Nuala Ní Chonchúir's Blog, page 16

SLOWING DOWN, BELFAST, CRANFORD & AN INTERVIEW

I am trying to take life easier and say no to gigs, but it's hard. I don't want to disappoint people but, at the same time, I need to slow down, spend some quality time with the family and go edit my 19th C London novel. Half of me is dying to get back to the book, the other half has The Fear. I most definitely need to take a step back from gigging. I have some commitments coming up but I need to slow it down for 2016. I'm a bit Lionel Shriver about it all, though...

£2.50 in Oxfam BelfastI went to my first meeting of the Irish chapter of the Historical Novel Society at the weekend in Belfast and it was great. So good to talk to people who have similar passions for the old. And I may have got the nudge I need to do something I have long wanted to do; I need to think about it and make plans. Something has to change in my working life or I will go doo-lally, that's for sure. I'm halfway there already.

While in Belfast I, of course, had a trip around the charity shops. I bought the above beautiful edition of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have never watched the TV series, but I might seek it out now. The novel is fantastic. So far so feminist.

Meanwhile, The Irish Post in the UK interviewed me about Miss Emily and it appeared in last Saturday's paper. My UK PR, Lucy, kindly sent it on to me. Click and zoom to read:

TWO *TIMES* REVIEWS FOR MISS EMILY

Writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne reviewed Miss Emily in yesterday's Irish Times. You can read it online here.

And today, Penny Perrick reviewed it in The Sunday Times. Click on pic and zoom in to read.


All in all, a great weekend for reviews. And I attended my first meeting of the Historical Novel Society (Irish Chapter) in Belfast, which was great fun and nicely informative. I look forward to getting to know my fellow members better.

EMILY DICKINSON'S BEDROOM RESTORED

Pic: Emily Dickinson Museum
Emily Dickinson's bedroom in The Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts, has been restored. I have visited Emily's room three times in the last couple of years and each time there was progress. Once our Emily Dickinson International Society meeting in August was finished - the house is extremely busy for it - the team hung the specially made wallpaper, reconstructed from scraps. It was lovely to see the room almost done but I felt a pang at not seeing the finished effects. I will just have to go back asap.

I had seen a scrap of the wallpaper while researching the novel and I described it like this, in Emily's voice: 'Under its foliage and roses, my wallpaper is filled with arrows, each of them pointing the same way around the walls of my room, from east to west and on eastwards again. The arrows tell me to complete my circle as I begin it. For life – and writing – is a never-ending loop of begin, push on, end, begin again. I usually take comfort from the arrows’ instruction on the inevitability of beginnings and endings, but today has not been like any day I have had before.'

You can read more about the two-year restoration project at the Emily Dickinson Museum's site here.

VIRTUAL TOUR - MISS EMILY - #3

My virtual tour takes me to Kildare today and the blog home of Niamh Boyce where we talk bravery and recreating worlds. Here.

PORTUMNA READING - Miss Emily

I will read from Miss Emily at the launch of the Shorelines Arts Festival in Portumna on Thursday 3rd at 7pm. In the Irish Workshouse Centre. A rare Galway gig!

STORY IN GUERNICA

'The Boy from Petrópolis', my story about Elizabeth Bishop, is featured at Guernicatoday. Guernica is an online magazine of ideas, art, poetry and fiction published twice monthly out of New York. Story here.

RESEARCH ESSAY - MISS EMILY

I've an essay about on-the-ground research for Miss Emily at writing.ie today. Here.

MY WEEK - THE SUNDAY TIMES

MISS EMILY LAUNCH - PICS

Giving thanksThe launch for Miss Emily in The Gutter Bookshop in Dublin was a great success on Friday night. So many lovely friends, family, writers and well-wishers came out. I was really touched and honoured by the sheer volume of people. Even my goes-nowhere eldest son came - score! Thank you, all, lovely, lovely people.
Monica McInerney who gave such a wonderful launch speech for the book
Myself and writer Mary O'Donnell Deirdre O Neill, my original editor at New Island, and me
Writers Sara Mullen, Patrick Chapman and me Signing the book for writer Patricia O'Reilly,
with IWC Director, Valerie Bistany Our gorgeous Cúán - I was thrilled he came alongWe had Emily's Coconut Cake and Gingerbread, made by myself and my cousin, Clodagh O'Connor. Wine and Miss Emily bookmarks, thanks to my publisher Sandstone Press. 


Bob Johnston of the Gutter Bookshop - a brilliant spot - gave
us a huge, warm wecome as always Some of the crowd Karen O'Neill, who took most of the pics, et moi Juno McLoughlin, with the books Gráinne Fox, my agent, and me at after-drinks in The Stag's HeadI had meant to read out the following Emily Dickinson poem when I gave my shpake, but in my nervousness I forgot. It featured on my tights from Coline:


I gave myself to Him—And took Himself, for Pay,The solemn contract of a LifeWas ratified, this way—                    The Wealth might disappoint—Myself a poorer proveThan this great Purchaser suspect,The Daily Own—of Love
Depreciate the Vision—But till the Merchant buy—Still Fable—in the Isles of Spice—The subtle Cargoes—lie—
At least—'tis Mutual—Risk—Some—found it—Mutual Gain—Sweet Debt of Life—Each Night to owe—Insolvent—every Noon—
The Emily Dickinson tights

EVENING ECHO REVIEW - MISS EMILY