||boek: Over!||the house of books

||door: Sheila O'Flanagan

||taal: nl
||jaar: 2001
||druk: ?
||pag.: 384p
||opm.: paperback|zo goed als nieuw

||isbn: 90-443-0155-1
||code: 1:000026

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Over! ---

Gemma is een vijfendertigjarige, alleenstaande moeder van twee kinderen. Ze is gescheiden van David en heeft daar nog geen minuut spijt van gehad. Tot David besluit opnieuw te trouwen. Orla is jong, slank en aantrekkelijk. Maar haar rol als tweede echtgenote is niet wat zij zich ervan voorstelde. Het vooruitzicht altijd in Gemma's schaduw te moeten leven, bederft haar prille geluk. David houdt van beide vrouwen. Hij vindt het geen enkel probleem dat Orla in leeftijd niet zoveel scheelt met de tienerdochter uit zijn eerste huwelijk. Wat wil een man nog meer? Pas wanneer Gemma en Orla het op een akkoordje gooien, begrijpt David dat zijn problemen nog maar net begonnen zijn...

[bron: https--www.boekbeschrijvingen.nl]

--- Over (foto 2): Sheila O'Flanagan ---

De in Ierland geboren Sheila O'Flanagan begon haar carrière als handelaar bij een bank, maar ze maakte de overstap naar schrijver en journalist. Ze schreef een businesscolumn in The Irish Times, en haar boek All for You ontving een Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award.

[bron: https--www.hebban.nl]

I've always loved reading and when I was a child I used to write stories for my younger sisters as a bribe to make them do my share of the housework. It usually worked!

Ireland is famed for its writers, but for me growing up most of the novels were rural in both their settings and their points of view. I wanted to read books about people like me, who lived in the city and struggled with the chaotic bus timetable and had dreams and ambitions that had nothing to do with the farm. I also wanted to read novels in which the women were the heroes of their own stories and not simply there because they were someone's wife, mother or daughter.

Although I was constantly writing, the idea of being a novelist was a bit of a pipe dream. I had to earn a living and so I got a job in finance. It was the complete opposite of anything I'd ever expected to do but - at least for a time - I enjoyed it and I did well.

But the dream wouldn't go away and in my thirties I decided that I would make a real effort to write my novel. Eventually, after a couple of false starts, Dreaming of A Stranger was written and published and became an Irish bestseller.

Since then I've written more than 20 novels as well as 3 collections of short stories and 2 novels for children all of which have been bestsellers both in Ireland and overseas. They include The Hideaway, What Happened That Night, Isobel's Wedding and Suddenly Single and my sales have topped 8 million around the world. My next book is called Her Husband's Mistake and is out now in hardback, ebook and audiobook. In it, Roxy, my heroine, has to reassess her rock-solid marriage after a shattering discovery.

In most of my books, I put women in situations where they have to dig deep inside themselves to find their inner strength even though sometimes they struggle to realise it's there. Readers often ask who my favourite characters are, but every one of the women in my books is as close to me as a member of my family. (For the time when I'm writing a book they're even closer because they're in my head 24/7. At least with the family I can put the phone down!)

Regardless of who my readers are, always try to do three things when I'm writing:

• Tell a good story
• Make the reader feel like they know the characters
• Make each book better than the last

I've been very lucky in having so many books published and hearing from readers all around the world. And I'm glad that, when times were tough, I remembered the quote that 'a professional writer is an amateur who wouldn't quit"

I'm a passionate avocate for increasing literacy and helping people who have come to reading late in life so that they can find the same pleasure in reading as I've had. I've taken part in a number of different televised projects to help people who've struggled with reading and writing and I've contributed to both the Quick Reads and Open Doors series of novellas for new readers. I'm also a board member of Fighting Words, the creative writing centre set up by Booker prize-winner Roddy Doyle where I've worked with teenagers to write their own published stories and retired people who are working on their memoirs.

[source: https--www.sheilaoflanagan.com/landing-page/sheila-oflanagan/sheila-oflanagan-about-me]

Writing - as everyone will tell you - is a pretty solitary occupation. And it's one where you're sitting down for a lot of the time. On that basis, having interests outside of sitting at the desk making things up, isn't a bad thing!

My main physical activity is badminton, a sport I've played ever since my early twenties. These days I play for Raheny Badminton Club, on Dublin's northside. I've played competitively on league and cup teams ever since I first picked up the racquet and am delighted to be still winning titles with Raheny.

You learn a lot from sports, mainly how to accept losing and learn from failure, and how to be part of a team. You also make a whole new circle of friends and broaden your own horizons, which is why I passionately believe that everyone should have some kind of sporting interest.

I was a director of Badminton Ireland for 10 years and now I'm a director of the Irish Sports Council, where we strive to widen participation in sport while also helping elite athletes fulfill their potential.

Helping women to fulfill their potential is another passion of mine. I don't just mean in the workplace, although that's hugely important, but in their lives generally. Women are often the ones who sacrifice their own dreams to help others and it's essential that all of us know our worth and are helped to achieve our goals, whatever they may be. I'm proud to be an ambassador for the Women's Fund, Community Foundation of Ireland, which uses philanthropic donations to assist various projects for women.

And, of course, helping young people to develop their creativity will always be an abiding passion, so I'm equally proud to be a director of Fighting Words, the creative writing centre founded by Booker prizewinning author, Roddy Doyle. The excitement and energy from the participants at the Fighting Words courses is always totally inspiring!

[source: https--vip15.hachette.co.uk/landing-page/sheila-oflanagan/sheila-oflanagan-other-interests]

Sheila O'Flanagan (born 1958 in Dublin) is a fiction writer and journalist who writes for The Irish Times.

She was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her career started in financial services at the Central Bank of Ireland, and was in time promoted to Chief Dealer, trading things like foreign currency, bonds and options. She wrote her first book in her thirties. She was offered a contract with an Irish publisher and gave up her job in financial trading.

She is a competitive Badminton player in Ireland and has served on the Irish Sports Council Board.

In 2011 she received the Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award for All for You.

Bibliography

• Suddenly Single (1999)
• Isobel's Wedding (1999)
• Far from Over (2000)
• My Favourite Goodbye (2001)
• He's Got to Go (2002)
• Caroline's Sister (2002)
• Too Good to Be True (2003)
• Dreaming of a Stranger (2003)
• Anyone But Him (2004)
• How Will I Know? (2005)
• Yours, Faithfully (2006)
• Bad Behaviour (2007)
• Three's a Crowd (2008)
• Someone Special (2008)
• The Perfect Man (2009)
• Stand by Me (2010)
• All for You (2011)
• Things We Never Say (2013)
• If you were Me (2014)
• My Mother's Secret (2015)
• The Crystal Run (2016)
• The Missing Wife (2016)
• What Happened That Night (2017)
• The Hideaway (2018)
• Her Husband's Mistake (2019)

[source: wikipedia]

As you can see, a Dubliner all my life. My parents owned a grocery shop in the Iveagh Markets, in the Liberties area of the city and I guess city blood runs through my veins.

As a child I enjoyed reading and telling stories and everyone thought that I end up in a job which had something to do with books and literature. But though I applied for a job in the library all of the job offers I got were in commerce.

I turned down lots of them before my mother accepted one for me (I was on holiday at the time). It was in the Central Bank of Ireland and that's how my career in financial services began.

I started out in administration and then moved jobs until finally I was working as a dealer in a commercial bank. Eventually I was promoted to Chief Dealer (the first female CD in the country). I traded lots of different things - foreign exchange, swaps, options, bonds, all of the kind of things you read about in the papers and that sound very technical and difficult. Of course once you're doing it, it's not half as technical as it sounds.

But I still loved reading and writing (which I did in my spare time) and I desperately wanted to write my own book. I guess I never quite got over the fact that I was never offered the library job! In my thirties I decided that it was now or never and I sat down, stuck Chapter 1 on a page, and started. I wrote the whole thing before sending it off.

I was offered a publishing deal (with no advance) by an Irish company but only if I wrote a different book! So back to the drawing board, I started again. It was another two years before it was published. It wasn't until I'd written a few books and was offered a contract (this time with an advance!) from another publisher that I felt able to give up my trading job and write full time. So, even though it took a long time, I eventually realised my dream of being a full-time writer.

And now I also write a business column for the Irish Times.

When I'm writing a book I want to do three things:

• Tell a good story
• Make the reader feel like they know the characters
• Make each book better than the last

I don't write for any particular audience but I suppose I must have people like me in mind - people who have busy lives and who like to escape into someone else's for a while.

I love writing books. I hope you enjoy reading them.

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]