Brain and brawn: Kildare-based wrestler expands to writing with successful debut
Barry Malone is the driving force behind the eccentric and in-your-face wrestling personality B Cool
A Kildare Town man and popular professional wrestler has traded the ropes and steel chairs for a keyboard.
Barry Malone, best known to Irish wrestling fans as the larger than life wrestling personality B Cool, recently tried his (probably heavily calloused) hand at writing a short story, titled ‘How Lads Talk’.
As it turns out, his venture paid off, as he managed to recently scoop up First Place at the Witty Wicklow Writers Contest!
Barry got the result for ‘How Lads Talk’ back in April and it was subsequently published earlier this month.
Despite what some may think when they see Barry in his zone as the brawny, crazy pugilist that is B Cool, he is actually a life-long fan of literature and writing.
In fact, he told the Leinster Leader that he first found out about the contest through writing.ie.
INSPIRATIONS
Barry explained that he is a massive fan of a number of authors, ranging from Cormac McCarthy and Mark Twain to Brian Keene and Shirley Jackson, but his number one inspiration is Stephen King.
“His simple advice has been the best I’ve received as an inspiring author: write a lot and read a lot,” he added. “King’s memoir/ writing guide is the best book any aspiring author could read, and is aptly called ‘On Writing’.”
Explaining the plot summary of his successful short story, Barry explained that ‘How Lads Talk’ is comedy about how one particular group of lads will talk about anything, except the important things - “Things men generally don’t talk to one another about,” he added.
AGAINST THE ODDS
Barry also revealed that securing first place pleasantly surprised him for a very personal reason — he is dyslexic.
He explained: “It was a great feeling, as I’ve struggled with dyslexia my whole life.
“I used to be intimidated by books, so to see something I wrote win and get published was a great feeling.”
He added: “I love writing, and I’m going to do it regardless if I get published, paid, or win contests; that’s just a nice by-product of doing something I love.”
Moreover, Barry revealed that he first got his idea for B Cool while drafting ideas for a short story: “The first thing I ever tried to write was a piece on professional wrestling.
“I was following the rule of write what you know, and at that point in my life, I knew very little about anything other than pro wrestling, so, I started writing a how-to guide called ‘How to be a professional wrestler’.”
He continued: “I just started when I realised that I was being some b*llocks; I hadn’t achieved anything in wrestling at that point, so who was I to tell anyone how they should train, work, or anything involved with wrestling?
“I kept writing it, but changed the title to ‘How NOT to be a professional wrestler’, and as I was writing it, I started to feel that the stories I was writing would be better off turned into a script, and filmed. that’s how B Cool’s documentary and subsequent online videos came about.
He added: “That’s probably the last piece of writing B Cool will do... last I heard, he’s trying to get a street in Amsterdam named after him!”
Lastly, when asked if he has more writing projects planned for the future, Barry had this to say: “Absolutely. I write every day, except one day on the weekend.
“I try to balance my life around it, which is tough with planning my wedding and having a full-time job, but all that comes in second and third place to writing (don’t tell my fiancée)!”
He concluded: “Fingers crossed, I’ll have something else published soon.”
‘Issue 0’ of Witty Wicklow, with ‘How Lads Talk’, can be purchased from https://www.ringofculture.com/wittywicklowwriters.