Like most writers I didn’t take the direct route into publishing, I gained an Honours
Degree in English Literature and Psychology from Dublin City University and a
Postgraduate Degree from University College, Galway. I have worked in all sorts of
jobs, as a fashion model, an event’s organizer and in the intellectual disability and
mental health sector. The constant throughout has been a love of books! I have
read and written all of my life.
For many years, I wrote scraps of poems, just joined up lines of thought, that
conveyed life as I saw it. My ‘everyday poetry’ was written in waiting rooms, on
serviettes, left over note books and sometimes stued into the back of my wallet!
When I began to write longer fiction, the experience was very different, sometimes
the thread would come from overheard words or a notion of ‘what if…’ For the
novels, I needed quiet, time and a little planning and structure. My first attempt
was a ramble of long narrative that brought me along for eighty thousand words
and left me feeling incredibly fulfilled. I could do it. I could actually write a novel.
Since then, the ambition has been to write a novel that I’m happy with and that is
going to appeal to a wide audience – that’s a tightrope order, but with My
Husbands Wives, it seems I managed it.
I was a winner in the 2014 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair – an international
competition for emerging writers, the feedback was very positive and
complimentary and suddenly, there were possibilities beyond just scribbling a few
lines here and a few lines there.
In 2018 I was selected as a Words Ireland winner in the DWAD afternoon – this
opened up opportunities among writers and film directors and it was an honor to
be one of the final winners.
In 2019 I was honored and delighted to win Mayo Business Woman of the Year
(Arts) in the Network Ireland Business Woman of the Year Awards.
My contemporary fiction novels have achieved top ten best seller status across the
US, UK, Australia and Canada. My Husbands Wives was a top ten bestseller in
Ireland on its trade paper back release. The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club –
reached the overall No 1 position in the Amazon UK charts and has spent weeks
sitting pretty in the top overall books sold and read on Amazon. Its available in e-
book and in all good bookshops. All of my novels can be found in large print and
audio formats also. You can order most formats through your local library.
There have been many highs along the way, when the books featured as Book Club
Favorites, Net Galley Hot Reads and Summer Must Reads. Being chosen as a
summer must read never gets old!
I also write crime fiction novels under the name Geraldine Hogan. My Corbally
series, set in Limerick is available to read on Amazon.
I am a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines and short story
compilations.
I am currently working on edits and an idea for a new contemporary fiction novel. I
live in the west of Ireland with my husband – Mr H, her family and a very busy
chocolate Labrador called Penny.
Latest News
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Best Seller Baby!
The Bookshop Ladies is now making its way all around the world in people’s holiday suitcases, so at least Joy, Fern and Robyn will be catching those rays.
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A Little Something For You…
I have some very, very good news for you…
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The Countdown is on…
It’s OFFICIAL… The Bookshop Ladies are on the way… And today, I’m delighted to share the cover of my next book with you! Tah Dah!!! Isn’t it just divine? Honestly, I could just dive in there and curl up at that window with a good book and a mug of something comforting. Of all my…
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Book Club Discussion Questions – The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club
Many thanks to Julie Draper and her wonderful book club – The Community Lutheran Church Book Club from Rancho Santa Margarita, California for this great list of questions to get you thinking as you read The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club. I’m so often asked for a list of book club questions and although I’ve set…
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The Guest House By The Sea is on offer now!
Just dropping in here very quickly to let you know that for a few more days you can drop into Esme’s Guest House by the Sea for the reduced price of 99p if you’re a kindle reader. People come to the guest house for fresh air and views across the Atlantic. But if they’re lucky,…