My Desk
I love to read and I love to write. I write about the places I know and the people I remember. One of my favourite places is Northern Ireland’s Ards Peninsula.
WHAT I’M WRITING
Set in a small village on the Ards Peninsula, my book Beating the Odds is an historical, part domestic noir composite novel. Each of the ten stories in this drama can stand alone or be read in sequence with characters and storyline developing.
It covers six months in 1966. My stories sometimes brush into the political and sectarian conflict in the late twentieth century but only when it effects guileless communities, as I am tired of The Troubles. (There are other authors who will write with more authority on those events.) In the main, I recall quirky characters some of whom may have crossed your paths: the providers of cheer in a dull world; the suppliers of perspectives into a different mindset; the bringers of fear and retribution; the givers of love who forget the responsibilities that come with love.
Some of these stories and characters are loosely based on experience, some I have known since I was a child, and some are redolent of the place and time.
For more details on Beating the Odds
I am revising She Cruiser. I haven’t forgotten this wonderful story of a woman who defied all the odds and the culture of her time to succeed in owning and captaining her own fishing boat.
For more details on She Cruiser.
I am also interested in the people and places where I now live: Alberta. Listening to friends, I am amazed how their families struggled against the most terrible deprivations to make their way to a better life here in Canada. True life exemplars of determination, talent and courage. I intend to collect their stories, their memories, their emotions before time erases them forever. For the moment, this project is called Heritage Tales. As the stories develop, the title will likely change.
For more details on Heritage Tales.
Photo courtesy: Goutham Ganesh Sivanandam @winknclick via Unsplash
Photo by Drew Henderson
Photo by Vivien Hollis