The Angelica Touch... my new book is on Amazon

Our First Shop Window!

From the bus last night, on my way into town, I spotted Dad's Red Dress in the window of Books Upstairs. In fantastic company too, with Adrian Mole and Harry Potter, sharing shelf-space with Anton Chekhov, Angela Carter and José Saramango. Happy days!

Writer's Block: an interview

An interview I did about writing with Sophie Grenham has just been published The Gloss magazine in their online version.

Really nice piece too!

The Angelica Touch, my new book

The coolest cover, designed by Aoife Henkes.

The manuscript for my new book has gone to be formatted. It is such a good feeling to set it free, to stop tweaking and scanning for typos or all those glaring mistakes that don't glare until you're reading from the published book in front of a crowd!

Hoping to have it on the shelves by mid-November! Can hardly wait now. Dad's Red Dress has been feeling lonely!

Here's the blurb from the back page of The Angelica Touch, just to whet your appetite:

Angelica, 14, has reached three conclusions. Firstly, her mother Molly, who manages a rundown hotel on the wild Drisogue peninsula in Donegal, is desperately lonely. (She's not.) 

Secondly, it’s entirely her fault that Molly is still single. (It might be.) 

Thirdly, since she can hardly have a boyfriend of her own if Number 2 is true, it’s up to her to find her mother a man. (It really isn't.) 

Given her natural gift for matchmaking, Angelica’s solution is to develop a dating website for her mum. With the questions devised by Angelica and best friend, Grace, what could possibly go wrong?

On the radar and in the orange chair... with CBI

At the weekend, Dad's Red Dress and I found ourselves in the famous orange chair that belongs to Children's Books Ireland, at their annual conference in the Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin. Have to say, it felt very comfortable and would fit nicely in front of our fireplace! 

Earlier this year, CBI gave this little first book of mine a wonderful review in their online Ínis magazine, so it felt right to feel celebratory. Not only because the weekend was full of success stories on stage, all peppered with very real journeys, often difficult and challenging, but because I was talking for two days with fellow writers, with magnificent illustrators, enthusiastic librarians and educators from all around the world. 

Review by Children’s Books Ireland of Dad’s Red Dress by L.J. Sedgwick

http://childrensbooksireland.ie/review/dads-red-dress/

Jessie Keane just wants her family to be normal… utterly, completely normal. Having moved from L.A. back to Ireland, normality would offer a chance to avoid the ‘looks’, the rumours and the bullying that she has dealt with in the past. But ‘normal’ is hardly possible. Not with a little sister who claims to have been abducted by the Virgin Mary (twice), a wildly contemporary artist stepmother and a creative architect father with a penchant for cross-dressing. As she tries to balance this eccentric, yet loving family, and what she hopes will be an ordinary school life, Jessie is put to the test when a new development shakes the façade she is working so hard to craft. She must stop this! Or so she thinks…

When I picked up Dad’s Red Dress, I expected a book that was quirky, entertaining and funny. What I did not expect was a novel that spoke to the heart of what it means to grow up. Filled with vivid, genuine characters and complex, conflicting family drama, it is joyous, loving and truly unique among the vast canon of coming-of-age stories. Each character is intricately drawn. Difficult subject matter is handled with great sensitivity. The dialogue is realistic and relatable for any young person. And while the situation may be unusual, the emotional impact is not. It gives the reader much to consider about life, friendship, who we really are and what makes a family. Dad’s Red Dress is indeed humourous; a delight to read. Simply wonderful.

Review by Mary Esther Judy

Some pictures from the conference. 

Short chapters... or long?

One of the surprising aspects of publishing my first novel has been the number of people who seem to be delighted that it has short chapters. The gist of the feedback is that you can read the book without feeling locked into a long portion of pages when you might not have that much time - but, if you do find a few more minutes, you can keep going and finish another; and that it makes the book easy to read. Life is busy, there are so many demands on our time that maybe it makes sense to do as screenwriters are always advised and make your material easy to read.

In the case of screenplays, that means lots of white space on the page, breaking up huge long paragraphs of action into 'beats' and not having scenes in which nothing happens... In a novel, maybe it means (as well as an exciting story, gripping characters, pace, momentum, colour etc...) short chapters so the reader feels they are propelled forwards?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/short-chapters-long-lindsay-jane-sedgwick

Culture Night cometh... 22nd Sept

I'm not sure why Culture Night is always on a Friday evening, rather than over the course of a whole weekend day. It's impossible to get to half of the events that you want to see or hear but the buzz around those you didn't make it to see is always huge!

This year's a little different for me. I've been asked to read from Dad's Red Dress in Galway (Charlie's Bookshop, in a slot somewhere between 6 and 7pm) and then in Celbridge's Kildrought Lounge (near the library) in a slot somewhere between 9 and 10pm.

What happens to my muse when there are not chocolate biscuits
 around and I've been editing for too long.

I've never been asked to take part in Culture Night events before and I am chuffed to skinny bits.

I'm also munching into a chocolate shortcake biscuit I've been saving all afternoon while composing letters to libraries. It is seriously good biscuit. The sort that makes you feel there should be a Chocolate Shortcake Biscuit Night, where we all wander around our respective towns and cities and tap our chocolate biscuits against each in celebration of creativity, which is often fed by chocolate bribes such as these.

First, I just need to get my daughter off to UCC and into the next exciting phase of her life - do any of you envy your children heading off on these adventures? New people, new accommodation without any of the debris of a lifetime, all those new potential friends and activities.

Musing on the review she will write...

Holiday reading, even for a
city cow..

... or a parrot