2014 - the literary highlights

Ummm, ok, so this year is a bit sparse from my end, but I still think it is only right that I should keep this list going, if only because next years will have to look amazingly good compared to this, so in no particular order, my literary highlights are

1.  Launch of Last Kiss - by Louise Phillips, which I was lucky enough to get to attend, it was a great read, and she deservedly made the popular short list for the Bord Gais book awards again!
2.  Listening to a story by Helen Kahn in my writers group in Midleton on the first of May - Monkey Boots was overdue by a week and a half, I was very uncomfortable what with her limbs pushing my organs all round the place for fun, but I forgot all about that for a half hour with a really well told tale of emigration in the 60's, what it meant then - how it felt.  Helen is a great writer, I don't think she half realises how good, and I found it very moving.
3.  So moving in fact that Monkey Boots was born the very next day.  I wrote an amazing wise and wonderful poem shortly after her arrival about the wonder of life, (probably and most possibly also containing the very meaning of life) on the inside of a brochure for baby jaundice, I safely stowed it in my bag of cotton wool for baby changing and then promptly lost it.
4. My fave literary aunt and fairy godmother came for a visit and we wrote a bit together.
5.  Other friends and me variously tried to kick start each other's creativity with supportive mails and texts.
6.  This year is a Davy Byrnes year, which means I have a full 5 years to come up with a story to win the 25K, should be a doddle if I start now.
7. The creative way - a book I started early this year with weekly exercises to help your creativity - I bailed the week that you had to stop watching tv - I might pick it up again next year
8. The good wife -I managed to watch all 4 seasons in about 4 weeks.  This was relaxation for my brain and eyes, which can only go to help me in future writing endeavours.
9. Niamh Boyce's book The Herbalist got nominated for an Impac award, it's a brilliant book, so I was very happy for her, but also her name is almost the same as mine so it almost feels like I won it.
10. This blog is still alive, though it's definitely an endangered specimen I'm happy to report the vital signals are still present if a bit weak.

XX 2015 can only get better (though maybe not)