The event was held (thanks to the extraordinary Stephanie Campion of Moving Parts, who organised a zoom reading of the plays), the votes were cast, and the winner of this years Little Wonder Radio Play Competition is Denise Deegan with “The Last PTA Meeting.”
The Last PTA Meeting was a wonderful, warm, funny play with cracking dialogue and a lot to say about family and parenting. It was a delight to see the play grow and develop through the course of the competition, and it is a well deserved winner.
Warmest congratulations are also due to our other finalists, Amber Elen-Forbat, Mark Blayney, Paul Stone, and Declan Kennedy, who helped ensure an excellent evenings entertainment with imaginative, inventive and diverse plays that would have been worthy competition winners themselves. Thank you everyone.
Now that congratulations have been showered, the rest of this article is an interview with our winner Denise Deegan, so you can learn more about her, her writing, and how she celebrated winning the 2020 Little Wonder Radio Play Competition. Enjoy and read on!
Congratulations on winning the Little Wonder Radio Play Competition 2020! What was it like to win?
Thanks so much, Keith. When the results were announced, it took a moment for it to sink in. I celebrated with a cup of tea and a Rocky Road. I’m wild like that.
Tell us about yourself and your writing.
I’m an Irish writer who has been a nurse, china restorer, pharmaceutical sales rep, public relations consultant, college lecturer, novelist and, now, screenwriter. I gave up my PR business to write novels with no agent, publisher or actual idea for a book.
Luckily, I had a completed novel, agent and publisher within six months.
I’m driven to write by the questions that constantly interrupt my day. Why would someone do that? What if? Ooh, how would that feel?
What was it like writing for the competition? What were the best and worst parts of writing a radio short?
The best part was being able to write dialogue and little else. I LOVE dialogue! I hear my characters’ voices in my head. A fictional conversation that arrived to me between an angry but touchingly vulnerable teen and her dad kicked off a whole YA trilogy. I had been writing women’s fiction. YA fiction wasn’t on the cards. Until then.
The worst part was the self-doubt. This was my first radio play. I doubted that I could do it. I didn’t let it stop me, though. I’m stubborn like that.
How would you describe yourself as a writer?
Writing, for me, is an intense experience. I live my characters’ lives, go through what they do, feel what they feel – and feel it passionately. I write people of all ages. I write across genre. I come to really love particular characters and mourn them when I finish a story. Often they are the ones that were not planned. They just showed up and lived. They’re usually children, teenagers or angry, rule-breakers. If I were to link my stories by some thread, it would be that they are about ordinary people who become extraordinary in crisis. It’s so human to doubt our strength until we are forced to step up.
Humour slips into pretty much everything we do. I wrote a novel, Through the Barricades, based on a revolution in Ireland (the Easter Rising) and Gallipoli during WW1. Some of the most touching humour emerged in conversations between young soldiers in the trenches. It’s a very Irish thing to hide our pain in humour. It’s how we cope with all the rain! You don’t see umbrellas here. Our humour gets us through.
What is your favourite thing to read?
I read widely. I have a special love for children’s books. Picture books are like art galleries with humour. The characters in Holes by Louis Sachar and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak really touched me. Rudy in The Book Thief broke my heart.
I’m a big YA fan, The Hate You Give being a standout read. I enjoy women’s fiction. Two books that come to mind are The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing by Melissa Bank and Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail
Honeyman.
I devour screenplays and have a particular affection for buddy movies e.g. Les Untouchables, Toy Story, Midnight Run, Gran Torino… I could go on.
Where can we find more of your writing? What writing achievement are you most proud of?
You could visit https://www.denisedeegan.com/ for my YA fiction and
https://aimeealexander.com/ for my women’s fiction.
I don’t do pride. I’d like to. I always feel that there is more to do, which is a bit exhausting. I am particularly grateful for two things, this year, for the same reason:
My comedy drama and first screenplay, Tough Old Broad, was selected for
development by Screen Ireland, the Irish film development agency. And my first radio play, The Last PTA Meeting, longlisted in the Little Wonder Radio Plays Competition.
My gratitude is for the guidance that I have received from both organisations. Screen Ireland has provided me with an amazing script editor whose guidance is lifting my screenplay to a new level. Little Wonder Radio Plays gave notes on all longlisted entrants to improve their work as we proceeded in the competition. I am so grateful for that guidance. And of course the ultimate win.
Do you have a website/twitter account/facebook page/instagram handle to share?
Websites:
https://www.denisedeegan.com/ for my YA fiction
https://aimeealexander.com/ for my women’s fiction
Twitter: https://twitter.com/denisedeegan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denise.deegan.3
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denisedeegan/?hl=en
Thank you so much for talking to us, Denise, and for entering your wonderful play The Last PTA Meeting. I for one will be keeping an eye out for your screenplays, and checking out your back catalogue of novels. Congratulations!
