Publishing debut for Megan
DUNDALK writer Meg Grehan is joining the company of best selling authors Eoin Colfer and Deirdre Sullivan when her debut novel ‘ The Space Between’ is launched by Little Ireland publishers at the end of the month.
The 25 year old, who lives in Donegal, is thrilled that the independent publishing house, which specialises in books for children and young adults, accepted her script when she submitted it last year.
Although she always loved writing when she was a student at St Louis, and has fond memories of English teachers Ms Patricia Kelly and Ms Orla Drumgoole, she never thought of writing as a career.
‘It was always something I really liked to do, but nothing I took very seriously as I was very much a theatre kid,’ she explains. ‘I went to Patricia Reynold’s academy of performing arts from when I was four to about 18 or 19 years.’
Meg went on to study technical theatre stage craft at Inchicore College of Further Education and worked as a stage manager and technician in Dublin and around the country.
It was last spring, when she was suffering from anxiety and finding it difficult to leave the house, that she began to write what was to become her first book.
‘I thought that if I can’t leave the house, I would write about somewhere that I could go,’ she explains, and thus ‘ The Space Between’ was born.‘It’s about someone who decides not to leave her house for a year, although unlike me, she had a choice.’
As ‘ The Space Between’ is written in verse, it didn’t take Meg too long to complete it and she began looking for a publisher for her script.
‘I really like Little Island publishers as they’re an independent publishing house based in Dublin,’ she says. ‘I’m a massive fan of theirs and they make really beautiful books.’
She didn’t expect to hear anything from them after submitting her script and was delighted to get an email confirming that they would indeed publish her book.
‘ The Space Between’ opens on New Year’s Eve when and Beth has made a resolution to spend a whole year alone, in her snug, safe house. However, love, first in the form of the floppy-eared, tail-wagging Mouse, who comes nosing to her window, followed shortly by his owner, Alice, helps her overcome her mental anguish and by the time New Year’s Eve comes round again, who knows what the future will hold.
Meg says that she found it difficult to speak about her own mental health before writing the book but that by doing so has helped her to open up about it and by doing so she now finds herself in a better place.
‘Most people who knew me would have had no idea that I had problems, and I hope that by writing about it honestly, it will help anyone reading it who has similar difficulties.’
She says that while a lot of books in the LGBT canon have either sad or happy endings, she wanted her story to be realistic. ‘I wanted to show that you can be okay on you’re own. That life doesn’t have to be 100 per cent happy for you to feel okay.’
She is delighted with the feedback which the book has received so far, although with the launch looming in The Gutter Bookshop, Templebar on March 30, she admits that she is a bit apprehensive about the reviews.
But judging from the comments so far. she has nothing to worry about. ‘Absolutely breathtaking’ said Jacq Murphy, Eason Booksellers while author Olivia Hope enthused: ‘‘Gorgeous crumbs of consciousness each poem. And the story, and the ending… I love Beth’s story with Alice. It’s raw and romantic.’