More Than Words

The old adage that 'everyone has at least one good book in them' seems perfectly apt in a county as full as characters as Kerry. But, at the risk of stating the frighteningly obvious, there's a lot more to writing a book than simply putting pen to paper and with this in mind the Seanchai Literary and Cultural Centre in Listowel has programmed an upcoming workshop that will focus on the art of writing a novel.

The workshop, which will be given by Dublin Native, Rose Doyle, winner of the Hennessy New Irish Writing Literary Award for a short story, and will concentrate on creative writing and aims to help participants navigate the troubled waters of novel writing.

Participants will learn techniques that help focus the writer's mind, allowing would be novelists to get their ideas down while helping them to find that elusive "voice" which suits, dialogue, plot and character development. And while focusing on the theoretical the workshop will concentrate primarily on the practical side involved in writing a novel.

Participants are encouraged to bring completed work along for advice, however, due to time constraints the main focus will be on developing ideas and generating new work.

Rose's novels include are Perfectly Natural, Gambling with Darkness as well as children's novels like The Invisible Monk and Goodbye, Summer, Goodbye.

The workshop takes place from April 20th to 22nd and costs 120 euro

For those who prefer reading books to writing books, best selling Author Michael Smith, he of Tom Crean - An Unsung Hero fame, will present a Slide Show of his latest book Tom Crean - An Illustrated Life on Wednesday, April 18th. His latest book was nominated for Irish Published Book of Year in 2007. The evening promises to be a rare treat and costs 8 euro.

For more information on the workshop or slide show please contact Seanchai - Kerry Literary & Cultural Centre, 24 The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland. You may also call 068 222 12 email info@kerrywritersmuseum.com or log onto www.kerrywritersmuseum.com