Dolly Parton's 9-5 Musical

Last night, our book club, Housework Can Wait, went to Dolly Parton's 9-5 Musical in the Bord Gais Theatre in Dublin. It has been a while since I was at the theatre and wow, it was brilliant!

Our book club is a member of the Bord Gais Book Club's of Ireland and they gave us free tickets for last nights performance. I have to admit, I do like a bit of country and western so I was really looking forward to the show. That and the fact that I so rarely get out! 

We collected our tickets at the Box Office and made our way upstairs for a delicious glass of wine before taking our seats. I tried not to cry at the €18 charged for three glasses of wine and just soaked in the ambiance.  

View from where we were standing

The show began with Dolly herself narrating. The main characters, Violet (Jackie Clune), Judy (Natalie Casey), Doralee (Any Lennox) and the boss Franklin (Ben Richards) were introduced along with a little explanation of the differences in working conditions in 1979.

Taken from the official website 

It had been a long time since I saw the movie so can't compare the two but really, would I want to? I doubt it. The performance was fantastic. The choreography, acting, sets and costumes were amazing. Even from up in the circle, the attention to detail in costumes was apparent. The sets were designed well to allow a fluid movement between scenes and often played a part in the story. The actors put on such a great show and one of the more memorable performances came from Bonnie Langford (Roz) who, in a very sexy number, had the audience in fits of laughter.

Towards the end, when Dolly comes back on the clock screen suspended above the stage, the audience were in high spirits. She broke into the song 9 to 5 and had a lot of the theatre goers up on their feet clapping in time (I'd say there was a bit of foot stomping too!).

All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience. If you get a chance to see this performance do not pass it up!

Here we go again...

The ABNA contest opened this morning and my entry is in. This is my second year in a row entering and I've gone with the same novel. Since this time last year, Bleeker Avenue has been extensively edited, professionally and by my beta readers so hopefully it will do better.

Another item on my agenda today was to post off a short story to Take a Break's Fiction Feast. Done!

It's been a busy day because I also applied for funding for my writing from the Arts Council of Ireland. Fingers crossed for me! It would mean I wouldn't have to worry about bills while I finished Devil in the Clouds and I would be able to get it properly edited.

Fourth on my list was a new blog post. I had something else in mind for this but I'm going to save it till Wednesday (I'm still working on it).

Today's list

Lastly, I plan to do 1,000 words on my WIP. I've about 2.5 hours until Beth arrives home. I think I can manage it!

Check out my lovely new bookcase (Beth owns the bottom shelf)

 Did you enter the ABNA this year?

New Year Resolutions

Good morning world! Happy New Year to you all. Hope you celebrated in style whatever way you wanted. I had a quiet night. Some bright spark let off the loudest firework known to man at midnight and, as a result, I spent the first hour of the new year with Beth. She was still up at 8am, sitting on me and telling me to get up!

I don't usually make a list of resolutions but I do believe lists make things happen so here it goes...

New Years Resolutions:

1. Finish Devil in the Clouds

2. Enter the ABNA

3. Learn to drive

4. Get more writing jobs

5. Stop eating rubbish and get back down to my ideal weight (not sure what weight I am but know it's not ideal)

6. Start jogging again and complete the Dundalk 10k in May

Just before Christmas I received the first printed copies of The Secret Beneath Bleeker Avenue. It was pretty cool to see my book actually in print.

So happy with them :-)

I made only one (sort of) resolution last year. It was to keep my blog more up to date and I think I kept that! Well, it's definitely better than previous years. 

2012 was a good year. I finished and published my first book, had articles published in The Irish Times and online with journal.ie, I turned 31, Beth turned 3, we went on holidays to Carlingford and Spain. It has been a full year and I hope 2013 is just as good!

How were your New Years celebrations?

Brothers

Yesterday was my younger brother's 30th birthday. Conor was born when I was only a year and four months old. He was very sick when he was born and both he and my mother almost lost their lives. He spent a long time in the NICU after he was born.

When he was about 4/5 we left our house really early one morning and he learned to ride a bike on his own. We lived in a tiny cul de sac in a little village. No fear back then. I love the memory of cheering him on in the cold morning, just the two of us.

This last year Conor has been very sick. There were a few trips to A&E and at the end of September he spent a few days on a trolley in A&E before being sent home. He was suffering from severe pain in his abdomen. The following day he was taken back up to A&E and eventually admitted to a ward. Two days later he had a right hemiocolectomy, an operation to remove his hugely inflamed appendix which had attached itself to part of his bowel and small intestine. The operation lasted three hours and he was in recovery for two hours. It was uncertain whether he would survive the operation at all, he was so weak and had lost so much weight over the course of his illness. 

When he eventually came back to the ward, where Mum, my sister and I were waiting, he was barely conscious. We spoke to him for a minute before being sent out. There was no one to give us any answers. At that point we didn't know it was his appendix. The doctors who had performed the surgery went home without telling us what happened. We didn't get to talk to anybody about him until the next afternoon. The level of care for patients and families in that hospital is a disgrace and I hope never to be stuck in there.

Now, two months on, Conor is improving in health. He still has a long way to go and is undertaking more tests, MRI's, scans etc. They still don't know exactly what is wrong with him.

Thankfully, he survived the operation. His birthday, and even this Christmas, is all the more special this year for us. 

Rest in Peace students and adults that lost their lives in Sandy Hook Elementary. May God help those who you left behind. Will be thinking of them all this Christmas xxx

Thank Heavens for December (well, in one way)

Well, I did it. I finished NaNoWriMo as a winner on 50,008 words! Super proud of myself. It was a real push to win. I still had around 17,000 words to do this this last week but I made it.

Of course, my novel isn't finished. I'm predicting it will be about 90k words when I'm finished the first draft. Maybe 80k when completed. I've also changed the title to Devil in the Clouds. I like that for the moment but, who knows, I may change it again.

In other news, eh well, there's not much since I have been practically glued to the laptop for the last few weeks. 

In two days time the Irish Budget 2013 will be announced. It will hit everyone, some will feel the pinch more than others. I know I will have to make some adjustments; cut things that I really don't want to but these things must be done, I guess.

The one thing that is almost certain is that they will cut the Children's Allowance. They should not do this in my opinion. A lot of families rely on this money to get by every month. Cutting this money will affect the children and put more people on the breadline. There are protests going on here all the time but not enough people are attending them, the government won't listen unless we all stand up against injustices. There is going to be another protest this Saturday in Dublin, Dundalk and as many towns/cities that can do it. If you are in Ireland support these protests, get out and stand up! There is a Facebook event page for the Dundalk one.

Protest against cuts outside Dundalk Court House last Friday

On a Christmas-y note, Beth and I put up the Christmas tree yesterday. I just couldn't resist any longer. I'm really looking forward to it and, thankfully, I've everything sorted!

Beth yesterday morning after we put up the tree

She has me tortured to open doors on the Advent Calendar!

NaNoWriMo Update

Well there's not much of an update. I started off really well on Thursday and even got some writing done on the bus to Dublin on Friday but since then there have been distractions...

Friday night, my Mum and I went to see Don McLean in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. I will be writing a full review of it in the coming days. We even waited to meet him after. Very exciting!

Yesterday, I was only home from Dublin about half an hour when Beth came back from her Dad's. She was a little off colour and actually took a nap on the couch while I made dinner. Very unlike her. 

When she woke up she was shouting some weird things. She was running a mad temperature so was probably hallucinating. She was also complaining of really bad pain in her belly and 'headsford' (forehead). I rang the on call doctor who told me to bring her to the out of hours surgery straight away. I was terrified it was her appendix.

To make a long story short, she has a bad throat infection which is causing the pain in her belly. Doctor prescribed antibiotics. She'd a tough night last night. Woke up every few hours coughing, high temp and vomiting. 

Hopefully it'll pass with the medication!

I plan to catch up with the NaNoWriMo today and tomorrow and get back on track :-)

NaNoWriMo

 Happy Halloween from a little witch!

Tomorrow, November 1st, starts my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. Basically, during the month of November, writers of every discipline, genre, traditional or indie published can get together online and bang out 50,000 words. That is 1,667 words per day.

It'll be tough but I'm looking forward to it. I have my writing space (spare room) all ready to go and in the next month my hair may go grey! When I was finishing Bleeker Avenue I was spending all my free time writing. As soon as Beth went to bed I'd go straight to the laptop. I plan to do this again. I remember coming out of these writing marathons dazed. It took a while to come round to reality again.

The project I'm working on is called Diary of a Trolley Dolly. It's just a working title. It is about a woman who leaves her home town to become cabin crew. I did this myself almost 10 years ago but the story will be purely fictional. There will be lots of sex, drugs and turbulence. A lot more exciting than my own experience!

A little witch ready to fly to a Halloween party this morning.

We had wings for a bat too but went with the witch in the end :-)

Hope you all have a spooktacular day!