MISS EMILY LONGLISTED IN MM BENNETTS HIST FIC AWARD

Miss Emily is on the longlist of nine books in the MM Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction. Here's the list:

Helena P. Schrader – Defender of Jerusalem
Carol Anne Dobson – Hecate’s Moon
Lucienne Boyce: Bloodie Bones 
Stuart Blackburn: Into the Hidden Valley 
Karen Charlton: The San Pareil Mystery
Prue Batten: Tobias 
Gemma Lawrence: The Heretic Heir 
Dean Hamilton: The Jesuit Letter 
Kermit Roosevelt: Allegiance 
Nuala O’Connor: Miss Emily

The finalists will be announced in May. Big congrats to my fellow nominees!

A hen reviews *Miss Emily*

A hen has written a review of Miss Emily. A hen called Ms. Hen. It's an odd review, to say the least.

A sample: 'Ms. Hen thinks there’s a possibility Miss Emily would die many times over if she read Nuala O’Connor’s novel. But Ms. Hen doesn’t know. Nobody knows what Emily Dickinson would think because not much is known about her.'

See? Odd. Plenty is known about Emily Dickinson. Perhaps Ms. Hen should do her homework. And how exactly does one 'die many times over'?

The rest of it is here if you could be bothered.

EDINBURGH GIG

On Thursday 21st January I am in Edinburgh Central Library at 7pm reading from Miss Emily. And being interviewed by Sasha deBuyl-Pisco. Admission is free but you must get a ticket - there are currently 10 remaining. See here.

MISS EMILY ON IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST

I am thrilled beyond the beyonds that Miss Emily is on the shortlist for the Easons Book Club Irish Novel of the Year along with books by Edna O'Brien, Anne Enright, Paul Murray, Belinda McKeon and Kevin Barry, in the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. And you can vote for your favourites!

The Long Gaze Back womens' story anthology is also shortlisted, in the Best Published Book of the Year category, which is an extra thrill.

Ger Holland took this pic of Declan Meade and me. Love it.

There was a lovely ceremony in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin yesterday to announce all the shortlists. Ger Holland took lots of great pics which you can look at on the writing.ie Facebook page here. The Big Night is the 25th, when the winners will be announced. The public part of the Book Awards vote is now open here.

And in today's Irish Times, the sublime Sinéad Gleeson interviews me about Miss Emily. It's here.

Reading from 'Miss Emily' at Kennys Books

VIRTUAL TOUR - MISS EMILY - #3

My virtual tour takes me to Kildare today and the blog home of Niamh Boyce where we talk bravery and recreating worlds. Here.

STUFF OF DREAMS - PENGUIN DEAL

Celebratory presents!

I am living my fantasy just now - Penguin USA and Penguin Canada are going to publish my third novel, Miss Emily, which is about Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid. All thanks to my supersonic agent. There was even an auction! Most definitely the stuff of dreams.

The lovely Glynne Arms, Hawarden

I received the news in Wales on Tuesday the 4th where I was in residence at the Gladstone's Library in Hawarden. My fellow resident and friend, writer Tania Hershman, bought me champagne and Creme Eggs to celebrate. Isn't that the sweetest? We then went to the pub in the village, The Glynne Arms, with fellow writers Neil Griffiths, Rebecca Abrahams, and Philip Clement, who interns at the library.

My week in Gladstone's was wonderful (beautiful food, great company, long walks in the castle park) though taking updates via phone from the USA, and chatting with various editors, had my head turned backwards. TG I managed to get done what I needed to do each day before New York woke up. It was (is) a whirlwind. And I feel utterly blessed.

There was more champagne (a magnum!) - and tulips - waiting for me at home when I got back from Wales. Myself, my husband, the kids, and my ex- raised a glass (or three) and I felt super lucky all over again. Penguin announced the deal in the USA today so I am finally allowed talk about it. Relief!

This is what Publishers Weekly wrote today in its Book Deals section:

O’Connor Channels Dickinson for Penguin

Penguin’s Tara Singh Carlson took U.S. rights, at auction, to Nuala O’Connor’s debut novel, Miss Emily. Grainne Fox at Fletcher & Company brokered the deal, and said the novel is reminiscent of The Girl with the Pearl Earring. The work is told through the dueling perspectives of Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid, Ada Concannon, as their lives intertwine. Adrienne Kerr at Penguin Canada preempted Canadian rights to the book.

Yes, I am reverting to my birth name for this book. Much easier for my North American friends to pronounce and spell, after all.

INDIE PUBLISHERS - GOOD TIMES?

In an article for The Guardian, about the Penguin merger, Gavin James Bower states:

'In any recession, the vanguard is to be found beyond the mainstream – and risks taken by those typically seen as outsiders. Indies, as they always do, will be seen as the risk-takers in a climate of doom and gloom, nurturing talent and publishing books not deemed safe enough for the panicky, profit-driven corporations.'

But also:
'Print sales are falling – down 11% in 2011, the trend continuing in 2012 – while bookshops, both specialist and chain, are closing. Borders has gone, Waterstones is in turmoil, and independent booksellers the length and breadth of the country are vanishing. Publishers, meanwhile, are being squeezed by the last remnants of the High Street, struggling to make established margins pay. Last but not least, advances are falling, the midlist novelist looking like an endangered species and writing for a living no longer an option for the vast majority of published let alone aspiring authors.'

I am an endangered species. Maybe that's why I am having a hard time getting a killer agent. Sigh.

Read the whole article here.

MY NEW PENGUIN MUG

I love Penguin books; I've always loved them. We used to go to the local Garden Fete as kids and run straight to the books table; it was a good one if it had piles and piles of orange Penguin spines. My sister Nessa and I would fill our arms and pay about 20p each for them. Reading fodder for weeks. I read tons of classic Penguins as a teenager - I'm probably due to revisit them all. If only I had the time...

My little friend K knows I love Penguin books and when she heard I had foolishly passed by the Penguin Virginia Woolf mug in Cork's Waterstone's saying, 'I'll come back for that later' - and of course never did - she bought it online and had it sent to me. Sweet, yes? Thanks, K, I'm enjoying my decaf more than ever these days!