NY AND BUSY-NESS

Ground art - Williamsburg Bridge

I really wanted to blog about my trip to New York and my dinner/talk with the fabulous docents from the Morgan Museum (about Emily Dickinson) but outrageously painful tonsils, and jetlag, have had me corpse-like since I got back from NY.

Docent dinner table

And I have proofs to finish (for Joyride to Jupiter), and Becoming Belle to re-write, and a flash paper to write for my upcoming trip to Roma. And I've my Cruinniú na Cásca gig tomorrow, and an Italian exam to study for and essay to complete. So everything is feeling a little overwhelming and full-on and time is not on my side. I worked on my proofs both yesterday and today, though I am sick and it's a bank holiday weekend. I've no choice. If I don't do it, it doesn't get done.

Books acquired in NYC

And this is one of the major drawbacks of being a writer and self-employed: the absolute impossibility for time off. NY was supposed to be a holiday, one that would incorporate a trip to the Morgan to see the Emily exhibition. Then my cousin-in-law, who works at the museum, asked if I would give a talk to her docent colleagues. I LOVE talking about Emily D so yes, I said YES. And we had a gorgeous dinner and they were erudite, funny, sweet people and it was enormous fun. But it was work and work gigs make me anxious and cranky until they are complete. So inevitably, during some of our holiday time, I was a bit wound up.

A trip highlight: the aerial tram across the river from Roosevelt Island

Also my agent and main editor are in NY, so naturally we arranged to have lunch. And we did and we yapped and laughed and made plans for next year's novel (June 2018) and we admired the cover for my forthcoming short story collection which my agent and I had just that morning signed-off on (reveal soon!). I love these people, we get along and we have great fun when we get together but, again, this is work-related stuff (no matter how jolly) and here I was, again, on holiday but allowing work to seep in.

McSorleys - the ale was delicious

I have this vision of a time where I do nothing but sleep, eat and read. Sleep. Eat. Read. It's a dream, a wish, something that can't be reached, I guess. I'm grateful for the life I have built and I'm not moaning about all the joy and privelege that writing brings but sometimes I would just love a day off. Just one day to call my own where I wouldn't do one thing that was work-related. Not one little thing. And, also, that I wouldn't feel guilty about it. Because this is the major problem - I can't seem to give myself a break. If I'm not working I feel guilty because time is so precious. I can't even have tonsillitis in peace :( (Or, I can't let myself...)

Liberty Island from Battery Park

Not wanting to end on a downer, I will apologise for the cheerless post and wish you a very Happy Easter. I hope you all got as much chocolate as I did :)

STORY IN GUERNICA

'The Boy from Petrópolis', my story about Elizabeth Bishop, is featured at Guernica today. Guernica is an online magazine of ideas, art, poetry and fiction published twice monthly out of New York. Story here.

WAMC RADIO INTERVIEW

The warm and lovely Katie Britton interviewed me about Miss Emily for WAMC Radio in Albany, NY. You can listen back here.

And with that I am off to the USA for my book tour. If I can, I will report from the road. If not (it is going to be hectic) I will report when I get back. Slán!

PENGUIN BOOKSELLER DINNERS, USA

Sign inside a shop on 5th

I am slowly getting back to 'normal' after my trip to the States for bookseller dinners, organised by Penguin USA. Basically, I was flown over to meet with booksellers at meals in lovely restaurants. You couldn't say no to that! The dinners took place in Greenwich, Connecticut, and in Boston, Mass.

I stayed in New York for two nights and Boston for one so, while it was a tad hectic, it was enormously enjoyable and just what I needed after a recent low. All of the booksellers and the sales people from Penguin have read ARCs of the novel so we were able to talk in-depth about various aspects of the story, the writing of the book, our mutual hopes for its success etc.

The Empire Hotel - that statue behind the clock is Dante

In NY I stayed in the Empire Hotel on W 63rd and, moments after I arrived I saw the lovely Iris Apfel in the bar next door, a branch of the famous P.J. Clarke's. What a legend - I had literally just pinned her picture to my Great Women board.

Super Grover - my companion on trips I take alone - with 8th Ave and Broadway, from the hotel

Libby, self, Kathleen and Kelly at l'Escale, Greenwich

Tara, my editor, and me (tired)

The restaurant in Greenwich (about an hour from Manhattan) was called l'Escale and it served French cuisine and was on the harbour. Absolutely beautiful. My editor at Penguin, Tara Singh-Carlson was with us and it was so great to see her again and catch up. We took an end-of-the-night selfie and 'jet lag' is written all over my face.

Prada men with Prada women - 5th Avenue

Reflections on 57th Street

Bronze woman in Columbus Circle

I had some time in Manhattan to walk about, during the day. I had an urgent message to get at Build-a-Bear (bunny shoes) but, apart from that, I was free to wander, take the subway and soak it all in. I also managed lunch with my lovely agent, Gráinne Fox. We went to The Odeon in Tribeca - notorious for a cocaine-filled scene in Jay McInerney's novel Bright Lights, Big City. G and I made plans and had a giggle, and I ate the most divine chocolate mousse cake ever.

Columbus atop his plinth

Yapping in l'Escale (or maybe actually listening!)

I took the train from New York to Boston - what a treat! I'm not a huge fan of flying at the best of times (I get sick of airport shenanigans and cheek-to-cheek contact with strangers) so to rock up at Penn Station and step onto the train was dreamy. And the views en route were fabulous.

NY to Boston train view

NY to Boston view

NY to Boston train view

Seriously appropriate marmo at my Boston hotel, the Loews

Karl Krueger, New England sales rep for Penguin, met me at my Boston hotel and accompanied me around the corner to Mistral, the gorgeous restaurant where we ate that night, in fine company. Once again I signed copies of Miss Emily and had convos about the book. Chris Rose of The Andover Bookstore was particularly sweet about the novel - he normally reads non-fic so I love that he enjoyed the story and the prose.

Signing copies of Miss Emily at Mistral, Boston - John Hugo to my right, Tova to my left

I also had a chance to catch some of the sights around Back Bay, where my hotel was. I'd only ever been to Cambridge before so it was good to get a taster of Boston itself.

The library in Boston. Wow.

Trinity Church, Boston

I got lost looking for a book shop but found Poe and the raven '... never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting'!!

The People's Park at Boston Common where Emily Dickinson once walked

I felt a little like this Back Bay lady (though not as slim, ahem...) after my busy few days...

...but I was as happy as Super Grover always is too. It was a fantastic trip!
All thanks to the team and to the booksellers for coming out to meet me.

JOELY RICHARDSON AS EMILY DICKINSON - OFF-BROADWAY

When I was in New York last week I went to the Westside Theatre's production of The Belle of Amherst, off Broadway. It's one-hander by William Luce and the role was made famous by Julie Harris. This time Joely Richardson plays Emily Dickinson.

When the play was announced, some of the madsers on Facebook had a little hate party. Here's one typical comment: '''Emily Dickinson'' to be made into a movie??????? (sic) ''Emily'' is not a face, but, an idea inside of the Ideal, a cosmic metaphor grasped, then given gravity on a sigh, or the whim of wonder, from our menial intellects. And, you want to personify that abundance of knowledge within the frame of a has-been Actress! Please People, don't send Emily's name to the lost world, by allowing this woman to even attempt going inside the mind of Emily Dickinson. We want our Children, and there (sic) Children to remember ''Emily's'' name. This is not the way to do 'Emily Dickinson'' justice.'

Yes, this is what you're up against - cosmic metaphors and all. If the film of my Miss Emily novel gets made (touch wood) I imagine there will be more choice viewpoints such as the above to contend with.

I suffer from Pre Theatre Stress. I am always trepidatious going to the theatre, to any gig or play. I fear that I will waste a couple of hours of my life on a below par performance and I'm just too impatient for that. It is mostly misplaced - I rarely don't enjoy the theatre. And, glad to say, Joely was wonderful as Emily - she was intense, witty, energetic, moving and warm. Just the Emily I know. Her accent was great (not one dip in it) and she used the set well. I took a sneaky pic of the set with my phone, it's not great but I add it for what it's worth.

The stage is split in two - to the left Emily's bedroom, slightly elevated, where she writes. To the right, the parlour, where she receives visitors. Emily addresses the audience as if we are visitors to her home and, with words taken from her letters and poems, she tells us about her life and those closest to her: her brother and sister, Austin and Vinnie, her parents, her beloved sister-in-law Sue, her 'preceptor' Thomas Wentworth Higginson (who edited her poems after her death) etc. She has one-sided conversations with these people and that, surprisingly, works really well.

Joely as Emily - pic by Carol Rosegg, Wall St Journal

Joely Richardson has incredibly expressive hands and she uses them brilliantly as she flits like a bird around the stage, telling us her recipe for Black Cake one minute and the next, heartbreakingly, recounting the death of her nephew, Gib. She cries (briefly) many times during the course of the play (I cried along) and this helped get across the fervency and depth of Emily's personality. I thoroughly enjoyed witnessing the themes and the poems that chime with my own novel - it made me giddy to hear/see them played out in front of me. It makes my book seem very real and makes me fall in love with Emily and her world all over again.

I've now seen both covers for the novel - the USA/Canada one and the UK one. They are both very pretty and also quite different to each other. I can't wait to show them off. My book tour in the States next July is being planned and meetings with booksellers in Massachusetts next spring too, so I'll be back and forth a bit, it seems. It's so exciting and I love America, so it's all good. I should be able to announce the UK publisher soon (contract is signed) and do a cover reveal for the UK side too. Looking forward to sharing it with you all.

*

The New York Times review of the play is here. The Hollywood Reporter has a kinder one here.

NEW YORK & NEW MEXICO AFTERS

I got home from my NY/NM odyssey this morning. I guess I should be unpacking, but here I am instead. 2014 has been a great year for me but this trip was one of the absolute highlights. The contrast between Manhattan and New Mexico was huge - each enriching and enchanting in its own inimitable way.

It was fantastic to meet with Tara Singh Carlson, my editor at Penguin. She brought me and my agent, Gráinne, for lunch in Giorgione and we had a lovely companionable natter over delicious pizzas. Back to the Penguin Office on Hudson Street then for a meet-n-greet with lots of the people who will work on my book: sales and marketing people, mostly. All lovely and brimming with positivity about Miss Emily.

Penguin gifts

They gifted me two Penguin classics with my initials on the cover, which was very sweet. I also got a bound proof of my novel to take with me to New Mexico, for my first ever public reading from the book at the Uni of New Mexico in Albuquerque. All thanks to my friend Caleb Richardson, a professor in the history department there, who arranged my visit.

Bowery mural

That event went well - the audience were lively and smart and we had a good Q&A about historical fiction. I was also brought to lunch in Slate Street Café - a favourite of the Breaking Bad team when they were in Albuquerque - with, among others, the stunning Gail Houston, head of English at UNM, and poet-professor Diane Thiel. I could've talked to those women all day - brilliant people.

It was on to Santa Fe then for the ACIS West Conference for Irish Studies, to meet old pals and get myself an education on Ireland. It is amazing to listen to experts talk about your country - I always learn a ton at these conferences.

The road between Albuquerque and Santa Fe is remarkable - vast blue skies one day, mountains marbled with clouds the next, red earth, reservations dotted with piñons and casinos. These places are at high altitude and the air is thin and fresh and the sun extremely bright. It is a beautiful drive.

Rail yard, Santa Fe

Our conference hotel, the only native-owned one in Santa Fe, was beside the rail yard, an area of cute cafés, a farmers' market, book shops and great bars. Talk about spoilt rotten.

Myles Dungan & Glen Gendzel do Mr Dooley

I attended too many events/papers to go into them all here but highlights included Myles Dungan and Glen Gendzel's hilarious enactment of Finley Peter Dunne's Mr Dooley: a series of crankily spot-on monologues on the state of the States. Though Dunne was writing in the late 19th C., the topics were very contemporary, including emigration and the provision of libraries. Andrew Carnegie got the lash of Mr Dooley's tongue: 'They're tearing down poorhouses to put up libraries.'

UNM students perform The Weir

Another highlight was the production of Conor McPherson's The Weir by students from UNM, under the direction of Maria Szasz. Though not trained actors, they really embraced the play and it made for a funny and moving performance.

Margot Gayle Backus, who can only be described as a genius, gave an erudite and lively keynote on Irish children in Imperial scandal. Lucky are the Belfast students who will benefit from her being at Queen's on a Fulbright from January 2015.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha statue at St Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe

Other guests included the fab Nicholas Allen and Ernie O'Malley's son, Cormac, who presented on Ernie's time in Santa Fe after the Irish Civil War. Fascinating stuff and he took great photographs which we got to see. Charlotte Headrick and Eileen Kearney launched their anthology of Irish women's plays, though the book won't be available for a few weeks. More on that here.

Gerry Carthy & friend play at the Swiss Bakery

And what else? Well, we socialised heartily around the town, eating well and drinking modestly (mostly!). I got to meet and listen to Mayo-man Gerry Carthy, a multi-talented musician, at two separate venues in Santa Fe.

I went to the launch of a photography book about Ireland by Elizabeth Billups and Gerry Adams (yes, that Gerry) in Collected Works Bookstore. The owner Dorothy fed us tea and cakes while we listened to Elizabeth's enthusiastic take on Ireland and its landscape and people.

Elizabeth Billups at her Collected Works launch

On my last day, I was brought up the Turquoise Trail, through gorgeous mountain scenery, to Tinkertown Museum, an enchanting and utterly charming collection of miniature villages, funfair kitsch and Western memorabilia. I giggled my way around the place and it is, hands down, the best museum I have ever been to.

It reminded me of my late sister Nessa, a theatre designer, who also specialised in miniature foods and dioramas, among other things. As a collector, and the daughter of committed collectors, I felt right at home among the glorious, eccentric clutter of it all.

A Tinkertown clown sums up how I felt leaving Santa Fe

So, I'm now home, gathering my thoughts about the trip, thinking about all the lovely people I met and spent time with over meals and drinks, and at events. I look forward to doing it all again with them next year, at a yet-to-be-decided venue. For now, sleep!

TALLAGHT, NEW YORK & BEYOND

I'm reading from my latest novel The Closet of Savage Mementos this Saturday at 2.30pm, at the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, as part of the Red Line Book Festival. I'm reading with Dónal Ryan, Dermot Bolger and John Sheahan. Blessed amongst men.

The festival is on all this week and my friend Shauna Gilligan is giving a free writing workshop on Saturday in Lucan Library, 10am to 1pm, Bookings: 01 621 6422.

After Red Line I am off to New York to meet my agent and my new editor at Penguin USA for lunch, then a meet-n-greet at the Penguin office. And after that I head to New Mexico where I am giving a talk on historical fiction, and my first reading from Miss Emily, at the Uni. of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Excited doesn't even come close!!

I HEART NY & MY NEW AGENT

Hotel room view - uptown from the Bowery

Well, my agent meeting went well yesterday☺. She suggested a few things so I will be re-writing a little when I get home. She's lovely and we got on well, but I knew that from talking to her on the phone. So, all in all, a very positive meeting and I am now officially excited about my American novel. Yay!

Brekkie at McNally Jackson

Next stop, San Francisco for my chapbook launch. It is chapbook heaven here in NY - I had to stop myself buying tons of them in McNally Jackson. What a book shop! Filled with covetable books, notebooks, cards. Impossibly cool staff too. And it's hard not to love a book shop that serves granola and OJ.