Persistence pays off for author Patricia

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Hanging in there when the going gets tough is essential to being a writer, says Patricia Forde. It’s a rule that applies whether you’re writing for children and young people or for adults.

She loves beginning a book, while coming towards the end “is like finishing a marathon so you keep going”. The middle is tough, when she feels what she’s writing “is the worst thing ever”.

But hanging in there means the Moycullen resident is now celebrating two new arrivals, both different and both beautifully illustrated.

Fidget the Wonder Dog, published by UK company Puffin, is for readers aged 3-7, while Imagine from Irish company Little Island is due out next month, aimed at those aged 4+.

Little Island has produced several of Patricia’s previous books, including 2015’s The Wordsmith, for older children. Later published in the USA as The List, this story of a young girl’s fight to save words in a post-apocalyptic world resonated in Donald Trump’s America where language was constantly being debased.

Written before his election bid, it captured a new, frightening reality.

The same coincidence occurred with Imagine.

“I wrote it before the pandemic but now it’s very relevant,” Patricia observes.

It’s the story of a little girl who confides her fears to her grandmother – creatures from vampires to monsters, pirates and a dog down the lane frighten her. Grandma uses humour to help fix these concerns, before finally addressing the girl’s greatest fear.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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