So You Want to be a Writer, eh?

Have you got what it takes to become a published writer?

Michael Carroll was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1966 and left school at the age of sixteen to become a postman. In between his rounds, he taught himself computer programming and, at the age of nineteen, left the post office and joined a software company. He remained in the computer industry throughout the nineties, writing in his spare time.

And he used that spare time very well!  In 1987 he joined the Irish Science Fiction Association and was soon invited to become editor of their fiction magazine FTL. He has been a member of the executive committee of the Irish Writers' Union and spent two years as editor of their regular newsletter Final Draft.

 Now a full time writer Michael has published a multitude of both science fiction, fantasy and romance novels in Ireland, the UK and the US. In addition to his novels, he has published many award-winning short stories and articles, and continues to contribute regular articles, stories and graphics to newspapers, science fiction and fantasy magazines (including SFX, First Contact, The Brentford Mercury, Albedo 1, Phase), comics (including 2000 AD, Judge Dredd Megazine, Solar Wind, FutureQuake, Zarjaz) and a number of prominent websites.

In 2000, his short story "Uneven Ground" was selected to appear in Seekers, a school textbook published by the Educational Company of Ireland. He has also written and performed plays for stage and radio and his work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Swedish and Polish.

So as a writer who has juggled a full time job with learning a whole new skill set, AND writing, and who has gone, not only to be published in multiple languages but who has also crossed genre, he is very well qualified to give new writers advice. Read on to find out if you've got what it takes....(and our apologies if you need a magnifying glass to read this for the moment - we're working on a techie zoom function to make it clearer!)

Also see Michael Carroll: Get Writing! here on writing.ie: http://bit.ly/kNJcpk