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My Heart is Broken
Here is the cover reveal for 'My Heart is Broken' a comic I've written for Opus Comics, based on the Evanescence song, with art by Kelly McKernan.
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Fundraising at Thoor Ballylee
Enjoy an afternoon tea and/or an evening of music at the magical Thoor Ballylee on Bealtaine's Eve in Galway for a good cause.
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Story in No More Heroes
My story, 'Naught's Reckoning' - inspired by the iconic song, 'Zombie', written by Dolores O'Riordan for The Cranberries - will be in the forthcoming anthology edited by Ian Whates, and published by PS Publishing, called No More Heroes.
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Dublin Women in Horror Month Event
To celebrate Women in Horror Month 2016 Acid Cane Comics are hosting the first comic/live music crossover night which is happening at 7pm tonight at On the Rox. They’re getting the comic creators and connoisseurs of horror together in an atmosphere of drinks and rock ‘n’ roll. There will be a comic book launches from Acid Cane Comics and Clare Foley as well as entertainment from Kate’s Party, Glassgears, and Solid Gold Rocketship. There will also be burlesque from The WareBitch Project. To celebrate the event ACC are publishing an anthology of work under the theme of women in horror – I have an original flash fiction in it, called…
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It's good to be alive
Spring has arrived in its full glory in Ireland, which means you have to get out and enjoy it in case it only lasts a few days… Cue appropriate music: this is the video for Imelda May‘s latest song ‘It’s Good To Be Alive’. I’ve been a fan of May’s work since I bought her More Mayhem album a few years back. What makes video even more perfect is the Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein theme (remember, I love monsters), and the fact that it’s directed by my über-talented friend Prano Bailey-Bond. I’m off to boogie in the sunshine…
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best of 2013 – music
This section didn’t appear in my ‘Best of 2013‘ piece for the Forbidden Planet International blog. That’s because when I checked the original request (after I had written this up) I realised I had written way more than I’d been asked to supply. But that’s what my blog is for: the extra features. A caveat: music is a huge field, and I’m concentrating specifically (barring one album) on the category I attend to most often: soundtracks. They’re what I listen to when I write, so I’m always looking for new and evocative ones for inspiration. Not surprisingly, I find the soundtracks to genre movies the best ones for my interests.…
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Sardana in the Jardin
Last week I was in Paris with Martin and my mother, and it was a wonderful holiday in a beautiful city. Perhaps one of the best memories of the trip was an unexpected spectacle when we visited the Jardin du Luxembourg. It was our last day in the city and we decided to take it easy. We feasted upon galettes (buckwheat crepes) at noon and wandered down to the Jardin without any particular plan. After all the breath-taking architecture in Paris it was a welcome relief to be in this pleasant green space. That’s the Medici Fountain near the entrance to the garden. We were lucky to have yet another…
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festival season
This trio of buskers were offering up beautiful music on High Street in Galway on Saturday. It was a hot, sunny day, and the start of festival season in Galway. Actually, from about March onwards Galway is the host of festival after festival, but it reaches its cultural peak during July. Tomorrow sees the start of the Galway Film Fleadh, an internationally-famous film festival that’s an important marker on the Irish film calendar. The city can’t even hitch in a breath before the two-week Arts Festival descends, and then it’s the annual Galway Races. Before you know it it’s August and the summer is sliding away and the Oyster festivals…
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by the light that never goes out
Last night I made the mistake of starting the update process on my Android phone rather late in the evening, or early in the morning depending on your point of view. It meant I had to leave my laptop and phone whirring away by the bed for a while as Martin and I were settling down for the night, and as a joke I warbled a couple of bars of “By the Light of the Silvery Laptop”. Inevitably, this resulted in a search on my newly-updated phone of YouTube videos for the original ‘By the Light of the Silvery Moon‘, which is lyrically quite appropriate for playing in bed. Except,…
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brilliant
It’s the end of St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, a day of celebrations and parades all over the country. It’s turning into a fun holiday, far from the pitiful parades of yore, which involved tractors with ghetto-blasters strapped to their sides blaring out The Clancy Brothers, dingy floats advertising the local supermarket, shivering school bands wearing beige blazers and plaid skirts marching in grim formation and people wrapped up in raincoats and scarves waving plastic tricolours with scant enthusiasm. Later, after we’d breathed life back into our blue fingers, we’d watch the parades in New York, Paris and Sydney on telly and wish we had something that colourful and interesting…
