Guest Blogs
Wordspark
A blog by ERMurray
Photos, people, experiences, dreams: in other words, ideas. They have to come from somewhere, but it’s not always easy. Let Wordspark inspire you. You never know where it might lead…
Elizabeth Rose Murray lives in West Cork where she writes, fishes, and grows her own vegetables. Her first book for young adults Caramel Hearts (Alma Books) was published June 2016. Her debut novel for children aged 10-12, The Book of Learning - Nine Lives Trilogy 1 (Mercier Press) was chosen as the 2016 Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Citywide Read for Children and the follow-up The Book of Shadows - Nine Lives Trilogy 2 was shortlisted for the 2016 Irish Book Awards. The final installment The Book of Revenge will be published in February 2018.
Elizabeth has poetry and short fiction published in journals across the UK and Ireland - including Ogham Stone, Southword, South Circular, Esc and 3am - and has been shortlisted in various competitions including TV3AM Short Story, Francis MacManus, and Aesthetica Creative Works. She has also performed in Ciudades Paralelas: Station - a live writing installation.
Hoping to encourage new writers, Elizabeth provides manuscript reports and online writing courses through Inkwell Writers and Big Smoke Writing Factory. She is a regular at literary festivals, and offers adult workshops on writing for children and young adults, as well as multiple events and workshops for children and teens.
You can connect with Elizabeth on Twitter @ERMurray, Facebook www.facebook.com/ERMurray.Author or her blog www.ermurray.com
You can follow Elizabeth online, on Twitter and on Facebook.
Beckett in Foxrock 2019 – All that Fall
Saturday 23rd March at 8pm Tullow Church, Brighton Road, Foxrock Beckett in Foxrock 2019 – All that Fall is organised by Tullow Parish and Mouth on Fire Theatre Company in association with Foxrock Area Community and Enterprise (FACE) with the support of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature. How many villages have a play written about them by a Nobel Laureate? That rare distinction applies to Foxrock Village. All that Fall,...
Read the full article >>Scottish Book Trust Announces Recipient of Next Chapter Award 2019
An aspiring author from East Renfrewshire has been announced as the recipient of Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award 2019. Samina Chaudhry was born in Manchester, and completed her Masters degree in Pakistan. Seeing first-hand the social and political strife – and one day being held at gun point along with her husband – Samina made the decision to leave. They originally did not plan to stay in Scotland for long, but the warmth and...
Read the full article >>Story Starter Wordspark 11
You can never have too many ideas – keep a notebook with you ALL the time to jot them down in – you think you’ll remember them but you won’t! Tear out articles from magazines and newspapers, keep a scrapbook, keep your inspiration close to hand. But if you’re stuck or want something totally fresh, see what you can do with our story starter ideas…
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More ideas to get you scribbling – if you’re reached an impasse with your own story, try writing 1000 words using these images as inspiration, it will get the cogs turning again and might show you where you’re gone astray…
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The Wordspark blog is all about giving you inspiration whether it’s for flash fiction, poetry, a short story or something longer – check out our previous Story Starter posts if you missed them. There’s nothing more daunting than the blank page, so here are some images to get your imagination firing – if you’d like to add what you come up with to the comments, we’ll publish what we can, or just use these for...
Read the full article >>Story Starter Wordspark 8
New year, new you, new story! Here, we hope, is some inspiration for you….
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If you’re full of Christmas pudding and need some space to chill, here are some pictures that might inspire a story – see what you can come up with… #
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Whatever you want to write, the blank page can be daunting – take these pictures and write something…
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More ideas for you – whether it’s flash fiction, a short story of the start of a novel, see what inspiration you can find here:
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This week we’ve got some more story starter ideas for you – see what you can make of these. If you’d like to share your story, add to the comments and we’ll publish what we can – but if you’d rather keep it to yourself, please do that!
