Picture the scene: Cork, late 1990s. A teenage girl goes to a bowling alley. The room is dark and vaguely exciting. There’s probably an air hockey table somewhere. In the corner, she sees what she’s here for. Not a game of bowling - the computers, glowing in a corner. She hands over a few pounds, searches ‘chat room’ on AltaVista and spends 15 minutes messaging strangers about her love of Silverchair. I know I’ve been teasing a ‘big project’ that I’ve been working on (forgive me - I know it’s really annoying to do that), and here it is: my first book. Fittingly, for someone who has a...…Picture the scene: Cork, late 1990s. A teenage girl goes to a bowling alley. The room is dark and vaguely exciting. There’s probably an air hockey table somewhere. In the corner, she sees what she’s here for. Not a game of bowling - the computers, glowing in a corner. She hands over a few pounds, searches ‘chat room’ on AltaVista and spends 15 minutes messaging strangers about her love of Silverchair. I know I’ve been teasing a ‘big project’ that I’ve been working on (forgive me - I know it’s really annoying to do that), and here it is: my first book. Fittingly, for someone who has a...WW…

Readers like you keep news free for everyone.More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.Support us todayNot nowWeekly PodcastThe ExplainerThe Explainer is a weekly podcast from TheJournal.ie that takes a deeper look at one big news story you need to know about. Listen now wherever you get your podcastsNewsletters : Sign UpSections & TopicsPartner PublicationsThe 42The latest Irish and international sports news for readers and subscribersNoteworthyA platform helping fund...…Readers like you keep news free for everyone.More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.Support us todayNot nowWeekly PodcastThe ExplainerThe Explainer is a weekly podcast from TheJournal.ie that takes a deeper look at one big news story you need to know about. Listen now wherever you get your podcastsNewsletters : Sign UpSections & TopicsPartner PublicationsThe 42The latest Irish and international sports news for readers and subscribersNoteworthyA platform helping fund...WW…