Fiona finds spaces for writing time
A local writer who has had one of her short stories published in the new Irish Times/Powers Short Stories Volume 2 collection specialises in 'short shorts' because she can fit such writing in between the spaces in her life as a full-time paramedic and mum of three, writes Brian Byrne.
Fiona Stevenson of Sunnyhill, pictured here with best-selling author Patricia Scanlan, can feel good about her achievement, because there are just 50 stories in the anthology, while more than 4,200 entries were received.
And the latest good news is that one of her 'normal' sized short stories has been shortlisted into the top 100 for a major competition in the Sunday Times.
"It's really hobby writing, and I started in 2008," she says. "I found I just loved it, and the short stories fit into my lifestyle because they're done and dusted quickly, whereas a novel can take years."
In fact, Fiona did get a London agent interested some years ago on the basis of the first three chapters of a novel, but hasn't had the time to complete it.
Like most writers in her position, it's a case of scribbling down ideas, notes, and completing actual pieces whenever and wherever she can. Including between her paramedic shifts with the HSE and at home in the evening with her children, now ranging through primary, second level and early third level education.
"I have bits of paper everywhere, notebooks in the car, that kind of thing. We're not great television people at home, so I can get writing done in the evening while the kids are working on their computers or whatever. Sometimes it's from just a line that comes to you, or something you hear someone say that seems funny."
Fiona has a deft hand in short fiction. Her story 'Hope' was shortlisted in the Anam Cara Short Fiction Competition on Writing.ie. The short shorts, which run for around 450 words, have a 'discipline' to them that attracts Fiona's interest. "Besides, there doesn't seem to be a big market for the longer ones."
And like most writers, she 'reads and reads and reads'. To the extent that most of her bookshopping is in the secondhand outlets, as well as being a big supporter of Kilcullen Library.
"I love the feeling of a book in my hand, I love the smell, and you can have it in your bag. But I have a friend who swears by her Kindle, so I suppose that's the way all books are going at the moment."
The Irish Times/Powers Short Stories competition asked for stories on the theme Celebrating What Truly Matters, and entrants obliged with tales of love and friendship and recession-beating moments. Participants were helped with advice from the late Maeve Binchy, Kevin Barry, Claire Kilroy and John Boyne.
The resulting hardback sells for €10 euro in all major bookshops and all of the profit goes to the Irish Hospice Foundation.
The Irish Times donated the cost of the printing, the writers gave their talent free.
This article was first published on the Kilcullen Page of the Kildare Nationalist.
