Oisin McGann: Warming up for the RED Awards

Oisin McGann's Strangled Silence is nominated for Falkirk Council's RED Book Award 2010, but is he ready for it? He drops by the blog this week to tell us more...

Scotland. It’s a lot like Ireland, but with stronger accents and worse weather, higher mountains, deeper lakes and the deepest fried food I have ever encountered. There’s something about it that calls out to my id, that appetite for the chaotic, the unhealthy, the passionate, that growling lust for life.

So I’m back, with my trusty local guides, the Scottish Book Trust, to attend the RED Book Award and do a couple of sessions in Livingston and Armadale while I’m here. I have attended awards ceremonies before. But this one sounds pretty full-on. There will be speeches, of course. Before I started this writing lark, nobody ever told me about that. Not only do you have to do loads of talking to sell your books, but you have to do it in an entertaining fashion . . . to kids – sometimes even teenagers. A nail-biting, knee-trembling prospect for most writers.

In Falkirk, however, the speeches are only the beginning. This ceremony is a real grudge match. There are the Powerpoint presentations, the quiz . . . there’s going to be drama. There’s a book-signing session and a lunch. They’re actually going to feed us.  And not just finger-food – like, a whole meal. ’Cos we’ll need it. We go back for more . . . big-noise introductions, the readers grilling us with a question-and-answer session. They don’t mess about with awards ceremonies in Falkirk.

Then, once they’ve really built up everyone’s expectations, all the writers have to speak. That’s a lot of pressure – some of these other writers are pretty hot s**t. I’m more of a talk-and-run type of guy. Get out before they can reach into their schoolbags for something to throw, that’s what I say. But I can take it. I’m seeing RED. Bring it on, Falkirk. You and me, in the town hall, on Wednesday. Let’s see what you’ve got.

Find out more about Oisin McGann on his website.

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