An Irish mother-of-two is the envy of writers around the world after she landed a two-book deal worth €684,000.
Kathleen MacMahon, a journalist on RTE's foreign news desk, was last night toasting her new-found success with friends and family at her home in Irishtown, Dublin.
Her first published book, 'So This is How It Ends', became a sensation among publishing professionals at London Book Week last week.
Kathleen admits literature may be in the blood as writer Mary Lavin, who penned 20 books of short stories and two novels, was her grandmother.
'So This is How It Ends', dubbed a love story for our times, follows American Bruno Boylan, a banker who loses his job with Lehman Brothers in 2008. The main character comes to Ireland looking for his ancestors a month before the election between Barack Obama and John McCain.
"He decides he will stay in Ireland until the election and if Obama wins, he will go back. If McCain wins, he will stay. In the course of that month he meets a young Irish girl who is a cousin of his and the story is a love story," Ms MacMahon said last night.
"It is set in the middle of the recession and it is the story of two people who start to realise at a strange time in their lives -- she is an out-of-work architect, he has just lost his job as a banker -- what are the important things in life."
It is the second book that the author has written but the first to be published.
While her first book, 'The Sixth Victim', was good enough to secure her the services of agent Marianne Gunn O'Connor, it did not get published and she now describes it as a "near miss".
"After that I sat down and wrote another one and that is the one that was out on submission that got me this deal now," Ms MacMahon said.
Kathleen admits literature may be in the blood as writer Mary Lavin, who penned 20 books of short stories and two novels, was her grandmother.
'So This is How It Ends', dubbed a love story for our times, follows American Bruno Boylan, a banker who loses his job with Lehman Brothers in 2008. The main character comes to Ireland looking for his ancestors a month before the election between Barack Obama and John McCain.
"He decides he will stay in Ireland until the election and if Obama wins, he will go back. If McCain wins, he will stay. In the course of that month he meets a young Irish girl who is a cousin of his and the story is a love story," Ms MacMahon said last night.
"It is set in the middle of the recession and it is the story of two people who start to realise at a strange time in their lives -- she is an out-of-work architect, he has just lost his job as a banker -- what are the important things in life."
It is the second book that the author has written but the first to be published.
While her first book, 'The Sixth Victim', was good enough to secure her the services of agent Marianne Gunn O'Connor, it did not get published and she now describes it as a "near miss".
"After that I sat down and wrote another one and that is the one that was out on submission that got me this deal now," Ms MacMahon said.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/success-story-as-irish-mum-lands-euro684000-book-deal-15144904.html#ixzz1K5ggth6R
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