Birthday and Big Smoke

I turned 24 on Saturday and had so much fun. I was woken up by my housemates coming into my room singing Happy Birthday, and then we proceeded to have tea and cake in bed! In the afternoon I read a piece from Angel Kiss at the Big Smoke Literary Café. It was such an enjoyable event, all the student and guest readers were fantastic. I was so impressed by the talent displayed, and the variety of stories and poems read. Also there was such a friendly and cosy atmosphere, the Big Smoke team were very welcoming and everyone seemed to be having a really good time. YA Author Claire Hennessy (who is one of the directors of Big Smoke) read a very funny extract from her novel Big Picture. Claire and I are pictured above! I had a party that night in my house and felt very lucky to get lots of nice presents. John gave me the gorgeous tea set. I absolutely love it, it's so pretty.

Big Smoke Literary Café

The Big Smoke Writing Factory are having their second Literary Café in Dublin this Saturday, 20th November. There will be readings of poetry, prose and dramatic performances by Big Smoke students, a musical interlude or two, and some special guests. Said special guests include poet Leeanne Quinn, author Colm Liddy and me! It's on in the Ormond Wine Bar (Ormond Quay, Dublin 1) from 3p.m. to 6p.m. Admission is free and all are welcome! (No booking is required. More info here.)

If any blog buddies can come along be sure to say hi, i'd love to meet you!

Magical Memories

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Whenever a Harry Potter film is released, it brings back so many memories for me. I'm going to see Deathly Hallows on Friday, and I absolutely cannot wait. The Harry Potter series has been such a huge part of my life so far, my friends and I literally grew up with it. I remember being eleven, finishing the The Philosopher's Stone in one day and dragging my Mum out to buy the next one. I remember the wait for The Order of the Phoenix being almost unbearable. I remember scrolling through the cast photos online, and feeling crazily jealous of Emma Watson. I remember being sixteen and not afraid to dress up in a wizard costume.  I remember texting my friend Anthea and asking her what page she was on. I remember going to the cinema to see The Goblet of Fire and everybody whispering 'oh, cool!' when the guy in the Gryffindor scarf walked up the aisle. I remember reading continuously for twenty hours, eating a cheese sandwich with one hand and turning pages with the other. I remember thinking J.K. Rowling is my hero. I remember being so excited for Deathly Hallows, but also devastated because this meant it was all over. I remember thinking please don't kill off Ron. I remember watching little kids walking out of the bookshop at midnight, their heads down, already on the fifth page. I remember thinking this is insane. I remember thinking this is amazingly, incredibly magical.

Oh, such a perfect day.

You know when you have one of those days where things are just perfect, and nothing goes wrong and it's generally awesome? Yesterday I had one of those days. It started off pretty much like any other. I got up and made myself tea, then wrote some words.
At one o'clock, my Dad drove up to Dublin and we had lunch. We went to a little Italian restaurant off Grafton Street and both ordered lasagna, which was absolutely delicious. Then we browsed around bookshops and art galleries. I get on really well with my Dad, and love hanging out with him. We've had 'father and daughter days' like this since I was small and they're one of my favourite things in the world.
Later that evening I went to Milk and Cookie Stories, a free storytelling night held in Dublin on the second Tuesday of every month. I recently joined their storytelling collective, and my job last night was to provide a steady supply of homemade cookies to everyone who came. There was also free tea and coffee, cushions, fairy lights and fabulous stories. (If you're in Dublin, it's definitely worth checking out.) Last night was Milk and Cookie's first birthday, so there were extra balloons and party games and cake. It was so much fun!
Then after that, my friend and I went to hear The Mighty Stef play an acoustic set. He's known for his unique voice and the storytelling nature of his songs, and is one of my favourite musicians. It was so nice to end the night listening to him. My friend (who is also my housemate) and I then walked home in the cold, crisp weather, and we chatted so much that the walk seemed much shorter than usual.
When we got home I logged on to Twitter, where my YA author friend Claire had said to me:
'Have you seen what's on Amazon?'
Now, i thought it was going to be one of the many, many books that I'm looking forward to, maybe a teenage fiction title that I'm excited about. So imagine my surprise when I clicked on the link, and saw it was my book! Angel Kiss is on Amazon!
I spend so much time browsing on that site and adding stuff to my wish list, and of course buying far too many books. So I'm insanely excited that Angel Kiss is on there. It's out on May 5th 2011. And has 304 pages. And is available for pre-order!

The perfect end to a perfect day.

Christmas Gift Guide (Part 1)

Welcome to the first installment of my Christmas Gift Guide! It might provide some inspiration if you're looking for presents for book loving friends, or just want to add to your own Christmas wish list!

Virginia Woolf badge

Reading Journal

Penguin Books Tie

Book Tote

'A Brief History of Time' Clock

Ladybird Make-up Bag

All products from the Literary Gift Company. Check out their website here.

Thoughts for a Thursday

"To me, Fearless is not the absense of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death." 
— Taylor Swift

Who else is going to a Taylor concert next year? I'm so excited!

A little update...

Hey Everybody!

Hope you all had a fabulous Halloween, whatever you got up to! I dressed up as a cowgirl, but unfortunately I've mislaid my camera so I can't show you any photos just yet (really hope it turns up!)
I can't believe it's November already. I love wintertime, it's my favourite season. I adore cold weather and warm fires and cosy clothes and sparkly decorations. Winter fashion is always fun - tights and coats and woolly cardigans and my Topshop coat that is possibly the snuggest thing on the planet. I reckon my fascination with winter comes from the fact that I was born in November during a snow storm. You hear of people feeling down when winter comes, but I get noticeably cheerier!

18 Kisses (my second book) is going well, mainly because I have found a perfect notebook to write my notes in. I'm very fussy when it's comes to notebooks, there are so many things to consider - size, colour, line spacing, cover durability etc. (Sadly, I'm not exaggerating.) The notebook is from Paperchase and is pictured above, along with my 18 Kisses scrapbook.  It's actually much plainer than what I'd usually go for, but it has lined pages and plain pages and pockets.

Another good thing about winter is the movies.  I really enjoyed the last two films I went to see. The Social Network was really cool, Jesse Eisenberg played the role of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg brilliantly. But Easy A is even better! It's such a funny and clever and generally awesome teen movie.  There are literary references, there is a musical number, there is Dan from Gossip Girl... basically endless reasons to go see it.