So much to say about a woman in her sixth decade… My first novel was published when I was 60 and in the same year I was diagnosed with cancer. And not that my life was uneventful up til then nor that I was new to writing. Her Name is Rose — my first novel, was published in the US by St. Martin’s Press and translated into Polish and Turkish. And now available as an ebook and a Print on Demand paperback. With my husband, Niall Williams, a novelist, playwright and screenwriter, we have written a film treatment of HER NAME IS ROSE. My second novel, ACCIDENTS, is finished but not published, yet.
IN KILTUMPER A Year In An Irish Garden was published by Bloomsbury UK & USA in 2021. A month by month account of life in and out of our garden. During the year we record what was happening in our small townland of Kiltumper where two giant turbines were being erected in the field beside ours, 500 metres from our home. Also, that year I entered and finished the last year of cancer surveillance with the University Hospital Galway. Written by Niall and me, it also features my pen & ink drawings and an illustrated map of our garden. The beautiful paperback came out in April ’23.
New York was ‘home’ until I moved to the 200 year old cottage in the west of Ireland with Niall Williams. In our early years, we co-authored four bestselling non-fiction books on country living in County Clare, originally published by Soho Press in NY. The first, O Come Ye Back to Ireland, is available now as an ebook. In 2001-2, we travelled around the world for 9 months with our children. So Many Miles to Paradise is my travel memoir of that trip.
When I’m not writing or drawing, I’m in the garden, or thinking about all three. But mostly I’m wondering how my two grown children, now New Yorkers, and our lovely granddaughter are doing.
See Niall’s website for Kiltumper Writing Workshops