A SKIBBEREEN-based writer has secured a six-figure advance for her debut novel.
Catherine Airey’s ‘Scream School’ is set to hit shelves in January 2025, after being snapped up by a leading publishing house just 24 hours after it was submitted.
The 29-year-old grew up near London where she had worked as a copywriter for the Civil Service for almost five years.
‘I think going through lockdowns made me realise that I wasn’t all that happy doing that anymore, and I wanted to try writing for myself. I originally planned to take just a year off the job and move here. But I quickly realised I was so much happier in West Cork which feels like home now,’ she said.
Catherine had holidayed here growing up and she has family from the Dunmanway area.
‘My grandmother Margaret O’Donovan left Dunmanway to go to London in her late 20s, and I did the exact opposite,’ said Catherine.
It’s been a whirlwind since she arrived in Skibbereen in October 2021.
‘I started writing in November, having never given myself the space or time to do it before,’ she said.
Admitting that it was initially like ‘feeling in the dark’ she committed to writing 1,000 words a day. After finishing her first draft in January she secured an agent, and by February she had secured the deal with publishers Viking.
The story follows three generations of women from New York City to Co Donegal. In New York, 2001, 16-year-old Cora Brady finds herself an orphan in the wake of her father’s death as the World Trade Center falls. Then a letter arrives from her mother’s sister, an aunt she didn’t know existed, inviting her to come and stay in Burtonport in Donegal. The name jogs something in Cora’s mind, a memory she can’t quite place—until she remembers a game she used to play as a child, a game in which two sisters try to save the inhabitants of a boarding school before it’s too late.
‘I devoured ‘Scream School’, transfixed by Catherine’s spectacular storytelling, her characters feel so alive,’ said Isabel Wall of Viking. ‘It has the epic scale and rich texture of modern classics like Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch.’ I feel immensely proud and fortunate to be publishing her at Viking.’
Catherine said Isabel’s connection to the characters and story proved right away that she was going to handle the book with passion and care.
‘It’s a dream come true – it’s all been very wild!’ she said.
For now she’s taking a well-deserved break, and enjoying swimming with the Lough Hyne Lappers before getting stuck into book number two.
‘I’m starting to play around with some ideas already,’ she said.
