Two brilliant children who attend my creative writing classes have made me very proud.  Eoin Moran has come runner up in a national poetry competition with a funny, rhyming poem about Christmas and Hannah Rudden has come first in her age category (12 and under) in Listowel Writers’ Week Short Story Writing Competition. Hannah’s story will be published in an anthology of winners this May and she will be attending …

Last Friday Sharon Rudden and I donated almost €2,700 from the sale of  ‘A Stocking Full of Stories’ (the collection of written by the children, teenagers and adults who attend my writing classes in Skerries, Donabate and Malahide) to The Children’s Medical and Research Foundation in Crumlin Hospital. Sharon and I were delighted to meet with Caitrion McGloin and to be taken on a tour of the hospital. We have …

We had a wonderful launch for A Stocking Full of Stories in Ardgillan Castle on Sunday 9th December. The beautiful rooms were packed with writers, their friends and families. We had readings, lots of nibbles, drinks and the authors signed copies of the book. There are still a few copies of A Stocking Full of Stories available in Manor Books and Village Books in Malahide, The Skerries Bookshop, Skerries Mills, …

I am delighted to let you know that A Stocking Full of Stories has gone to print and is available to buy through my website! Just go to the products page. I am looking forward to wrapping up books and posting them (hopefully) all over the world.   The stories are wonderful. There are almost fifty and, for the first time, I have included one of my own. It is …

This article about my classes is in the latest edition of the Skerries News. It tells of how my classes began five years ago and have developed since then: It took Megan Wynne a long time to discover what she wanted to do with her life. She studied History and German at college, but on graduation couldn’t get a job, so she did a postgrad in business. After that she …

SPOOKY STORY WORKSHOPS I am running a Spooky Story Writing Workshop for children over the Halloween Midterm. This popular workshop focuses on telling ghostly and ghastly tales of vampires, goblins, wizards and all things creepy. The workshop takes place on Friday 2nd November in Skerries Mills from 10.30a.m. – 3p.m. The cost is €35 per child. The workshop is suitable to 8 – 12 yr olds and the group size …

This November I will have been teaching Creative Writing for five years! As I love my job, and I’m delighted to still be doing it, I want to celebrate! Therefore I am running a FREE One Day Novel Writing Workshop for adults on Sunday 4th November. The workshop will run from 10.30a.m. to 3p.m. and places will be limited to twelve. My idea is to give people a space to …

As part of the Skerries Soundwaves Festival, I am running a FREE Creative Writing workshop on Sunday 16th September in Skerries Mills for children aged 8 – 12 year olds. The class was originally scheduled for 3 – 5p.m. (on the brochure)  but is now taking place in the morning from 10a.m. – 12p.m instead.. I am looking forward to meeting lots of new children and writing action-packed adventure stories …

  I hope you’re enjoying the summer and have seen some sunshine, here or somewhere else. I’ve managed to swim in the sea in Skerries and to be outside, as much as I can, whenever the sun peaks out. And the rainy days have been good writing days for my summer weeklong courses. So far they have gone very well. Here is some of the feedback: “I learned loads and …

There is good news for those of you still considering applying for a place on my summer camps as I have extended my early booking deal until 30th June. I’m looking forward to meeting my first group of children from 2nd – 6th July in Skerries Mills. Some of those attending are coming from Malahide and Swords, so if anyone is looking to share lifts from those areas, it should …

I am delighted to announce the winner of my children’s short story competition is David Kearney with his story Homework. David is eleven years old and his story happened to be the first entry that I read.  There were other very good contenders for the prize but in the end I chose David’s story because it is extremely well written, humorous and original, with a surprising twist at the end!  …

Over the last few months, I and my students have been entering lots of short story writing competitions and I am delighted to report that our hard work is paying off.  Today, one of my adult students, Sally-Anne, told me that her brilliant short story, about a woman landing in the library of her life, has won the writing competition run by DLR library service  to celebrate the centenaries of …

Exciting news! I am running a short story competition for children aged 8 – 12  years old. The closing date is Wednesday 16th May and the story must be no longer than 1,000 words. The prize for the winner is a place on my weeklong Creative Writing Summer Camp in Skerries Mills from either 9 – 13th or  23rd – 27th July. The winning story will be announced in early …