Sunday, February 13, 2011

Writing.ie - We Have Lift-Off

writing.ie - aka ‘the home of Irish writing online’ - went live over the weekend, hosted by the ever resourceful Vanessa O’Loughlin. The website aims to be ‘a resource that will grow week by week to include all aspects of writing’, and incorporates guest bloggers, workshops and courses, events listings, ‘Meet the Author’ sections, and more.
  Yours truly has a piece in there, an interview with THE BURNING author Jane Casey (right) that first appeared in the Evening Herald. Quoth Jane:
“My husband is a criminal barrister,” she says, “and he always gets very annoyed when you get this incredibly gothic killer with a complex backstory in books and films. He says, and it’s true, that people who kill in this fashion do it because they enjoy it, full stop. So I wanted to write about the reality of what it’s like to look for someone who just likes to kill.”
  For the rest, clickety-click here
  It’s only fair to say that Vanessa admits that the project is very much in the embryonic phase, but even at first glance the site seems to be top-heavy with women writers - of the 15 authors currently featured, only three are men. A reflection of the fact that women are better at this interweb networking malarkey? A refreshing change from mainstream literary print publications, where men tend to dominate unfairly? Just one of those early kinks that will get ironed out as time goes by? Or a pragmatic acknowledgement that women buy more books, and particularly fiction, than men?
  Pop on over to writing.ie and make up your own mind …

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Declan Burke has published a number of novels, the most recent of which is ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. As a journalist and critic, he writes and broadcasts on books and film for a variety of media outlets, including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Independent. He has an unfortunate habit of speaking about himself in the third person. All views expressed here are his own and are very likely to be contrary.