Before I became a full-time writer, I worked in Dublin public libraries. I was very aware of literacy problems, meeting people who could neither read nor write, but who wanted desperately to learn to do both. I also met literacy tutors who railed at the lack of suitable material and I felt the frustration of handing a 50-year-old books more suited to seven-year-olds which were frequently all we had in stock for adults with literacy problems.

In the early Nineties my first novel, City Girl, was published and it was while I was working on my second, Apartment 3B, that a literacy tutor jokingly said to me that I should write a novel for my local literacy group. It gave me food for thought.

Could I write a book suitable for people who were improving their literacy skills, that would engage their attention and, most importantly, wouldn't patronise them? It was a daunting task.

I spent a long time writing Second Chance. In some ways I felt it was the most important book of my career, a true test of an author. At first it was difficult. I was conscious of keeping the sentences short
and vocabulary simple, while also keeping an adult engaged. I wanted the reader to be eager to turn the page.

I wasn't sure if I was succeeding. It was a lonely book to write. I was nervous giving the manuscript to the coordinator of Finglas Literacy Group but her response was so enthusiastic I was on a high.

Second Chance was published in 1994 and I remember saying at the launch how wonderful it would be if other popular Irish authors would write a novella so that literacy students would have a wide variety
of choice. People thought it was a great idea. I went home happy that I had done something worthwhile and carried on writing my third novel.

Feedback from literacy groups to Second Chance was amazing and I was invited to speak to groups countrywide. I presented literacy certificates to students and their courage and determination humbled
me. Sadly, the publishers of Second Chance did not pursue my idea of a series. Nor did any of the
literacy agencies that attended the launch.

I approached New Island Publishers in 1998 with a view to publishing a series of literacy novellas written by well-known Irish writers. I was determined that the books would have the highest production values, so that no reader would feel embarrassed or ashamed to be seen reading one of the books in
public. The team at New Island was highly motivated, committed and enthusiastic. It was exciting to say the least.

Fortunately I have several writer friends, so Deirdre Purcell, Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly and Sheila O'Flanagan, to name drop a few, were frog-marched to their computers with strict instructions to write
a page-turner with short sentences and simple vocab. Ha! Wiped the smiles off their faces for a while. I wrote to Roddy Doyle, Joe O'Connor and Vincent Banville, among others, as we wanted to keep a
gender balance. Many men don't like reading 'wimmen's books'.

The response was gratifying - the Open Door series was born! It would never have worked without the commitment, enthusiasm and sheer goodwill of those fantastic writers. All of us agreed that writing these novellas was challenging but immensely rewarding. We did have a few hiccups, like the literacy
tutor who objected to a 'farting pony' or the prima donna award-winning author who wrote a story so convoluted that even the publisher didn't understand some of the words used. When gently asked if he could do some re-writes, he snootily assured us that he'd never been asked to change so much as a
comma by any of his publishers and that he certainly wasn't 'dumbing down' his work for anyone.

We are at the moment discussing our fourth series. We have 12 books published and rights sold in eight countries. We want to publish more non-fiction and we want to publish poetry. We want to do it all.

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