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Tell us, firstly, about the types of stories in the book "An Fear a Phléasc".
There are different kinds of stories in the book.
The are few different ways of writing that I use.
You could say that there's the traditional short story,
that's with a location, a plot and one or two characters, and some of the stories are written in that format.
That's a format I like.
But I have to say I've more of an interest in the experimental short story.
That's to say, turning life upside down, if you like.
For example, the short story "Ar Pinsean sa Leithreas".
A man goes into the toilet and locks himself in ...
and he intends to spend his whole life in there and not come out.
So, I try to turn life upside down a lot.
So you could say that they're kind of experimental.
Stories like that are kind of open and they're dangerous, you see?
Maybe they'll succeed sometimes and other times they won't.
There are no proper rules for them, you see?
You know, you can put your own stamp on them, create your own rules or not.
And it's difficult to write them sometimes and hard to judge them ...
and sometimes you don't know if you succeed or not.
So I'd like to think that they succeed in this book ...
but that's not to say that everyone will think that, and maybe some of them fail.
It's maybe a little safer to stick to the traditional style,
and ... but, as I say, it's a mixture throughout.
What's your favourite story in the work?
I'm not sure which story is my favourite.
Maybe "Athair" is the story other people like best ...
and people say that it's the best piece I've written.
One of the stories that I often read is "Bualadh an Bháis".
That's the story where the man comes back from the dead.
This man, he was a chancer and everyone was pretending to commemorate him ...
when he died and he was in the coffin and then he comes back and life is upside down again.
That's one I like because it's one I often read and it's one that's suitable to read at events.
I have to say that I don't really have any interest in the stories I write.
People think, as you'd say ... for example, I don't read my own stories.
I've never read one of my own books, except for if I had to read at a public event, you see?
I spend maybe three or four years writing a book, writing the stories.
I rewrite them 15 or 20 times, it depends, some of them more than others.
And by the time it's written and published, as far as I'm concerned, it's out of my hands.
And I've lost interest in it really.
The only thing I'm really interested in is the next book I'm writing ...
and the stuff I'm working on at present.
So I'm not in the habit of looking back on what I've written.
I published my first collection of short stories, "Mac an tSagairt", in 1986, that's almost 30 years ago?
So I say to myself, "yeah, sometime I'll read that again till I see what it's like".
But I'm saying that to myself now for two or three years: that someday I'll sit down and read that book from cover to cover ...
as a bit of fun for myself.
So, I hope I'll do it but I don't know, someday when I get the time.
If you could go back and rewrite this particular book, are there any stories you'd change?
Yes. Every story, possibly.
And that's the danger.
I'm not sure which English writer said "No novel is ever finished, it's abandoned." ...
you know, so at a certain point, you leave it.
And that's another reason that I don't translate my own stories to English.
Some of the stories are translated to English; there are two reasons I wouldn't translate them myself.
Firstly, I don't have great English, it's not my first language ...
and it's usually recommended, if you're translating, that you translate into your own first language.
But the other reason is that I'm sure I'd start rewriting and making changes.
And I'd imagine that I'd change things in every story if I was to go back on them.
So I don't intend to do that.
I suppose, as well, that this writing relates to a certain period or to particular years in my life and that that's over now and ...
that I'm happy that they stay over.
And it's like ... the question you asked me, you could ask someone, "if you were alive in those years, would you spend your life as you did?", you know?
And I suppose few people would say yes, they'd make some changes.
That's the craft of the writer, rewriting all the time, because no piece of writing is ever perfect and I suppose never will be.
You work with different genres of literature, between drama, poetry, short stories and novels,
which do you like most?
That depends on when you ask me the question, and I'm not trying to be clever.
For example, at the minute, I'm after returning to the short story ...
but it's been ages since I've written short stories.
Because I spent a lot of time working on plays before that.
Three of my plays have been staged by An Taibhdhearc in Galway.
And I've three more that I've written, or half-written, that have yet to be staged.
And I have to say, I really enjoyed that.
And I spent maybe four, five, six years working on drama for the most part.
Before that I wrote a novel and some short stories.
So I suppose I like the short story best, at the end of the day ...
and I'd imagine I give that more time ...
and that I've mastered that more than novels or drama.
I wrote some poetry a long time ago when I was a student in Galway and in the early years.
I don't think my poetry's any good.
I've haven't mastered it properly and I don't think I can write poetry.
The prose I've written is a lot more poetic than the poetry I've written, for example.
And I think sometimes about trying to write poems ...
and I feel, in some way, that I can't.
But I don't mind that I tried it, you see?
It's always worth trying different things.
Your short story "700 Uaireadóir" was made into short film for the Údar series on TG4,
was that short film an accurate portrayal of what you had in mind when you were writing it?
That's a very difficult question because that story is a very strange and unusual story ...
and I'm not sure that I knew what was in my own mind when I was writing it.
So it would be a lot more difficult for anyone else to figure out what was on my mind or what they thought was on my mind.
But I have to say that I was happy with it.
They showed me the scripts.
But I said to them, and this is something I'd usually say, television is not the same as a book, you know?
I'd say to anyone who was making a film version of any of my stories,
I'd say to them to take a certain amount of freedom with it, you know?
Because television is a whole other medium and presentation.
And I'd leave a certain amount to their own imagination.
It's the same with a play.
I can write the play but I expect that the producer will add another 10% to it, or a good director.
I expect that the actors will add another 10% so that it'll be better that what they were given, you know?
Because more than one person participates ...
and I expect that they'll all bring something new to it ...
or that they'll see something in it that I didn't even see myself.
And the thing about this short story is that you can take a lot of different meanings from it.
Are you working on anything creative at the minute?
I'm working on a collection of short stories at the minute.
And I like being back writing short stories.
It's different with plays, you're dealing with other people, actors, producers, the public.
With short stories, you just in your own room, doing your own work ...
independent of all that and you have complete freedom, as you'd say, so there are advantages and disadvantages.
But I'm working on a series of short stories to do with Jesus Christ, to a point ...
to do with the people who were there at the time, people like Judas and Lazerus.
A lot of religion is coming into these short stories, on purpose, because I have an interest in that period.
I'm using a lot of folklore in these short stories ...
because I feel there's a lot in folklore that we modern writers don't use enough.
The likes of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill uses a lot of folklore in her poetry.
But the folklore that I'm focusing on at the minute is Asian folklore and Eastern European folklore ...
because I feel there's a freshness in it for me and I suppose for the people of Ireland ...
instead of Irish folklore which we know well already.
So, there's kind of a strange mixture, I suppose, in the short stories I'm working on at the minute.
I'm not sure myself where I'm going with them.
And, in a way, that's what keeps it interesting for me.
There are writers and they have a fair idea of the beginning, middle and ending of a story when they start writing.
And I'm like that sometimes but other times I'm not.
And some of the writing comes from the subconscious, it comes to you during the writing process.
Sometimes that's the most interesting part. Other times you have to throw a lot of it out.
But the kind of material I'm writing at the minute is open to those kinds of opportunities.
So that's what I'm working on at the minute ...
and I expect to spend another year on it and then you can read it.