Naas woman’s debut novel has comedy and romance
Margaret Scott. Photo: Tony G. Murray.
NAAS woman Margaret Scott-Darcy is about to have her first book “Rockabye Baby” published by Poolbeg Press.
A former student at St. Mary’s College, Margaret is from the Craddockstown area of the town, known as the old Poor House Road.
She is the daughter of retired Naas postmaster Michael Scott and has three siblings Michele, Jim and David.
She is married to Keith and they have two children six year old Isabelle and Emily who is almost 4.
“I started writing when I was probably about eight or nine and it all stemmed from the fact that I really wanted a pony and this led to writing fantastical stories about owning loads of ponies,” said Margaret.
This led to volume one of “Margaret of Craddoxtown Stud”, featuring up to a dozen ponies and she went “nowhere without my big green notebooks (which I still have) and I’d spend hours scribbling away.”
By her own admission sister Michele was a better poetry writer but Margaret entered the Nelly Danagher Memorial Prize at school because “the prize was always in cash which came in handy.”
After school she attended the Grafton Academy of Dress Design and later worked as waitressing, a secretarial course, a job as a receptionist in an accountancy followed by some grueLling years studying the ACCA (accountancy exams) at night and is now an auditor. Margaret returned to writing in September 2004, taking a Co. Kildare VEC Creative Writing course and this led to the formation of the Naas Harbour Writers and the publication of the collectively inspired “Who Brought the Biscuits” in aid of the Nas na Riogh Housing Association.
She also began writing a weekly column for the Leinster Leader, “In Good Company”.
“I started work on my novel and I suppose there’s a lot of ‘me’ in it in that it draws on my experience of being an auditor in PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the hilarity of childcare but none of the characters are based on anyone in particular.”
The book is aimed at anyone really who enjoys a story and a laugh with a bit of romance thrown in.
The book was initially rejected and Margaret was given some advice about altering the manuscript before it was despatched to several publishers and again attracted a rejection before Poolbeg expressed an interest - and signed her up for a three book deal.
“I don’t think I’ve come down to earth since. I owe so many people a debt of gratitude my husband, the Harbour Writers and Eileen of Alice’s Restaurant in Naas. I need to say all that as I’ve still two books to go,” she added.
- Paul O’Meara
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Weather for Naas, Ireland
Saturday 25 May 2013
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Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
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