Life in Pictures March 2014

This month's shenanigans in the life of moi...

Visiting the Dublin Writers Museum *swoon*

Casually bumping into the St. Mirren football team in Oliver St. John Gogarty's, Temple Bar, on their belated Xmas night out.

Discovering the Best Doughnut In The Universe.

Going to see Gravity at the IMAX. It blew my teeny mind.

Gatecrashing this idyllic house in Anstruther for the weekend. I want to live here forever.

And last but not least... the birth of my best friend Pauline's son, Corey. He has captured my heart. <3 Look at our matching outfits :')

I hope you've all had a lovely month. Here's to April!

Take care,

Catherine x

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Life in Pictures March 2014

Weegie Wednesday March 2014

For the last two years, I tried (and failed) to summon the balls to attend Weegie Wednesday.

It's a monthly writers event in Glasgow, where creative people get together to talk about their writing, or publishing, or other endeavours. There are usually author talks and/or workshops of sorts too. The author talks/workshops lured me in, but the prospect of "networking" had me scarpering.

You know me, I'm an anti-social bastard. What if someone exposed me for the fraud I most certainly am? Surely I, Catherine Noble, cannot seriously call myself a writer yet. Pahahahaha... what a brass neck.

This month, however, the guest author was Lisa O'Donnell, writer of The Death of Bees. I haven't read the book yet, but it's high up on my "To Be Read" list and the sample extract of her novel intrigued me enough to want to find out more. 

To my delight, Fiona from my writers group agreed to go with me and so I bit the bullet.

I really shouldn't have been such a fearty. There were lots of people there talking about their writing, but not one of them stormed up to me and demand that I produce a list of published works. We got talking to author G.W. Colkitto, who chatted away about all things writerly. It was good to gab away, about characters and editing etc. etc.

Back to the main event: Lisa's talk. She gave us a bit of back story on how she became a writer, and it was mighty refreshing to hear that it wasn't simply a case of plonking herself down, scribbling out a story in a fortnight, then being subject to a bidding war for the publishing and movie rights. Fair play if that's how you got published (I hate you.). Her writing career started with a two-page screenplay competition, which she won. Then followed a variety of creative jobs and projects, of which some succeeded and some failed. She told us that sometimes you have to just let a project go if it isn't working, and there were nods of agreement throughout the room.

Nearly two decades later she did find herself in a bidding war for her novel The Death of Bees and I, for one, can't wait to read it. When an opening page starts with: "Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.", how can you not want to read on?

Looking forward to the next Weegie Wednesday. If you're in the Glasgow area, you should come along!

Take care,
Catherine x ◦

Weegie Wednesday March 2014

A bibliophile's dream

Last week, my twincess Irene & I languished in the devastation of celebrated our 29th birthday.

I'm not one to accept growing old(er) gracefully. I live in denial. I turned 25 last week, OK?

To soften the blow, Colin got me the best birthday gift my geeky little heart could ever wish for. I was taken to my favourite place in the world, Voltaire & Rousseau, and given free rein.

Free rein in this place!

4 carrier bags later, we were home, and I was delirious with happiness.

Here's the list, in all its stunning entirety:

• Ulysses - James Joyce
• Cal - Bernard MacLaverty
• The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
• Red Dust Road - Jackie Kay
• White Teeth - Zadie Smith
• Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
• Pulp - Charles Bukowski
• Not Not While The Giro - James Kelman
• The Acid House - Irvine Welsh
• Moments of Being - Virginia Woolf
• Any Human Heart - William Boyd
• Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord - Louis deBernieres
• Creative Writing (Pocket Essentials) - Neil Nixon
• The Peppered Moth - Margaret Drabble

With all this joy comes a great dilemma... in which order should I read the beauties? I'm slightly obsessed with Irvine Welsh at the moment and have started on The Acid House... I'm thinking James Kelman next. Have you got a favourite amongst them all?

Just when I thought I was all-booked-out for the immediate future, I received this lovely tweet from my writerly friend, Paul Forrester (be sure to follow him on Twitter):

Wayne & Maria were having their own book clear-outs, so I jumped at the chance! I came in to work to find this wee cracker on my desk:

I can't wait to read it, especially as I'm rewriting some of The Novel and about to embark on some serious editing.

I'm experimenting with close (third person) narration and took an extract of my latest attempt into writers group on Thursday. On the whole it was positive, although it clanged with a few people. I'm going to continue with it, though, I feel like I've got some momentum going at last!

How are you all getting on?

Take care
Catherine x ◦

A bibliophile's dream