This week has been a crazy week

First of all it has mostly be dominated not by the news of the royal engagement but instead by the introduction of the Atex Content Management system in the Derry Journal (feel free to fall asleep now).
A quick Google (always love saying that word in a soft Galway accent, for the record) of Atex and Johnston Press (our parent company) will show that the move has not necessarily been a popular one throughout the group.
And I can tell you all now, it has been a stress fest here. Most of this admittedly from the lowly reporter's point of view (that's mine...) has been because it is very different to how we worked previously. VERY different. I've worked all week with three crib sheets in front of me, what feels like 100 different windows open on my desktop and amid an atmosphere of sheer insanity.
I have sworn quite a lot.
But we will get there and it is just a matter of things bedding in.

What did make me smile though was a lovely review on Chick Lit Reviews which said IGTBP cemented as one of Ireland's finest Chick Lit writers -which was a very nice thing for them to say indeed. The reviewer wasn't so keen on the sexual content in the opening chapters which I think painted a picture of the book as a bonkbuster... I can assure you it's not. There's a bit of innuendo and some near the knuckle humour but there isn't actually all that much sex... not really. Swear to God. There isn't even a single throbbing doodah....

Finally I booked tickets for Bon Jovi playing in the RDA in Dublin next June. Yes, I will be the almost middleaged saddo sitting in the comfy seats asking them to turn it down a bit. Or maybe I'll just rock it out.

A bit like the war, we'll not mention the book.

Claire says: OMG what a FAB read!

Okay, so I don't do teen cool very well but it has been an extraordinarly long time since I was 17 - the age of Della, the main character, in Keris Stainton's debut novel 'Della says OMG!'.
In fact it has been 17 years since I was 17 and even when I was, I wasn't as cool as Della and her friends - who actually made me want to be a teenager again.
I should say I've 'known' Keris for about four years, since my early days writing Rainy Days and Tuesdays when she was the esteemed leader of an online writing group I used.
We have a few things in common - a slight obsessions with Matt Goss, two children of roughly the same age (Her baby boy Joe was born about 6 weeks before Cara so we shared much pregnancy chatter), a love of Marian Keyes and the need to blog alot.
What Keris has that I don't though is the ability to get inside the teenage mind and create YA books that people will actually want to read and not laugh at.
Here's the blurby bit: Della’s over the moon when she kisses her long-standing crush at a party – but then she discovers her diary has disappeared...
When scans of embarrassing pages are sent to her mobile and appear on Facebook, Della’s distraught – how can she enjoy her first proper romance when someone, somewhere, knows all her deepest, darkest secrets?

Della Says OMG! is a fast paced, laugh out loud read which made me feel like a young thing again. It's fresh, sharp and on the money from start to finish. It doesn't patronise the reader - and it has enough mystery to keep you wanting more.
It even made me form a crush on a 17 year old boy (Della's long-standing crush) which I'm pretty sure is immoral if not illegal.
 
But I'm glad to say I heartily recommend to teenagers of all ages... yes, even you - which is a relief but you always do kind of worry when you read a book by a friend that you might think it sucks and you'll have to lie. I can assure you, I'm not lying.

One of the best books I've read - truly remarkable

I have wanted to read Designer Genes by fellow Poolbeg author Emma Hannigan since I first read about it last year.
It took me a brave while to get around to it - not because I lacked any enthusiasm, more because I was trying to get a couple of books established myself.
But with a long wait in the hairdressers due a few weeks ago, I treated myself and I'm glad I did.
It's almost impossible to believe this is a debut novel. Hannigan writes with such confidence, emotional empathy and humour that it feels as though she has been doing it all her life.
The premise of the book is simple - Emily Cusack, married mum of two kids, finds out she has a wonky gene which predisposes her to breast cancer. Emily decides to have a double mastectomy as a preventative measure and an oopherectomy (the removal over her ovaries).
I know what you will be thinking at this point - a book about cancer, major surgery and boob removal. Sounds like a fecking big barrel of laughs.... not. But it is.
There are genuine laugh out loud moments to sit alongside the weep into your morning cuppa moments. There is a warmth and chatty style to Hannigan's writing which draws you in and makes you care so very deeply about Emily and her family.
Her interactions between he characters - especially between her and her best friend Susie - are brilliantly drawn. The friendship feels real. In fact I finished the book in the wee small hours of this morning feeling they were real and I had been on a proper journey with them.
I want to have tea and biscuits in Dunmahon shopping centre with Emily and Susie and while my arse wouldn't fit in a pair of Victoria Beckham jeans in a blue fit, I would ooh and aah at all the right places.
At times I seethed with professional jealousy reading this book because, mark my words, Hannigan is going to be huge (in a success sense... I'm not suggesting she get fat or anything).
This book is a delight, and an addictive read from start to finish. I have to say it has been a long time since I turned the last page of a book and felt a pang of regret that it was done, but this was one such occasion.
Do yourself a favour, pick up a copy.
Her new book 'Miss Conceived' is due out in July. I'll be off to the shops at the first opportunity.

She shoots - she scores!

Donegal lass Cara McCarthy has always been a tomboy type of girl, who wouldn’t care how to spell Versace, let alone have any desire to wear it.

On a career break in London, she lands a job as a cleaner which is right up her street just then. Her new boss is Sophia Brannigan – the fashionista girlfriend of gorgeous Fulton FC Premiership star, Dylan Summers, and her new place of work is their luxurious home, Summer Manor.
Cara is determined to stay in the background, but life has other plans. Before she can say ‘Manolo’, she finds herself plunged in at the deep end of high fashion and posh parties. With a friendly father figure in gardener Sam and a delightful new arrival called Lola, Cara’s new life is set to be both fun and challenging.
But as Sophia’s hunger for celebrity grows, so does Cara’s bond with Dylan Summers and soon everything she does at Summer Manor seems destined to land her deeper and deeper into trouble ...

I've just finished reading 'Playing the Field' by fellow Poolbeg author and all round glamour puss Emma Heatherington.
This is Emma's third book - her first 'Crazy for You' was published by Dodder in 2007, her second 'Beyond Sin' (under the pen name Emma Louise Jordan) was published by Poolbeg Crimson earlier this year. Yes, earlier this year. The woman is without a doubt one of the hardest working, fastest writing people I know. And she has three kids. She needs an award - seriously.
But with all her busy-ness (she runs her own PR company and is heavily involved in the local theatre scene as - you guessed it - a writer among other things) does the quality of her books suffer?
If Playing the Field is anything to go by - then absolutely and categorically no.
It is, from the very outset, a witty, fast paced, funny and aspirational read. Set in the impressive world of Wagdom - with all the luxury trimmings thrown in - it is a fun, lighthearted and impressive read which is, without a doubt, Emma's best book to date.
Her characters are warm, likeable and well drawn. Her settings give an absolute sense of place - so much so that I can truly imagine myself in the kitchen at Summer Manor or sitting on Priscilla Presley at Graceland (read the book to find out more).
I can't give too much away without ruining the book - but with a wonderful festive ending Playing the Field would be a real treat in anyone's stocking this Christmas.
Fun, flirty and absolutely fabulous.
5/5