Billy O'Callaghan's Blog

Last night as part of a series of Spoken Stories (this season playing on the theme, 'Creatures of the Earth', inspired - loosely - by the work, or at least the aesthetics, of John McGahern), a new short story of mine, Old Fires, aired on RTE Radio 1, read by Pat Shortt.
For anyone who might feel like catch it, the story can be listened to on RTE's website:
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips...

My new novel, My Coney Island Baby, will be published on January 17th in the UK and Ireland by Jonathan Cape, and I've written an essay for the Penguin website that attempts to burrow beneath the skin of at least one aspect of the book. The paragraph breaks have gone awry at some point during the formatting, which costs some necessary pauses, but I hope the gist of the piece remains.
The shortest day of the year feels suited to reflection, and I suppose it's only when we go digging that we realise magnitude of the things we have tucked away inside us.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/20...

My new novel, 'My Coney Island Baby' is due out in the new year (January in the UK and Canada, with Jonathan Cape, and in the months following in some other countries and in other languages - details to follow soon).
Harper are publishing the book in the U.S., with a release date set for April, but they have some advance proof copies to give away to readers living in the States. If you are interested in learning more about the book, and would like to be in with a chance of a sneak preview, check out the link below:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

Last September I read from my short story, 'Farmed Out', alongside Alan McMonagle at the Cork International Short Story Festival, with Paul McVeigh moderating.
The good folk at the Munster Literature Centre filmed the event and ahead of this year's festival decided to unleash it on the world, so I am passing it on. A lot has changed in a year, but I still have the beard...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asK7H...

A series of little quotations have been doing the rounds on Facebook, Twitter and in the various Cork newspapers over the past couple of weeks. They are teaser quotes to announce an event in the Grand Parade branch of the Cork City Libraries on 10th June at 3 pm - the launching of this year's 'One City, One Book' for Cork. I am proud and thrilled that the libraries have selected my 2013 short story collection The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind for the honour, and I look forward to some exciting happenings over the next few months (including, in September, a special dual-language reading to celebrate the forthcoming Chinese publication of the book by CITIC Press).
The 10th June event will be introduced by Cork's Lord Mayor, Des Cahill, there'll be book giveaways, a reading, and a Q&A moderated by Emilio Bonome, who in 2016 did his Masters thesis on my writing. It should be a really good day, and anyone who should find themselves in the vicinity is, of course, most welcome to come along.

A number of Stateside friends have been in touch recently, wondering why they can't order The Dead House through Amazon.com (though it is available on Amazon.co.uk and in various other countries, as well as on the Book Depository). Well, there's a reason, and today I get to make the thrilling announcement that O'Brien Press have sold the American rights to Arcade, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing. A U.S. edition will therefore be hitting the shelves sometime in the Spring of 2018!
I really am over the moon about this. Arcade have a pretty heavyweight catalogue, publishing the likes of Mo Yan, Ismail Kadare, Ivo Andric and John Irving, and I am hugely honoured to be a small part of their list. Over the years, the majority of my short stories have appeared in American journals, but this will mark the first time a book of mine is to be made widely available across the water. Who knows, I might even get across there myself, for a reading or two!

Things have been so hectic over the past few weeks with the publication of my novel, The Dead House, that I've hardly had time to check in on Goodreads, much less post anything.
I couldn't be happier with how things have gone so far. The book is truly a thing of beauty, a lovingly designed hardback production, and O'Brien Press have really gone all out with it. Reviews are coming in thick and fast now, and are almost overwhelmingly positive, and I've had more media coverage than I could ever have hoped for, with profile pieces and radio interviews, and even a few readings. And there'll be more to come over the next few months.
But I've received a lovely and, for me, quite stunning piece of news that I just have to share: The Dead House has just enjoyed its second consecutive week at the No. 2 position on the Irish Hardback Fiction Bestsellers list! Ahead of the likes of Haruki Murakami, James Patterson, Wilbur Smith and John Connolly!
There'll hopefully be more good news to come, but for now I am just trying to breathe and enjoy the view from my place in the clouds!

Today's Irish Examiner (Saturday, 29th April) are running an excerpt of my novel, Dead House, which should give it some decent exposure around the country. Even better, the piece is also freely available online, so the boundaries get pushed.
This extract (a decent-sized snippet) gives a good flavour of the book, but also knows just when to stop so that not too much is given away, and if it whets the appetite and helps generate a few sales then so much the better!

Here's a link to the online page, for any who might care to check it out:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyl...

What a thrill it has been this weekend to see a story of mine up on The Saturday Evening Post's website. This is a magazine whose name I've long beheld with something close to awe, so connected is it with writers who have meant the world and more to me - everyone from Poe and Washington Irving, through such favourites as Steinbeck, Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack London, Salinger, H.E. Bates and Shirley Jackson, and on to the likes of Pynchon, Updike, Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury.

The year has been taking good shape for me, and I am excited about the imminent publication of my first novel, Dead House. But I've learned over the years to savour the small successes (and, for me, used to playing a game where rejection so heavily outweighs acceptance, every published story still counts as a significant triumph). The names of the great writers I've listed are among those looking down from the mountaintop, and three (and about to be four) books along, and with probably a hundred stories in print, I still feel very much at the foothills stage. But that doesn't stop me from looking up, and it only encourages me to keep on dreaming...

(if you have ten minutes or so to spare, and feel like dipping into a short story, please click the link below...)

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/20...

Last week, after an interminably long wait, my short story, 'The Boatman', took second prize at this year's Costa Awards. Congratulations to Jess Kidd on her winning story and also to Rob Ewing on taking third prize. I was really delighted and thrilled to have been in the mix. The short-listing has brought quite a bit of attention to my writing, I've had an amazing amount of good wishes so many friends, and my hope now is that the publicity, and just being associated with such a prestigious honour, will give my new book, 'The Dead House' (due out on 1st May) a nice boost.
The big winner on the night was Sebastian Barry who took home the book of the year prize, and the whole thing was quite the swanky affair. I'm not much of a celebrity spotter, so I either missed or failed to recognise the big names, but apparently Graham Norton and Judi Dench were in the crowd. Meanwhile, for me it's back to reality after the high. But I have a heartful of great memories to take with me.

By the way, for anyone who might be interested, 'The Boatman' can be read (or listened to) online at the Costa Short Story Awards website ( http://www.costa.co.uk/costa-book-awa... ). It's also available on the Irish Times site ( http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/boo... ).