Bridget McNulty

Celebrity news :)

// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), Publishing, Writing

Every so often, I get just the faintest inkling of what it would be like to be a minor celebrity….

Like now, for example.

Check out the May issue of Shape magazine for an article I wrote on the space between mothers and daughters, ‘Fuelled by love’. I wrote about 4 pairs of amazing moms and daughters who have done cool things together (including my mom and I, even though our plans to skydive were foiled by clouds!)

Then in the May issue of O, the Oprah magazine, (the SA version) there’s an article on Blogging that lists me as one of the best Humour Blogs (who knew??) and my fabulous sister-in-law Dagmar as one of the best Crafty Blogs, and my very funny friend Megan as one of the best Lifestyle Blogs (scroll over their names to get to their blogs, for some reason the word doesn’t change colour when it’s hiding a link!)

And then, as a result of that article, in which I give a few tips for blogging, I’m going to be on SAfm on Wednesday! (For those out of South Africa, it’s one of the best national radio stations, tagline: “For the well-informed”, don’t you know!) On Nancy Richards show, between 1.30pm and 2pm. Listen in!

So all in all, I’m starting to wonder where my entourage of minions is… Any volunteers??

The Shopping List of my mind:

// April 23rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Life (and the living of it), Time

Sometimes my mind feels like a shopping list. Of a person who hasn’t shopped in a really long time… Do you know what I mean? Thoughts are on there that are urgent and really need to be bought (or thought, ha!), others kind of slipped in there by mistake, and others would really be better off if they were dealt with one at a time. In a quiet boutique environment.

But here they are anyway…. Are you ready for it? Welcome to the shopping paradise of my mind!

1. That was a really yummy lunch.
2. I have so much to do.
3. Why won’t iTunes let me submit my podcast, just cause I’m in South Africa?
4. I hope everyone in SA voted yesterday.
5. It is alarming how quickly winter arrived in Cape Town.
6. I’m worried about a friend who broke up with her boyfriend yesterday.
7. I’m anxious/excited for a friend who’s reuniting with her boyfriend today.
8. Thank goodness it’s a long weekend!
9. I really need to get some work-work done.
10. I really need to clarify our round the world budget.
11. I really need to make those changes to the Fresh Living article I submitted.
12. I wonder what’s for dinner?
13. I must pay my phone bill today.
14. I wonder if the I love the Labia stuff can wait till Monday?
15. Monday is a public holiday! Yay!
16. I have never needed public holidays as much as I have this month.
17. Pretty convenient that this is a month full of South African public holidays!
18. I’m going to the States in less than a month!
19. I have so much to do before then!!
20. When did I get so busy?
21. I can’t wait to chat to the Just the Planet people at 6pm tonight…
22. There’s some potentially amazing stuff in the pipeline for our trip.
23. Our flat smells like cheese on toast. Yum!
24. It’s my brother and sister-in-law’s 3rd wedding anniversary. Amazing.
25. I really need to write and reply to some emails.
26. Thunder in the middle of the day is so cool…

So there you have it! I’m 26 years old, and I have 26 thoughts buzzing around my head. Consider this a challenge, to write down the shopping list of your mind, and see if you can reach your age in numbers!

What are you grateful for?

// April 21st, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Time

It’s such an over-asked question, isn’t it?

But it can have an extraordinarily far-reaching effect if you answer it honestly.

I’ve been reeaall busy lately. Real busy. Have I mentioned that I’ve been real busy? Trying to juggle a handful of really exciting balls (Strange Nervous Laughter in the USA, online marketing, Round the World trip and sponsorship, as well as that old thing called everyday life and, oh yes! Work!)

What’s interesting, though, is that no matter how exciting the work is, when I’m busy busy I tend to get focused on it and not much else. Which means I’m not very happy, or excited, or joyful. Which is why it’s such a treat to stumble across the ‘What are you grateful for right now?’ question (a question I found while editing one of my blog posts from three months ago), and answer it honestly. You might have a heap of to-do’s on your list, but if you can be grateful for a cup of hot tea, a slice of fresh banana bread, a cool breeze and blue skies, and a man you love, that’s a pretty wonderful morning, don’t you think?

So what are you grateful for?

Looking back is a funny thing.

// April 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life (and the living of it), Strange Nervous Laughter

We’re mere hours away from a 4 day Easter weekend here, and Lordy Lord am I ready for it!

My man and I are heading off to a little cottage up the West Coast tomorrow, for a glorious 2 nights and 3 days, and I can’t wait! We’re not going to do anything but read, eat, go for long walks and relax… Just exactly what I need. Check it out: www.fairfieldsguestfarm.co.za

What’s interesting about this impending weekend, though, is that we’re going back to a place we went just over a year and a half ago, at the beginning of September 2007. I had been working nonstop doing marketing stuff for Strange Nervous Laughter’s impending release, and we decided to take some time out without computers or deadlines or to-do lists and spend a few days of quality time with each other.

Now, a year and a half later, I’ve been working nonstop doing marketing stuff for Strange Nervous Laughter’s impending US release, and we’ve decided to take some time out without computers or deadlines or to-do lists and spend a few days of quality time with each other.

There are a few, giant differences, of course. I’m diabetic now, I wasn’t then. I’m a freelancer, I worked full-time then. My man is a freelancer, he worked full-time then. We’re about to go on a round-the-world trip. I’m about to go to America for my US book launch. And I feel, in many ways, older and wiser. But at the same time, I still think I have a lot to learn from my younger self. Take a read of that day’s blog post and let me know what you think…

And until we meet again, I’m taking a big deep breath in, and out, and relaxing into the Easter weekend…

Our home for the weekend!

The power of focus.

// April 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Downloads, Life (and the living of it), Strange Nervous Laughter, Time

I’m spending the day recording podcasts of the Prelude and the first six chapters of Strange Nervous Laughter (which just so happen to be character introductions for the six main characters).

It’s a fascinating experience, because I’ve never recorded a podcast before, or done any kind of voice recording except playplay voice-over stuff when I was younger. And the main thing I keep noticing is that you have to be really focussed. The podcasts are between eight and a half and twelve minutes long (which is a loooong time to be reading in a hyper-focused way) and because I am not tech-savvy and I’m doing it on GarageBand on my MacBook (which is working out just fine and dandy), I have to do it in one take. So if I stumble over my words, I have to start again (and again, and again, for the first chapter!)

It’s so interesting, because it’s made me realise how rarely I do something with 100% focus. I have to read every single word, and make sure I pronounce it right, and add in some expression, and be careful not to swallow my words, and all of this combines into a meditation of sorts, a meditation of focus.

That said, I’m glad there are only seven to do! Focus is a little tiring…

I’ll be posting them online (one a week) in the next couple of days. Watch this space!

I don’t often get cross, but…

// March 2nd, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Durban, Strange Nervous Laughter, Writing

… Lordy Lord, am I irritated right now!
I just got an email from a certain unnamed person who is writing a PhD thesis on post-apartheid South African novels, and ‘the dialogue of culture’ in them.

She sent through a list of questions, many of them very offensively-phrased, about Strange Nervous Laughter. Asking me why it’s superficial, copied and artificial, why it’s trying to represent an American city, like ‘Sex and the City’, why it doesn’t represent South African society. At all.

Now, I’m open to criticism. I think a studied discussion of the new generation of South African writers, who don’t feel the need to write about apartheid in every work of fiction, is interesting, and I’ll gladly take part in it.
But only if the person has read my book.

Because, oh? Did I mention this? She’s only read a sample chapter, and some reviews! This person (who is apparently at a doctoral level of education!) is basing all these assumptions on one. measly. chapter. of my book. She hasn’t read the whole thing! And yet she’s telling me that I’m importing  American city life into South African cities, and not writing about the real South Africa.

Seriously.

Why did I bother even replying to her? I thought, at first, that I was just taking offence because she was dissing my book. But then I realised that I was cross for good reason. Who reviews a book when they’ve only read one chapter? I ask you, with tears in my eyes!

Grrr….

(This is how I feel!)

Something more.

// January 16th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Love

Now, obviously it’s because I’m reading Eckhart Tolle’s ‘A New Earth’ (subtitle: awakening to your life’s purpose) but I’ve been thinking a lot, this week, about our grander purpose in life.

I suppose because we were all on holiday, and now we’re back and? Is this all? Work all week and hang out with friends and in nature on the weekend? It’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, and I love what I do with my everydays, I think I’m so extraordinarily lucky to be able to fill them pretty much as I please.

But shouldn’t there be Something More?

And not even something more like a goal to be reached, because I’ve got that too! My novel is being published in the USA in May, I’ve written a rough draft of my new novel, I’m filling my days with purpose. But. I can’t shake the feeling that that’s not really why we’re here. Surely there has to be something deeper? Tolle said something that really struck a chord with me about how who we are is not our function. I may be a writer, but that’s not who I am. Who I am is something far greater, and wider, and deeper.

And all I can come up with is that we are here to become Who We Really Are, to live our best selves, to continuously challenge ourselves to be more and more loving.

What do you think? Too heavy for a Friday morning?!

Nose to the grindstone.

// December 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Blogs, Life (and the living of it)

Yip, that’s me. A mere few hours away from finishing all my work for the year and hooo-boy am I grumpy! I’m just so sick of working. Ready to be on holiday. Lying in my hammock reading a book. Waking up late. Not thinking about work.

And much as I know the grumps are caused by a resistance to the work at hand, and that if I could change my attitude it would all be much easier, it doesn’t seem to help.

I. am. tired. of. working.

It’s been a long year. Seems to be everyone’s chant at the moment, doesn’t it?
I’ll report back when I’m on the other side of this cement mountain.

In the meantime, check out 1000 Tiny Things I Hate (http://tinythingsihate.blogspot.com/) – one of the only things that can make me laugh when I’ve got the grumps!

Have you ever…

// November 17th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Strange Nervous Laughter, Writing, book launch

… seen such a beautiful book cover?

Well, apart from the South African version of Strange Nervous Laughter, that is!
I was just sent this US cover now, and I can’t tell you how excited I am! Isn’t it just perfect?

Not only that, my US publishers (St Martin’s Press) are really excited about the marketing side of things, and have what looks like a killer marketing strategy in place. I am so so so excited!

It’s finally starting to seem real, like maybe I didn’t make up the fact that my novel is going to be published in America in the next six months!

I’m planning a trip there for the book launch, too, which is so unbelievably exciting.. I haven’t seen any of my college friends since I graduated three and a half years ago. How thrilling!

Another sip of inspiration:

// November 13th, 2008 // No Comments » // Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Love, Philosophy

“Sometimes one needs to turn everything upside down to make sense of it. What if feeling the wind on your face, hugging your child, laughing with a friend, taking the family out on a picnic, helping someone in need, watching the sunset, carrying out the garbage, going for walks, having friends over for dinner… what if this is what it’s all about? What if this is what’s really important? It’s something to stop and consider as we race through our daily lives.

Let us also see the beauty that exists in one another’s hearts. Too often we forget this. It is good to remind ourselves that there is much goodness in the world, in the human heart. You will not see it on TV. You will not read about it in a newspaper. But it is there for all to see… We do in fact live in a world where people constantly help one another.

You don’t believe that? You do not see it? Put down your newspaper. Turn off your TV. Come take a walk in your own neighbourhood. Open your eyes. Feel people’s hearts. There is beauty here. Goodness, generosity, love, concern, fellowship everywhere…”

Wise words from an anonymous author! If only we could all carry such love into our lives…