Writers’ Centre Norwich, who oversee the Escalator Scheme of which I am part this year, have uploaded to their website an excerpt from my recently completed novel, ‘The Hole in the Moon’. To access it, please click HERE
Synopsis: Dan P. Power is a self-loathing Irish dwarf who, as a child, fell from a tree and flattened his younger brother. With a life so luckless, no one should blame Dan P. for snubbing society, employment or for whiling his time away in Dublin’s pubs – least of all his dwarf girlfriend Stella, his parents or his therapists. They should leave him alone. He’ll stop drinking when he meets ‘the one’, everyone does.
And he meets her, Dora, a beautiful Hungarian masseuse who concocts strange herbal brews. Dan P. is so enraptured that he makes a pilgrimage to a mysterious ‘sheila-na-gig’ carving on land his father has acquired on Trafadden Island, to seek help with the conquest of Dora. Dan P. soon learns that Dora has abruptly returned to Hungary, however. Undeterred, he elects to go in pursuit of her, leaving Stella heartbroken.
Dan P. doesn’t like abroad. It’s too hot, all wrong and Stella isn’t anywhere to help; she won’t even answer her phone. Aid eventually comes via three old eccentric sisters: a flower seller, a beggar and a bee-keeper. The trio lead him to a castle where Dora is being held by the enigmatic guru, Wolfgang Attila, the leader of a strange cult. Thus, gathering all his courage and honing his circus skills, Dan P. sets about rescuing Dora, with a number of unexpected outcomes…
‘The Hole in the Moon’ is a humorous Magic Realist tale which weaves redemption plot and love story.
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About suehealy
From Ireland, Sue Healy is Literary Manager at the Finborough Theatre, London, a full-time Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lincoln. Her book on theatre literary management is published by Routledge, December 2022.
Sue is an award-winning writer for stage, TV, and prose writer.
TV
Her current project, a 6x60minute TV series, is under option. She is under commission with Lone Wolf Media, producers behind PBS’ “Mercy Street”, to co-write the pilot and treatment for a six-part TV series.
Stage
Her most recent stage-play, Imaginationship (2018), enjoyed a sold out, extended run at the Finborough and later showed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Her previous stage productions include Cow (Etcetera Theatre, 2017) and Brazen (King’s Head Theatre, 2016), funded by Arts Council England. Sue’s short plays have been performed at the Criterion (Criterion New Writing Showcase), Arcola (The Miniaturists) and Hackney Attic (Fizzy Sherbet Shorts).
Radio
Her radio work includes nine plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (Opening Lines winner), WLRfm and KCLR96fm.
Prose
Sue has won The Molly Keane Award, HISSAC Prize, Escalator Award, Meridian Prize and has been published in nine literary journals and anthologies including: The Moth, Flight, Tainted Innocence, New Writer, Duality, HISSAC, New European Writers. She has been writer-in-residence on Inis Oírr, Aran Islands, and at the Heinrich Boll Cottage on Achill Island. She has also benefitted from annual artist residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and at Ginestrelle, Assisi in Italy.
An academic with a PhD in modern theatre history, specifically the Royal Court Theatre, Sue has presented her research internationally. She spent eleven years in Budapest, editing Hungary A.M. She has a PhD in modern theatre history (Royal Court Theatre) and is a UEA Creative Writing MA alumnus.
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suehealy 
September 20th, 2013 at 18:44
Loved the extract Sue, look forward to reading the whole thing sometime in the future.