LIMERICK novelist Siobhan MacDonald is writing her own happy ending after securing a two book deal with a major international publisher. Her novels ‘Twisted River’ and ‘Blue Pool’ were acquired by Exhibit A Books, a subsidiary of UK company Osprey Publishing.
‘Twisted River’, which is anticipated for an October 2014 release, is a psychological thriller telling the story of two families, one in Limerick and one in Manhattan, who come into contact via the Internet and agree a fateful house swap.
‘Blue Pool’ is a story about four students who spend a holiday in County Clare that takes a sinister turn. It is expected to be released in 2015.
Siobhan, the eldest of six children and a daughter of well-known speech and drama teacher Catherine O’Donoghue, spoke of her delight at signing the book deal.
“I was thrilled to sign up with a well-known publisher. Exhibit A Books are dedicated to thriller writing, they specify in that genre, so this is a real endoresement of my work.
“Since I graduated from university, I have always been involved in writing in one way or another. I had an engineering degree so I was doing a lot of software writing and academic writing. The fiction writing is a progression from that and it is what I really enjoy.”
Siobhan dedicated two years to writing the books that are due for publication and said that she happily went straight from finishing one to starting the other,
“I wrote ‘Blue Pool’ first. I started writing that around 2010 or 2011 and it took roughly a year to write. When I had that finished, I went straight into the next one as I wanted to keep the momentum going and that took another nine to 12 months. I was keen to keep going because when I get an idea in my head I like to explore it and run with it.”
Siobhan is now working on another psychological thriller and she hopes that readers will react positively to her upcoming books,saying: “I would love to continue writing. I want to gain a wide readership and I want to provide entertaining reading for people.”
