Culture Night (1) September 19th

Niall Duff read from his novel in progress.
Philip St John read from his novel, "Crazy Baldheads".

Phyl Herbert made her reading debut with a short story.

Culture Night (2)

Members of the UCD Young Irish Writers' Group with Sixteen After Ten alumni.

Mary Turley-McGrath (from the Mayo/Roscommon border).

More Photos from Culture Night September 19th

Andrew Fox read an excerpt from "Couch".
Carmen Cullen read from her novel, "Two Sisters Singing".
Emily Firetog

Day of the Launch

The launch of the book is today, in the Long Room (Old Library) @ Trinity College Dublin, followed by an after-party at Bruxelles bar (downstairs) on Grafton Street & Harry Street, from 8:30 onwards. The launch itself is invite-only, the after-party is come one, come all.

The book is now available for purchase in several fine-establishments around Dublin. Pick it up at Books Upstairs, the Winding Stair, the University Bookshop (Old Library Building in Trinity), Hodges-Figgis, Reads, Chapters, and more. At only €9.99, it's a steal of a deal, so get yours while they're still available.

The train is pulling into the station

The book went to the printing press 2 weeks ago, and the finished copies should be pulling in tomorrow. I'll let you know if a spanner gets thrown into the works between now and then, but God willing (since God has his irons in many fires, even literary ones), we should have a tall stack of books in the Oscar Wilde Centre containing our names and words. Check here for a list of bookshops who will be carrying Sixteen After Ten.

In publicity news, the Irish Times ran a piece last Saturday which you can read about here. It's about the Oscar Wilde Centre in general, and mentions our upcoming release in passing. There will be more press and publicity to follow, so please stay tuned.

The launch is almost a week away, so if you've been invited and haven't RSVP'ed yet, please do so NOW! If you've got any questions about the launch, the release, the book or its availability, please email sixteenafterten@gmail.com. The date draws nigh, the celebration will be massive, the book will be yours.

Prove it!

First set of proofs (final laid-out text in proper book form) arrived from the publishers yesterday. Today and tomorrow is just the final final final reading (there will be a final final final final reading next week) for spacing and punctuation errors by the typesetters, of which there are a fair amount. These corrections go back to the typesetters, then the final draft goes to the printer, where it'll be pressed and bound.

Pretty soon, I can stop posting about how we're still looking at and rereading the material, and start talking about critical reception and whatnot. Though I haven't seen it yet, apparently the 'Loose Leaves' section of this Saturday's Irish Times had a mention about the upcoming release of Sixteen After Ten. Yay, we made the paper.

Here's a peep at what the cover will look something like. Stay tuned.

It's in the mail

Small-scale mass-mailing of invitations today to friends and family. Just to make it known in more places, the launch date is April 18th, 2008, at 6 pm in the Long Room, Old Library, at Trinity College Dublin. Launch is by invite only, but chances are, if you are reading this, you are receiving an invitation in the mail. Contact sixteenafterten@gmail.com if you have any questions about the big kick-off.

Our most fabulous classmate Mark Stewart is going to be the emcee for the evening. I can't think of a more charismatic speaker, so he'll bring a real sense of electricity to the evening. Gerald Dawe will also be contributing words to the evening, and don't forget about the extra-special mystery guest.