LIMERICK based novelist Roisin Meaney, a fixture in the best seller list in Ireland, has released her latest. ‘One Summer’ is published by Hachette Books Ireland and has an interesting twist to its romance led by a resourceful young woman. This central character is Nell Mulcahy, in love and about to be married, and she has to raise finance for the splashy wedding. Far from Nell the old chestnut of getting the parents to pay for the wedding. That conker thrown in the fire, she’s even making the cake herself.
No, the canny Nell, a hairdresser, has to rent out her home, a cottage on the Island of Roone, Ireland…to her weekend fiancé’s annoyance. There are more challenges ahead for this long-distance romance: bereavement, family troubles, career conflict and cavalier behaviour. Living on the island “lends itself to being a little bit different, removed from reality. And the islanders like it like that,” says Roisin Meaney.
She gave up her loved job of teaching at Limerick School Project to concentrate on her career as a fiction writer. You can meet her at ‘One Summer’s launch in Dolan’s Pub on Thursday April 12, 8pm when jazz guitarist Austin Durack and singer/ actress Judy O’Connor serenade the occasion and book signings.
What sort of commitment is required to finish a best seller of 4-500 pages, wondered Arts page?
“I start work between 9am and 10am every day and keep the head down for five to six hours, taking little breaks. I have to as the going is intense,” says Roisin, living in Farranshone. “This is my eighth book and my editor for the last six of them is Ciara Doorley at Hachette. I will go through two drafts to have everything as polished as I can before sending it off to her and after she works on it, there will be a third”.
Starting the plot is the hardest part for this novelist, “getting that sorted and I like to make it really detailed. Then having an idea of the characters and how they develop. Once started, everything flows more easily after that”.
As does her growing catchment of readers, with Roisin’s sales climbing into the top five on a regular basis. ‘One Summer’ arrives “as the summer unfolds and Nell’s carefully laid plans start to go awry”. Her dilemmas and choices will please thousands who relish a big book, enterprising characters who have to scratch for a living, and quirky storylines.
