Turn up the lights in here, baby.

Lately I've been working vampire hours, staying up past 4 a.m. writing book 2. As usual I've been listening to music as I write, so before I go asleep I thought I'd share my latest playlist!

All of the Lights - Kanye West ft. Rihanna and Kid Cudi

I'm totally addicted to this song. I can't get enough of Rihanna, love her latest stuff. 

Cheerleader - We are Losers

An infectious Dublin band to watch out for. I saw them in Whelan's and was really impressed. You can check out some of their tracks here.

Don't Believe a Word - Thin Lizzy

I read the Phil Lynott special issue of Hotpress magazine from cover to cover today. The late Thin Lizzy frontman is 25 years dead this year, and to mark the anniversary there will be an exhibition of memorabilia, song lyrics, and photographs etc. taking place in Dublin.  I'm really looking forward to visiting it. As he was such an excellent wordsmith, the exhibition will be part of the programme for the Dublin UNESCO City of Literature celebrations. More info here. 

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

One of the greatest songs of all time. (So many covers of it around that I'm not mad about... apart from this one.)

The Way I Loved You vs. Love the Way You Lie

I love both these songs so was super excited when I heard this mashup.

Make You Feel My Love - Adele

This version is so good. Adele is just amazing.

New Kanye and Adele albums are definitely on my wish list! As always, I'd love to hear your recommendations too! 

It's not me, it's you.

My books are written in first person. While I love writing this way, it comes with its problems. Besides the more technical difficulties of telling the story from one characters' perspective, there is another major thing I've discovered - people close to me think I'm writing about myself. Several people have asked if Jacki is based on me, and some are adamant that she is. I can't really blame them, as I'm guilty of this too. I'll read a story by one of my friends, and I'll wonder have they actually done that? or is that what they really think? While my personal experiences do affect my writing, I definitely don't write entire characters based on people I know. I see Jacki as sort of like a best friend, a person I know everything about, somebody I admire. Yet many of my friends have said: 'So Jacki is you right, who is Nick then?' I've spent a lot of time convincing the people close to me that Jacki is, in fact, not me.

As many of you know, I was very excited when I saw the cover of my book. I was going around showing it to all my family and friends. (Or rather my Dad was, and I was tagging along with him.) At least half of the people we showed had this reaction:
'Wow that's really nice.'
(Me) 'I know right!
'And she kinda looks like you.'
'Eh, what? That looks nothing like me.'
'Yeah she does, when you were younger!'

Then I remembered the long blonde hair, the black hoodie that I wore almost everyday...the studded belt. I can't really see that much of a resemblance, but my family apparently can!

Here I am at the Oxegen music festival.

Here I am playing keyboard in our ill-fated band The Biscuits (more on that here).

I swear guys, she's not me.
She is way cooler.

P.S. I can't believe it's only 70 days until Angel Kiss is released. I'm getting *seriously* excited!

Thoughts for a Thursday

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"You know when you've found it,
There's something I've learned

'Cause you feel it when they take it away."

Damien Rice (Amie)

A Little Update...

Hey Everyone!

I've been quite busy lately. I'm writing book 2, and also making plans for the launch of Angel Kiss. I had a marketing meeting with Puffin last week which went super. I'm so excited because the release of Angel Kiss is less than three months away! I haven't been online much lately because I'm really trying to concentrate on my second book. I'm finding the first draft so much harder this time around, because I'm very aware of the standard I have to reach. However, I will be making a much bigger effort to blog more regularly, because talking to you guys really brightens up my day. 

I think I mentioned before that I volunteer at a monthly storytelling night in Dublin called Milk & Cookie Stories. After four months of giving out cookies and listening to other people's awesome stories, I decided to be brave last Tuesday and tell one myself. I was kind of nervous, because I was telling a true tale from memory (I'm used to reading fiction off a page!), but i think it went well. A few strangers came up to me afterwards to tell me they enjoyed my story, which was so nice of them! If you're in the Dublin area and fancy listening to or indeed telling a story, you should check out Milk & Cookies! 

In non-writing related news, I went to see two amazing films recently. Black Swan and Blue Valentine. Black Swan was wonderfully creepy in an old school kind of way. The dancing was amazing and there were some rather scary moments. Natalie Portman is so inspiring too, so clever and gorgeous and talented. I enjoyed Blue Valentine even more.  It was such an interesting and honest portrayal of a relationship. I never got the whole Ryan Gosling thing before, but I totally get it now. My housemates were right, he is HOT. The acting in this film is just superb, definitely Oscar worthy! 

As today is Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite musings on love. 

"Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable."
~Dr. Joyce Brothers

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life…You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."
~Neil Gaiman

"So, it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? Thirty years from now, forty years from now? What's it look like? If it's with him- go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again, if I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out."

~Noah, from the movie The Notebook.

"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."

~Robert Frost

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."

~Henry Louis Mencken

"Worse than the total agony of being in love?"

~Sam, from the movie Love Actually. 

Sookie: "...I'm just so damn happy... you're not gonna die alone! I mean, somebody will be there, somebody will know, somebody will find the body and call the police and-'

Lorelai: "Yes, that is a relief."

~Gilmore Girls. 

Do you have a favourite quote on love?

Thoughts for a Thursday (Valentine's Edition!)

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'Love is handing someone a gun and letting them point it to your head, believing that they won't pull the trigger.' 

- SpongeBob Squarepants