Posted in Creekside Cafe, event, interview, News

Welcome Murdina MacDonald to Creekside Cafe

Bio: I retired from Craven Community College in 2009 and am a newbie to the author scene.  Plan to bring two items to the event: my dad’s memoirs and my doctoral thesis of 1982, just published.

Sherri: Welcome to my virtual café. If I ever win the lottery or become the heir of some unknown wealthy relative, I plan to open a coffee shop by the river but until then, I go down the wildlife ramp and dream. Have you always loved books?

Murdina:  Hi Sherri, so happy to meet you.  Have enjoyed the interviews you have done with the “lucky 35” of this November event as well as the interview KB did of you.  You’ve said “do what scares you.”  Love that.  My own mantra, if I were to verbalize it, would be: every wrong road is a good road if it leads you home…

Yes, I have always loved books though, oddly, I cannot remember anyone actually reading to me in my childhood.  At about ten I fell in love with horses which led to all those books with titles like The Black Stallion, The Black Stallion Returns, The Son of Black Stallion, The Island Stallion etcetera.  Next for me came Ivanhoe, then The Count of Monte Cristo and ultimately, the discovery of my two great adolescent heroes, Jane Austin and Charles Dickens.  Remember the sorrow I felt when I realized I had read all of Austin’s novels and, at fourteen, the tears running down my cheeks as I read “it is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done.  It is a far, far better place I go to than I have ever known…” 

Sherri: How did you come to publish your father’s story? What is the story behind the story, Blackhouse God’s House?

Murdina:  My father was a complete mystery to me.    When he came home from work he would talk at dinner about biblical characters, David a favorite of his and historical figures like Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox, current folks like Roosevelt and Churchill.  But he spoke very little about himself or his past in Scotland.

So, when my sister Christine died in 2011, I inherited his papers.  My brother-in-law Jim mailed me 2 big “If it fits it ships” boxes containing about 2,000 manuscript pages.  Some of them I called sermons for himself.  Others were commentaries on famous people he just wanted to write about, like John Barrymore.  But the bulk of his writings were about the people of his village, Skigersta, in the Isle of Lewis.

I found the papers fascinating on two levels: they revealed a father I never knew and they gave me glimpses into a world that no longer exists.  The world he left behind I found both exotic and familiar and discovered where my father had been living for 60 years since his immigration in 1924.  He was right there in his own blackhouse at 7 Skigersta, surrounded by his mother, brother and three doting sisters, listening to the marvelous tales spun by his brilliant neighbor, the bard, enjoying the warmth of the peat fire, the babble of gaelic on every lip, the feeling of utter contentment – and the sounds of laughter.

Sherri: Your father grew up in rural Scotland? Have you ever visited? Do you still have family there?

Murdina:  My father, born in 1903, grew up in a village of 300 souls in the northern part of Lewis, the youngest of five children.  He seems to have been a very observant child and one from an early age who was able to appreciate the rugged beauty of his surroundings.  He also appreciated the various types of human life on display in his village as seen in one of his titles: “Of worthies, wags, wits and oddballs.”

The blackhouse that Angus lived in was made of stone and topped with a thatched roof (museum pieces now). There was a peat fire in the center, sleeping quarters at one end and 3 cows at the other.  He went to school until age 14 and was happy to depart the scene after that despite a visit from the minister pleading for him to go on.  Tellingly, he describes his school days under the heading “My Own Dark Ages”.  Let’s see, his education began when at 5 his teacher threw him out a window.  But I digress…

Like many in the village, his father was a fisherman-farmer and Angus would no doubt have followed in his footsteps had not life intervened in the form of World War I and post war unemployment, poverty and civil unrest.  The British government found a way to relieve the pressures of this situation by offering free passage to Canada in exchange for two years of labor on Canadian farms.  Dad was a part of this diaspora in 1924.  The next year he found his way to New York City to work for a Skigersta neighbor who had made good in the New World, D. B. Mackay, shoetree manufacturer.  His adopted daughter, Effie, was his secretary and chauffeur.  She and Angus were married in 1936 with brother Norman coming along in 1942, me in 1944 and sister Christine in 1947.

It has been one of the unexpected pleasures of my life to have visited Lewis 3 times and to have discovered first and second cousins, to have met both mother’s folks and dad’s folks, people from different parts of the island and from different denominations.  What lovely people – and so welcoming to me and my friends. 

In 2012 when I travelled with dad’s ashes, my first cousin John Murdo, his wife Mary, 2nd cousin Isabel and brother Donald came from one side of the island to the other to meet me in a howling rainstorm!  Boy, was I so grateful we had not had to navigate from our B&B to them!  We swapped photos and stories.  I went to church in Stornoway with my cousin Alex’s widow, Catherine.   She loaned me a “bonnet”, as you can’t go without one. 

At the Ness Historical Society, I met dad’s sister Margaret’s family where Catherine’s daughter, Margaret Anne, put her newborn son in my arms for a photo.  What a whirlwind.  Loved the group photo.  [Shakespearean aside: I said to my friend Catherine, I didn’t even have time to comb my hair before they shot the photo.  She replied: “It wouldn’t have made any difference…” Comforted by the fact all my relatives had uncontrollable curly hair too!]

Sherri: What kind of research and how long did it take you to write this book?

Murdina: My dad’s life story was set against a backdrop of very big events on the island of Lewis, events such as World War I, the purchase of the island by Lord Leverhulme, the sinking of the Iolair, mass emigration in the 1920s and denominational discord. In addition, about 8% of the texts were written in gaelic without an English translation, so I needed a translator. Fortunately, I found one in Annie MacSween of the Ness Historical Society.

With respect to World War I, I knew very little, but what was important here was how the war impacted the island.  It is said that the island suffered the greatest proportional loss of life during the war of any district in Scotland.  Angus has several fascinating stories here.  He tells of the mailman delivering the news of the war on a quiet Sunday bicycling through Skigersta while blowing a whistle(!) to draw attention and another tale of his dad and six others dodging a German sub while out fishing.  Grief is everywhere of course -both individual and communal – as islanders dealt with the loss of loved ones.

Who knew you could “buy” an island?  The soap magnate, Lord Leverhulme [Bodach an t-Siabainn (the soap man)] did just that in 1918 and had great plans for Lewis’ development.  Societal unrest toppled his plans and he left in deep disappointment.  So, poverty and unemployment did not find their savior here.

The sinking of the Iolair is a story I knew from my parents. Mom wanted one of her three children to write a book about it. We didn’t. John MacLeod did [When I Heard the Bell]. On January 1, 1919 the Iolair struck the ‘Beasts of Holm’ in Stornoway harbor and 205 Lewisman returning from war in France perished. The Stornoway Gazette led with the story the next day with “Grief Unutterable” – as perfect a designation for the reality in this close bound community as words could come. Dad translated the first gaelic version of the tragedy, portions of which are included in the book.

Denominational discord is what most closely affected my father’s life growing up in the first part of the 20th century.  Most of Skigersta belonged to an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland called The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.  The split had taken place in 1898 and divided the 23 villages that constituted the province of Ness in northern Lewis.  Almost all of Ness rejected the new group, using both shunning and verbal hostility as their main expressions of disapproval.  This is the backdrop of a number of my father’s stories: students slinging stones and insults, teachers being abusive physically with a strap as well as verbally, doctors refusing to visit sick and dying patients.  A dismal tale but one that is behind the island now.

My father clearly wanted, in his sketches, to honor the courage and faith of his parents and neighbors in sticking to their principles, whatever the cost.   And although I am not of my father’s denomination, I too, in promoting Blackhouse God’s House celebrate and honor those people long dead now – for their faith, their love and their communal solidarity in hard times.

In answer to your question, Sherri, about how long it took to write the book, the answer is – way too long!  I was not under any deadline, so I rather poked around with it for 8 years.  Not sorry, really.  In retirement I was enjoying the luxury of leisure – only a word in the dictionary for most of my life.

My translator and I settled into a snail’s pace.  I’d send her a list of 15 gaelic words and phrases.  Two months later she would send back answers for 7 or 8 of them, which I would incorporate into the text and then construct a new list and send it on.  After a couple of years, I grew tired of no answers in some cases and resorted to filling in the gaps myself with my gaelic dictionary and Google. 

I took a year and a half of baby gaelic at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye, with Zoom classes every Monday morning at 5:00 am. (What was I thinking?  What was I trying to prove?  At my age?)   Didn’t take.  Did ok with the written word but I would need way more than an hour a week of hearing the language to get any good at speaking it.  So, for purists out there, whatever is a mangled gaelic translation, send me the corrections!

Sherri: Your second book is from your master’s thesis? It is the religious history of London Calvinistic Baptists, why is understanding our religious history important to Christians today?

Murdina:  Sherri, thank you for asking!  The book [London Calvinistic Baptists 1689-1727: Tensions within a Dissenting Community under Toleration] is my Oxford doctoral thesis, submitted in 1982.  It contains a Forward by Larry Kreitzer of Regent’s Park College, Oxford and a Reflection by the Author by me. Dr. Kreitzer has kindly updated the footnotes – all 400 pages of them, bless him!

Of course, it is a delight for me to see the thesis in print.  It still has historical value because: (1) it is based on original manuscript sources (2) it tells a story that has not been told before based on such sources (3) it contributes to the narrative of English Baptist history and (4) it contributes to the history of the Christian church.

By the time William and Mary brought the Glorious Revolution to England in 1689, Baptists and other Dissenters from the Church of England could look forward to relief from persecution.  The worst, dark days were over, days when pastors were torn down from their pulpits and thrown into prison where they died of disease and neglect.  Under William, being a Dissenter was no longer illegal.  In their new lives they would be second class citizens, to be sure, deprived of opportunities for public service and education, but no longer subject to prison for their faith.

The thesis traces the fortunes of one group of Baptists, Calvinistic Baptists, in the capital in the period 1689-1727.  It asks, and seeks to answer, why they did not organize themselves in a way that was traditional for them since the early 17th century, i.e. through associations. 

Attempts to organize in that way were made in London but were sabotaged by internal tensions, first over the issue of hymn singing and later over the issue of open or close communion.  London ministers lined up on one side of these issues or the other and participated in a furious pamphlet war that sapped the life out of efforts to get them to cooperate in associational life.  What the London Calvinistic Baptists ended up doing was to organize exactly as the Presbyterians and Congregationalists did, in ministerial fraternities, which led to a process I call the ‘ministerialization” of corporate life. 

That, in a nutshell, is the thesis. 

Sherri: What do you hope people will take away from your books? Why are these books important?

Murdina:  For my dad’s memoirs, I hope the reader is able to celebrate, with my father, the variety of human personalities he has shared with us, personalities set in a particular time and place – Scotland, early 20th century.  He certainly gives us a nice bunch of beloved oddballs, quirky people like the pastor who was afraid of chickens or the man who gave flour to his cow (it died) or the husband-and-wife team battling over how to pile the peat in front of their house.  He gives us the devout, like pastor Duncan Macbeth, praying on his knees for the men at sea in a thunderstorm, wearing out his slippers, his own mother a magnet for ministers, his sister Annie washing the feet of the elderly who had walked 8 miles over the moor, barefoot, to communion.

He serves us up tales of his neighbor Norman Morrison who was brilliant in everything he did – sailor, poet, a leader of men, a charismatic personality and so much larger than the little island he lived in.  Norman makes me think of the brilliantly colored fish who swim deep in the oceans, fish that have only recently been seen because now we have the technology to do so.  Who sees them, to admire their beauty?  Only God does. 

Who sees the spiritual beauty of these people in this forgotten speck in the world, this little village, this little Lewis, this little piece of Scotland?   My father “saw” them and they responded back by “seeing” him and giving him as an eternal reward his identity, his place, his contentment, his home.

Regarding my thesis, I would hope that those who have an interest in history – in English history, in Baptist history, in Calvinist history or in Christian church history – will find something of interest in the commonalities here amidst the particularities of 18th century London.  For Baptists in 1689 their worst days were behind them, yet they fell to squabbling among themselves, both sides quoting from the same sacred book.  What might they have accomplished working together?

Sherri: You are a historian, what would you love to explore historically, either for research or perhaps, you would love to time travel back to that time period?

Murdina:  Well, I started a project in 2010 that brought me to the National Archives in Madrid.  I was researching the life of Maria de Bohorquez, a woman who was burned at the stake in Sevilla in the 16th century.  She was one of a cluster of Protestants, mostly priests and nuns, who met to explore the thinking of Martin Luther.  She was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman who did not reject her but allowed her to get a wonderful education.  She knew Greek and Latin.  All I knew of her is that when imprisoned, they sent a cadre of people to argue with her in her cell, and night after night, she argued back, quoting scripture.  Quite impressive a defense, apparently. I was so much hoping to find transcripts of these conversations in the archives, but after 30 days I ran out of time and money and had to go home.  Still would love to explore her life, among other things because I taught Spanish and the language, at least, would be one less hurdle.

Sherri: What are you working on now?

Murdina: I am working on a devotional book based on the writings of John Bunyan.  My idea is to select twelve of his writings, one for each month, and to provide, for each day, a selection from that work, then some relevant scripture passages, and last, a commentary.  Have started with Pilgrim’s Progress and the month of December.

My idea is not to write a scholarly work, for which I have no experience, but to write a devotional as I learn about the world of Bunyan scholarship.  Only 350 years’ worth out there, I know, but I am having a ball with the literature so far.

Sherri: If someone wanted to write a memoir or biography for a family member or ancestor, where would you suggest they begin?

Murdina:  Don’t think I can speak to that with any great expertise except to say that the best place to start is probably the staff at your local library, who can walk you through online sources, explaining the peculiarities of each.

In my case, since my father was from Ness, I started with the Ness Historical Society.  Through this contact I met a kinswoman who has been working on ancestral ties in Lewis for 40 years, Ann Thomson.  Here I found my gaelic translator.  Consulted with Bill Lawson of Seallam in southern Harris and paid for him to do a family search.  Did family research in libraries in Glasgow and Edinburgh in person, but they have online services.  Explored ship passenger lists for dad’s name.  Every road, even one that leads nowhere specific, has to be seen as part of the journey that will lead “home.”

Sherri: What is your advice for anyone who wishes to publish their first book?

Murdina:  I asked a relative for advice and he gave me the name of his publisher.  That did not work out.  Second suggestion was a source in Stornoway that also did not work out.  So just googled “Christian publishers” and got the name Christian Faith Publishing.  On my third try, then, I found a publisher.  Paid a fee for their editorial assistance and they worked with me for nine months.  There were some frustrations along the way, but all in all I am happy with them.  Particularly happy with the cover of Blackhouse God’s House.

Sherri, thank you so much for this opportunity to meet at your Creekside Café and to have the chance to talk about all this stuff!   What a joy it will be to meet you in person as well as all the other authors on November 20.

Sherri: If you enjoyed this interview with Murdina MacDonald come meet her in person at the Author Sunday Book Festival, November 20th, 1 to 4 pm at the New Bern Farmers Market, 421 South Front Street, New Bern, NC.

My facebook page is under Murdina D. MacDonald and my Instagram username is: blackhouse_godshouse. 

Grace and peace,

Murdina D. MacDonald

Blackhouse God’s House

Blackhouse God’s House: A Lewisman Recalls the World He Left Behind by Murdina D. MacDonald | Goodreads

London Calvinistic Baptists

Posted in backstory, Thoughts, writing inspiration

Research or Going Down the Rabbit Hole

Research for The American are Coming!

I love to do research. I can’t help it. it Is one of my guilty pleasures. I’m a nerd. Always have been. In school when we’d get the chance to go to the library to do research, I’d get so caught up in the search I sometimes forgot what I was searching for. Finding new things along the way is part of the joy of doing the research. The problems are going off in another direction than the one you intended or getting so lost in the research you forget about the writing, and the biggie, wanting to put everything you discovered into your story. I mean, when you find out really cool things it’s difficult not to include them in your story. BUT… while it might be interesting and maybe even important to know that Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show had a second female sharpshooter or that he hired over one hundred Sioux to work in his show even while there were still Indian Wars going on, all of this information is important and helps me as a writer understand my story’s time period and politics, how much of it is really necessary for the story itself.

It has taken me years to feel confident, and I say that with a laugh because I’m not really confident that I’ve reached the point where I know what I’m doing, but I’ve taken the classes and done the research and tried to immerse myself into the time period. Developing the character, the atmosphere and the series is important. I hope that when you read The Americans are Coming that you experience life in a traveling show, (I researched the history of the circus in America, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and travel in the 1890s), that you get a feel for Winnie’s life as a performer and a member of the show family, I hope you enjoy piecing together the clues and puzzling out the mystery, but I above it all, I hope you read the story and not see the work that has gone into it only the entertainment that it offers.

For a list of the books, YouTube videos and blogs I used to research this book, here are the ones I’ve compiled so far, and they are by no means the full list. I also have references from people such as HCRW president: Cyn Hayden who gave me information on steamer ships, my granddaughter: Hailey Miesse and her mother, Brandi Lupton who aided me with my horse research, my husband David who helped with many miscellaneous questions (he’s a great research assistant), and my local librarians: Denise Toler and Robina Norman who answer weird and bizarre questions at odd times during the day (and sometimes at night).

Books:

Buffalo Bill’s America by Louis S. Warren

Wild Women by Autumn Stephens

A Victorian Lady’s Guide to Life by Elspeth

Gangway! Sea Language Comes Ashore by Joanna Carver Colcord

The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales The Great Courses by Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Emory University

The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Wild West from 1840-1900 by Candy Moulton

The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England from 1811-1901 by Kristine Hughes

Eyewitness Visual Dictionary The Visual Dictionary of Ships and Sailing

Reader’s Digest America’s Forgotten History

Audiobooks:

Battle for the Big Top by Les Standiford

Unmentionable by Therese Oneill

The Hidden History of Holidays by Hannah Harvey

The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum

Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets

The Life and Times of Prince Albert by Patrick Allitt

The American West: History, Myth and Legend by Patrick Allitt

YouTube Videos/Channels:

Absolute History https://youtu.be/xyUOBM0UNQk

Weird History https://youtu.be/XnvPauD-Wto

Joe Scott https://youtu.be/3M6e6TG7nDA

all of this information is important and helps me as a writer understand my story's time period and politics, how much of it is really necessary for the stuff itself.
Posted in Creekside Cafe, interview

Front Porch Chat with Tom Kane

Tom Kane

Today I’d like to welcome Tom Kane to my virtual café. I’d say name your poison but after reading your bio I’m afraid it’ll be lethal.

Tom: Probably not as lethal as you would expect. I’m partial to a good dry Chablis if you want me to open up, otherwise coffee with cream… preferably Colombian. But don’t get me on the whisky, you’ll never shut me up until I fall asleep!

Sherri: I’m a whiskey gal myself. I love Kentucky Bourbon but I drink more coffee than whiskey.

Are you still an ex-pat in Cyprus or have you finally gone back home?

Tom: Still in Cyprus and I expect I may end up falling off my perch here. With the Pandemic still doing its thing airports are sort of opening up, but, well, who knows. Life is one long juggle and all my balls seem to have stayed in the air far too long.

Sherri: Doing research for this interview was definitely interesting. I’m not sure if I should approach with caution or dive right in. You have an eclectic list of books from serious historical to humor. I love both by the way. You even have a couple of “How Tos.” Tell me about the author Tom Kane.

Close-up portrait of a female student holding book in front of her face in the library

Tom: Now you’re on dangerous ground. Tom Kane is three authors. A little boy of 8 who always wanted to write a book and tried, unsuccessfully. A man (kid) of 24 who wanted to write a book, bought an early personal computer to write his book, found nobody had invented the word processor, so learned to write software in order to create a word processor. The author was subsumed into a programmer and never saw the light of day again until about 12 years ago. I don’t know where Tom Kane the author went, but I’m glad he’s back… just in time if you ask me.

Sherri: How do you go from writing historical to humor?

Tom: Deep down inside me there is a comedian, striving to come out. I see humour in many things.

Yesterday I was in a hospital in Nicosia collecting drugs for someone, it took hours in multiple queues, but as I left a man in full surgical gown was wheeling a large bin on wheels full of misshapen blue bags tied at the top in red. Body parts?

He caught my eye and I his and I simply said, “Hi Victor,” as I walked past. His confusion was sublime. I always wondered what happened to Victor Frankenstein and now I know. Mary would have been proud of me.

But to answer the question (I did warn you about the whisky) I see humour in all things, even history that is somewhat dry to others offers a glimmer of humour.

http://mybook.to/DemonMurders

Sherri: Have you always been a writer? When did you start writing seriously?

Tom: As I mentioned earlier, I only managed to take writing seriously about 12 years ago and it’s a big regret in my life. I was a journo for a PC magazine for a while, writing about business software, but that was soul destroying for a seriously silly writer like me.

Sherri: Two of your books feature World War 2, one was heavily influenced by your father but when I read the title, I thought at first it was a paranormal. How has that book done in the historical market and has there been any confusion? What is the importance of a title and marketing a book?

Tom: When I wrote Operation Werwolf I was somewhat naive about both book titles and genre. I knew nothing of paranormal books and Werwolf refers to the young kids and old men Himmler glued together to create a ramshackle partisan force to repel the allies from Germany.

However, it only caused two people to return their books. But it did prove another point because sales went okay, a couple of hundred, and so the vast majority of people who bought it actually read the blurb, but two didn’t. Point proven? There are more intelligent people in the world than dimwits.

http://mybook.to/OpWerwolf

Sherri: You are active on social media, how do you feel books and reading are perceived and promoted differently in the US versus Europe?

Tom: I have a love hate relationship with Twitter and Facebook, particularly Facebook. But it is what it is and we have to use these as tools to showcase ourselves. But the difference between US showcasing and UK showcasing is stark and very much the way we perceive each other. US is in your face and anything goes, whereas UK is more reserved, bordering on deference sometimes. As for Europe, I can only go on what I know of Cyprus, which is even more reserved than the UK and quite gentile… that is until you get into politics and then all hell breaks loose and there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth from all corners of the globe.

Sherri: With your list of books, what are some tips you would give new authors on publishing and marketing. What five things are the most important?

Tom: 1) Build an author platform that includes social media and a blog. Writing a blog will hone your writing skills if you write generalized stuff as I do, from short stories to reviews of other people’s work.

            2) Build your brand. Make your name something to be remembered. If people recognize your brand as being something worthy of paying attention to, you will do okay. It’s a big pond with some very large fish, don’t sink to the bottom and end up covered in silt, to be forgotten about.

            3) Read more, and read varied books. Not just fiction. Anything and everything. You need a broad scope and depth of knowledge. Knowledge is power, fill your head with knowledge.

            4) Never give up. Grit your teeth, get up at 4am, drink gallons of coffee, ignore family and friends, dedicate yourself to your writing.

            5) This is the hard part. Believe in yourself. Don’t doubt yourself. You need an iron resolve even to be mediocre. And I’ll give you another snippet of advice for free.

            6) Do not trust family and friends to read your work and believe what they tell you. It takes a very special family member of friend to tell you the truth. 9 times out of 10 they can’t help themselves and they lie. “Oh yes, I enjoyed that.” Sorry, no, you probably didn’t. Get reviews from paying members of the public or via places like Goodreads, but only from strangers. People who will tell you the truth.

Sherri: What advice do you wish you’d had as a new author?

Tom: One of my family told me I would never make money as a computer programmer and the same one said I would never be able to write a book. WRONG! That ‘advice’ spurred me on, but you may not have the luxury of a family member full of his own BS.

Be honest with yourself. It is bloody hard being a writer, even an unsuccessful writer has to work at it. A successful writer has it even harder because your next book has to be better than the last. Be brutally honest and ask yourself, can I do this?

Sherri: What writing project are you working on now?

Tom: My Brittle trilogy. The Brittle Sea is published, the second book The Brittle Land is ongoing as is the third, The Brittle Sky. It’s a family saga that is taking a lot of brainpower to keep all the characters in place and stop them wandering off for coffee breaks or taking a dump. Families are hard to discipline!

Sherri: What do you wish you’d done differently when you published your first book?

Tom: Paid more attention to the cover. It will attract people or it will make them wrinkle their noses and walk on by. Pay attention to what it is you are trying to sell.

Sherri: How do you feel your writing has grown? What has been the biggest change in your writing?

Tom: I’m a lot more relaxed with my writing. With that relaxation I find the storylines are flowing better. But with that comes more and more ideas. I have about 10 works in progress and another 120 ideas in the pipeline, time’s running out!

Sherri: What would you like readers to know about you as a person?

Tom: I’m human. I have all the good and bad traits any human has. All of my being, good and bad, goes into my writing in the hope that as you read my work, you may just see a glimmer of me from the corner of your eye.

Sherri: Have you published a new book recently?

Tom: Yes, The Brittle Sea has been out about a month and it’s a very slow process building traction. But, I have some good reviews (don’t get me started on Amazon refusing reviews) and good feedback from readers who I have sent copies to, so I’m hoping this Christmas may prove a good Christmas for me. Who knows… by the way, any whisky left?

http://mybook.to/BrittleSea-eBook

Sherri: Tom, thank you for stopping by my Creekside Café. If I ever win the lottery, we will do this for real. If y’all enjoyed our chat follow Tom Kane through his social media and check out his books, he is sure to have something to interest you. Thank you again Tom, I look forward to seeing you on Twitter.

BOOKLINKS

The Brittle Sea: – http://mybook.to/BrittleSea-eBook

A Pat on his Back: – http://mybook.to/PatonhisBack

Operation Werwolf: – http://mybook.to/OpWerwolf

The Demon Murders:-  http://mybook.to/DemonMurders

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Twitter:- https://twitter.com/TigerBites

Amazon Author Page: – amazon.com/author/thetomkanecollection

Blog: –  https://www.tom-kane-author.website/blog/

Website:- https://www.tom-kane-author.website/

BIO

I was born in the corner of the living room, behind the TV, so my father said. That set the tone for the rest of my oddball life.

What is officially known about my birth is that it took place in England. My love of writing was borne from a need to create worlds I wanted to read about, so in some ways writing feeds my egomania.

MOTTO:  A Word Can Change a Mind. A Sentence Can Change a Life. A Book Can Change the World.  © Tom Kane 2020

Regards

Tom Kane

Posted in Creekside Cafe, interview

Sipping Lattes with Suzanne Tierney

Hello Suzanne, welcome to my Creekside Café. I am so excited to have you here.

Suzanne: Hi Sherri! Thanks for having me at your virtual café. What’s your drink? Mine is a vanilla latte, if you please.

Iced coffee with milk in vintage jar

Sherri: In this heat, I think I’ll have an iced cinnamon cappuccino, extra cinnamon, light sugar. They freeze the coffee and cream into tiny ice cubes so it doesn’t water down the drink.

Have you been to North Carolina before?

Suzanne: I went to school in North Carolina (Go Blue Devils) and my family and I like to explore New England. We were in Vermont last year and I fell in love with Lake Champlain. This past summer we were in Maine for a month and it was instalove. We lived in a quaint village for a month with an ice cream stand, a beach, a family owned grocery store, and a bakery that sold out by 8:30. We learned to rise early to catch the pastries!

Sherri: One of my dear friends is originally from Maine. Pastries, now that might be worth getting up early for. I am not a morning person. I am a night owl who is forced to get up and function. So we? Does that mean you are married with children?

Suzanne: Married + 3 kids and my dog, who I feature a lot on Instagram because, to be honest, I think I love my dog above all. He’s a Goldendoodle and he’s just so cuddly. Plus, when I come home from a trip, he’s the only one who doesn’t tattle on who’s been naughty and he doesn’t ask where his soccer uniform is and he doesn’t want me to go to the grocery store to buy the right crackers because Daddy doesn’t know how to buy crackers.

Sherri: Yes, I remember those days. Dad could be sitting right beside them and I be in the shower and who do they have to ask about changing the channel? I think that’s why I started writing suspense, I get my payback in black-and-white. I’ve told my sons, if they don’t behave, I’ll put them in my next novel and kill them off on page fifty. Most don’t think they’ll make it past page thirty.

Suzanne: I’m so excited to learn about your career. Romantic-suspense makes me bite my nails. Half the time I’m wincing and begging the words to move faster on the page so that my heart can slow down. And whoa, you are productive! Three books already? And six kids? And NINETEEN grandkids. Your life is FULL!

Sherri: Number twenty is due in November. I think I’m going to have to rethink Christmas. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays, even though we don’t get snow. Do you get snow for Christmas? Where are you from?

Suzanne: I’m from Oregon—that’s where I grew up (Go Sunset Apollos!) but I’ve also moved around and explored a lot of places. I adulted in the San Francisco Bay Area and then one day my husband came home and said he was done with the rat race and he was going to semi-retire.

To Oregon? I thought

He shook his head.

Washington?

He looked confused.

Ireland? (A girl can dream)

He rolled his eyes.

Nope, he’d set his heart on (drum roll please)…Jacksonville FL. I am going to tell you now, you cannot get any farther from my reality than FL. But we packed up the kids and off we went and here we are adventuring in the humidity (only six months out of the year), hurricanes (only three months out of the year), sunny (actually not as sunny as you would think), super rainy (soooo much rain), South. There’s swamp, forest, alligators, snakes, and our local beach has tons of shark teeth.

I should probably write horror instead of historical romance. Hmmm.

Sherri: Eastern North Carolina is a lot like Florida. We have a fossil museum full of sharks’ teeth.

http://aurorafossilmuseum.org/

Do you write full time now, or hold down another job as well as write?

Suzanne: I work. I write. I take long walks. I mother. I wife. I friend. I don’t think my life is much different from any other woman’s. We are all so busy. We’re master jugglers.

Sherri: Being master jugglers is what it takes to get things done. I don’t know about you, but I can’t not write. I could continue to write for my own pleasure but taking this step to become a published author has unleashed something I’ve kept chained inside me for years. It’s a lot of work but it’s what I am compelled to do. I’m hoping to make it a career but if not, then I’ll still write because I love writing. I’ve been writing since I was a child. How about you, Suzanne, how long have you been writing?

Suzanne: Oof! I’m a little embarrassed to say. I’ve been writing probably for seven years – my first novel took years to write because  I was learning to write. Then I took time off (e.g. moved to FL and met Humidity, my mortal enemy). And then the passion suddenly came back and away I went.

Sherri: The first novel in my Leeward Files Series took several years to rewrite. I’d written other things but writing for myself and writing to publish are two very different things. With each rewrite I learned more about how I wanted to tell the story.

What genre are the books you write?

Suzanne: I write historical romance. I’m a history nerd. I love details. I love researching really weird stuff like train tables in 1869 and smallpox vaccines.

Sherri: My first love is historical romances. I started writing the suspense series after losing our house to fire. I think it was my way of getting that fear out of my system. Now, I’m enjoying it but I do want to get back to historicals.

Are you traditionally or indie published?

Suzanne: I debut August 28 as an INDIE. I had some doubts about going INDIE because it’s a lot more work, but through the process, I have discovered how much I appreciate and enjoy the responsibility and the challenge. I love the books I’ve written and I’m so excited that I get to control the works – I have the editor of my dreams, I have the cover of my dreams, and I’m learning so much (ugh, FB ads? WHY?????).

Sherri: Don’t get me started on Facebook ads, we have a love/hate relationship, but for an Indie author, Facebook is one of the tools to get the word out about our books. Contests are another way to get your books noticed. Have you entered any competitions? Which ones? Have you won any awards?

Suzanne: Especially in my early writing career, I was a contest junkie. Romance writers have the opportunity to join RWA, which provides a huge resource for learning and also for contests. Contests give you a lot of feedback, good and bad. They also teach you to grow a thick skin.

My first historical romance, The Lost Chord did really well in contests, but the two that I’ll mention are: The Catherine (historical romance category) from Toronto RWA and it was a finalist in the Golden Heart, which is a national award for unpublished authors. It’s sponsored by the RWA and from the beginning of my career, it was a dream of mine to final. And then I did in 2017.

AND AGAIN in 2018, with my second historical romance, The Art of the Scandal. The Art of the Scandal also won the Pacific Northwest Writers Contest (Romance Category) and the Catherine (historical romance).

Since those wins, I decided to focus on publishing and to keep my contest addiction at bay. It’s easy to get caught up in contests when you’re having success, but contests generally judge only 25-50 pages of your work. It’s really important to polish not just the beginning, but the entire darn book.

You’ve written three, so you know all about the editing, polishing, sweating over a phrase, love-hate of the process!

Sherri: Ugh! Yes, and making lots of mistakes especially when you’re trying to do stuff in the middle of the night and getting frustrated. When that happens, walk away. Believe me. It will save you some embarrassment. I hit publish instead of proof and sent my last book out before it was ready. YUCK! I’m still trying to get it like I want. The fun times of being an indie author.

I’m trying not to stretch myself as thin as I have in the past. I’m the chairperson for the Pamlico Writers’ Group and I host a monthly writing challenge online for my local RWA chapter. It’s difficult not to be involved with the writing community. Even though I’m in a better place now, I still need advice and I hope, I’m able to help others the way I have been helped.

Tell us about your latest project?

Suzanne: I’m preparing to debut with The Art of the Scandal. It releases August 28. So, I’m learning a lot about the business side, but The Art of the Scandal is a book of my heart. It brings together a lot of my nerd passions – renaissance art and their forgeries; political history; and pretty ballgowns.

I’m particularly passionate about The Art of the Scandal because the story is also about social challenges and societal shifts. My heroine is the daughter of a Marques and engaged to the future prime minister. She’s at the top of the social food chain (before she suffers a rather spectacular fall). My hero is a foreigner and he’s Jewish. In 1849 Victorian England, he is a complete outsider. I wove in a lot of history including the election of Lionel Rothschild, a prominent and wealthy Jew, to the House of Commons. In The Art of the Scandal, a character inspired by him is the hero’s cousin. Anyway, in real life, Rothschild was elected, but barred entrance because he would not take his oath on “the true Christian faith.” And the thing is, he was elected more than once, and each time barred from taking his seat!

So, one of the struggles my hero and heroine go through is learning how to throw off the shackles of “society expectations” to create their place in the world through trust, faith, optimism, hope, and, of course, true love.

Here’s the blurb:

Jilted by her fiancé, abandoned by her father, and scorned by her friends, Lady Lydia Pierpont and her pregnant, 15 year-old sister will be homeless by midnight unless she can charm the deed of her family’s home out of the mysterious South African who won the estate in a poker game. 
 
Grieving over the death of his Jewish father and English mother, Simon Cohen has no time for gallantry. He’s out to reclaim his mother’s name from the aristocracy who humiliated her. With an art collection worth millions and the National Gallery begging for a donation, revenge is within reach. 
 
But when Lydia points out that Simon’s treasure trove includes at least one forgery, they strike a deal. She’ll ferret out the fakes and if the debut of his collection goes smoothly, she’ll win back her home. If she fails, she will take the blame and go to jail. 
 
Together, Lydia and Simon will feign an engagement, delve into the world of art forgery, and navigate the narrow-minded prejudices of London society to discover that love is forged, never faked.

https://geni.us/9RCu

Sherri: I want a copy. This sounds like all of the things I love about historical romances.

Do you plan to write any different genres in the future?

Suzanne: I’m moving from mid-Victorians to 20th Century. I’m currently working on a love story set in WWI. And eventually I may go so bold as to hit 1947 or so. We’ll see!

Sherri: I’m working on finishing a novella set in World War II for a winter anthology. It has inspired me to return to writing historicals. I wish I could write all of the time. I have way too many ideas, but unfortunately, I need the other job to pay the bills.

Tell me what you love about writing.

Suzanne: I love the characters who demand I write their stories. Much to my chagrin, I’m not a plotter, which means half the time, I have no idea where I’m going. But then suddenly, BOOM, a scene will come or my character will do something totally unexpected and my fingers will fly. I love those magic moments.

Sherri: I can relate, I’m a pantzer too. I love discovering the story and new characters. As a pantzer, that also makes things more challenging. What do you dread the most with your writing?

Suzanne: Plotting. Cutting my darlings—those pretty lines that don’t move the plot. Editing out my repeat words (have, face, hand, turn).

Sherri: Nods, bobs, shakes and rolls…my characters often resemble bobblehead dolls.

What are your writing strengths and weaknesses? What comes easy and what do you have to work harder to get?

Suzanne: UGH, it feels like everything is hard!

Sitting down is hard.

Focusing is hard.

The hardest part of writing is making my characters miserable. I want them to be happy. I want sunshine and rainbows. But I have to put them through the wringer to get them there.

Sherri: I went through that, try keeping everyone nice and happy and have a murder, it doesn’t work, AT ALL! I had to learn to let the characters be honest about who they are and how they would react. It was definitely a learning experience.

When things get too crazy, I’ll go in the kitchen and play with recipes. Well, that’s not true. I watch the Food Network, then I go into the kitchen and play.

I enjoy cooking and often post recipes, do you have a favorite food or restaurant?

Suzanne: I have the taste buds of a 7-year old. So, does Chick-Fill A count?

Sherri: Yes, and if you can learn their chicken recipe, I want it. I love Chick-Fill-A!

Do you have time for any hobbies or interests besides writing? Do these show up in your writing?

Suzanne: I walk, walk, walk. I try to hit at least 5 miles a day. Sometimes I get up to 10. I’m near the beach and I’m near a forest trail, so I get the best of both worlds.

Instagram has become a hobby. It’s where I got to meet you, so clearly Instagram is an excellent place to be. Taking pictures to tell a story has challenged me, because it’s only one photo and very few words. Photography (if you can call snapping a pic with your iPhone, photography) is about the details. I think my all-time favorite pic has been of sea foam that caught the sunlight and looked multi-colored. Or my dog in hats. He’s very photogenic.  

Art is definitely a hobby, and that shows up in my books.

Medicine. I can’t stand blood, and I cry if I get a paper cut, but I admire medical professionals and am fascinated by the history of medicine and how inventions and techniques developed. They also make their way into my books. The book I’m currently working on is set in an ambulance hospital in WWI and I am learning a disturbing amount about blood transfusions.

Sherri: For my novella, I researched a mobile hospital and followed them through the war. It’s fascinating to learn what people survived. What they learned, often because they had no choice.

Who are your some of your favorite authors or genres?

Suzanne: I actually love to read poetry the most. The word-smithing is stunning, so precise.

Then I’m always going to go back to Jane Austen. Because she was so detailed, nuanced and hilarious. Also, her heroines are both flawed and generous. A lovely combo.

If a book is set in London between 1920-1960, I’m totally a sucker. Barbara Pym’s “Excellent Women” is a book I love to read again and again. Also, anything buy Murial Sparks.

Sherri: Who or what inspires your writing?

Suzanne: Great writing inspires me. My fellow writers inspire me. Some mornings, a bowl of Apple Jacks inspires me (mostly because if I’m having breakfast, it means I’ve had ten minutes to myself, a luxury!).

Sherri: Setting is an important part of my stories, but I believe my stories are character-driven. How would you describe your stories, the mechanics?

Suzanne: I love settings. They provide so much atmosphere and texture to a book. Historical details also add a layer. And definitely the characters. My characters are flawed in ways we all are, and I write stories not where the characters necessarily defeat their flaws, but rather where they learn how to be better people through them. Does that make sense? I don’t want to write about people who become perfect, because none of us are. Rather, I want my characters to accept who they are, warts and all, and then learn and grow and cry to become connected.

Also, I throw in some hot kissing.

Portrait of kissing couple

Sherri: You can never go wrong with a little hot kissing, no matter where the stories are set.

Give us a little insight into you as a person and as a writer.

Suzanne: Errr, I sort of feel like I spilled my heart out to you already, Sherri! In real life, people mistake me for an extrovert because I’m chatty, but I’m actually an introvert. I like being alone (which is hard in my household!). But I am also a compulsive hugger. So if I ever get to meet you in a real café, expect an insane bear hug.

Thank you so much for inviting me to your café! I have had a great time!!

Sherri: Ahh, that explains it, we’re a lot alike. I love people and I enjoy talking but sometimes I just want to go into my corner and be left alone. I’m also a hugger, so, we will definitely get along just fine. Come on to North Carolina and we’ll do this in person. I’ll even take you down to the creek that inspired my virtual café.

I’ve enjoyed this chat and do hope to meet in person. Best of luck with your debut novel, and I’m going on Amazon to order mine. I can’t wait to read it.

If you have enjoyed this interview with Suzanne Tierney as much as I have, then follow her on social media and don’t forget her book is available for pre-order.

The Art of Scandal  https://geni.us/9RCu

Follow Suzanne on Social Media:

twitter: @notajaxgirl

FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015822676693

FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/notajaxgirl/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Website: suzannetierney.com

Instagram: @notajaxgirl

Pinterest : @notagaxgirl

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/93753208-suzanne-tierney

Posted in Book Review, inspiration, Thoughts

Poop Happened

Poop Happened, A History of the World from the Bottom UP

by Sarah Albee

I have the sense of humor of a nine-year old boy. I like potty humor. Maybe it’s because I raised six boys and had a herd of them in and out of my house, but there it is folks, the stinky truth. So when I was doing research at my local library and came across this book, I had to check it out.

As an armchair historian and a lover of historical romances, I love to imagine different time periods and the rugged, handsome men who swept the lovely ladies into their arms and rode off with them into the sunset. This book definitely gave me a different perspective of that time period.

Imagine a rebellion in Bohemia where an angry mob of Protestant rebels tossed several ministers from the castle window, about fifty feet off the ground. It’s okay, miracle of miracles, they didn’t die. No, they landed in a big pile of poop. How big and smelly a pile of HUMAN waste had to be outside this tower window to ensure these people didn’t die? Yuck!

The Greeks and Romans had great sewers and much cleanliness compared to their European counterparts. They had water pipes made of lead that came into the houses of the rich, local bathhouse and public toilets. Toileting was a social affair, you and your buddies could sit and you-know, talk and laugh, oh and share a cleansing sponge. Thank God for private stalls and toilet paper!

The Romans even had a goddess of sewers and a god of dung. Okay, those of you who write romantic fantasy ever thought of writing the story of Venus Cloacina and Stercutius?

Jobs I would not wish to have, that of tanner, fuller or the gongfermor. Let’s just say they had a stinky job.

I wouldn’t want to be a Knight’s Squire either, his job was to clean the knight’s armor. I love the idea of knights and ladies, the jousting and pageantry but it took several hours to get a knight into his armor. I don’t know about you, but I always have to go to the bathroom before I leave the house. How did the knights go to the bathroom after putting on their suits? Yep, you guessed it, they just went inside the suit. Gross. It kind of takes the romance out of it doesn’t it? Yeah, and guess whose job it was to clean the armor? Yes, that poor squire.

Oh, and you’ve heard of the Inquisition? Did you know that if you were too clean, you could be killed as a heretic, Jew or Muslim? Yeah, Christians didn’t bathe but once a year or so. Jewish and Muslim faith believed in cleanliness, so where did the old adage “cleanliness is next to godliness” come from? It must not have been the Christians.

Before toilet paper the rich used wool or hemp, maybe even scraps of silk. The poor used grass, stone, mussel shells or water. Feathers were even used but they lacked substance so they’d leave the birds neck attached so you could get a good handle on things. Did I mention I’m very thankful for toilet paper?

In 1516, Leonardo da Vinci invented a toilet that flushed for the French king Francois I. Unfortunately, it was never built as DaVinci died.

If you want to know the real reason women carried parasols and men walked on the outside towards the street when escorting a lady, or where the first platform shoes came from and why, or why all of our ancestors where probably drunks, you need to read this fun and enlightening history of world’s poop.

Posted in Book Review

Review: Breathless

Breathless by Beverly Jenkins

My friend and mentor shared this book with me.

Portia doesn’t wish to risk the freedom she has by marrying a man who treats her like a belonging. Although her aunt and uncle have an amazing relationship, the men her mother entertained where brutes. Portia has no desire to give up the work she enjoys as bookkeeper and manager for one of the largest hotels in the Arizona Territory. She is content with her life, that is, until Kent Randolph comes to visit.

A friend of the family, Kent Randolph is not the same man who worked for her uncle years ago. Life and bad choices have honed him into a man of strength and honor. Not expecting Portia to be all grown up and beautiful, Kent is as surprised as she is over the power of their attraction. Ready to put down roots after living the life of a vagabond cowboy, Kent starts to imagine that life with Portia. Can he convince Portia he is the man for her, that she can continue to do what she loves with his blessing and support?

Portia can’t resist the lure of her attraction for the cowboy, but it is the little things he does that makes her realize he is nothing like the men who frequented their house when she was a child. Though she no longer leaves the room or puts furniture between herself and men, she is still apprehensive about trusting them. Kent proves to be someone she can trust, he also gives her the courage to go forward with her dream.

True romance isn’t needing someone to make you whole but wanting something to make your life more complete. Finding that person who knows what we need and is happy to give it to us or help us get it on our own. The person that puts your needs and desires above their own.

If you love strong characters, historical settings and interesting plots, Beverly Jenkins’ Breathless is a great choice.

Posted in Thoughts

Living History

This weekend I took my granddaughter and niece to the Historic Bath site first annual Pirate Invasion. I have attended other reenactments, Civil War and Pirate but due to its smaller size I had the chance to really talk to some of the actors. Most are armchair historians, they spend a lot of time learning about their time period and developing their character and costume. Some even compete with other reenactors for points; they are scored by how accurate their portrayal of the time period: costume, speech, tools and back story.

As a writer this intrigued me. What a wonderful way to see a time period come to life. I was able to ask questions about undergarments, class and cooking and see (all but the undergarments) in action. I could see how difficult it was to lift a cast iron pot, how time consuming it was to cook over an open fire. I learned about buttons and shoes, and the difference between pirates and pirate hunters.

Anyone writing a historical whether non-fiction or genre, what a great way to do research, join a reenacting troupe or just interview one. The people I met at the Pirate Invasion were happy to share their knowledge.

Thanks to the Crewe of the Archangel, Privateers and Pirate Hunters
web site: http://jcsterlingptarchang.wix.com/creweofthearchangel
blog: http://creweofthearchangel.wordpress.com/

and the Devilmen of the Cape Fear Captain William Hall pyraten666@yahoo.comJuly in Aurora 2014 031