There are many ways to skin a cat

Can you just imagine the mother that named her child Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde. I mean imagine shouting that from the top of the stairs when you are trying to get your child to pick up his dirty socks? Well, the lovely Mr. Wilde has been in bed with me for a few weeks now and I have to say I am glad to let him go this afternoon, as I wrap up a couple of huge assignments and send them on their merry way to the eager grading hands that await them.

This is what I have been staring at for the last few days. Blank pages of nothingness. Having to sit down and write two academic essays back to back, both due on the same day at the same time - well it is just madness.
The level of reading and interpreting and then writing and re-writing that has to occur before you get anywhere near what you actually (and finally) submit, are worlds apart. AND I did not even mention all the time that has to be spent complaining, procrastinating and fecking around on Facebook.
My English Literature classes this year revolve around 'Literature and The Renaissance' and 'Critical Theory and Practice'. Kill - Me - Now. Yes, I chose these classes. I picked the best of a very archaic lot. 


So where does all my Creative Writing get squeezed in to this year? Well, it is a struggle. We have just completed our first 'Poetry' session for Semester 1 and are hurtling right into the second half with a new Irish-Canadian poet named Celeste Augé. I am excited and a little terrified about the end result of a poetry semester. Don't get me wrong, I love to linger on the lines a little longer than most people, but know that making a living as a poet in Ireland is just not practical - therefore, I doodle, and I draw and I do not 'work like my life depends on it'. 

I have hit the mid-semester slump. It has just dawned on me that I have only 6 weeks of class left before the dreaded Christmas exams. Then only 12 weeks of class after Christmas. The academic year is slipping out of my hands and I still feel like I have just started back to college this week. I cannot get my groove on. I cannot buckle down and get stuck in. I am obsessed with the pile of laundry that gets bigger and bigger each week. Not so obsessed with 'doing the laundry' mind, just obsessed. I am frustrated that the kids still have not gotten themselves organized enough in the mornings to just get up, get dressed, eat breakfast and go to school without spilling something all over them selves, losing a shoe, or forgetting a lunchbox. 

I am overwhelmed at what it is to be a thirtysomething-mother-of-four going to college full time doing something that I love to do. Overwhelmed is a feeling I seem to be able to live with. 

I have learned to say:

when I know that I have too much on my plate. I have learned to NOT answer my phone when I am in the middle of doing my homework. I have learned to close FACEBOOK and not check into it five thousand times when I have deadlines looming. OK, maybe I do not actually shut FaceBook down completely - I mean, the rest of the world might not fully survive without my checking in for God's sake. Anyway, I am setting up these walls and boundaries all around me because something big is happening. Something great. Something rewarding. Something that is going to be an enormous challenge, an incredible experience, and someday, something really pretty to look at. 

Going back to school Going to University for the first time as as an adult is a very rewarding experience. I feel (on an almost daily basis) that the world is filled with possibilities and all we have to do is work hard to get what we want out of life. For those of you that are already "following" my blog, THANK YOU, I am humbled. For those of you that are silently stalking - stay tuned, and for those of you that just pop in occasionally and leave me random comments and funny messages - keep 'em coming! 

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

If I could rule the world . . .

Another Paddy's Day under our tightened belts and I have slowly come to realise there are only a few weeks of procrastination left. Faced with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach because the 'end is nigh' I am plagued with the question 'What will I do for four  months?' Will my brain turn to mush because I will stop academically abusing it and allow myself to read for pleasure and maybe even watch a little chewing gum telly!

I suppose, seeing as I have come this far, it is safe to say that life as a mature student is not all that bad. The fear of the unknown (if I actually had a brain and whether or not it might be operational) has subsided and a whole lot of other fears have jumped in to fill that empty void. The fear of failure.

Summer exam timetables have been posted and although I only have three exams (German/Spanish/English Literature) the dry mouthed anxiety is creeping into my (mushy) brain and I have a feeling it will be making itself at home for the next 45 days until summer break begins. 

It is not like I have missed that many classes (almost none actually) and the reality is I have handed in all assignments on time and the grades are not too shabby. I think it is a clear case of 'Keeping up with the Joneses'. You know, the group of pals you hook up with when you attend University. You drink endless amounts of caffeinated (or alcoholic OR even better caffeinated alcoholic) drinks with them and discuss your next crises on a daily basis. 

My mother has a great saying that she has preached to me for the last 21+ years (hey, if Rory thinks I am still twenty one, then I am playing that card as long as I can!)

 'Show me your company and I will tell you WHO you are'. 

Well Mother, you can rest assured that the friends I have magnetised with are no longer plying for the pass, but wondering exactly what grade is needed to get honours and 1st distinction...Yikes!

I suppose (in this case) peer pressure is not a bad thing after all! I mean if all the others are aiming that high maybe it is time to review my outlook on life and step it up a little? I have always had low expectations of myself. SAD.com, I know, but it is easy this way. If I set my expectations on med-low, then I am (and have been) rarely disappointed in life. But now, perhaps, it is time to grow up a little and actually achieve a little more. Maybe even start to think that I am capable of more. (Damn, that last birthday pushed me over the edge).

Knowing that setting higher expectations for myself can lead to disastrous devastation if I do not obtain that grade or publish that piece, but I am still a very easy-going kind of gal, so I reckon: 

Although there have been a few weird casualties this semester and I have had to spend a lot longer mulling over my future subject choices (because I love both German/Spanish and have to drop one in September) at least I have that to complain about. Things at home have settled down and although they do not like my mental absence (or my physical absence for that matter) they are dealing with it in a loving way - by pulling more than their own weight. (Be it little, I am thankful).

Knowing that my family are keeping a close eye on me (and my grades - yes Mother, I am talking about you) keeps the pressure on, and will hopefully scare me straight out of the procrastination chair and right into the studious one.

That said, with all of us having some time off at Easter, I hope to flood your inboxes with a few current photos of the kids and Chef at play as we fire up the pizza oven, cut the grass and make room for a few more chicks n' hens in our coop!

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today!

WiseMóna

The three 'R's ... Reading, Relaxation, Revitalisation!

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another ... Anatole France (1844 - 1924), The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

I am kind of highly strung. It is just part and parcel of who I am. In work mode - I work. In baby mode - I baby. In school mode - I study. So why is it, if in all those modes I comply.................that when in relax mode, I cannot relax??

When I opened my University email last night (only five hours after finishing the final exam of 1st semester) I squealed with delight when I found a long and lengthy list of "Christmas Reading" to prepare me for what lies ahead in Semester two.


Reading for the course will include works by: Edgar Allan Poe, Stevie Smith, Arthur Conan Doyle, Samuel Beckett, Flannery O’Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, Eleanor Brown, W. B. Yeats. In addition to these fine Authors we will also be delving into the works of John McGahern and the Art of the Short Story.

NUI Galway has a special association with the Irish writer John McGahern (1934-2006). He taught here for many years and the library now holds his complete literary archive.

The Chef is winding down quite nicely. He only has a couple of days left at work this week and then he is off for a few weeks too, and if nothing else but by sheer association, I have a feeling that there will be quite a bit of relaxing going on around our place.

Looking forward to Christmas with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

A visit with Irish Author Brian Leyden

A visit from Brian Leyden to NUI Galway last week left many of us meandering around campus afterwards scribbling poems on pieces of paper. I have written all the pertinent information you need to know about this very talented Irish Author down below but before you swan on down their to read it, let me tell you what I loved about this guy.

1. He is making a comfortable living as an Author in Ireland today (yeah!)
2. He thinks we (students) have a huge advantage because we can learn what the publishers out there are looking for and then give it to them!
3. He read a poem by WB Yeats.

Admittedly Yeats is of my all time favourite poets so this was a shoe in for Brian Leyden were he looking for 'class appeal'. It was not what he read, but how he read it. He had his book laid out on the table in front of him as if he needed it for reassurance. He looked around the room and his voice hypnotised us for as long as it took him to recite this piece.

Adam's Curse


We sat together at one summer's end,
That beautiful mild woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.
I said, "A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.'

And thereupon
That beautiful mild woman for whose sake
There's many a one shall find out all heartache
On finding that her voice is sweet and low
Replied, "To be born woman is to know -
Although they do not talk of it at school -
That we must labour to be beautiful.'

I said, "It's certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam's fall but needs much labouring.
There have been lovers who thought love should be
So much compounded of high courtesy
That they would sigh and quote with learned looks
precedents out of beautiful old books;
Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.'

We sat grown quiet at the name of love;
We saw the last embers of daylight die,
And in the trembling blue-green of the sky
A moon, worn as if it had been a shell
Washed by time's waters as they rose and fell
About the stars and broke in days and years.

I had a thought for no one's but your ears:
That you were beautiful, and that I strove
To love you in the old high way of love;
That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown
As weary-hearted as that hollow moon.


Our teacher had to break the silence with a big 'bula bus' after Brian finished blindly reciting this gorgeous piece as us students were mesmerized. A standing ovation was in order but we were transfixed in time. Wishing, dreaming, hoping that someday, someone like Brian would stand up in a room full of people and read one of our poems - just like that!

A quick look at who Brian Leyden is:
An Irish Novelist, short story writer and teacher of Creative Writing. He also conducts writers workshops for adults. The winner of the Francis McManus Short Story Award 1988, and recipient of the Arts Council Bursary in Literature, 1993.

Short stories: Departures (Brandon, 1996), Novel Death and Penalty, (Brandon 1996).

Anthologies: The Alphabet Garden, (Brandon 1994),Irish Christmas Stories 2, (Bloomsbury, 1997), Brandon Book Of Irish Short Stories, (Brandon, 1998) Plays: Salvage, (with Wille Conlon, 1987) Experiments In Magic, (1989) Ink And Lunacy, (with Willie Conlon, 1990). Radio Documentaries: No Meadows In Manhattan, (RTE , 1991), Even The Walls Were Sweatin, (RTE, 1997)

I am searching around the archives of our local RTE (TV STATION) to see if I can get some recordings of his work to upload for y'all to have a listen........................it would be a great distraction on a rainy day!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Hugo Kelly

Entering into the second week of our visiting writers series we had an inspirational visit from the lovely and talented Mr. Hugo Kelly.

A fiction writer and an active member of the very successful Galway writers' group Talking Stick. Hugo has won over twenty awards for his short fiction works in Ireland and in Great Britain including most recently the Brian Moore Award.

Hugo works full time at the James Hardiman Library at NUIG and has been writing since his youth. After his stint in University he took a year out at the age of 23 to write his first novel and admitted it was not his best work. There was a similar vibe to talk he gave - because he (again, like our writer last week Nuala Ní Chonchúir) brought the realities of being a writer in Ireland today up close and personal.

Mr. Kelly took us through the early years of his writing career sharing with us tips of the trade and what he did to keep busy and get his name out there. He was not interested in being a martyr , and has never felt the need to suffer for his art. He feels very fortunate to have found a job he really likes (Information Librarian) at NUIG. He gets to earn a decent wage and still pursue his passion.

Hugo read one of his pieces from a chapbook of his titled Night. Day Follows. The story began with a young man trying to hang himself in the kitchen and the ghosts of his parents arrive and a conversation ensues. It was a great piece. There is some talent required in writing about something disturbing like a man trying to hang himself and making it so ordinary as the ghosts of his parents carried on reading the newspaper and telling him not to use a roller to paint his ceilings as it wastes good paint. Yes - enjoyed by the whole class!

Looking forward to next week!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Share|

Nuala Ní Chonchúir

With barely a day off from school over Halloween, I entered into the second half of the semester to discover another cool and exciting part of my creative writing course. For the remainder of this semester I will get to meet several very talented Irish writers. Yeah!

Seeing as I am not allowed to write any kind of a personal review of the visiting writer for my school report - it has to be 'report on the content, respond to the visits etc.' I am using my WiseBlog so that you can get the WiseREADreview on who they are, what they write and whether or not you should all be breaking down the doors to your local rag shop to buy their stuff.

Let's start with the lovely and talented Nuala Ní Chonchúir. Born (1970) and raised in Dublin and well educated (BA in Irish, Trinity College; MA in Translation Studies, Dublin City University), Nuala is a full time writer and poet now residing in the lovely town of Ballinasloe, County Galway (only a few minutes out the road from me).

It was fantastic to sit and listen to her story. A mother of three (one being a brand new one) she did not sugar coat the life of a writer in Ireland. She gave a realistic impression of what her life is like as a full time writer in Ireland with everything from salary earned to still waiting to get paid a year later for an appearance stateside! I got the vibe afterwards that some of my younger classmates felt a little disillusioned by her visit. They are still so young and believe that they are the next J.K. Rowling. They have visions of enormous book advances filling their bank accounts upon writing the first chapter of their novellas! Gawd - life has embittered me, hasn't it!

Nuala spoke of the difficulties of being your own PR person. Having to constantly be selling your self and asking someone to 'give her a gig'. I suppose I can equate this to owning your own business and constantly striving to keep customers coming in the door!

Nuala has already published two collections of short fiction and also two poetry collections. Her most recent book is a short story collection Nude. www.nualanichonchuir.com

There were several points I made note of during my time with her. The ones that stand out in my mind and certainly something for any young aspiring writer to adhere to can be pinpointed right here:

• If you want to write short fiction/poetry etc.- start reading short fiction/poetry etc.
• Claim your space and make time to write (with three young children under foot - she is sooooooooooo my hero right now!)
• BE VISIBLE! Read the literary rags. See what they print, then start submitting your work. Enter competitions. This builds up your 'writing CV'.
• Your 'Writers Name' - is it the right name for you? Do you need to change it? OK - here I am lucky! When I married I changed my name so Móna Wise it is!
• Think carefully about titles.
• Show - don't Tell. You are going to see a lot of this, because this is the phrase used most frequently by all our teachers to date.
• Last and by no means least - WRITE. Write in the morning, write in the afternoon, write at night. Carry a notebook with you everywhere you go.

We did not get to read a sample of her work during class so I cannot comment on what I think about her style etc. but I will be checking out her new book as soon as we get it at school.

This was the first of our 'visiting writers' to NUIG. Stay tuned for the next one!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

How's it going???

My first week is over and I am all the smarter for it! What a great way to feel after my first week of entering NUIG as a mature student. I suppose I can use the word 'mature' lightly as I was neither the eldest or youngest of the group, but more happily plonked right in the middle of a bunch of pretty cool people from all over the world. Yes, not just Irish people - quite a diverse bunch are we!

My first day or two were a little overwhelming actually. I was really pre-occupied the first day as it was Jack's first day at school (Rory's too - but she is a veteran at this stage), it would also have been my Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary (38 years - I think) and I still never know what to do on this one, because Dad has been dead ten years this year. Mum is still alive and kicking however. Note to everyone out there - do not ignore it. It is still the most important day of my Mum's life (aside from the day she had me of course!) and even though we are all madder than hell with Dad for not sticking around (may he rest in peace) it should still be celebrated as such. Sorry Mum........................

By the end of the 2nd day I was hypnotised (literally) into thinking that I could change the way I study and learn at University. We had a hypnotist for the entire day retraining our ways of thinking and helping us adjust to a new style of Memory Techniques. It was actually really really interesting and I am certainly going to utilise some of those techniques I learned when it comes time to start studying for all these exams I will have!

Day 3 was spent in the company of a guy that looked like the dude from Sex and the City (think his name was Aiden) and this was a most interesting day indeed. This lecturer/writer was from somewhere in County Mayo (that is cool in itself as most of my family were born in Mayo) and spoke with an accent that reminded me of my Sisters husband Tom (years ago) before he moved to France and became so posh! Anyway, this guy was lecturing us on academic writing, telling us the best thing about college is that you go in with an empty mind and come out with an open mind! I really hope that I took solid notes and learned something from the day we spent with him - because I found out later that afternoon he is going to be my Creative Writing teacher. GAWD - I hope I did not make an idiot of myself!

So, after touring the old and new areas of campus and getting my feet very wet because it was raining most of the week - the general consensus is that National University of Ireland Galway, is probably the nicest University in the world, filled with a very engaging faculty that have very high expectations for their Mature Students and offer an amazing support system to each of us, in order to see us reach our full and true potential.

Feeling totally overwhelmed and under a fierce amount of pressure already!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna