In April of this year, I took a memoir writing course with Lynda Kirby. This was a six-week course that ran for two hours every Friday evening. Lynda is the chairperson of the Oldcastle Writers Group that I am also part of and a friend. I have, to be honest, the idea of a memoir writing course scared the crap out of me. Delving into memories is not something I enjoy and anyone who has read my book “Surviving Suicide” will know that my father died from suicide when I was thirteen. Reliving these memories is not something I wanted to do and the idea of a course on writing about memories wasn’t exactly exciting, to say the least.
Amanda J Evans is an award-winning Irish author and writing coach. Amanda writes adult romance that often crosses into paranormal and fantasy. Growing up with heroes like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, her stories centre on good versus evil with a splice of love and magic thrown in too. Her books have all won awards and her novella, Hear Me Cry, won the Book of the Year Award at the Dublin Writers Conference 2018. Amanda is also the author of Surviving Suicide: A Memoir from Those Death Left Behind, published in 2012.