I HEART NY & MY NEW AGENT

Hotel room view - uptown from the Bowery

Well, my agent meeting went well yesterday☺. She suggested a few things so I will be re-writing a little when I get home. She's lovely and we got on well, but I knew that from talking to her on the phone. So, all in all, a very positive meeting and I am now officially excited about my American novel. Yay!

Brekkie at McNally Jackson

Next stop, San Francisco for my chapbook launch. It is chapbook heaven here in NY - I had to stop myself buying tons of them in McNally Jackson. What a book shop! Filled with covetable books, notebooks, cards. Impossibly cool staff too. And it's hard not to love a book shop that serves granola and OJ.

Cork, New York and San Francisco

I'll say cheerio for a bit. I'm of to Cork, New York and San Francisco. Excitement!

CORK: For the Cork International Short Story Festival, to hear readers such as Angela Bourke and Alistair MacLeod, and to chair a panel on short story anthologies with editors and publishers of four recent anthologies, namely Kevin Barry, Sinéad Gleeson, Micheál Ó Conghaile and Elizabeth Reapy.That's on at 2.30pm in Triskel Christchurch on Saturday.

I may even participate in the Culture Night event - Flash Fiction Rapid Fire - at 9.15pm on Friday night. Also in Triskel.

NEW YORK: To meet my new literary agent and see if she enjoyed the finished novel. Eeek, nervous. And to enjoy New York, of course :)

SAN FRANCISCO: For the first time for the launch of my chapbook of short-short stories, Of Dublin and Other Fictions on Friday the 27th September at the Parc 55 Wyndham, Union Square at 7pm, as part of the American Conference for Irish Studies. I'll read from the book, which is the first publication for publisher Tower Press, run by Idaho-based academic Jodi Chilson. If you are in San Fran, or you know anyone there, all are welcome to come along to the launch.

On Sunday the 29th, I'll be giving a talk on the Irish Short Story at the Irish Literary and Historical Society at 5pm in the United Irish Cultural Center, 2700 45th Avenue, San Francisco.

I'll talk to you all when I am back. Slán go fóill!