Image credit: Jeff Sheldon
I can’t remember when the first inkling to write entered my awareness-- but I do know the instinct goes right back to childhood, to being a voiceless child, invisible and feeling in the way. From obscurity, I observed and noticed that there were two languages; the spoken word and the things that people didn’t say: the gestures, the secret looks, the family dynamics that checked the collective whole. This experience created a longing to unravel the unspoken word, to expose the things we hide from ourselves or unconsciously assimilate, and repeat.
In 2017, the first line of my novel exploring narcissism in relationships came to me. It unravelled into 190 pages in three months. It was only the beginning. I applied to the MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin, and set to work. At Trinity, I faced many creative challenges. How would I reveal the insidiousness of toxic characters whose handiwork is only ever revealed in the accumulative effect? How would I make the red flag moments crystal-clear so people could identify these moments in their own relationships? I had to find the best way to tell this story. A story that people all too readily brush off because the truth about toxic relationships is just too uncomfortable. From the very start, one thing was certain, that people must be on the receiving end of the experience in order to appreciate the danger they are in. This would mean how the story is told would be paramount. It would mean pushing the boundaries of storytelling towards the experimental— to honour the experience, to make it accessible, to support. In those early drafts, an editor had said that reading my novel had alerted her to consider the red flags at the outset of her relationship— I was on the right track. Now, in the final stages of writing I am grateful for knowing how important it was to take the time and get this right.
Forthcoming Novels
Y + X = - A young woman's relationship with a malignant narcissist and her struggle to escape. The novel looks at how we lose ourselves in relationships and how we find our way back. Exploring how sometimes love isn't love at all, it's premeditated, and toxic.
Novels in Progress
love is more than a word - This story explores the messages we believe about deserving love. It exposes the ways we deflect it, and the extremes we will go to, to sabotage love. It is a timely work given the increasing pressures of social media to be perfect in every given moment. And how love and relationships have become more elusive than ever.
on a plate - The story of a girl who rejects a sexualised culture in her quest to define the world on her own terms.
Genre: Literary Fiction, Psychological, Immersive