Writer, Filmmaker, Mother, Grandmother
I guess it seems quiet on the PhD thesis front, but it isn't. As you'll know from my last update, I have submitted my thesis, and this is where another chapter begins (if that makes sense!). Given my Viva Voce is really close now, presumably my examination committee are reading, or have read my thesis,… Continue reading It’s all been leading to this…
When we were making the funeral arrangements for my dad's requiem mass and committal, Friday the 13th emerged as the first available date, but I didn't baulk at it. A date with such negative connotations was fitting. How could anything be positive on the day I would publicly say goodbye to my father? As it… Continue reading By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man.
This is PhD chat, but because my PhD thesis is autoethnographical, it is also entwined in the personal by both circumstance and design. In my last update about my writing journey, I spoke about how I wanted to be able to finish my last draft chapter before Christmas, in the hope of spending the first… Continue reading PhD draft. Breathe in, not out.
It's been a while since I updated on my PhD journey. I may have mentioned that my ambition (intention...) is to complete the four year degree in two years. In theory, this means working full time - times two - every week, but this rigorous schedule is necessary if I am to submit at the… Continue reading 4 out of 5 aint bad
Summer has fallen and a ghostly swirl of orange, red and yellow leaves serve as a reminder that we are on the crest of another changing season. Winter will come, but there are still things to look forward to in autumn. October, as well as being the month my two beautiful children celebrate their birthday,… Continue reading October book launches
At the University of Stirling, the first year of a PhD is a kind of probationary period. This is in the sense that even though you are enrolled as a PhD student on a PhD programme, your status is not 'confirmed' and formalised until you have passed your first year. Passing involves submitting a 10000… Continue reading Another wee milestone in the PhD journey
It's time for some PhD chat. Yes, I am still working away on my PhD and still really enjoying it. I know there will undoubtedly be a period of stress ahead, but for now I'm delighted to be finding the experience such a positive one. I think as I'm working on subject areas that I… Continue reading Yip, I’m still writing that PhD..
It's been an incredibly busy year with work and family commitments and consequently it has been forever since I had the opportunity to pick up the first draft of my third novel. 9 months perhaps, maybe more? I'm not sure, I'm writing the novel on Scrivener (I'm in the love it camp) and I'm not… Continue reading Writing stranger.
I'm delighted to be taking part in a few events over the next wee while. First up, on Thursday 31st of May, I'll be at home on Rathlin chairing an event with the acclaimed Irish novelist Bernie McGill as part of the Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival. Bernie will be reading from her brilliant Rathlin Island based… Continue reading Summer chat, upcoming events.
You rush past the mirror in the hall, ignoring its pleas to second-guess you, question your existence, challenge your choice of clothes, your make-up, your hair. You are nineteen, your freshly washed hair brushed and falling down your back, your face cleansed and without make-up, your underwear clean but old, your shorts cut down from… Continue reading When You Don’t Believe You but #IBelieveHer, a short story of protest.
Margot McCuaig 