Never give up on a good story!

My writing muse... patient even when I give her devil hair

What do you do with a script that isn’t made?

Or a play that theatres aren't interested in because it's too small/ too different?

This is the issue with so many writers, so many fantastic scripts and so many great stories.

The majority of scripts are never produced, they never snuggle into the width of a TV or cinema screen or grace a large or even small theatre.

They sit on our shelves, making us feel slightly deflated as they increase in number. They go out and hunt for directors, producers, sometimes find them, get optioned, developed, gather awards and commendations, even bought... and still end up back on our shelves.

About seven years ago, after over a decade of working as a screenwriter,  I looked at my family of feature scripts and decided to turn the family features into children’s books. At least then they had a chance of another life. Another selection of rejection letters! At least, even if they weren't published, they could be read.

Scripts written for the screen are not easy to read if you're not used to the form.

Strangely - or not! - adapting them to prose was not nearly as simple as I thought it would be!

The first one, which will be my next book out, seemed straightforward... I added prose around the dialogue and expanded the scene settings and characters... and discovered that I had three or even four Sundays in a row.

What happened during the weeks in between?

In film, that wasn't important. It's a visual medium. You sweep people away into your world and they don't ask where Tuesday went. 

That was a problem.

I filled the weeks in only then the book was too long and flat... The best advice I got, from writer and editor, Claire Hennessy, came when I sent her one of my books to read. Scriptwriters writing novels tend to feel they have to fill in the gaps.

But we don’t need to do this. A book has to be a fun and exciting and moving read. A page-turned. That’s our job.

So here I am bringing out my first book, Dad’s Red Dress...

A mock up of the book - can't wait to hold one!

It has been a nerve-wracking ride getting to this point but it feels lovely to be in control. To be able to put it out there, in a way screenwriters can’t unless they become directors.  So many people have helped me get here and made sure I got to this point – readers in Ireland, Australia, the US, England to start. 

Still I held back because I needed a cover and didn’t know what to ask for. Up steps a fantastic young graphic designer (Aoife Henkes) Another friend, novelist and screenwriter is managing our social media campaign, others who have self-published are at the end of the line to answer stupid questions.

All that’s left now is to let it go and gather friends!(On the stage script question at the top of the blog - you put it on yourself but that's a blog and a whole set of hurdles that can be overcome for another blog. 

Coming out in SIX days... Dad's Red Dress

Next Wednesday my first novel, Dad's Red Dress, comes out. 

Amazing cover by Aoife Henkes

Really excited and slightly nervous, but  it feels as if this is a story that has really wanted to be written. Not just because it's a strong story but because I've had the idea for it since the early 80s. I only wrote the story, finally, in 2002. It was a feature script. That was my main form of writing at that stage. It got a huge amount of traction and interest, even a bit of competition from two German production companies who both wanted it.



The winning one, well they only found out about it by accident when I told the story to someone at the Galway Film Fleadh having no idea she was a producer! 

Finally, it was all set to be made in 2005, an Irish-German co-production. Then the rules about funding changed in Germany and it faltered at the starting line. 

A few years ago, a little disillusioned at the number of scripts scowling at me from the shelves - that everyone liked but couldn't raise funding on - I started to turn some of them into books, starting with the family features. 

Dad's Red Dress danced into prose and revelled in the freedom of it! 

So what's it about: 

Jessie wants her family to be normal. Really normal. Boringly so.

Thing is her kid sister, Laura thinks she’s been abducted by the Virgin Mary – twice; once on a motorbike with a pink afro; her step-mum makes nude sculptures and her dad becomes Mandy when the door closes.

Having just moved back to Ireland from California, Jessie is determined that nobody at school will find out about her dad's cross-dressing. Not because she minds but because when they do, bullying inevitably follows and she wants to protect herself and Laura. 

Trouble is, she's not really in control of what happens next and things are about to get a whole lot more complicated... 

So now, after waiting over 30 years (scary how time speeds up!), Dad's Red Dress is available to pre-order on Amazon here.

You can also keep track of what's happening on 
Twitter: @DadsRedDress

Facebook:  Dad's Red Dress

More soon on where the idea came from, on adaptation, on the self-publishing lark (and all the other little birds that twitter while you try and make sense of the journey), feedback from early readers and tips for keeping your imagination and hopes alive coming up here soon...