Posted on No Comments on CALLING DRAMA GROUPS AND PUBLISHERS

CALLING DRAMA GROUPS AND PUBLISHERS

The nights are getting longer, darker and cooler as I write this October blog.  The GAA year is winding down.  Success was very limited in 2023 for my teams.  Now my attention returns to writing. Lots of ideas flowing around my head for plays and short stories and longer ones. However, before the words hit the laptop screen and store in the clouds, I am spending some time calling out to Drama Groups and Publishers. Hello!!

The stories I write and tell are nothing until people hear or see them. I have got so much satisfaction and pride from the small wins I’ve had in the past.  It’s the little things that make life wonderful.  From Macra Na Feirme performing a one act to the publication of a short story or poem, it does feel like scoring a goal in a major GAA match! Without drama groups, theatres, producers, directors, actors, stage crew, editors and publishers, those small moments of pride could not happen.  The work in trying to contact the appropriate people, prepare submissions or competition entries can be time consuming and certainly not the most attractive part of writing.  When someone contacts you back it becomes so worthwhile.  So please if connected to a Drama Group or a Publisher, please explore the stories I have to offer.  One hit would make the year!

DRAMA GROUPS

PLAYS BY SEAMUS D NORRIS

If you are involved in a drama group, please click the link. If you are a Producer, a Director, an Actor or Stage Crew or possibly the Chairperson or Secretary please check out my library of full-length plays and one act plays. There is a variety.  Some fun, some serious. Some Irish, Some American, Some contemporary, some historical. Some have large casts, some small.  One thing for definite, you will not be disappointed with the stories.

Maybe you are not directly involved, but you know someone who is.  Please share this Blog with them.  Use your social media connections.  I would really appreciate it. I would especially love anyone who is involved in Macra Na Feirme to check out my one act plays and make contact. An organisation that inspired my love of stage drama, inspired me to write and gave me so many wonderful memories. Some of my material would be well suited to an American or English audience. Reach out.  You might end up performing a World Premiere!

PUBLISHERS

When it comes to publishers, I know it is a longer shot.   I have one completed novel, one completed volume of short stories, one novel which is a work in progress and a completed novella that I would love to have published. If you are a Publisher or related to a publisher, please check out below and reach out to me. A million thanks in advance.

QUEST FOR JUSTICE

My first completed novel is a crime thriller with a science fiction undertone and a romantic sub-plot filled with suspense, intrigue and mystery stretching from Ireland to the Channel Islands to the United States and back to a thrilling action packed climax off the South West coast of Ireland. 88,000 words of compulsive and exciting reading.

DREAMS VOLUME ONE

A collection of 16 short stories written over a number of years.  I describe them as Dramatic, Romantic, Entertaining and Amusingly Magnificent Stories.  Stories that are inspired by a mix of imagination and reality.  They are Sport, Western, Romance, Crime or rural Irish themed. Dreams Volume One is about the story, the drama, the fun, the twists and the unexpected.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wonder and you’ll enjoy. Stories set in Ireland, England and the United States of America with time periods varying from the mid 1800’s to modern day to sometime in the not-too-distant future.

THE UNDERDOG

A teenage boy who has moved to Ireland with his mother, brother and sister after the disappearance and presumed death of his Father in the Middle East.  They move to his uncle’s farm in a rural area.  He Gaelic sport of Hurling becomes his love.  The story revolves around his life, his family, his friends, his adversaries and the girl he likes with a subplot about the mystery regarding his father’s disappearance. He is an underdog and an adventurer. This is still a work in progress.

JAMIE

This is a novella of 40,000 words. The Emergency Response Unit is the elite police armed tactical unit of the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police and security service. Jamie is one of their best officers. After a tragedy strikes while on duty, he is partnered with a tough and beautiful female officer who has baggage that links her to a notorious unidentified serial killer.  Can they work together and track down the killer before history repeats? Plenty of mystery and intrigue.

 

Posted on No Comments on THE SNOWBALL THAT’S JAMIE

THE SNOWBALL THAT’S JAMIE

To start this month’s blog, it is a Happy 21st Birthday to my son Jamie Peter Norris. That was the easy bit. Having written poetry for my daughters Jennifer and Lisa, it would be pertinent to do something for Jamie though he may not thank me nor did he ask me, but that’s fine too. This task did not sit easy at all as inspiration failed me and given my quirky dislike for poetry, it was a challenge that beat me.  However, in parallel, a number of artistic ideas were flowing around the eerie maze that is within my head.

One was inspired by a film that I really like called “The Shawshank Redemption”. Most of you will know it. I was always under the misconception it was based on a Stephen King short story and wondered how a short story could become such a detailed and brilliant film. I wanted to write a short story that could be turned into a film like that, but could not figure out how I could reduce the words to succeed. Then I discovered it was actually based on a Stephen King novella called “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”.  A novella is a long short story or a short novel with the word count generally varying between 20,000 and 40,000 words.  Now I was in the right territory. A novella beckoned, but on what subject.

In another parallel sphere, I was getting to the end of watching the TV series, “Castle”, one of my favourite US Crime dramas. I love the chemistry and wit between the main protagonists, Rick Castle and Kate Beckett and to be fair she is not half bad looking.  A thing that baffles me about US television police dramas, is the use of last names when calling each other.  The Cops almost always call each other by their last name or surname. Even when Rick Castle and Kate Beckett got married they still most often called each other Castle and Beckett rather than Rick and Kate. The trend was noticeable in other similar genre programmes like “Blue Bloods” and “Rookie Blue”. I think perhaps it is a North American thing. Then, coincidentally after one episode which I had discussed the phenomenon with Sheila, the following day, I was unexpectedly called “Norris” by a work colleague, ‘out of the blue’, to stick to the blue theme. No harm meant. It just made me think that it is unusual in Ireland, a bit American in fact. I didn’t find it offensive but it did give me a thought. How would an Irish crime drama go where the protagonists and characters only used first names? That would be more Irish and different. It would contrast with the Americans and I reckon it would be unique.  But what name to choose?

As I was looking for inspiration for a poem about Jamie, the thought occurs, why not Jamie for the main character? Not a bad name. I gave Jamie Norris the name (with Sheila of course). Why not borrow it back so to speak? It’s a good name for a lead character, but a novella is a huge leap from a poem.  But hey let’s see where it goes, I thought. I wanted the theme to be an Irish crime thriller, set locally in the South and South-East of Ireland and incorporate places that I know well.  The characters would only be known by the role or their first name unless there I was referencing real people rather than fictitious people.

Around the same time as inspiration was growing, I went to the “Cowboys and Heroes” festival in County Leitrim, a country and western festival headlined by the singer Lisa McHugh.  Really enjoyed my weekend in the North West and Lisa McHugh, so I introduced a Country and Western singer into the plot. This gave me the opportunity to write the lyrics of song which I called “Jamie” (Click link for lyrics) for the purposes of my Novella plot rather than a poem. Not exactly about my son Jamie, but it is called “Jamie” in a novella called “Jamie”. It was as close as inspiration could bring me.  A leap and a small compromise. If any reader with a female country and western background wants to put the music to it, please contact me. At the moment, it is just words.

From here the novella snowballed into my most risqué piece of work yet. It is definitely not suitable reading for young people with murder, bad language, sexual innuendo and nudity involved but honestly no wildlife was really harmed in the writing of my first novella.  Locals will recognise scenes around Kilkenny especially Piltown, Hugginstown, Windgap and Paulstown, in Tipperary, Grangemockler and Carrick-On-Suir, as well as Mahon and Fota in Cork and Tinryland in Carlow.

To my son Jamie, enjoy your birthday and thanks for the inspiration and the use of your name.  Thanks to rest of my family who throw their eyes to heaven on a regular basis. To my work colleagues at Glanbia whose actions and words inspired different elements of the story, plot and characterisation.  I know you are a covert reader, but always delighted to have you as I target double figure readership.  Please read my debut novella, “Jamie” and share with your adult friends. To US crime drama fans, your crime drama has now been given a unique Irish slant.  To publishers, it’s new, it’s different and it’s Irish! Read it and try not to weep.

JAMIE