Scott De Buitléir

Forgive me, reader, for I have sinned: It has been three months since my last blog entry…

Since then, my partner and I have moved from our temporary accommodation in Cork and into the house we bought over the summer. That being said, it’s still a building site work-in-progress, with varying availabilities of running water, heat, and absolutely no wifi. Needless to say, it isn’t exactly somewhere where writing would be high up on my to-do list when there’s wallpaper to strip, furniture to buy, handymen to manage, walls to paint, and everything else that comes with a renovation or new home.

On top of that, September was mostly spent away from Ireland. One week in San Francisco, two weeks in Seattle, and a well-needed holiday with the other half and my best friend in the beautiful city of Riga, Latvia. While my time in the U.S. was for the day-job, I had little energy left to assign to writing, and Latvia was an opportunity to reconnect, recharge, and enjoy the peace.

That being said, the downtime and relaxation gave me enough energy to complete a major project of mine. This weekend, I’ve managed to finish the first draft of my upcoming novella, Forgiving Jake! It’s a tale of how one young woman’s life is turned upside-down with two phone calls, and what she needs to do to move on from tragedy. The short novel is my first complete work of fiction, and I cannot wait to share it with you in springtime next year.

I will have another poetry collection available in 2020 also, fully bilingual in English and Irish. Elysium is a collection of poems that explore love and family connections, as well as letting go of some baggage from the past. Although still incomplete, it’s already a collection that I’m quite proud of, and I expect it to be released early next year.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to travelling to Berlin and Malta over the next few weeks, which will be able to balance some relaxation against the work that’s needed to make ourselves at home in our new house. I’ve recently joined the newly-formed Outstaged Theatre Group in Cork, which is sparking new writing ideas already within me, but I think I already have enough going on before I take on something else new. I’ve also started finally going back to the gym, and thankfully it’s a routine that is sticking around, this time.

Until next time!

S x