Eamon Somers

Working in an area with some of the worst poverty in Britain. Great time to make a donation.

Bow Foodbank Double Donation Drive 💛 We want to upskill our community volunteers, to offer more than food, and tackle the root causes of food insecurity, neighbour to neighbour

It's begun...

Russian tech company hunts down LGBTQ+ businesses after Supreme Court’s “extremism” ruling Russia's Supreme Court declared all LGBTQ+ supporters as “extremists.” Now a Russian company is tracking queer-friendly businesses...

‘The struggle is not over’: National HIV memorial unveiled in Ireland | The Irish Post A MONUMENT honouring people who have been affected by Aids and HIV has been unveiled in Ireland....

How about a short story anthology, as a present like, for the Christmas, say Santa sent it.

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My story is not called Divorcing Ian, that was the working title. Now it's called Madam I'm Adam. Enjoy it either way. Plus 15 more stories by Unbound authors.

It’s finally time to start opening our advent calendars! Over the next few days we’ll be releasing a few teasers from our latest anthology. A mini Breakthrough Books advent calendar if you will. So watch out for some eye-catching tasters of the diverse stories the collective loves to tell… and all best wishes for the festive season! #12DaysOfOrderAndChaosmas #12DaysOfBookmas #BreakthroughBooks #OrderAndChaos #ShortStory #ShortStories #Anthology #ShortStoryAnthology #ShortStoryCollection #Christmas #Bookmas #bookaddict #bookblogger #bookish #booklove #booklover #bookrecommendations #books #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookworm #booksworthreading

Oxford Indie Book Fair, almost a sell-out. People buying for Christmas presents. What a clever idea.

Cork Harbour in the morning.

Overlooking Cork Harbour

Thanks and everyone on that investigated my novel Dolly Considine's Hotel. Much appreciated

20 years ago, I published a book called *A Dance in Time* I wasn’t happy with it and I blamed my publisher.

My first novel had been a big, multigenerational book, moving forward and backwards in time, with a modern narrator telling a historical story. They suggested I produce something similar for my second. “You’re so lucky that your first book was a bestseller, we want to keep giving your readers what they like.”

Good standard publishing advice. But I was working on two very different books. A novel about the Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne and her poet admirer WB Yeats; and a contemporary mother-daughter story. My editor suggested we bring the two together, drawing out themes across time and space, as I had in my first book.

Reader: I did it.

The reviews were good but the result never felt right to me. So when I began self-publishing in 2012, I separated them back out. The mother-daughter tale became *Blue Mercy*, which I published in 2013. I produced the Gonne m-Years story as *Her Secret Rose*, for the 150th birthday centenary of WB Yeats in 2015.

I worked fast, to a deadline and again the reviews were good but I wasn’t satisfied. This time I could only blame myself!

I moved on to other projects, but this book kept calling me back. It took me a few years to see what was wrong with it. Essentially the story needed much more space to breathe. The narrator, Rosy Cross and her labouring class family needed to step forward. And so did Maud Gonne, the heroine, always so much more than a muse to Yeats. These two women were now given enough room to fully inhabit their fiery and fabulous lives.

I’m currently working through the final drafts to go to the editor. If you’re interested, I am currently releasing early extracts for my fiction and all-access patrons. OrnaRoss.com/patron.

Not only that: Later chapters from A Dance in Time have been developed into an additional four books. Yes, it looks like I have my first fully blown series! 😊

It’s been quite the journey but finally I am proud of this work. That feels good.

Calling all volunteers! Lucan Library is looking to start hosting a Coder Dojo group for their young patrons. They're looking for any adults with an interest in programming who would like to volunteer as coding mentors for this group.

They're hoping to put together a small group of volunteers to work as a team. They're looking for computer-literate adults, available on Wednesday afternoons, ideally with experience of Coder Dojo but this is not essential. The group will meet once a month to start. All volunteers will be Garda-vetted.

If you think this is something that you might be interested in, just contact the branch for more information: [email protected] / 01 621 6422.

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Remembering Seamus Heaney who died on this day nine years ago

A grinning bridge, which Dolly may have crossed during her visit to Westport, Ireland, for Christmas 1983. The author cannot know what their characters get up to in their spare time. http://author.to/DollyConsidinesHotel

RIP Raymond Briggs. The body of work he leaves behind is both brilliantly funny and profoundly moving.

Photo is from The Bear published in 1994.

We are so sorry to hear that Raymond Briggs has passed away. A beloved illustrator, writer and storyteller, he lives on in his work and the memories of those who treasure it. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.

It was a privilege to work with Raymond on Notes from the Sofa, for which we filmed a small series of wonderful interviews. It was an honour to know such a great man.

Watch one of our favourite interviews with Raymond here: https://bit.ly/3BVZe0D

United in abandonedment.

Inspiring and insightful review of Dolly Considine's Hotel, might incite some more people to read it. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg39GOQLcOk/

Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers ‘Dolly Considine runs a late-night drinking establishment catering to the needs of thirsty politicians and theatricals in Dublin’s legendary drinking area, the Catacombs. Julian Ryder (aka Paddy Butler) is an eighteen-year-old aspiring writer in need of shelter from his bullying older brother. Set against the run-up to the Pro-life Constitutional Amendment of September 1983 and moving fluidly between the 1950s of Dolly’s youth and Julian’s Summer of Unrequited Love, the hotel becomes a stage for farce and tragedy.’ Somers’ writing style is wonderfully fluid and poetic. I personally enjoy novels that reach back and forth across different times, and the chapters were structured so well throughout this one - it never felt jarring. I would agree with the various Goodreads reviews that this novel is avant-garde - I’ve never read anything quite like it, but it felt almost Modernist. Because of this, I feel that I’d definitely gain more by reading Dolly Considine a second time. I’m also far less knowledgeable on Ireland’s complex history with abortion & women’s & gay rights than I thought I was going in. also Irish culture in general - for me this was such a culture trip. I spent a couple of months with this novel which for me, felt like the best way to read it & I’ve come out the end feeling both smarter from it but also very humbled lol - I love being enriched by novels like this though! I’ll most likely pick Dolly Considine’s Hotel up again in the future - I definitely have more to gain. thank you @claireandherbooks & @eamonsomers for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. E x . . . . . #dollyconsidineshotel #eamonsomers #bookreview #bookstagram #bookstagramuk #irishliterature #booklover #booktok #books #bookaddict #booksbooksbooks📚 #bookphotography #tbr #bibliophile #bookish #bookblogger #booksta #bookrecs #discoverbooks #prettybooks #bookstagrammer #bookreviews #bookaesthetic #currentlyreading #bookworm #bookedit

A recent message of support from Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Proud to be the Irish Heart of London! 💚

We are delighted to congratulate Edna O’Brien on being awarded the Pleasure of Reading Prize 2022! Edna O’Brien’s writing, over the course of a six-decade-long career, has impacted so many of us thanks to both her literary skill and her courage.

On winning the prize, O’Brien has said: “The pleasure of reading has not abated and for me this unexpected honour might do much to invigorate the variable pleasure of writing; I am very happy to receive it.”

Dolly Considine’s Hotel visits famous Paris bookshop. No the other one.

Lovely boost for Dolly Considine’s Hotel from Rebecca L Marsh.

This week's featured author is Eamon Somers. Eamon writes about secrets and the characters who expose them in 1980s Ireland, just as the country is beginning to shrug off its past and to open itself to a world of new experiences. He is happiest when his unreliable narrators are arriving at big truths about themselves, and doing so with humor and pathos.
You can find all of Eamon's books here: http://author.to/DollyConsidinesHotel

Bio I’m a writer of contemporary fiction. Originally from Salisbury, Wiltshire, I have lived in London for over 30 years but my lifelong links with France regularly take me back to Paris and Prov…

Leo is 22 and sells his body on the street for a bit of cash. The men come and go, and he stays right here - longing for love. He doesn't know what the future will bring. He hits the road. His heart is pounding.

SAUVAGE - International Trailer - Watch OnDemand SAUVAGE - Watch OnDemand. https://sauvage.film/Leo (120 BPMs Felix Maritaud) is a 22-year-old s*x worker who yearns for affection. In poor health and with no...

Dolly volunteers to go into Christmas stockings.

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception the most important shopping day in the Irish calendar:
Dolly had been persuading her mother to take her Christmas shopping in Dublin for years before the scandal. On her very first stay in the hotel, towards the end of The Emergency, with war rationing still affecting everyone else, and while watching a couple of American soldiers in m***i in the Visitors' Lounge, she had made a promise about her future. And as if to seal it, she let go of her mother's hand, brushed a fleck of glitter from the front of her long brown coat, and shook her head to make the two pink rose buds pinned to the rim of the hat her mother had bought her that afternoon in Brown Thomas, quiver with certainty. She smiled at the American soldiers to let them know they were invited to come back to the bar to sip celebratory drinks with her on the day she moved into the hotel forever.
The manageress, Mrs Burns, had her own opinion about the hotel owner's sister and favourite niece occupying beds she could have filled twice over in the days on either side of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception; the traditional opportunity for country people to come to Dublin for their Christmas shopping. But it was December 1951 before she said anything.