Writer and Artist Eileen Keane will launch Olive Collins’ debut book “Lucinda’s List,” on Saturday May 14th 2011 at 7.00 pm. The launch will take place in the function room at Hickeys licenced premises, here in Cathedral St, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Signed copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night and all are welcome to join Book Republic and Olive to celebrate this launch.
The Book’s Characters
What began as a harmless game for Lucinda Tidy ended with unexpected consequences, testing loyalties of a friendship she took for granted. Lucinda can be generous and thoughtful yet equally corrupt. Her peculiar habit of keeping lists is a source of amusement to her friends, but the origins of her habit are deeper than routine. Behind her almost perfect facade lurks a story she has tried to deny.
Alice hasn’t a practical bone in her body. She loves life and never tires of experimenting with fashion or adventures with her current young toy-boy, dubbed ‘The Sickly Prince,’ because of his exotic beauty. Now that Fiona has finally relinquished all hope of resurrecting her marriage, she focuses on attempting to update her father’s ancient pub, which he has been slow to alter, while also attempting to recapture lost years.
Rose is the sensible one of the group. Unlike her friends, she offers practical advice rather then their preferred drama. Despite her mother’s sudden interest in Rose’s man-less and child-less state, Rose is content with her independence yet she finds something alluring beneath the academic surface of her best male friend.
Together their lives entwine, through a humorous and moving maze of friendship and loss.
“Lucinda’s List ” is a cracking good read, and an ideal companion, dare I say pleasant distraction, for those of you planning a few hours, like poet Thomas Gray, ‘Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,‘ this Summer.
The Author Olive Collins was born and raised in Thurles, Co Tipperary where her father was a serving member of An Garda Síochána for almost thirty years. Olive was educated at the Presentation Convent, Thurles and St Joseph’s College in Borrisoleigh, in Co Tipperary. Members of her family were writers and poets, namely Sr Mary Xaverius O’ Donoghue who penned many books. Olive joined the Clane Writers Group, where she got tremendous support and her short stories have been aired on radio. “Lucinda’s List” is her debut novel. She now resides in Naas, Co Kildare.
To Purchase the Book
“Lucinda’s List,” is available to buy from the 14th of May 2011, on the Book Republic website. It will be in paperback format and priced at €12.99.
A new and exciting publication entitled ‘Original Sins,’ an anthology of short stories by some 22 Irish authors, has just hit our book shelves. This anthology, which includes contributions from Tipperary author’s, Majella O’Gorman,(Thurles), Stella Lannigan, (Gortnahoe), Mary Healy, (Freshford), Maura Barrett, (Killenaule), Martha Woodcock, (Cuffesgrange) and Jane de Montmorency, latter a relative of US President Barak Obama, was recently launched, to high acclaim, in St.Kierans College, Kilkenny.
The writers who feature in this anthology are dreamers who turned their dreams into reality.
Kahlil Gibran writes of the tragedy of leaving a page empty: “Pure was I created and pure will I remain forever…And the sheet of snow white paper did remain pure and chaste forever – pure and chaste – and empty.”
The dream of writing is often so precious, so dearly held, that it is avoided out a fear of failure. All writers fail. No writer avoids disillusion. But after the essential period of consternation, sometimes despair, the piece pearls and the truth of it begins to shine, through the various drafts. The initial inspiration is what fires us all to put pen to paper. The perspiration required to finish a piece is what causes a lot of the initial willing to abandon the dream. A lived dream is a muddied thing, it is tired old and dirty by times, but in becoming more familiar to us, it allows us to know ourselves all the better and to have the easier breathing of one who has attempted, rather than one who has not tried.
Joint editors Suzanne Power and John MacKenna work with the contributors to ‘Original Sins,’ at NUI Kilkenny Campus.
“We have worked with them for four years now and the individuals featured in this collection have stayed the course literally since the very beginning. Our job is to persuade them of what is already in themselves, to foster it to the point where they no longer need convincing and to leave them alone with their empty pages and time. The writers featured here have learned this and are comfortable with the knowledge. They have a full awareness that pages, when a writer is living their dream, fill with word plays known only to them and stories only they can tell.” state Suzanne and John. ”
This well written gem is a must for the ‘bedside locker.’ It will allow each relaxed reader to digest one short story from one author each night, with it’s written content guaranteed to remain the subject of thought, in that time between lights out and dreams beginning.
This Saturday, March 5th, as part of Ireland’s World Book Day celebrations, Bookworm, Liberty Square, Thurles, Co.Tipperary, the leading local book retail store, are having a “Story Telling Morning” from 11.00 am sharp to 2.00 pm.
So why not bring along the kids to have their faces painted and get their imaginations working overtime, while you, the parents can enjoy a delicious coffee and some other delicious baked treats.
Remember the words of journalist Edward P. Morgan:-
“A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining, where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.”
A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you, yet continues to remain a friend, so don’t forget to bring your World Book Day vouchers with you.
Bookworm will be looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday.
Fethard Historical Society will present ‘TIPPERARIANA 2011, Ireland’s Premier Annual Book Fair on Sunday the 13th of February next.
Books of all types and shapes from valuable antiquarian books to modern ‘pulp fiction’ paperbacks will go on sale at this event.
Doors will open at 2.00pm-6.00pm with admission to the fair costing just €2.00.
The Venue for this ‘Annual Book Fair‘ of course is as usual Fethard Ballroom, Co Tipperary and a Café will be operating on the premises which will allow for patrons to sit and chat.
For further information please contact:
TERRY CUNNINGHAM at 086 3905373 or DOIRIN SAURUS at 052 6131936 or simply EMAIL: bookfari@fethard.com
“When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.”
Lyrics by Brendan Graham
“You Raise Me Up,” first recorded by Secret Garden, featuring Brian Kennedy, has become one of the biggest selling songs in the history of popular music, with over three hundred recordings by some of the world’s biggest acts – Josh Groban, Westlife, IL Divo, Paul Potts, Celtic Woman, to name but a few, and has racked up sales of over 80 million copies. It has never been out of the charts somewhere in the world in the past eight years. It has also become one of the most successful songs of all time in sheet music sales, being continuously at No. 1 for the past seven years, in the USA’s Sheet Music Bestseller Charts, in four different categories: Pop, Adult Contemporary, Pop Choral and Downloads and it is the most downloaded song in sheet music format of all time.
All this said, few people in our county realise that the lyrics were written by county Tipperary man, Brendan Graham.
Brendan Graham, born in 1945 here in Nenagh, County Tipperary, was an Industrial Engineer by profession, before becoming a full-time songwriter, after being made redundant in 1993. He was also a former Irish Youth International basketball player, a student priest, a pig-boner in London and a recipient of Western Australia’s Lansing Bagnall State Award for business studies. Mr Graham now resides in County Mayo with his wife and five daughters.
Graham has composed two of Ireland’s winning entries in the Euro-vision Song Contest in the past: “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids” which won in 1994, and “The Voice” the winner of the 1996 contest.
Irish songwriter and founding member of The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), Brendan Graham is officially included in an exclusive club with the world’s top songwriters, awarded “Million-Air ” status by the American Performing Rights Society, BMI. Only 3900 (0.06%) songs of the 6.5 million works, which BMI represent, have ever been awarded Million-Air certificates.
To be included in this exclusive roster, a song must have been broadcast over one million times on American radio. This definition equals at least 50,000 broadcast hours, or more than 5.7 years of continuous airplay. The songwriter joins previous ‘Million-Air’ recipients like song-writing legends John Lennon, Van Morrison, Enya, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Ben E King, Sting, Otis Redding and Roy Orbison.
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