ‘Little Secret’. His full Arab name Al Sayyid Razi ibn Jon Malik al fadl means (roughly) The Lord Razi most fortunate/blessed son of King Jon. A man called al-Razi was a famous medieval pharmacist and professor of medicine.

Lorcan is an old Irish name, Moorehawke is the name his grandfather took when he was freed from slavery ( free as a bird, in other words)

Jonathon is just Jonathon ( a bibical name) but the name Kingsson was taken by Jon’s grandfather  to show that he was the true King’s Son when he took the Southlands Throne from the Combermen.

Alberon is the French version of the German Oberon meaning ‘noble one’ ( or Noble bear?)

All the Northern Merron’s have old Norse names ( Viking in other words) Ashkr and Embla were a mythical couple, kind of like the bible’s Adam and Eve, who were made by the Norse Gods from trees found on a beach. (see photo!)

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And that’s that!

Primo…

As always, I’m sketching as I write. This is one of my current main characters, from this scene:

Primo hunkered on the branch by my side. The vertical spaces of the orchard plummeted away below us, and we gazed down into glistening blue as if trying to find our friend with our minds. The ground was lost to sight this high up, the trees simply fading away into a shifting haze of colour.

‘Where can she be?’ said Primo, a real edge of worry to his voice now.

Thank you, By The Book!

Have had this photo on the computer for a while, but recent storms have meant that my internets have been crazy bad and so I haven’t had the chance to share. This is the lovely display in the window of my local bookshop By The Book. It is the first stop of the CBI Book of the Year Award as it travels its way around Cavan. Many thanks to By The Book for looking after it so well this week!

Tomorrow will be the trophy’s last day in Virginia. But next week you will be able to see it in the window of The Crannóg Book Shop on the mainstreet in Cavan Town

And here’s the truth of it…

You come home. You put your awards on the shelf.You go right back to being the same irritating, insecure asshole you were before.

Book of The Year Award Double Whammy

I’m more than a little bleary eyed today folks. It’s taken quite a while to realise that Monday morning wasn’t a dream, and that Into The Grey (Taken Away) actually has won Best Book of the Year in the 2012 CBI Awards. Not only that, but it also walked away with that most coveted of recognition, the Children’s Choice (I am the first author ever to win both!)

Stunned? There’s no word for how stunned I am. I can’t decide which award is most thrilling to me. The Children’s Choice Award  is the result of children’s juries all over Ireland reading the nine shortlisted titles and then voting on which they preferred. That floors me: that the kids themselves voted for Into The Grey to win. Children are the most honest of readers and for them to have chosen Into the Grey out of such a strong line up of contenders is the highest compliment I could ever have received. And then, on top of that, to have won the Book of The Year which is the decision of this year’s panel of judges whose vote is based on literary merit as much as enjoyment of the story… Gah. Speechless again.

If you’d like to see me in less speechless mode, you can catch me in all my rather insane looking glory on this newsclip (I come after Jedward!)

Though you can see me above with some of the voters, clutching my permanent award in my fist, the Book of the Year trophy (formerly known as the Bisto Award) is a great mad heavy thing! I’m barely able to lift it at all! I get to hang onto it for a year but CBI have kindly allowed that I can lend it to a couple of my favourite bookshops and my local library for a little tour of my neighbourhood. So if you’re around Cavan in the next few weeks, you can pop in and see her if you like. Next week (4th -9th June) you can find her in the By The Book bookshop in Virginia town. Then you can find her in the Crannóg Bookshop in Cavan town ( 11th-15th June) After that she’ll be having a little two week rest in my local library at Baillieborough

OK. It’s now 5am. I’ve been up since 3 because I knew if I didn’t get up and do this blog I’d never get the chance – but now I think I need a bit of nap before starting another hectic day (*whine* I haven’t written a word on the new novel since LAST WEEK! Bad Author! Lazy author!)  but before I tootle off to what is hopefully a deep and refreshing sleep, can I thank my publishers the O’Brien Press (Ireland) and Allen&Unwin (Australia) for taking a chance on what many others considered too complex a book for kids. In particular I want to hug it out with my amazing editors Elsie Jones(A&U) and Susan Houlden(OBP) – both of whom were on board from day one withmy vision of the work and whose contributions only served to strengthen it every step of the way. Thanks, guys! You’re a dream to work with!

Right. To bed before my brain melts. GOOD NIGHT!

Moorehawke en francais and a little yellowbrickreads

Well, I had a terrific time at the Culture box readings yesterday. Many thanks to Sinéad MacAodha and all at the ILE and the Culture Box & Temple Bar Cultural Trust for organising the event. Somehow I managed not to fall over and die of nerves, PLUS we ran out of chairs!!!!!(I couldn’t believe it!)

Many many thanks too, to Anne Natchke, the wonderful French woman that ILE found to read from the French version of Moorehawke. I just thought she gave an amazing reading! I only wish that I could share it with you, but though a video was shot at the event, it has such terrible sound quality it would simply not do justice to Anne’s performance. If you’d like to see her perform though, she is doing another reading soon, from Peter Cunninghams’ LA MER ET LE SILENCE on Thursday 24th of May at 6.30pm. For more details contact The Alliance Francais

The ILE had also asked that I read from my more recent work. I must say, it did feel strange to stand up and read from my next book, Resonance, as it is not due on the shelves until May of next year. I was wary of spoilers, and there had been some lip biting and humming and hawing between myself and my publishers as to which section I’d choose, but in the end I simply read the first few pages of the very first chapter. It seemed to go down very well with the audience which was a great thrill and relief! Strangely, I feel like Resonance is a real book now. As if somehow, by virtue of my having read it aloud,  it’s alive and breathing whereas before it was just a phantom: something which might easily slip away from me as if I’d only dreamed it.

Yay for that!

I’d like to also thank Meave Tynan over at Yellow Brick Reads for our recent, very enjoyable chat about Moorehawke, Into the Grey, Resonance, and writing in general. Here is a small section of that interview:

Though the Moorehawke trilogy is set in an alternative Renaissance Europe, it deviates from much European fantasy work in the emphasis it places on the (sometimes fraught) interactions between people of different cultures, languages and traditions. Was this intentional?




 Yes, absolutely. One of the things I wanted to explore in Moorehawke was how difficult it can be to maintain consensus in a society where differences are tolerated and where multiculturalism is embraced. Tolerance is easily preached, but not so easily lived and  I wanted to be realistic about the fact that there is no one correct answer to the world’s problems, and no one perfect way of living. Societal stability is fragile and peace is something that can only be achieved (if it is achievable at all) when all sides make a genuine effort to understand and accommodate those who they may be naturally inclined to despise. Every person in Moorehawke has their own view of how their very real problems should be solved. As an author I tried very hard not to step in with any moral judgements – there is no specially wonderful, shiningly prescient character in these books who the reader can cheerfully follow knowing they are the one who has all the answers (if only everyone would listen to them!). For the problems in Moorehawke to be solved, in so far as they can be solved, there needed to be less of the one true hero trope, and more of a combination of individual compromises than is (probably) usual in fantasy politics.
TO READ MORE CLICK HERE

Next week I will be visiting the teachers and pupils in Kings Hospital Secondary School, Palmerstown. They’ve been reading Into The Greyas part of the CBI Awards Shadowing scheme and it would seem they want a word with me about it. Hmmmmm… I hope I’m not in trouble! Ah well, trouble or not, I need to get down to work now. This next book won’t write itself. Back to the grind!

Temple Bar, Moorehawke and Resonance Readings

Don’t forget I’ll be in the Culture Box at 1 o’clock on Thursday 10th of May (12 East Essex St, just across from Meeting House Sq)

As part of the Irish Literary Exchange celebration of Europe Week, I’ll be reading extracts from the The Poison Throne (Le Royaune Empoisonne) and The Crowded Shadows (Les Loups Cache)  followed by Anne Natchke, who will be reading from Florence Dolisi’s wonderful French translation so that each section will be read first in English and then in its French version. The ILE have also asked if I would read from my latest work. I will of course be happy to oblige by reading from the first chapter of my new novel Resonance (due out May 2013) 

If you have some time to spare during your lunch break drop around, I’d love to see you there.

Thank you, Crevan!

I just got this terrific letter from one of the readers on the CBI Awards shadowing scheme. I love it so much! I especially love the drawing of Dom and Pat up on the totem pole and of James ( I suspect about to throw himself into the sea.) Thank you so so very much, Crevan (what a beautiful name!) for taking the time to write to me and also to illustrate my story. I will sit down tomorrow and write you a letter in which I will answer all your questions.

Got to say, Crevan, you made my day. You really did. THANK YOU!

An Open Letter to Cardinal Sean Brady

Dear Cardinal Sean Brady, how is it you cared more for your position in the Catholic hierarchy than you did for the immortal soul you profess to possess?

You had information that a man was systematically and repeatedly raping children.  You remained silent about this information long after it became clear that it was not going to be  used by your superiors to put an end to this man's acts or bring him to justice or help his victims in any way. You refuse now to accept that you failed as a human being and as a leader of your church. You refuse to admit that you could have done more. As far as I am aware, your Eminence,  the defence of 'superior orders' was undermined by Nuremburg. You should have gone public at the time. Every day of every year that passed while that information lay hidden and that man continued to rape his way through entire families of children, you should have stepped forward and made the truth known.

You should have acted. You could have acted. You did not act.

The least you can do, the very least, is to retire and spend the rest of your life in penance for the suffering you have prolonged, praying in earnest to the God you say you believe in that there is still some morsel of hope for your redemption.
(re posted from the blog)