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| My Poster Design |
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| Megan and The Book Eating Beast |
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| Niamh Sharkey, Norton Virgien, Lisa O Connor and Megan Mc Mahon |
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| Artwork from The Ravenous Beast |
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| Austrian Illustrators Book Work |
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| Oscar |
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| Laureate NaÓg Siobhan Parkinson
Hey guys! Time to catch up and tell you abut all the amazing things happening for Children's Book Festival! Last Friday was the opening of Images Beyond Borders an exhibition of Irish and Austrian Picture Book Illustrators. It was launched last Friday by our wonderful Laureate na nÓg Siobhán Parkinson and Karin Fichtinger-Grohe, Deputy Minister at the Austrian Embassy, at The No Grants Gallery in Temple Bar. I have to say I am so proud to be included in this exhibition. It is right in the heart of Temple Bar and really raises the bar :) It runs for the month of October so make sure to pop in! although they do close for lunch!
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Oh what a delicious thing to wake up to!
Bren Byrne & Richard Seabrooke from The Small Print have outdone themselves and compiled a fantastic 274 page survey of creatives from all over the world. They asked them to spill the beans on their favourite event, film, book, piece of work from 2010. I am delighted to be to be part of it too :) I'm on Page 207...
What a line up of creatives.. go check it out here.
It’s a great tonic, full of positivivity and incredible work. Don’t miss it!
Wishing you all a belated Monsterly Happy New Year!!!
Sorry, I have been off the blog-a-sphere for a few weeks. I totally took a Blog and Twitter break to recharge my batteries (Plus I had become insanely addicted to reading every Twitter feed last December.) I first really missed reading the little screen constantly on my phone, flicking and scrolling looking for tasty bites of text. I love the munching sound my phone makes as it releases the latest Tweets.
I was constantly updating my screen flicking between Twitter and Facebook, checking my emails. My battery life would only stretch half a day (I blamed my old phone, but really it was my constant appetite for information.) I knew it was becoming a problem; I was only giving conversations my half attention. Sure, so and so won't notice if I just flick open my screen, if I'm caught, I can explain it away by quoting a witty Stephen Fry morsel. I knew I had an addiction when my evening conversations with my husband constantly quoted what I had read on Twitter or talking for hours about Dublin Zoo's Penguin Cam. I knew deep down that if my children were carrying on like this I would take serious actions.
And so I took a self-imposed technology break, it was not total as I answered my phones and occasionally dipped my toe into Facebook. But my battery life on my phone now lasts two days and not surprisingly I have replaced reading twitter feeds with reading books, I have been reading like a mad woman, staying up late devouring them. Working my way through the stack on my bedside locker. I have started to keep a journal, and I'm writing and drawing more. I’ve been invited to join my first ever Adult Book Club. They meet monthly in Skerries cosiest pub, Nealons. I also started talking to my husband about writing, ideas, and creative blocks. It felt good to be free. So good in fact I have been delaying returning to writing this blog.
Then this morning my cousin Averil phoned to see if I was ok, was I sick, struck down my some mysterious weird illness? She had been checking my blog and noticed that I was missing and was worried about me. I told her about my blog break, and we laughed about Twitter addictions, which she also confessed to. We talked about motherhood, cousins and what books her children Darragh and Freya laugh at. It really made me really happy to talk with her.
So, I guess what I am trying to say is that the connections are what its really all about. This is a virtual space, where virtual Niamh resides, I usually don't post up too many personal things here. But it was nice that Averil missed me in Cyber world enough, that she picked up the phone and called me.
So I want to say to anyone else who missed me that...
I am here.
I will blog.
I will post on Twitter.
But I will also be available in real life to have coffee with friends, play with my children, talk, read, go sailing, make books, draw, go dancing, have pints, play tennis, give workshops, walk on the beach, laugh and play.
Happy NEW Year!
