Petticoat Rebellion, the book after which this blog is named, is now available as a Kindle e-book download from Amazon, to mark the centenary of the heroine of the piece, Miss Anna Parnell. So, having shied away from purchasing e-books because I love ‘real’ books, I finally caved in and bought two.

The first was Petticoat Rebellion (of course!) and the second was Results Not Typical, a fun novel about the diet industry by the wonderful ‘unpublished’ author, Catherine Ryan Howard, aka Catherine, Caffeinated. My guess is it won’t be too long before she achieves her long-overdue and much-deserved publishing deal!

If you’re nervous about buying an e-book, don’t be!  You can download the iPhone Kindle app for free and they also have free apps for your Mac, PC or other smartphone. Then try out some free e-books to get started!

Trish

Over the twelve weeks of the course, each of the nine students will create a Digital Strategy for a particular product, campaign or website.

I’ll be building my project around a short-term campaign which will run in early 2011 as a pilot for future, longer campaigns. It’s really exciting to be able to use these learnings straight away, and to have the opportunity to put knowledge into practice. I’ll let you know how the project goes – and I would love it if you would take part!

Lecturer Keith Feighery is a powerhouse who barely stops for breath as he moves from one case study to another and guides us through the syllabus. He speaks ‘digital’ like it’s his mother tongue and sometimes it feels like we’re learning a new language.

While working on this project I’ll also be thinking about how to use these skills to help promote the Petticoat Rebellion e-book, which will be released before the end of the year by Mercier Press. Coming to a Kindle, iPad or pdf near you!

My final thought about online marketing is that nowadays, in many ways, even individuals need their own digital strategy. How we present ourselves online is so important. Friends, family and employers can find everything they need to know about us with just a few clicks – and do we always do ourselves justice, or do we occasionally let ourselves down? (I think I’ll probably come back to this theme again!)

Trish

I had that feeling with my blog.  It had been up and running (well, limping along, wheezing and in desperate need of oxygen) for a year.  It was definitely time to redecorate.

Here’s how I knew that my blog SERIOUSLY needed a makeover:

1.  No subscribers.  Not one.  Not even my mother or my best friend.  That’s a Big Red Flag!

2.  Accidentally hitting the ‘reset’ button in the Header menu and removing all the great design work.  ’Default WordPress’ is not a great look for a blog.

3.  Dwindling post frequency.  How can you run out of stuff to say on a blog?  Does that ever happen in real life – like at work, at parties, meeting friends?  No?  They call it ‘lack of focus’, and it’s a big problem.

4.  Writing about events rather than insights or feelings.  A blog isn’t a timesheet where you have to justify what you got up to – it’s a living, growing body of work showing the best of what you do.  Or at least, it should be!  I know this blog wasn’t.

Yes, guilty as charged.  This blog managed to incorporate ALL of the above, and was in SERIOUS need of a makeover.  That process begins today, with a smart new About page (still a work in progress, but it’s a beginning!)

We all know that redecorating can be messy too.  There’s all that dust, spilled paint, coffee stains, chocolate wrappers, brushes, dust sheets…you name it.  But despite the hard work ahead, you know it’ll be worth it in the end when you sit back on your virtual sofa and admire your handiwork.

Anyways, I have purchased the virtual paint, donned the overalls and lifted the brush, and am hoping to transform this blog from Zzzzzzz-List to A-List over the next few weeks.  Please drop by – I really won’t mind if you point out ‘Hey, you’ve missed a spot!’

In the meantime, please excuse the mess while this blog undergoes its very own transformation, and see you when the chaos is over!

A map showing all the locations for the Kildare Readers' Festival

Well-known names in the Irish literary arena will feature during the festival, including Sheila O’Flanagan, Dermot Somers, Brian Keenan, John Minahan and John Connolly.

I’ll be reading from “Petticoat Rebellion” in the Osprey Hotel as part of the Kildare Author Panel, along with John McKenna and Rob Kitchin. Dermot Bolger will chair this event. The Author Panel starts at 12 noon, and finishes around 1.30pm.

The festival runs for three days – Friday 14th May to Sunday 16th May inclusive.  Petticoat Rebellion is one of three books selected for the Authors’ Panel in the Osprey Hotel on Saturday 15th May.  As soon as there’s more information, I’ll post it to this blog.

It’s really exciting to be able to share the book in my home county, and I look forward to seeing you there!

Great excitement – I’ve been asked to speak at the Michael Davitt Museum in Straid, County Mayo this Friday, November 6th, as part of a celebration by the Michael Davitt National Memorial Association to mark 130 years since the foundation of the Land League. Michael Davitt is known as “The Father of the Land League”, and it was he who actively sought – and fought – to establish a Ladies Land League. Anna Parnell considered him to be one of her closest allies and supporters during the Land War.

The same weekend sees the official opening of the Davitt Centre and the North/South Cultural and Historial Symposium on the weekend of November 6 and 7.

Cllr John Cribbin, Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council will also launch a photographic exhibition on civil rights, which is on loan from the Museum of Free Derry.

Anton McNulty, of The Mayo News, reports full details of the event on their website. Here’s a quote from his article:

On Saturday, November 7, a lecture by Dr Dominic Bryan of Queens University, Belfast , entitled ‘Transforming Conflict Flags and Emblems’ and a lecture by Dr Mary Harris of NUIG called ‘The Catholic Church and the Partition of Ireland’ will take place in the Pontoon Bridge Hotel at 11am. The session will chaired by Cllr Henry Kenny.
In the afternoon session which starts at 2pm, Rev John Farr from Antrim, will talk on ‘Personal reflections on the Orange Order’ and Senator Labhras O’Murchu will speak on ‘Music and Tradition’. This session will be chaired by Bernard O’Hara of GMIT, and each session will be followed by a question and answer session.

With deep gratitude to Mrs Nancy Smyth for her encouragement and organisational skills!

Blog Action Day

Thursday, 15th October 2009, is international Blog Action Day. The theme for this year is Climate Change. Nearly 7,000 bloggers have already registered their blog, with a combined readership (RSS subscribers) of over 11 million!

This is an annual event, run by bloggers for bloggers.

To register your blog, visit Blog Action Day website. All you have to do then is blog about climate change on your own blog, and include a link to www.blogactionday.org

“Petticoat Rebellion – The Anna Parnell Story ” has been selected for Great Irish Book Week, a special promotion of 30 top titles from Irish publishers.

Senator David Norris, T.V. Presenter Kathryn Thomas, Author Anna McPartlin and The Arts Council’s Sarah Bannon successfully launched the Great Irish Book Week at the National Library on Thursday 1st October.

A FREE 288-page sampler of extracts from all the books is included with every purchase in your local bookshop.

Or, you can visit this special page on the Great Irish Book Week site for a sneak preview!

Comparing Davitt to a nineteenth-century Ghandi, Myers writes, “Davitt’s real lesson for the world — which Ghandi learnt, but tragically Pearse and Connolly did not — wasn’t about the creation of a word but a concept: that peaceful, studiously non-violent mass-action in pursuit of a palpably just cause can create an almost irresistible political momentum. If unjust imprisonment be your fate, then lift your hand against no man, and go to jail.” Davitt did indeed go to jail in 1881, when the British government realised that he was encouraging starving tenants not to pay their overpriced rents. He went back to jail in England, peacefully and with dignity.

Myers goes on to say that “No single individual has ever transformed Ireland for the better as Davitt did; but best of all, he gave power to the powerless by perfectly peaceful means”.

Michael Davitt was one of the key intellects behind the formation of the Ladies Land League, which was headed by Anna Parnell. Both were accused by the media of the time of being extremists, but a closer look at their characters reveals the opposite. Both were pacifists, dedicated to using peaceful means to end the land struggle in Ireland.

Here’s the interview in MP3 format – it’s ten minutes long.

With thanks to, and the kind permission of, Newstalk!