The truth is

I haven't been abducted by aliens, nor have I been recruited by the Irish Secret Service for some glamorous and fantastic mission involving using my jacket as a parachute while escaping from a helicopter, I didn't get so confused by the new look of blogger behind the scenes that I fell down a well, nor have I had more children or dogs, I haven't failed to notice all the brilliant exciting achievements of people I know from blogland (are you listening Niamh Boyce, Peadar O BusaJewel?!), nor have I won the lotto and spent the last month recruiting a new blog team from all corners of the earth to bring you the BEST blog ever known to anyone, and I certainly haven't had a surreal wardrobe exploration which resulted in me being missing for almost a century in wardrobe time but only a few weeks in time here on this place.... I am coming up on almost the 3rd anniversary of me finishing writing my difficult 2nd novel. I've never reread it, not more than a page or two anyway, I haven't edited it, I haven't sent it anywhere. The sad truth right now is that I wouldn't even have time to read it. I'm in a book club nowadays and I'm still half way through February's book - I get a half page of it read every so often. Where else is my time going? Not into writing. And I think this needs a bit of correction. I spent half an hour writing last night, what I wrote wouldn't be worth telling you about, but I actually felt better for it today, like - slightly less stressed, more creatively brained, more like myself... I think It could possibly be something I need to do - even if what I write never sees the light of day...

Nothing against Easter

I mean, I've been known to partake in a cup of tea from time to time, have dabbled in Eastenders during my wild youth - even spent a day being an extra in a bollywood short film... and I do like the odd sunrise as you walk home after a crazy night out - but what's with all the focus on the Eastness? There's not a single holiday celebrating any other direction and I think it's about time we put a few dates in the diary for Norther, Souther and Wester!!??!
in all fairness like

Something Fishy

Below I've pasted in a long list from the fish prizes - titles of storys/ memoir pieces - it's kind of heartbreaking to scan down through all of them thinking what hard work went into all the writing.
I didn't enter this time round, so there was no hope in my scanning down through them - but what I am thinking ... is that next year... my entry will encompass all of the below in some way or shape - so that it'll be guaranteed to win.

(in fact I might never enter Fish... I'm not that into salmon [unless it's of the poetry or knowledge variety, ok bad choice of example but you get what I mean] and I always feel like I could do better things with the money. Like if you had to enter a poetry competition or rescue a dying child - which would you do? of course you'd rescue the dying child, not that I actually rescue a dying anything every time I fail to enter a competition - but you get my drift - it's sorta a philosophical question)


A little Scar

A Room in my First House

A Song In The Night

A to Markworthy

A Trio's Travels

Accident-Prone

All I Know is a Door into the Dark

Approaching Death

ARGONAUTS

Ask the London pigeon

Bad Hair Day

BAGS

Been Here Before?

Before Without

Beneath These Feet of Mine

Biryani Mountains, a Lake of Lassi, and enough Kebab to fill the Grand Canyon…my ‘Lowe Marriage’!

Blackberries

Blessed are the Cracked

Born a Dublin Lad

Boystown S.A.

Braveheart.

Breakwater

Building a Sandcastle

By Invitation Only

Casenotes (i)-(vii)

Cattle Market

CAUSE and EFFECT

Changeling

Chivers Road E4

Chocolate con Churros

Christmas at No.3

Cold

Colours

Come Again Another Day

Confirmation Shoes

Conformity and The Art of Skipping Stones

Cows and Lies

Crossing Glaciers

Daddy

Day Day

Dear Sorrow Madam

Death By Fire

Death of a Family

Digging

Disjointed

Driving on Empty

Dumber Than Buffalo

Epiphany

Etiquette

Excerpts from Doing Time with Nehru

Fake

Family Bones

Fashion Victim

Final Contact

Finding Nick

FIRST KISS

First Trip to Poland

Five Cities

Flashback

Footloose

Full Circle

Ganja Girl

Gentiles

Growing Up with Jimjones

HEARTS AT THE SACRED HEART (MEMOIR)

Heaven

Heritage: A Memoir in Fifteen Parts

Hesperus' Daughter

HORIZONTAL HOLD

I Killed My Landlord

I Very Quick

I Was Here

Images Through a Smokescreen

Imprint

Inside the Fence at Buchenwald

Inside the Nation's Most Respected Freak Show

It Happens Like This

IT WAS LIKE THIS: EIGHT VIGNETTES

IT'S BEHIND YOU!

Jailhouse Rock

Keep Hope Alive: Post-Racialism in America

Lament

LANDING MY FATHER

Leaving the Ark

Legacy

Letter from Alaska

Lies That Bind

Life after Death; Grief and the Seven Deadly Sins.

Life and Death Perspective, From Eastholme

Life Drawing

Life is Like a Daisy

Life Without Parole

Little Billy

Livin' on Silver, Parts 1 & 2

Loosened

Losing Dave

Love Letters From Transylvania

Made in Libya

Martha

Masks of Freedom

Material

Me v. Dad

Memoir, The Last Territorial

Memoirs on a noticeboard

Memory Bubbles

Memory rings true

Mirrors

Miss Valentine

Mother and Troubles

Motherland

My Father's Garden

My First Job

MY LIFE AS A CROW

My Teenage Romance

National Pastimes

Okavango Safari

On the Road in Limerick: Forms of Apprehension

One Summer, Way Back

Only for the Summer

Our House

Over Cast Days

People Can Surprise You!

pike parnell and tom finn

Postcards

Purim & My Bangladeshi Friend

Quentin

Raising Up Horsies

Rejected by God

Reminiscence

Resistible: A Comic Memoir about Comedy

Reunification

Rotting sharks, smoking volcanoes and the deadly end-game

Sailing the Kungsholm

Scenes from the boxes in my bedroom

Sea Shanty

Searching for the Centre

Selbach, Germany

Sheffield

Skinning a deer and other stories

skykickers

Slap that Bass

Smalltown Shadows

Societas Post Pubertatem

Soft Shadows in the Mind

Some Tea Towels, a Turkey and the Running

Somewhere in the black-out

Speaking for the Big Shot

Squirrel

Stains

Stardust

Stina and Vino

Strangers

Stung

Suffer The Little Children

Susan-the Big Girl

Taking Education, or a Love Letter to my Student Loans

Talking Double-Decker Bus Tour Guide

Tea with Immortals

Ten Things You Should Know About Grandad Jack Price

That Day

The 1966 Kilrush Fleadh Cheoil

The 27-Year-Old Sister Addresses the 29-Year-Old Sister

The Bella Boys

The Border Crossing

The Border Crossing

The Burden of Memory

The Carer

The Castle

THE COAL TABLE

The Color of Love

The Commonwealth Club

The Crystal Glass

The Crystal Glass

The Curse of the Five Note

The Dog Kill Squad (Kosovo 1999)

The Drowning Girl: Riding the Rapids of My Son's Psychosis (Excerpt)

The Exciting Agonies of War

The First Sneeze

The Fragile Frame

The Gate

The Green Chairs on Ward B

The Guy In Frankie's Hatbox

The house we live in

The House-Keeper

The hunger

The Jaded Slave

The Joyful Mysteries

The Knot

The LPA

The Mad Marine

The Magic Teaspoon

The Paintings in the Rafters

The Particulars

The Pinochle Players

The Secret Lies in Remembrance

The Sinking of The Lancastria

The Sorrowful Songs of Monkeys

The Spider

The Stenographers

The Strange Laptop

The Sungazer

The Talkies

The Town by the Bog

The Village at Lakeside

THREE WHIZZES: FOR DAVID (Dec 4, 1939-June 23, 2001)

Ticket to Ride

To Laugh at Dandelions

To Whom It May Concern

To You, A Thousand Thanks

Tolkien, My Love

Tolstoy's Family

Tracey's Rug

Treacle mining

Trigger

Turning the Wound: A Memoir

Twenty-Three : Twenty-Four

Vasectomy

Viva Madrid!

Walking Around

What Kind of Mother?

When I Come Around

Where We Went and What We Did There

Wilbur

Working