This is my lineage,
my life and writing inspirations
These are my teachers and inspirations.
Their wisdom built my wisdom of myself, of my writing,
and the many branches of my life…
I have never created in a bubble,
inspiration is everywhere...
Writing a novel can be solitary, lonely work but it isn’t always in reality.
As a human, I have never created in a bubble.
My learning and experiences of writing and stories began from childhood. From home, books, TV, school, outdoor cinemas, growing over the years.
My lineage includes creative writing, novel craft, creativity, feminism, and business.
These are my teachers, coaches, mentors, influencers, and inspirations, whom I’ve been honoured to walk beside along my writing journey (It’s a life-long journey!). Their wisdom built my learnings of life, myself, and the work I wanted to do. They are part of the roots that will always sustain me through my limited lifetime.
These are the people I have learned with in person, online, in classrooms, in communities, in reading, from watching, listening, and from their bodies of work in books/writings/online/arts and other media.
They have all impacted my writing and how I approach my work. I celebrate all of them for everything they have passed on to me. My writing journey and life have been richer for them.
I found this list hard to put together and my gratitude extends well beyond it.
This list doesn’t do justice to the immense quantity of interactions I have had with other humans on this planet and their effect on my life and my work. It just doesn’t.
My connections flow from beyond this list, from my ancestors, from my lifetime to this point in time, from my body, and the body of my work.
This feels like only a tiny snapshot of my full lineage.
Creative and Novel Writing
Suzanne Power and John Mackenna for inspiring and informing my work through the Cert. in Creative Writing for Publication and Two Roads program.
Teachers of creative writing, novel writing, poetry, writing craft and more:
David Rice of Killaloe Hedge-School of Writing for my first introduction to starting and writing a novel;
Waterford Writers Weekend for Nicole Rourke (creative writing), Vanessa O’ Loughlin (publishing), Nuala Ni Chonchúir (short story), and Stephen James Smith (poetry);
Nature and Myth immersive workshops with Grace Wells and Lani O’Hanlon supported by Waterford County Council Arts Office;
Claire Keegan writing craft talk and workshop at Comeragh Wild Festival and Imagine Festival;
Kathy Darcy’s crafting poetry workshops and advice for poetry submissions;
Paul Perry, Enda Wyley, Pat Boran, Kevin Higgins, Moyra Donaldson, Peter Sirr, Colm Keegan, and Kimberly Campanello of The Poetry Masterclass Series at the Irish Writers Centre;
Playwriting workshops with Darren Donohue and Gavin Kostick, Garter Lane Arts Centre;
Poetry with Thomas McCarthy at Listowel Writers Week;
Writing craft, poetry, performance, and writing life from Catherine Dunne, Anne Tannam, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Anthony J. Quinn, Elske Rahill, Una-Minh Kavanagh, Arthur Riordan, Paul Lynch, Noelle Brown through the Irish Writers Centre;
Speak Up Workshop with Derbhile Dromey and Deborah Somers.
Writer Supports
Thanks to the Arts Office, Waterford County Council for the Regional Bursary Award (Literature) for the Tyrone Guthrie Centre residency.
And to Artlinks and the Arts Office of Waterford County Council for the Bursary Award, Clinic and Project Mentoring.
Thanks to Margaret Organ of the Arts Office, Waterford County and City Council for all the support personally and for the writing group Word Weavers.
Writing Groups and Communities
Thanks to all the writers I’ve had the joy of hearing their writer’s voice or reading their work, who have been part of the creative writing group, Word Weavers, Novel Writing groups, Critique groups, courses, workshops, and author readings.
To NaNoWriMo in November 2012 for getting the first 50,000 of a first draft of my novel ‘The Alien Eve’ out of me (published in 2015). And in 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 for subsequent first drafts of novels I wrote and desperately want to finish revising and release into the world as well!
To the London Writers Salon for Writers Hour and giving a writing time to someone with Obliger tendencies to keep her work going. This is a wonderful way to write in community online.
For writing and editing
John Gardner, Ray Bradbury, Julia Cameron, Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard, Dorothea Brandt, Stephen King.
Allen Guthrie for ‘Hunting down the pleonasms’, Strunk and White for Elements of Style, Roz Morris, Renni Browne and Dave King, Sol Stein, Lyn Truss, Nancy Kress, James Scott Bell.
The writers I’ve loved reading
Octavia Butler, Ann E Proulx, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, JK Rowling, Eoin Colfer, etc, etc…
Online and business inspiration
Kelly Diels for giving me the words and information I needed to find my voice (and confidence) for this business and life journey. And everyone I’ve met through Kelly: Trevia, Amy, Janine, Loretta, on courses, and on the Gathering Space.
Ruth Poundwhite for a way to be Quietly Ambitious and so much more.
Linda Ugelow for her methodology to uncover who I was before I lost my voice and lead me back to who I am.
Ashley Beaudin for Gentle Business, Ashley Looker for Journal Parties.
Patricia Daly and all the tutors at the Start your own business course at Kilmacthomas WWETB.
Tutors and staff on the Tourism Trails course at Dunhill Multi-Education Centre.
Life inspiration
Shirley Valentine (the film) – for the idea that it would be a good idea to have a mid-life crisis before I hit ‘mid-life’.
Christine O’Brien for constant support while I was president of a local branch for a women in business organisation. And all those wonderful arts classes.
Mary Darlington, who I met two days after arriving in Ireland, and her passion for health and safety and business inspired me to make a go of it as well.
Thanks to my son Seán, for his wise words when I need to hear them, and my family and friends.
To other women and feminism
For the women who said something, or wrote something that spoke of the possibility of other ways of being for women. Thank you. Knowing you have spoken up for other women fills my heart, big time.
You are the reason I have the courage to try to speak for myself.
Even though my programming to stay silent is still so strong and I have to fight it every day to find my daring and courage.
Because I fear persecution, just like the women named as ‘witch’, the woman labelled ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ just because she exists, any woman, any woman that anyone stops or silences to have power over.
Every woman who speaks up risks something. Then and now. She is judged. Then and now.
So I thank all feminists and women’s rights campaigners. I thank them for speaking up for women for saying the things that brought the living changes and benefits I have today.
From all feminists, I take the good of their words, the intent of their words to make or have a more equitable and safer world for women and girls so we can live in the full expression of our minds, bodies, and as human beings.
Everyone is trying their best to live as a human on this planet. Everyone is trying.
And everyone sees the world in the context of where they are living, the cultures they are in, the experiences they have had, the body they are in, and the reactions of other humans towards them and their external human body.
There’s probably more to life but what do I know – I’m only a sapling beside a deep dark forest of knowledge.
This list will never be complete, it will never end…