Do you know what happened to Deirdre?

Deirdre of the Sorrows
 It's one of the most famous tales in Irish mythology, but so many Irish people don't know  anything about it. It's like a cross between Rapunzel and True Romance, Bonny and Clyde and the little mermaid, only it's hundreds of years older and much more bloody.
It's the story of a howl from the belly of a pregnant woman. She was preparing food for her visiting high king, Conchobor, when the unborn baby within her let out a craven screech, unlike anything anyone had ever heard. It was enough to set his soothsayer on his feet.

"This child is cursed," he said, "she will be born too beautiful for this world. She will cause horrors and bloodshed, war and mayhem." He took his seat again at the table. "It's what no one wants to hear, but you need to kill her now, before it's too late." The mother was horrified, letting out a screech of her own and dropping her serving dish onto the tiles, but the king stood by her. He promised to take the child away when she was born, raise her as his own in seclusion from the outside world where she could do harm and, when she was of an age, marry her and make her his queen. It was what no one wanted in particular, but it was the high king's will, he had spoken and so it was decided. 

It was many years later that Deirdre was out in the enclosed yard, in the grounds of the high  king's castle with her handmaid and the conversation had come around to talking about men, once again. In all her years, Deirdre had never seen a man. None had been allowed next or near her by the king, to provide against the horrible prophecy coming true. But still, she had in her mind the kind of man she would have preferred to the king. She pointed out a raven, drinking blood from the snow in a nearby field.
"When I'm of age, I'll have a man with skin as white as that snow, hair as black as that raven's feathers and cheeks as red as that blood, and I'll accept no other."
"You're promised to the king," the handmaid protested, "he's raised you to become a great queen."
"We shall see," Deirdre said. 

It wasn't much longer until she found a man with exactly that appearance. He was working for the king in a nearby field. A young man by the name of Naoise, one of the sons of Uislu. Right away, she ran over to him and jumped on his back, refusing to let go until he agreed to run way with her and protect her from whatever happened. At first, Naoise refused, knowing full well Deirdre was promised to the king, but the more he looked at her, the more he realised he was already falling in love, and was ready to do anything for her. Finally, Naoise agreed to run away and take Deirdre with him. He recruited his brothers and formed a formidable party of warriors, fleeing into hiding from wherever the high king could find them. The king was furious, and dispatched a crew of ferocious trackers and killers to find them, headed up by Fergus, his most prized warrior, who hunted them to the very edges of the land and even as far as Scotland.

Finally, an offer was sent to Deirdre, Naoise and his brothers. The High King would spare their lives if only they would return to his castle with Fergus. Well, they deliberated. It seemed risky, but truly, they had no place left to go really, lest they stray into lands they had no knowledge of. Deirdre agreed and they gang were escorted back to the High King's castle. What awaited them there, however, was not forgiveness and certainly not amnesty. Naoise and his brothers were killed immediately by Fergus and his men, and dumped in a large pit, which was covered over quickly with fresh soil. Deirdre was left a prisoner again, only now it was to get even worse.

The tale ends with Deirdre aboard a chariot with Conchobor, the high king, and his chief warrior, Fergus.
"Deirdre," Conchobor asked, "whom do you hate most in all the world? Is it me?"
"No, sire, it isn't. Not quite."
"Who then?"
"Why, it's Fergus. The man who murdered my beloved and his brothers."
"Very well then. As a punishment for trying to escape, you shall be shared between myself and Fergus for the rest of your days. "

This final horror was too much for Deirdre. She looked ahead and spied a low hanging rock approaching and then, when it arrived, she raised her neck so it would catch her head and take it clean off. This was her final revenge against her king. 

So there you have it. Not the cheeriest of tales, but then this is Ireland. If you were interested enough, I'm launching Sour. my novel based on the myth at a bookshop in Dublin on November 5th. More details here if you're interested.

Or read an Amazon Kindle sample here:

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10 ways to get your short story published in a magazine.

Getting your story published in a magazine is a great way to showcase your writing ability, get your name out there and grab the attention of editors, agents and publishers. Once you're writing to a good standard, it shouldn't be too difficult to get noticed by the magazines, but in many cases writers try the same things again and again to no benefit. I've compiled a simple list of points that should help set you up for a successful submission. 


1) Read the magazine you're submitting to.
This sounds pretty obvious. It's not all that obvious to many writers. Read at least a whole issue, ideally, read more. What this will do is give you a pretty clear insight into what the editor likes. He or she is your target market. Your YA tale of forbidden school-yard werewolf romance, no matter how well written, won't appeal to someone only publishing gritty social angst stories. It's all too easy to shoot off multiple emails to lists of magazines with a copy-and-paste intro and an attached word doc of your story. You're playing the game a little like a lottery there and chance are you'll get pretty much the same results.


2) Pitch the story in your intro email.
This is maybe not so obvious. Editors of these magazines aren't always working full time and have a limited amount of hours to trawl through submissions so a quick pitch, outlining tone really helps. A simple few words out to suffice, think clickbait. This doesn't need to be a synopsis. "Alexandra and Wesley are classmates united by an unusual preference for dog treats. Mr. Jeffries wants to know why they never meet during a full moon." 


3) Address the email correctly. 
Be specific. People can tell when they get blanket emails. Address the editor by name, mention the magazine, talk about the style and themes the magazine goes in for and why your submission would fit in exactly. This shows you've taken the time to get to know the publication and that you actually care about where you get published. 


4) Care about where you get published. 
This seems pretty obvious but only submit to magazines you're actually interested in. You might find a publication run out of someone's backyard shed, using a combination of fonts making it look like a ransom demand, you might happen upon a magazine where they dedicate a few pages to the opinions of the deranged, blinkered or worse. Look for magazines you actually like and respect. 

5) Show the piece around to people before submitting. 
Writing is a solitary endeavour, but as soon as you submit something it no longer stays that way. The whole process of getting a story out to people, in whatever medium, is highly collaborative, so get used to working with others in getting your work the best it can be. Show it to honest critics. Friends who fawn over your prose are no good to you. The ones who sit you down and list how and why a thing isn't working are invaluable. The greatest mistake a writer can make is thinking 'this person just doesn't get what I'm saying'. Your job as a writer is to make people get what you're saying. Feedback and second and third and ninth drafts is part of what you do. This will help massively. 

6) Use standard formatting. 
Comic Sans, random bold text, font size experimentation, trying out different margins, spacing, colour as ways to express your individuality are out. You express yourself through the words. The rest should be as undistracting as possible. 

7) Read as many short stories as you can. 
Read the greats, of course, Carver, Hemingway, Alice Munro, Chekov and so forth, read them to bits, but read younger, current writers too. Be aware of how people are writing now. Find your own voice. 

8) Tell a story.
I know, I know, but vignettes, exercises in prose styling, crazed narrative experiments and 'what-if' fan fiction is tough to find a home for. Very tough. Know what your story is, know what it says. Make sure it has a beginning, middle and end, conflict, and all the things a good story ought to have. When you're a seasoned pro you can turn around and mix it up.

9) Submit to one magazine at a time. 
Wait for their response. Worst case scenario is not two rejections, it's two acceptances, for then you must contact one magazine with the bad news and know that they will never entertain an approach from you again. Be respectful to the magazines, try and forge a bit of rapport, follow them on twitter, retweet them. 



10) Keep trying.
This doesn't mean keep sending the same story with updates. If a story doesn't make the cut in a magazine bite down on the fact and embrace it. Most of the time you won't be told why. The reason is either the piece is totally wrong for the magazine, the upcoming issue is dedicated to a particular theme and your story doesn't fall within it or it simply wasn't good enough. If it wasn't good enough, that's okay. It means you need to work harder. As a writer you'll always need to work harder. Craft what you do. Show it around. Beg, plead for criticism and when you get it, take it on the chin. Someone hating your piece  and you addressing that makes you better. Someone liking it just keeps you at the same level. 


Hopefully, these are of help, I'd be delighted to hear any other tips.  



If you found that interesting, maybe you'd like my novel, it retells an old Irish myth as a modern murder story:

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