First Day At School

Hi, first, my checklist. Clean, behind the ears, pencil, bus money, lunch, notebook. Right, this is my first day in school. I’ve just signed up for a blogging basics course and this is my first task. Stand up, in front of the class and tell you who I am.

My name is Dermott. I’m a writer.

Pause.

Aren’t you guys supposed to say? No, no, forget it, that’s a different…I’m a little confused.

Ok, let me start again. I first began writing when I realized pens were not just for chewing. I published my own newspaper in school (https://dermotthayes.com/2016/04/27/an-obstacle-is-a-challenge/). I changed schools a couple of times and in different places but I always loved writing.

After spending some time on the academic trail – I studied politics and history, wrote some research papers, did some teaching – then I became a journalist and worked for many national newspapers in Ireland and the UK and as a freelance journalists for newspapers and magazines around the world. For a short while I was People magazine’s correspondent in Ireland . I wrote about music for MOjo, Q, Select, Noor and Rolling Stone. After 25 years in newspapers, my last job was as Showbusiness Editor of the Irish Mail on Sunday, I gave it up and decided to stick to writing my own work.

Since then I’ve published two books, Postcard from a Pigeon and Other Stories, a collection of short stories and Tito’s Dead, a crime fiction novel. I am writing another, currently.

I’ve dabbled in film making and scriptwriting. Everything is a learning process and if I’m not learning, I’m not interested. I’ve made a couple of video poems that can be seen in the drop down, ‘videos’ menu on my site. Last year, I made a short film, https://dermotthayes.com/2016/04/12/1916-souls-of-freedom-2/ to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, 1916.

I joined WordPress more than a year ago but never put any time or conviction into it until the past six weeks. Now, I love it because it’s an excellent forum to develop ideas, take on prompts and challenges, check out other people’s work, get feedback and comment on new fiction.