So, A Thoroughly Good Blue is officially launched and my old and perpetual foe, Public Speaking, is once again locked away in its cage.  I can say with great sincerity that the launch was an unqualified success.  The turn out was twice as large as any of us had anticipated and in one night we sold over half of our remaining book stock.  So, to anyone who came, thank you for making my first launch and public reading such a smashing success.  I’m sure at least some of our audience came for the free wine (and such fine wine it was :)) but by the end of the night a good time was had by all.

To anyone out there who is curious about how much of what I’m implying about my reading talent is exaggeration and how much is objective fact, fear not, you shall have at least two more opportunities to hear for yourself before the year is out (one of which you can do without even leaving your computer).  Enticed yet?  I hope so!

The first opportunity is coming up on June 1st at the annual Listowel Writer’s Week.  My fellow anthology contributors, Liz McManus, Hsiang-En Liu and Malu Bremer and I will each be doing a reading from our anthology submission.  I will be easily identified as the nervous guy wearing the blue.

The second opportunity (for all of you who are not in Ireland) is going to be in the form of a podcast recording of the excerpt of my story, Children of the End, thanks to the generous folks at Podcasts.ie.  Look for it under their New and Emerging Writers section.  You can either hear it on their website or download it for free on iTunes.  Unfortunately, mine isn’t up yet, but rest assured I will post it here as soon as it pops up.  Until then, there are at least two other recordings there to enjoy.

Ah, the wonders of technology!

I don’t know why this feels like such a huge accomplishment, but damn if it doesn’t feel like Christmas has come early!