{"id":19130,"date":"2017-02-15T13:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=19130"},"modified":"2017-02-16T14:03:25","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T14:03:25","slug":"student-self-publishes-first-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/student-self-publishes-first-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Self-Publishes First Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Federica Montella<\/h5>\n

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UL journalism student Simon Bourke\u2019s debut novel \u201cAnd the birds kept on singing\u201d was released on January 26th. <\/p>\n

The official launch of the novel took place in Piltown, Co. Kilkenny, the author\u2019s hometown, on January 27th .<\/p>\n

More than 100 people showed up to the event and every single copy of the book was sold.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mum is one of thirteen, so I thought there would have been around 20 people attending the event, but around 100 or more showed up,\u201d Mr Bourke said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only had 60 books to sell,\u201d he continued, \u201cbut we could have sold twice that number, it was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the birds kept on singing\u201d is set in Ireland in the 80s; the novel tells the story of Sin\u00e9ad McLoughlin, a young girl who falls pregnant at seventeen, runs to England and puts her child up for adoption. <\/p>\n

Although impatient at the start to get rid of this burden, she immediately changes her mind after holding her child for the first time, but it\u2019s already too late to go back. <\/p>\n

In the novel two stories run side by side: in one Sin\u00e9ad keeps her baby, returns home and faces her life as a single mother while in the other she gives him up for adoption. <\/p>\n

This storyline is quite intimate for the author, and not too far from his own life, \u201cThe theme of the story comes from my own life: that girl that run away to England at the age of seventeen was my mother and I was that child. I\u2019ve always wondered what would have happened if I had been adopted,\u201d Mr Bourke said.<\/p>\n

The book is almost 600 pages long, and it took the journalism student two and a half years to write. <\/p>\n

He started studying in UL in 2011, but an unknown illness forced him to interrupt his studies for few years: that is when the novel came to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got really sick, no one could explain what kind of illness it was, some chronic fatigue or something. So that is when the book started, I was at home and I thought I had to do something with myself. Something good came from something bad, after all,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Mr Bourke is already thinking about his second novel, a story about loneliness and depression in Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to be a novelist, but being realistic there\u2019s not much money in it, unless you become really famous. I imagine that journalism can pay your bills while writing novels can remain just a passion. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe journalism industry is changing so much, the skill of getting a story and reporting on it is disappearing, it\u2019s being replaced by fluff,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Publishing his book wasn\u2019t an easy task: Mr Bourke spent a year trying to get someone to publish his story, but most of the publishers were not interested enough while others wanted to change it or shorten it. <\/p>\n

He did not intend to change his story at all so he decided to self-publish his novel.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe only benefit of self-publishing is that you are in charge of the whole lot, the bad thing is that you have to spend money on it. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you\u2019re passionate about it, you want to get the book out there despite everything. I didn\u2019t know how good it was, I just wanted people to read it, regardless of how much it costed me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are a young writer and you feel like that, keep doing it, doesn\u2019t matter how much it costs,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had the thrill of seeing it in O\u2019Mahony\u2019s, it\u2019s one those moments in life you\u2019ll never forget. I started typing it in a small flat in Limerick on a laptop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the birds kept on singing\u201d can be purchased in the Book Centre in Waterford, O\u2019Mahony\u2019s in Limerick and on Amazon.<\/p>\n

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By Federica Montella UL journalism student Simon Bourke\u2019s debut novel \u201cAnd the birds kept on singing\u201d was released on January 26th. The official launch of the novel took place in Piltown, Co. Kilkenny, the author\u2019s hometown, on January 27th . More than 100 people showed up to the event and every single copy of the […]<\/p>\n

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