Andrea always wanted to be a barrister. But, unable, initially, to afford the Bar, she set up as a solicitor in Donegal, hoping to do lots of advocacy. “I started writing in a casual way,” she…
Caroline Logue is the nom de plume of the journalist Sile McArdle. After university Caroline worked in London in management consultancy. She had great fun there, but after a few years realised that business wasn’t for…
A quiet child, Rachel was an obsessive reader, but she wanted to become a vet. “My passions were animals and books,” she says. After university Rachel did some post graduate work in sociology at Derby University….
Beginner’s Pluck. Jeremy Massey. When Jeremy was 22, he worked full time in the family funeral business in Dublin. Then, going part-time, he lived above the business, and worked weekends and holidays until 2001, when his…
Matt has kept journals since he was a child, and the detailed accounts he kept of his adventurous travels form the basis for his debut novel. His travels began after college. “I had amazing jobs in…
Katarina cannot decide whether she prefers books or people. From the age of 14, until she was 25, she worked, part-time in a bookshop. Meanwhile, she was working for various NGO’s. “I always wanted to write,…
A lifelong lover of English, Paula left Dublin after college planning to travel the world. She got as far as Los Angeles, and stayed there for three years trying to become a writer. “But I couldn’t…
After university Natasha taught English in China; then she worked, briefly, in Waterstones before joining Cambridge University Press as a publishing assistant. She left there to take up an MA in creative writing, and whilst there,…
Ruth has always written stories. As a teenager, the stories became longer and longer – the size of full length books. But it was a while before she actually became a writer. After university she spent…
After a difficult early life, Jax dropped out of school, and hitchhiked around America. There were bouts of drug taking and homelessness. At 22, in rehab, her Born Again Christian counsellor suggested she write a journal,…
M.O. Walsh has been writing since the 8th grade, when he discovered literature through Edgar Allan Poe. It’s all he’s ever wanted to do. Since finally leaving college at 27, he has been teaching creative writing;…
Oisín has been writing since he was 9. At 19 he dropped out of college for a year, to be a writer. “I wrote full time, and worked nights. Then I went back to complete my…