Val Troy

I have a number of writing projects on the go including:

My debut comedy women’s commercial fiction novel What Could Possibly Go Wrong? – When perennially single Tara goes on holiday, she never imagines that a luggage mix-up and a sunburnt bottom would lead to a romance with handsome doctor Dan. Maybe now she can assure her relentless mother that she won’t end up like “a washed-up old spinster with shrivelled ovaries.” But a late-night kiss in the office with a female colleague sends her into an existential spin, throws doubt on relations with Dan and seriously jeopardises her prospects of promotion. What could possibly go wrong?

My comedy screenplay, co-written with Orla Doherty, Men Oh! Pause – A worn-out, menopausal divorcee must move on from her old life, jealous ex-husband and relentless ex-mother-in-law. But conversations with her worldly daughter and her strung-out best friend prompt her to press pause on dating men in favour of dating women. After several dating faux-pas, she meets someone new and together they navigate a new relationship and menopause of course.

My debut children’s middle grade novel Perfect As We Are – Non-verbal Flo ‘speaks’ in her own ways: by playing the guitar and writing a journal for her little sister to read one day. But when her mum signs her up to an assisted learning school miles away from home where she can access fancy tech to help her communicate, Flo risks missing out on everything, especially her best friend, Roary. Maybe, if they can start a band and perform at the All Ireland Festival, she’ll show her mum that she can communicate just fine – but expressing herself through music is no good if the words aren’t her own. But she suffers setbacks, silenced once more when the lyrics to her first original song are stolen and her journal destroyed. So, when the spotlight’s on Flo, can she perform her own lyrics and finally make herself heard to let her worried mum know that she is perfect as she is?