|
|
| |
About Siobhán |
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
Siobhán Parkinson lives in Dublin with her husband, who is a woodturner and without her grown-up son, who is a student.
|
| |
|
| |
Sadly, her cat died, but now she has a nice new kitchen cupboard, so that's something. Her other pets are a cherry tree, which she shares with the local magpies, and an apple tree that fruits every second year. She's thinking about a pear tree. Any suggestions? |
| |
|
| |
She has been writing for ever, but mainly since the early 1990s. |
| |
|
| |
She writes her books in a small study on a big computer. The computer needs to be very big, because Siobhán is visually impaired. That means she doesn't see very well. But a really giant computer screen, with enormous writing on it, helps. The only problem is that all the people going by on the top deck of the number 83 bus can also read every word she writes.
|
| |
|
| |
She has a voice on her computer, which reads her stories to her. That helps too.
|
| |
|
| |
As well as being a writer, she is an editor; flying teacher (no, she doesn't teach flying, she flies about teaching); workshop workhorse; and general writer in and out of residence (mostly in, that is to say, in her own residence). |
| |
|
| |
She is currently writer-in-residence at the Marino Institute of Education in Dublin, and publisher of a new children's imprint called Little Island, which plans to bring out its first batch of books in 2010. (Watch this space!)
|
| |
|
| |
When she is not writing or editing or generally playing about on the computer, she likes to cook, eat, drink, sleep, sing and learn languages. She can't read, because of her eyesight problems, so instead she listens to audiobooks on her MP3 player. This is nearly as good as reading, but it puts her to sleep. That's OK when she listens in bed, but it's a bit of a problem if she listens on the bus. Her other hobby is looking for things she has lost. Well, it's not exactly a hobby, but it takes up a lot of her spare time.
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|