A medically fuelled witty window for any of us needing to accept death - Raedin O’Connor plunders the need to ‘get on’ and be ‘ruthless’ with humour and relatability
- CWIP
- Oct 2
- 3 min read
Can you tell us about the brilliant ‘Checking Out’ in one sentence?
'Checking Out' is about a woman named Geraldine who has lost her path in life and who needs to except the finality of death before she can truly live.
Do you have direct experience in the medical world to fuel your telling descriptions of this canvas?!
Yes! I previously worked as a Medical Scientist in a histology laboratory. I left the test tubes behind for a career in Occupational Therapy. I work as a mental health Occupational Therapist, although for the last few years I've been busy making small humans and working in an unpaid, twenty-four hour position at home caring for my children.
You have plundered brilliantly the need for ambition -why do you think this is a source of humour to the reader?
I think the desire to achieve is innate in most people as a means of survival, and I feel that most people will be able to relate to this need at some point in their lives. The ways and means that Geraldine uses to achieve this goal hopefully creates comic suspense throughout the story.
Which witty novel inspired you the most growing up?
Growing up, I loved reading Roald Dahl books, and particularly enjoyed 'The BFG.'
How long have you wanted to write and finish a manuscript? Where do you write? Do you take coffee breaks or stick to water /wine/other? Any writing habits gratefully received.
I have had a long standing interest in writing but it was not until the birth of my last son, now four years old, that I completed a manuscript. I tend to write first thing in the morning at the kitchen room table. I get up about 5 or 6 in the morning before the kids wake. I like to start when, in theory, my head is clear and before the busy day begins. I drink coffee and eat breakfast while I write, I usually eat something like a scone that can be eaten with one hand. I try to sit down for two hours straight and complete one chapter/scene at a time. My writing can get interrupted if the kids wake up early, so I will then come back to it later in the morning. I'm fairly strict with myself, sometimes I would rather stay in bed but I know that I'll never regret getting up to write.
Finally, can you tell us why you think CWIP is important?!
CWIP is an amazing platform for people like me to get seen. I literally live in the middle of nowhere, by the sea, in the South West of Ireland. Barring the school run, I could go days without seeing other people, don't get me wrong, I love it! But it is amazing to think that in a city (London), which is not massively far away, I can enter this competition and get the story I've been writing at home on my own out into the world. CWIP is a wonderful celebration of women and our humour, we are not only women, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and nieces, we are funny on top of it all. Though I have yet to meet any of the women involved in the CWIP, I get a sense that they do what women do best - care and support one another, while also cracking a joke.
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