THOMPSON
The Current time in Japan is:
I do hope that 2008 brings you lots and lots of what you really, really want. I really, really want some peace and quiet – which is why we fled to Connemara for Christmas. However, back in Dublin, the New Year started for us with a bang at 7.45 am on the 1st January – literally. The builders have moved in next door…
CHAMPAGNE
Luckily, we hadn’t partied too hard the night before. Our mate Amelia phoned on New Year’s Eve to invite us to join her and some other chums, but at that stage we were ensconced in front of the television in our comfies and feeling a bit bah-humbug-ish (I actually hate New Year’s Eve) so we just welcomed the year in with a glass of champagne while watching Kylie strut her stuff.
CONNEMARA
Connemara was blissful. We stayed with friends - first in Cashel, then in Roundstone (the prettiest village in Ireland, which I used as the setting of Living the Dream and Sex, Lies & Fairytales - check out www.kilrowanartsfestival.com), and then travelled further along the West coast to stay in a hotel that had one of the most pretentious menus I have ever read. How can you take seriously a lunch dish that boasts such recherché ingredients as seared Cloonacool Arctic Charr, Enoki Mushrooms and Sakura cress? On the plus side, the Spa was lovely, but nothing in my experience beats the Tethra Spa in the Merrion in Dublin, which is where I go to work out in the gym once in a blue moon. I often wonder if the only reason I renew my membership is because of their annual Christmas party, where I scoff so many calorie-laden amuses-gueules and gulp so much champagne that I ought to spend an entire day on the cross-trainer. I spent nearly all of New Year’s Day doing the ironing on my stepping machine, which had gathered an awful lot of dust in December…
to buy
A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
In December I found out to my delight that I had been voted Author of the Month in Wrexham Library in Wales. Library borrowings are good for authors in the UK – you get a tiny sum every time a book is borrowed. Ireland has yet to come to such a civilized arrangement: when it does, I’ll be off to the local library every day to borrow my own books and earn myself a few bob. Oh - also in December it was good to learn that the compilation of short stories to which I contributed last year reached the number 12 slot in the fiction best-seller list: all author royalties go to the Irish Hospice Foundation. It’s called With a Little Help from My Friends, and it’s still available from book shops in Ireland and on Amazon.
The turf-cutters donkey
I did a lot of bending of people’s ears over the airwaves last month. The Quiet Quarters I wrote and recorded for Lyric FM were transmitted all during Christmas week, and Vincent Woods invited me onto his Arts’ Show on RTE 1 to talk about my favourite book. I chose The Turf-Cutter’s Donkey (those of you who have read Love Lies Bleeding will remember that Greta reads it to Bruno as his bedtime story), because my mother read it to me when I was a child, and I read it to my own daughter.
to listen to
a podcast
of the
quiet quarters
The copy I have is an ancient first edition, illustrated by Jack B. Yeats
(here’s my favourite drawing – I love the expression on Seamus’s face!), so I guess it shouldn’t really be handled (someone suggested that I wear cotton gloves when turning the pages!), but I love to think that my girl might read it to her own child some day…
Empty nest
Talking of the girl, thanks to all of you who have written to me to sympathise with my empty nest syndrome, which - I am horrified to say – just isn’t getting any easier. There is no feeling lovelier than hearing Clara’s voice saying ‘Moshi moshi!’ when she picks up in Tokyo, and no matter how often we talk on Skype, I still want to burst into tears every time I click on ‘end call’.
We’re back in Dublin now, and I’m writing this in the passenger seat of the car, missing my big blue Connemara skies. But there’s work to be done, and real life to sort: one can’t carry on living in a fairytale forever.
your emails
Incidentally, I really do try to write back to everyone, but sometimes there’s a problem with an e-mail address, so Linda Duke – if you are reading this in Australia – the answer to you query about the books is that while they are designed to be read as stand-alone novels, the strict chronological order goes like this:
-
It Means Mischief
-
More Mischief
-
Going Down
-
The Blue Hour
-
Striking Poses
-
A Perfect Life
-
Living the Dream
-
Sex, Lies & Fairytales
Plus, there is another novel - Hard to Choos – which I wrote under the pen-name Pixie Pirelli (you can find out more by going to www.pixiepirelli.com ) There is also a ninth novel available as a download and limited edition from www.katethompsonenterprises.com called Love Lies Bleeding.
2008
Thank-you for reading this. I trust you all had a great Christmas, and that 2008 is good to all of us!
Love & ♥♥♥
from
Kate
PS: ORDERING BOOKS
to buy
By the way, while Sex, Lies and Fairytales is available to buy or to order in all good bookshops in Ireland, the UK and the Commonwealth, its companion piece Hard to Choos is available to buy direct from booksellers only in Ireland at present. Should you wish to buy the book from Amazon, clicking here will take you straight to the sales point. You can also order Hard to Choos from Pixie's site. Lots of you are wondering where my backlist can be purchased. Amazon is good, of course, but my Transworld titles are also available - with free P&P in the UK - at Bookpost. (Just key in the title name in inverted commas - ie: "More Mischief")
to buy
© Kate Thompson, 2008
site constructed by
