Home is where the art is for me

WHEN she was seeking inspiration for a plot for the Evening Echo’s Summer Soap slot, Deirdre Collins called on her experience of living in Cork city and came up with an engrossing, topical story about homelessness.

“I’ve lived in Cork city since I was 17,” says Deirdre, aged 41, who now lives in Montenotte.

“I know the city like the back of my hand. I’ve been everywhere since being a student. I’ve shopped, partied and hung out in most places in the city.

“When I lived at the very top of Patrick’s Hill I used to look out over the city and at Shandon.”

That scene features in Deirdre’s story and she explains: “I imagined a young girl among the throes of people, who came upon difficult circumstances. Being homeless in a city is challenging to say the least, but many people and organisations reach out and try to help.”

The resulting story, called Bright Lights, will be serialised in the Evening Echo’s Summer Soap slot starting on Monday, and running daily for two weeks.

Deirdre was delighted to be commissioned to wrote the story and is thrilled that it will be published in the newspaper and online, under her pen name of M.F Whitney.

Among those enjoying the story will be Kathleen Mackey from Blarney Street, who reads the Evening Echo every day without fail.

“She is a ’favourite’ aunt of ours and she’ll definitely be reading, and keeping abreast of Bright Lights,” says Deirdre.

Deirdre submitted her story for the Summer Soap series as part of the course for an MA in Creative Writing programme at UCC.

She says her musician husband Johnny and her father read her work, but it will be great to reach a wider audience.

“Often in class at UCC, when you read out excerpts of your work, everybody will tell you it’s great. That’s really nice but it’s good to have other opinions as well,” says Deirdre,

"I always had a real love of books and reading from a young age. 

“My grandmother taught me to read. English was my best subject in school.

“I could be found in any corner of the house at any time of the day, curled up with a book. As a child, my dad would always check late at night if my bedroom light was on. If the light was on, you may be sure I’d be stuck in a book!"

The Summer Soap slot is not the first piece of recognition for Deirdre’s literary work.

“I was thrilled to win the J.G Farrell Fiction Award in association with the West Cork Literary Festival,” she says. “It is awarded for the best opening chapter of a work in progress by a writer resident in Munster. The Lonesome Boatman is about a girl with psychic powers. I was delighted to win the award. It gives me the incentive to finish the book.”

Even though Deirdre knows every nook and cranny of Cork city, she was born and bred in Whitegate, West Clare.

“I came to Cork to study at UCC,” she says. “My primary degree in 1995 was in Food Science and my day job is MD of Dee’s Whole-foods, a Vegan food company. My role involves sales and marketing and social media.”

She met her husband, Johnny, from Bishopstown, at UCC. 

“We got married in 2011 and we settled here,” says Deirdre.

Deirdre’s other ‘job’ is tending to her beautiful garden, a sheltered oasis high up over the city where courgettes and flowers flourish. Bee- friendly plants among the herbaceous perennials wave about happily in the gentle breeze.

“We’ve just completed the garden, with help from our friend Mark, from Beara joinery,” says Deirdre, offering me a seat inside the beautiful pagoda complete with rugs and drapes.

“We had dad’s 77th birthday here in June.”

The haven must provide a real source of inspiration for her writing?

“Yes, it does,” says Deirdre. “I’m always planning and setting things in the garden. The catnip out the front keeps the cats away from my vegetable patch!”

Each window seen from the back of the house is piled high with books. After a lifetime of reading, how did she end up on the MA in Creative Writing programme at UCC?

“I came across Eibear Walshe, senior lecturer at the School of English at UCC,” explains Deirdre. Eibear, an academic, is also a natural story-teller.

“I was going to sign up for the MA course part-time,” says Deirdre. “Then I decided to commit to the course full-time. I’m really glad that I did. My tutor, Mary Morrissy, was really supportive to me.

“Originally, I was writing a series of short stories for my thesis. She told me to continue writing the one story and that was the one that won the J.G Farrell Fiction prize. So that was brilliant.”

Deirdre doesn’t want to give too much away about the plot of Bright Lights — after all, it would ruin it for her ‘auntie’ Kathleen and all the other readers who will be engrossed by it.

Deirdre laughs.

“I wrote each episode one-by one and I submitted three excerpts to the Echo before they gave me the go-ahead to write the full 12 episodes. Other members of my class did too. Getting Bright Lights published is a big deal for me.”

Deirdre is her own worst critic.

“I never really know if my writing is good enough or not. The reader completes the process in a big way. To win the Summer Soap series gave me huge confidence, getting my work out there is a huge boost. It is the first time I’ll see the work I do in print. It is a great thrill.”

Did writing it come easy for Deirdre, being so familiar with her subject?

“The timing posed a small bit of pressure,” she admits. “I had to hand in my portfolio to college around the same time.”

How does she fit everything in?

“I write early in the mornings,” says Deirdre. “I sit down and try and get words on the page in the morning.”

Does she admire other writers?

“I like Sara Baume, the East Cork writer, and the author Katharine Weber. I went to her workshop at the West Cork Literary Festival. She’s amazing.”

Is Deirdre a fan of soaps on TV?

“You know, I used to be addicted,” she says. “We had to get rid of the telly in the interests of our productivity! Johnny works from home too.”

Deidre is delighted she did the MA programme at UCC and that she has had a measure of literary success as a result.

My class-mates, ranging in age from 20 to mid 60s, were great,” she says. “We all supported each other with our writing and we still meet up and stay in touch. It’s lovely.”

Then it’s back to the grindstone for Deirdre, doing the job she loves best, creating characters and imaginative plots.

Bright Lights begins in the Evening Echo today (Monday August 6).

It will also be posted online at www.eveningecho.ie in the coming days.