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Away with the Fairies- The Travel Diary of an Irish WebFairy

Hello, just dropping by for an update!

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So, once again just popping by to say hello and give you an update on life!

But first... What is going on with the blogs! You can tell I haven't been on in ages from the fact that this is the first time I've been on the blogs since it changed... and I can't figure it out!

Anyhoodle... College is finished for the year and I just have TWO more courses to do before I graduate! I've decided not to do a second major and just have creative writing as my only major for my BA (hons) in Humanities. I'm still going to do the Myths and Legends in Greek and Roman Worlds course as a lot of my writing is full of myths and I just love them. On top of that I'm going to do Childrens Literature. I'll complete my degree with that module... and then I'm considering moving onto a MA in Creative Writing. There are some great MA's available in distance learning formats. I'm particularly interested in the one from University of Edinburgh. It will take me three years to do it, but considering I've already spent so long working on my degree (four years with another two to go) that I don't really mind. I might even go on to do a Phd after!

So I've completed my Creative Writing modules and I really learnt so much from them. I've been so lucky with my tutors. My A215 tutor had been wonderfully encouraging, while my A363 tutor (an Irish poet I'd previously heard of and was excited about having as a tutor) helped give me the confidence to tackle things I'd normally not write. I wrote a 30 minute screenplay for my EMA instead of going for poetry like I'd done with A215. Infact, I didn't do any poetry this year at all! I was going to do some for one of my TMA's but ended up writing a piece of Life Writing that got me my highest mark of the course. I had really enjoyed writing it, but the content means I can't share it.

I'm planning on submitting my screenplay into the Bluecat Screenplay competition, but I'm holding off until I get my result in August. I think I need to see my grade to give me the boost to submit. I've never been so proud of something I've written before, even though it broke me mentally to write it. But I'm recovering. My days aren't so dark as they were. There is some sun getting in.

In other news, I don't think I'd mentioned it the last time, but I got involved with a group of OU Creative Writing students and helped produce an anthology of poetry, short stories and life writing written by OU A215 students. It was officially published at christmas! We called it Sea of Ink and we've continued on as a publishing group. So basically, I'm currently (and voluntarily) Head of Submissions and Admin for Ink Pantry Publishing! And I'm a busy bee with it at the moment because we've just opened submissions for a second anthology to all A174, A215 and A363 OU students, past and present! I must say, I love doing it and I'm absolutely lucky to be working with an amazing team too. So yes, book number two should be out by the end of the summer and book number one is still on sale in e-book form (ePub and Kindle)! Success!! Not to mention, I'm officially a published writer as two pieces belonging to myself were selected for the publication; one poem and a short story.

Now onto some of the even better news! Myself and Kilted Exile got married. I'm now officially Niamh MacFarlane. We had our wedding in March at a little presbyterian church and our reception was in a beautiful hotel out in Portmarnock. Here's some photos!

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On top of our wedding, we are off to Australia next month for my sisters wedding. Busy year! Looking forward to it. Going to be another great event with lots of crazy Aussies, plus a couple of weeks exploring Sydney again! It will be Drew's first time in Australia so he really wants to go to Taronga Zoo. Awesome! Shame Sprinks isn't based in Sydney.

And on top of all of that, we have also just bought our own apartment. It's a NAMA property so was pretty cheap. Originally would have cost over €300K and we got it for €90k! It's a little two bed apartment with a balcony and it's own private roof garden. Here is the view from the garden. Sweet!

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We can see right out to Howth Head, Dublin Bay (you can just about make out a ship coming into port to the left of the pyramid), Portmarnock and Baldoyle! Just about see the Dublin Mountains too! We are hoping it will be finished inside next week so we can start to move in.

Well, I think that is everything.

So how are all of you?

Updated 06-07-2013 at 07:45 AM by Niamh

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Comments

  1. qimissung's Avatar
    Congratulations, Niamh, on your wedding! You guys look really happy and you are a beautiful bride. Congratulations, also, on your successes in school, writing, and publishing! You have a lot of good things going on.

    It's really good to see you posting! I wondered about your wedding. I thought I remembered you were getting married in March.
  2. cafolini's Avatar
    Very positive. Nice. Best of lucks. God be with you.
  3. Virgil's Avatar
    Congratulations!!! Great wedding pictures! My love to both of you. You make a great couple. Is that phrase still used for a married couple? I guess so...lol.

    What a great blog. Everything was sparkling with joy. Definitely a newlywed. One day when things settle down you'll have to share some of your writing with me. Hopefully it will have lots of Irish slang.
  4. Niamh's Avatar
    lol! Some of it does, some of it doesn't.

    Nah things have been going really well lately. The stress though hasn't been great. I'm sure you can imagine how much stress buying a property, organising a wedding, studying, working 40-50 hours a week and sidelining a publication can entail. It's been though and I'm still trying to recover from it. Off to Aus though for my sisters wedding in July and currently in the process of packing up the flat in prep for moving to apartment, plus trying to sort out book number 2... it's hard going. I need a break!!!
  5. hannah_arendt's Avatar
    Congratulations Mu husband and I got married 2 years ago