Northern Eire. 2019.
Tara has been raised by her mam and nan in Derry Metropolis. Religion lives in rural Armagh.
Their lives on reverse sides of a political divide couldn’t be extra completely different. Till they arrive face-to-face with one another and are shocked to find they give the impression of being nearly similar. Are they linked?
In trying to find the reality about their very own identities, the youngsters uncover greater than they bargained for.
However what if discovering out who you really are means undermining every thing you’ve ever identified?
Very happy to be requested to be a part of the weblog tour for Irish creator Sue Divin’s second highly effective novel: Reality Be Advised, with a visitor publish!
Writing in a pandemic
What are you engaged on subsequent?
Like many individuals, I feel the pandemic has disrupted the ‘regular’ of every thing in our lives. I spend extra of my time not writing than writing – though if I’m not writing in any respect I can really feel fairly out of steadiness. Writing is sort of a launch. Like many writers although, writing just isn’t my full-time job. I had deliberate to take a 12 months out as soon as Guard Your Coronary heart was revealed however the Covid pandemic put paid to that.
About six months after Guard Your Coronary heart was revealed, I did make the choice to vary from working full-time in my ‘day job’ to only 4 days every week. That has helped the stress ranges a bit! Managing an EU funded Peace and Reconciliation programme for my native council nonetheless takes up most of my week – and my favorite little bit of that’s working with native communities and seeing tasks make a distinction to individuals’s lives.
My life circumstances have additionally made me a single mother or father to an excellent teenage son with high-functioning ASD (autism/aspergers). The lockdown/dwelling education phases of the pandemic weren’t enjoyable. Fortunately at this stage of the pandemic, issues appear to be turning into a bit extra regular once more. What retains me on a good keel are issues like strolling/mountaineering and swimming. I’m additionally a musician – I play guitar and tin whistle. Lattes with buddies are high of my favourite-things-to-do record and on a darkish winter’s evening, I’ll hardly ever say no to a heat hearth, salty popcorn and an excellent film.
I don’t have a selected new novel on the go but, although I’m toying with some characters and a cross-border setting from Derry into Donegal. I’ve a fascination with a spot referred to as Fort Dunree in County Donegal. A lot so, that I’ve already written two brief tales primarily based there – every with connections to my novels. Maybe it’s time to discover a novel itself having that ingrained into its setting and psyche.
Over the previous few months, I’ve began to get invites to talk at literary festivals and occasional dialogue occasions. I’m additionally build up my abilities in studying find out how to mentor different rising writers and facilitating inventive writing workshops. It’s implausible enjoyable and undoubtedly an space of labor that I like however, particularly as a result of it’s all fairly new to me and since I stay within the north-west of Eire the place historic political selections meant that no motorways had been constructed and the rail community was decreased, it’s fairly time consuming. I’ve additionally been making an attempt to deal with my TBR (to be learn) pile however am not successful. That is totally my very own fault – I can resist books and bookshops. As soon as I’ve lastly blethered all these excuses out of my system, I’m fairly positive a 3rd novel will floor. I’m additionally fairly positive it would nonetheless be YA as a result of I can’t resist writing youngsters – they’re the very best.
Reality Be Advised by Sue Divin is out now in paperback (£7.99, Macmillan Kids’s Books)
With a Masters in Peace and Battle research and a day job in Neighborhood Relations/Peace constructing in Derry for over fifteen years, Sue’s writing typically touches on variety and reconciliation in as we speak’s Northern Eire. Her first novel, Guard Your Coronary heart, was shortlisted for the 2019 Caledonia Novel Award, was a Finalist within the Irish Novel Truthful 2019 and was longlisted within the Mslexia Kids’s Novel Award.
