Kevin Moran - The Doomsday Club - Irish Debuts Series

The Doomsday Club by Kevin Moran

Kevin, tell us The Doomsday Club

Jack and Conan's friendship is officially dead. Stuck in detention with Yash and Jerry after an all-out brawl in the toilet, it’s a terrible start to sixth class. And that’s before they witness a monstrous beast step out of a portal outside their school. When it wanders into the crumbling mansion across the road, where the sinister Mr Kilroe lives, the boys follow. They have to investigate, right?

Unlocking Mr Kilroe’s secrets is only the beginning. Because there’s more than one otherworldly horror hiding in that house and confronting it will put Jack and Conan in mortal danger – that’s if they don’t kill each other first…

Tell us about your publication journey 

It’s been a long one! I spent many years writing quite a long, epic YA fantasy and had some luck with it, winning a spot in ‘Date With An Agent’ at the International Literature Festival Dublin twice. I also did a lot of workshops during this time with Big Smoke Writing Factory and the Irish Writers Centre, which really helped me learn the craft. From those workshops I found the writers’ group I’m in today, which is absolutely invaluable. Eventually, that YA fantasy seemed to be going nowhere, so I put it aside to write what would become ‘The Doomsday Club.’ I came close with a couple of agents and then, in 2023, two things happened at once: I entered both the Staróg Prize (run by Walker Books, literary agent Polly Nolan and The Sunday Independent) and the Pitch Perfect event with The O’Brien Press, both of which could result in a publishing contract. The O’Brien Press requested the full manuscript and, as they were deciding on it, I came runner-up in the Staróg Prize, winning a mentorship with Polly Nolan and Walker Books. Shortly after that, The O’Brien Press offered me a contract! As they say, there are decades where nothing happens and years where decades happen.

Do you have an agent?

No, I’ve been very lucky to get published without an agent. However, I hate contracts so if any agents are reading this, I’d love to work with you!

What has surprised you about the publication journey?

Having been working at being published for a while and having friends who were published, I had a fair idea of how it all worked. I was surprised how many people outside of your editor read the manuscript before publication. In The O’Brien Press, everything is shared, which I think is lovely.

How many drafts did you do of The Doomsday Club?

It’s hard to know, mainly because I kept making the rookie mistake of rewriting as I was writing. I’ve kicked that habit, thankfully. But it was quite a few drafts!

Are you a planner?

Big time. I’ll have a detailed synopsis and a chapter breakdown before I start. Of course, there’s always wriggle-room for change.

What is your favourite thing about the writing process? 

Planning. I love dreaming up ideas and piecing the story together. The later drafts are also very satisfying. It’s like the house is finally built and now you get to pick out the furniture.

And your least favourite thing?

The first draft. As I said, I’m getting better at writing it down without being precious about it but there’s something so daunting about a blank page.

Do you think being a teacher makes writing for children easier in any way? If so, why?

I think it gave me a better insight into the way kids talk and interact, and what their tastes are. The Doomsday Club was specifically inspired by teaching 6th class in an all-boys school; how boys on the cusp of adolescence treat each other, the pressure they put on each other (and themselves) and the sort of hierarchies that develop. Of course I’m pulling from my own experience too but I think my insight as a teacher should hopefully make it ring true.

What advice would you give people who would like to write for children?

I’m a firm believer that the best advice is the most boring, oft-repeated advice. With that in mind, you have read a lot and write a lot. Read widely in the genre you want to write and realise you’re going to have to write a lot of really terrible pages before you write any good ones. Never in a million years did I think I’d abandon that first book I wrote but it wasn’t a waste—it taught me how to write.

What are you working on now?

I’m very lucky that a sequel to The Doomsday Club has already been greenlit so I’m busy finishing the first draft and trying not to rewrite as I do! Aside from that, I always have multiple works-in-progress brewing away in the back of mind.

Author, Kevin Moran

Kevin Moran is a children's author and primary school teacher from Castlebar, County Mayo. He was runner-up in the Staróg Prize for children's fiction in 2023. He wrote his first book, 'Ghost Invaders', when he was six. It remains buried in an attic, unpublished. When not writing, he can often be found on the beach near his home in Dublin, being walked by his surprisingly strong golden retriever.

The Doomsday Club is available from March 2025 in all good bookshops. Buy it here from Halfway up the Stairs.

Méabh McDonnell - Into the Witchwood - Irish Debuts Series

Méabh tell us about your publication journey 

 I started writing Into the Witchwood in 2020 during one of the lockdowns. It was inspired by my daily walks through Kylebrack woods and being back in my childhood home. I started to stare deeply at the trees that I passed and thought about what if the shapes I was seeing in them were magical creatures hidden inside? I’ve always wanted to write for children, but until I got that flash of inspiration I never felt like I was writing a story that was truly mine. The Witchwood felt like a story that really belonged to me. I spent about a year drafting and redrafting it - in between my work as a children’s bookseller in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in Galway and once I felt it was ready to be seen by a publisher I submitted it to The O’Brien Press’ annual Pitch Perfect event as a part of Culture Night. After that event they asked to see a manuscript of my book and, much to my delight, they accepted it for publication after a few months.

 Do you have an agent?

I don’t have an agent, because The O’Brien Press accepts unsolicited manuscripts as do some of the other Irish publishers. I feel really grateful that that’s something that they do here.

 What has surprised you about the publication journey?

I was lucky enough to be fairly familiar with the publishing industry, considering my job as a children’s bookseller, but I was surprised by how many people a manuscript passes through before it reaches a reader. I also have been really pleasantly surprised by the goodwill that so many people in the Irish book community have had towards a debut author. We’re so lucky to have such great people involved in our industry who are extremely welcoming to newcomers and willing to answer all of my naive questions!

 What advice would you give people who would like to write a children’s fantasy novel?

The first piece of advice I’d give to someone who would like to write children’s fantasy novels is they should probably read children’s fantasy novels! Reading is such a key part of writing. Read everything from brilliant new Irish fantasies, like Sinéad O’Hart, Alex Dunne and Catherine Doyle, to older international ones like Madeline L’Engle, and Ursula Le Guin. Familiarise yourself with the conventions of the genre and then when you break all of the rules - you’ll be doing it on purpose!

While fantasy stories are steeped in magic and things that ‘aren’t real’  it’s usually used as an opportunity for the author to explore darker feelings and emotions by giving them a physical representation. For example, the Witchwood in my story is a metaphor for grief and the challenges we face growing up.

This means it is vital that the characters themselves come from a real and grounded place.

Because of that I would say you should write the story that you would most like to read. But I don’t mean write the story that you read when you were a child, I mean write a story that makes you excited. If I’m not interested in the characters I’m writing or the setting I’m trying to create - then the reader won’t be either. So write the story that makes you feel like your fingers are falling over each other trying to get it out.

Méabh McDonnell

 Méabh, tell us about your book and your writing process. How long did it take you to write?

It took me about a year to write the novel, on and off at different times. I tend to write in spurts where I intensely write a draft over about six weeks, then revise and change aspects of the story sporadically in the months after that.

 How many drafts did you do?

 I wrote roughly three drafts. One initial one, then I edited that extensively into a second before submitting it. After that I rewrote it into a new  - shorter - draft when the manuscript was accepted. There were also multiple smaller aspects of the story that were redrafted within those three. The beginning was the part of the story that changed the most, but I made significant changes to the characters' plotlines throughout. Most of the time I was editing things out rather than adding them in. I usually write as much detail as I can think of and then cut back and revise later.

 Are you a planner?

 I am a planner - although I try my hardest not to plan so much that there’s no room for inspiration along the way.

 I am a planner because I am also a procrastinator. If I don’t plan my plots then I will allow myself to write go-nowhere chapters where all the characters do is talk and nothing happens. Dialogue and conversations are my favourite things to write so that happens a lot if I don’t have a chapter plan to follow! Planning also stops me from walking away from the story and not finishing it, which is something I have a tendency to do if I don’t know what’s going to happen next.

 That being said, I think a mixture of planning and what writer Mary Watson calls ‘writing into the mist’ is the best way to create a story, as those little moments of inspiration that are unplanned are often the most magical part of the writing process.

 What is your favourite thing about the writing process?

As I said, my favourite thing about the writing process are the surprises that characters and plots hit you with along the way. Not to spoil Into the Witchwood - but there is a plot twist towards the end of the book. But the thing is, I didn’t know about that twist until the moment that I wrote it. It wasn’t a part of my plan, and I think it might be one of the best bits of the story! It just strolled into my mind as an idea and luckily, I was paying enough attention that I decided to use the idea and add it in.

 And your least favourite thing?

My least favourite thing about the writing process is initially sitting down to write! I find it very difficult to convince myself to open up my word processor or notebook and just start working. Once I do that, I’ll stay working for hours, but it’s that initial starting up that is so difficult to convince myself to do. I try to combat it by setting out times for myself to write in the day, so that it doesn’t feel like I’m neglecting it when I’m doing other things.

 What are you working on now?

I’ve got lots of different ideas that I’m working on right now but I’m trying to narrow my focus to just one. The stories that are most interesting to me are the ones that draw on the magic and mythology of familiar places from my childhood in the same way that Into the Witchwood does with Kylebrack Woods.

Into the Witchwood is available from all good bookshops. Buy it here