The following are three examples of my writing across three genres; poetry, genre fiction, and fancypants literary prose. Click through to see each on its own page.

This piece, in a very real way, launched my wider writing career. In 2016, I was directed to a national writing competition for young people run by Hot Press Magazine, with the challenge to tell 'the story of Ireland' in 500 words or less. In less than a week, I put together the following, and was awarded first place in my category. At such a short length, there isn't much other behind-the-scenes information to offer, except I wanted to make clear and positive mention of the inward migration we've seen in recent decades. Ireland's great and all, and I do feel lucky to live here, but suffice to say I didn't want to get caught up in misty-eyed flag-waving.

In late 2020, I found an interesting call for submissions; a publisher had six ideas for historical series, and was essentially holding auditions for authors to pitch their approaches to each. Of these, the one that gave the most freedom to create your own cast was the murder mystery set in Renaissance Italy. Drawing on my recurring theme of "unimportant people", I soon had a story about Imelda Maestro, a housekeeper, thrust into an investigation alongside Mercurio, a smirking street urchin. My pitch was unsuccessful, but I decided to finish the novel anyway as a large-scale writing exercise. In this chapter, the two protagonists meet when the latter is assumed to be the murderer; Imelda, to her own surprise, comes to his rescue by pointing out the scene's inconsistencies.

Ah, 2020. Everyone's favorite year that lasted three years. This is a poem that I submitted to a competition in the summer of 2021; I have no qualms sharing it here, rather than shopping it around, since its moment has finally and thankfully passed. I love the sestina structure - it's essentially a puzzle you need to solve, and the repetition of words can really add to your themes. In this case, it is of course the mundane claustrophobia of staring at the same room every day.