An Irish Christmas Wedding

Everyone loves a wedding and what could be more idyllic than combining one with Ireland and Christmas?


In the sixth book of the Black Swamp Mysteries Series (to be released in 2017) Vicki Boyd and Dylan Maguire head to his native Ireland for their wedding and honeymoon. Researching traditional Irish weddings was a lot of fun; the hard part was not overdoing the ceremony and selecting which traditions would remain and which to discard.

Christmas is not the most ideal time to visit Ireland. The sun sleeps later, eventually rising at 9:00 am over Donegal in northwestern Ireland. It also sets around 4:00 pm, leaving a mere seven hours of daylight. They make up for it in July and August, when the Emerald Isle receives about 18 hours of daylight and the sun doesn't set until after 11:00 pm.


The Irish like to say their weather is always mild, averaging between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit year round. But this doesn't take into account the winds and I've learned firsthand that the air currents off the North Sea can be frigid. In December, however, when the next parish over - Boston - can encounter snow and ice, Ireland remains in the upper 40's and lower 50's and rarely receives appreciable snow accumulation.

The nicest thing about visiting Ireland during the Christmas holidays (which end on the Day of Epiphany, January 6) is the combination of the magic of Ireland and the magic of Christmas. It's an unbeatable combination.


Vicki and Dylan are wed by Dylan's childhood friend, Thomas Rowan, who is now Father Rowan, in the village where they both grew up. The church is similar to the one in this blog. It sits atop a hill where it overlooks the village below.


One tradition is to place a tiny statue called The Child of Prague at the church on the morning of the wedding to ensure picture-perfect weather.


Another involves the use of the Magic Hanky. This is a handkerchief - often with lace trim - that is worn on the wedding day. When a baby is born to the couple, it only takes a couple of stitches to turn it into a cap for christening. Vicki wears the one that Dylan's mother and grandmother wore at their weddings.

Vicki carries her bouquet by a handle called a Porcelain Horseshoe. When the couple moves into their new home, the horseshoe is mounted above the door, the opening at the top so their luck doesn't run out.


She uses a traditional saying during her vows: “There are four things that you must never do: lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, then lie in my arms. And if you must steal, steal away my heart. If you must cheat, then cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.”


One thing I found particularly interesting was this vow: "Through all our lives together, in all our lives, may we be reborn that we may meet and know and love again, and remember."

Sam gives away Vicki's hand in marriage. They spend their first night at the cottage they first visited in Dylan's Song before heading to a manor house in County Donegal.


There is a tiny matter for them to take care of during their honeymoon. Sam needs for Dylan to cross paths with a Russian spy, who will slip him a microchip detailing Russia's newest stealth technology. It's a simple assignment - except when the operative Dylan is supposed to pass it on to is abducted off the streets of Donegal. It pulls Dylan and Vicki into a whirlwind adventure - and brings Dylan face-to-face with a man he thought he would never see again.

p.m.terrell is the internationally acclaimed author of more than 20 books in several genres, including two award-winning series: Black Swamp Mysteries and Ryan O'Clery Mystery Series, as well as the award-winning River Passage and her bestselling book, Songbirds are Free. Visit www.pmterrell.com to read free excerpts from all her books, view video trailers, and lots more.

In Search of My Irish Past: Part 3

Last week, I wrote about the introduction of the first Irish character in my writing - Dylan Maguire, who made his appearance in Vicki's Key and the Black Swamp Mysteries Series. A little known fact about the book is the original plot called for Vicki to kill Dylan in self-defense; the intent was for him to start out as someone she would fall hard and fast for, but who ultimately would turn out to be someone else - and someone very dangerous to her.

However, in my effort to make him the kind of man she would fall in love with, I must have done the job exceptionally well because the initial editors and reviewers sent the manuscript back to me and said there was no way he was going to die. He was the most likable character I'd ever created, and he had to remain in the entire series. I rewrote portions of the book and to my relief as well as everyone else's, he became Vicki's permanent love interest.

In Dylan's Song, the fourth book in the series, Vicki and Dylan arrive in Ireland for two purposes: his grandmother is dying and they have been given a CIA assignment: to locate an operative who had gone missing in Dublin, rescue him and return him to the States.

When I developed the village in which Dylan grew up, it was based on a village in which someone close to me once lived. Ireland is dotted with small villages, many of them with only a few hundred inhabitants. Ballygawley, the village my ancestors once owned, today has fewer than 1,000 residents.

There are only 4.6 million residents in the Republic of Ireland today and yet more than 34 million Americans are of Irish descent. The population of Dublin is almost 600,000, which means that nearly 14% of Ireland's population lives in the capital. The second largest city, Galway, has more than 250,000 residents. Between Galway on the west coast and Dublin on the east coast are tiny villages that are sometimes comprised of not much more than a main street and a few farms and businesses.

In Northern Ireland, the population is 1.8 million, of which 280,000 live in Belfast.

In the village where Dylan grew up, the Catholic Church appears almost to loom over the village from a nearby hill; it symbolizes both the culture of Ireland, its ties to the past, the role it plays in its present, and perhaps its link to the future. (Shown here: St Vincent's Catholic Church in Kerry, Ireland.)

Dylan, Vicki and her sister Brenda (who joins them in the book), walk from their rented cottage to the church, to his grandmother's home, and into the main street of the town. In America, we are accustomed to driving everywhere, even if where we're going is just a mile from where we started. However, in Ireland most people walk everywhere.

When my sister was in Dublin, she was struck by how fast everyone walked. She was taken by the beautiful architecture and was moving more slowly so she could see the sights when a man walking by himself strode past her at a fast clip. As he passed, he said into the air, "And there's a lost one."

It seems tourists are easy to spot.

Dylan's village lies near the Bog of Allen, which stretches for nearly 400 square miles in the center of Ireland between the River Shannon and the River Liffey. The bogs are topped with peat, which is harvested in much the same way as sod farms in the States. Among other uses, peat is used to make fireplace "bricks" which are burned in lieu of wood.

The bogs go back into ancient Irish history. Because of the unique composition of the bogs themselves, skeletons and artifacts which would normally have deteriorated are surprisingly well-kept. In the Bog of Allen Nature Center's Museum, a 2,000 year old oak boat is on display, which was excavated from the bog.

Also found was a jar of butter, which has surprising details about the lives and customs of people who lived in or near the bogs a thousand years ago. It was a custom for people to bury food as a gift to the Gods and as a way of asking them to provide a bountiful year. Butter was an expensive and rare commodity and yet someone buried a jar of it in the bogs as a gift to the gods. A thousand years later, it is surprisingly well preserved.

Over the years, many tools, jewelry, clothing and even bodies have been found throughout the bogs. The findings inspired the scenes in which Dylan Maguire finds gold artifacts. In a twist of fate, the ground caves in, burying the priceless items - but Dylan has not forgotten them, and readers will find him in future books planning to secretly excavate them.

I was captivated by the moors of England when I was growing up. One particularly suspenseful book is Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, which takes place in the rural English countryside. Heading into the climax, we find our heroine trying to escape a killer as she flees over the moors. The soft earth and the way her feet sank into the ground intrigued me. The vision remained with me for years and when I moved to southeast North Carolina, which has similar swampland, I knew I had to write books that included this unforgiving terrain - a terrain that becomes as much of an antagonist as a character of flesh-and-blood.

Setting the backdrop of Dylan's Song near the Bog of Allen allowed me to use that unique terrain, to set a midnight scene there as Dylan escapes with one man wounded by a gunshot while another clings to life from months in an underground dungeon.


Next week: come with me while I discuss the most severe storm in Ireland's history: The Night of the Big Wind, which swept the Atlantic Ocean across the island from west to east in January of 1839, which inspired the backdrop of The Tempest Murders.

In Search of my Irish Past - Part 2

Last week, I talked about the connection between my Scot-Irish ancestors and my two historical books, River Passage and Songbirds are Free. Both these books took place after the Neely family had arrived in America from Ireland.

When I began researching for Vicki’s Key, my book featuring CIA psychic spy Vicki Boyd, I knew the plot required her to fall in love hard and fast. I combed through surveys conducted through major women’s magazines on what most women found attractive in a man—such as the five o’clock shadow and a sense of humor. Then I stumbled upon the accent.

It turns out that most women find the Scottish accent most appealing, followed by the Irish accent and then the Australian accent. As I pondered which to use, I looked more deeply into the cultures of the Scottish, Irish and Australians, as well as the geography. It was then that my mother’s side of the family—the Harpers—began to surface in earnest.

The more I read about the Irish, the more I saw my mother in them (shown above beside my father's picture). She loved a good laugh, and throughout her lifetime she and I had an ongoing “Laugh of the Day”. Long before the Internet, long before email and free long distance, I would snail-mail jokes to her that I’d heard during the course of my day. I frequently cut comic strips out that I thought she would enjoy, and when I came upon books with jokes she’d like, I bought them for her. When she passed away, I was astounded to learn that there were drawers filled with my letters, comic strips and jokes that she had held onto for decades.

She loved good stories—telling them and listening to them. She could spin a story like no other, and I believe I inherited much of my storytelling talent from her. The most fun I ever saw her having was when her sisters came to visit and they sat around and told one story after another.

The Irish have always been known for their good humor. And it’s downright impossible for a woman not to fall in love with a man who loves life and every minute in it.

I named the character Michael Dylan Maguire; Michael is my son’s name and Dylan was my grandson’s name (pronounced Dillon). In America, the character is known as Dylan but as the series progressed and he returned to Ireland, the nickname Mick was a glimpse into a past that he’d left behind when he sought to reinvent himself.

Dylan had emigrated from Ireland to the United States, and I found it fascinating how so many Irish left predominantly rural homes for a country they knew nothing about, a culture far different from their own, and for the opportunities they lacked in their native country. Many people make the mistake of believing that we are similar to Ireland, Scotland and England simply because we speak the same language (though there are huge differences between American English and British English). The truth is that they are vastly different.

My father was always very quick to point out that his side of the family was Scot-Irish, not simply Irish. As I delved into this, I discovered the unfortunate fact about immigration into the United States: apart from the British, it appears that we have discriminated against every other group of immigrants. Whether they were the Chinese building our railroads, the Italians, Germans, Japanese, Pakistanis, Indians (from India) or Mexicans/Hispanics, there have always been groups that tried to place them at the bottom. The signs of “No Irish Need Apply” below signs of employment or businesses prohibiting the Irish from eating or entering establishments have largely been forgotten; but they did indeed exist.

Those with higher education that had proven themselves as leading businessmen sought to put distance between themselves and the massive immigration of the Irish, particularly during the potato famines. I always believed my father’s family fell into this group, always making certain that people knew they were Scot-Irish. (Scotch-Irish, by the way, is incorrect; the Scottish people will be the first to inform you that Scotch is a drink and not a people.)

Later, when I began researching A Thin Slice of Heaven (release date May 2015) I realized the differentiation went far deeper. More on that in a future blog.

My father’s family had black hair and green eyes and they were tall. My mother’s family, in contrast, had many redheads among them and many of the women tended to be petite. My mother, when she married, was only 5’3” and weighed 105 pounds.

There is a saying amongst the Irish: “Red on the head where the Vikings tread.” As the Vikings moved south into the Irish Sea, they often raided villages close to the sea. It involved raping—or sometimes falling in love with and marrying—the Irish women. Further inland, particularly the western side of the island which was more geographically inhospitable, one didn’t encounter red-haired or fair-haired people. All of this has changed over the centuries, of course, as the world has become smaller and it seems no place on Earth is out of bounds.

Next week: I’ll talk about Dylan Maguire’s journey back to his homeland, the Irish bogs and the small village in which he lived—and the true story of my own ancestors.

When a good girl crosses the line...

I've often described Vicki Boyd, one of the main characters in the Black Swamp Mysteries series, as a good girl who stays between the lines.

Well, turns out, that's not really true.

Vicki wants to stay within the lines; she really does. But sometimes things happen beyond her control.

There was the little matter of a dead body in her bedroom in Vicki's Key. No, of course she didn't call the police. Instead, she helped hide the body... which meant feeding it to the alligators in the black water of the Lumber River...

In Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, when she discovered her sister, bad girl Brenda Carnegie, knocked unconscious by a bad guy, she dragged her sister into the coal cellar - but not before using some pretty vicious moves Dylan taught her to fend off attackers. Let's just say that guy won't be having children any time soon.

Then in Dylan's Song, she witnessed three men surrounding her lover - and well, she just couldn't let that happen. So off she went with a pistol in hand. Turned out, she really didn't know how to use it so when she attempted to fire a warning shot... well, it hit one of the men.

Her response? Oops.

Sometimes a good girl just can't help being bad.

And who would I want to play Vicki if the series was turned into film? Amy Adams, pictured here.

Tis the Season... To Be Frazzled

There are just two weeks left in 2013. New Year's Day is always my favorite holiday. I spend the time leading up to the new year contemplating what my goals and resolutions were for the current year and establishing new goals and resolutions - and plans for achieving them.

This year as I look back on 2013, I realize what everyone else has been seeing all along: I am frazzled and completely overcommitted.

I am a people pleaser, which means it is very difficult for me to say "no". I have become an expert at staying so busy that I have no time for myself. I give away my time to friends in need, to authors in need, to volunteer groups, to animals, to people in all walks of life who lean on me on a daily basis.

I had an ah-ha moment this past weekend when I had a rare opportunity to read a magazine - and read an interview with Maria Shriver, in which she mentioned the number of women she's met who say they don't have time to wash their hair. For the first time that I can remember, I realized I am not the only one who is in this boat.

Women today are asked to do more than ever before. I know women who work long hours at high-powered and high-stressed jobs and who routinely go through fast food drive-throughs on their way home from work, because their family is waiting for their dinners - one woman in particular who has a stay-at-home husband, and she's still responsible for the cooking (or fast food pickups), the cleaning, the child-rearing, AND the bread-winning.

I know women sandwiched in between raising their own children and caring for their elderly parents who have moved in with them. I know women who must serve as nurses, spouses, mothers, caregivers, cooks, housekeepers, chauffeurs, secretaries... in addition to working full-time jobs.

And I know other women who work two jobs in an attempt to make ends meet, which is a constant challenge of juggling bills and "robbing Peter to pay Paul". One woman is working six days a week in a full-time job and has had to take on a second job on her only day off.

I know other women in their 50's, 60's and 70's who thought at that stage in their lives they would be taking it easier, coasting into or enjoying retirement, and instead are learning new careers, reinventing themselves, and stretching themselves to the breaking point.

So I know when I come up for air and take a rare look around me that I am not the only one who has ended up on a treadmill that goes ever faster. The question is how to rearrange my life so that I am not the last in a list - a list in which I rarely get toward the bottom - but near the top, or as many of my friends are striving for - at the top.

I have tried saying "no" and people are insistent. If I don't personally step in, this dog will die. Or that person will encounter catastrophy. Or someone else will be unhappy. Or angry. Or upset. Never mind that it means I won't get lunch that day, or that I won't have time to go to the bathroom, or I won't have the opportunity to rest for five minutes, or the exercise routine I just decided yesterday had to happen - won't happen for another year. Or two years. Or three. Or maybe never.

It has reached the point where everything I do, I must give up something else to do it. And that "something else" is always something for myself.

Yet I know I am not the only one. By far.

Are you finding yourself in this same boat? If so, I'd like to hear from you. I'd like to know if you managed to get off the treadmill, how you did it. If you're struggling, what you're contemplating doing. Where you find support.

In the coming weeks (if anyone is interested) I'll post what I'm doing to get balance in my life. And in six months or a year, we'll see if I am successful. It's my New Year's Resolution, after all. And they never fail... do they?

Tuesday Teaser - Dylan Maguire

Last Tuesday, I gave some background on Vicki Boyd, one of the main characters in the Black Swamp Mysteries series. Another main character is Dylan Maguire, the Irishman who becomes Vicki's love interest and whose past unravels in Dylan's Song, the fourth book in the series. (Though he is also a main character in Vicki's Key and Secrets of a Dangerous Woman.)

Dylan Maguire never had a normal childhood. Though his parents were from Ireland, he was born in New York. Unfortunately, he never met his father—he’d abandoned his pregnant wife and simply disappeared. Unable to provide for her son and herself in a strange country, his mother packed them up and brought Dylan back to Ireland when he was just three years old. In and out of bars and with dubious pastimes, his mother wasn’t a mother to him at all.

Dylan was raised by his grandmother, a woman he called Mam. She was the only family he’d ever known—that and the home of his neighbor and best friend, Thomas Rowan.

Dylan has a mysterious past when he arrives on Laurel Maguire’s doorstep the summer that Vicki also arrives to help Laurel with her freshwater angelfish business. He seems to be a jack-of-all-trades, from teaching Vicki the angelfish business to remodeling the old, rambling—and haunted—house, to cooking up traditional Irish meals and looking after Vicki.

He is a hopeless romantic who makes CD’s with all his favorite romantic songs… To taking Vicki on an intimate boat ride down the natural and secluded Lumber River… To picnics in the park and romantic, candlelight dinners.

He is also capable of violence—of defending what is his and of killing when the need arises. He is an opportunist; a former kickboxing champion, a man known as “The Butcher” who channels his anger into his fists and feet.

If the Black Swamp Mysteries series was made into a movie, who would I want to play Dylan Maguire? Assuming he could play the role with an Irish accent, Eduardo Verastegui is a dead ringer.

Next Tuesday: Brenda Carnegie.

WIP Wednesday - The Pendulum Files

I've been working on two books simultaneously - The Pendulum Files, which will be the fifth book in the Black Swamp Mysteries series (following Exit 22, Vicki's Key, Secrets of a Dangerous Woman and Dylan's Song) and The Tempest Murders, a stand-alone to be released this fall.

At the end of Dylan's Song, Dylan discovers in his native Ireland that Vicki is expecting his child. In The Pendulum Files, they are back in America and Dylan proposes to Vicki at a local restaurant, The Village Station. The restaurant is real and if you're ever in the Lumberton, North Carolina area where the series takes place, I highly recommend it.

Meanwhile, Brenda Carnegie is on house arrest when they discover that Joseph Gabucci, the hired assassin who killed Brenda's partner-in-crime in Exit 22 and tried to murder her and Christopher Sandige, has escaped from prison - and is after her again. Her ordeal includes escaping a bomb only to be captured by Gabucci. It also includes a high speed chase across Fort Bragg, the military installation about 30 miles northwest of Lumberton.

Christopher Sandige is out of a job since he testified before Congress about his boss' involvement in illegal activities. It's an election year and he's having to sit things out on Dylan's couch while others strategize and plot to have their person elected. He won't be on the couch for long, though. With Brenda around, there is never a dull moment - and Chris finds himself pulled into her flight from Gabucci once again.

If you've read the series, what would you like to see happen to the characters in future books?

Freaky Friday - Androids

Last Friday, I talked about DARPA and their research and development of sophisticated robots. I'd come across their website and information about their work while researching my latest book, The Pendulum Files, which is due to be released in the spring of 2014.

At another end of the spectrum, there's the development of androids that look, act -- and some say will one day think -- like humans.

Below is a video of one research company in the United States that is using Albert Einstein's famous face on their android in an attempt to mimic facial expressions:



And the Japanese are making tremendous strides in making lifelike androids:





Imagine the future as the military robots capable of performing tremendous feats are combined with the lifelike features of androids.

 

Then science fiction doesn't seem like "fiction" so much anymore, does it?

Thursday Thoughts - On Promoting a Series

Until 2012, all of my books were stand-alone, which meant that readers did not need to read any particular book first. There were a couple that had the same characters, such as the true story of Mary Neely in River Passage and Songbirds are Free. But if you read them in reverse order, you would still understand what was happening with each character.

But in 2012, the Black Swamp Mysteries series was launched, due to the popularity of Exit 22, which introduced Brenda Carnegie and Christopher Sandige.

Vicki's Key introduced two new characters, Vicki Boyd and Dylan Maguire, so the reader didn't need to read Exit 22 in order to understand what was happening.

In Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, all four characters came together - and what transpires in that book keeps these characters together for the rest of the series, either through blood or circumstance.

So Dylan's Song, which was released in early 2013, picks up where Secrets leaves off... And if you didn't read the first few books in the series, you'd find yourself kind of... lost.

I thought about this recently when someone suggested that I watch the BBC television series, Copper, about New York during the era of the Civil War. Turns out it has quite a few Irish hunks on it - actors who could easily play Dylan Maguire (Black Swamp Mysteries series) or Ryan O'Clery (The Tempest Murders).

But I found myself completely lost when I watched the first show of this season. Turns out, I didn't understand the relationship between the men and women and children... And I didn't understand what was going on.

So I had to go back to Season I to watch those first critical episodes that explains who everyone is, where they came from, who they're related to, and so on.

Has this happened to you, either in a book or with a television series?

Tuesday Teaser

Dylan's Song is my latest suspense and the fourth book in the Black Swamp Mysteries Series. The Irishman everyone has fallen in love with - Dylan Maguire - returns to Ireland with Vicki Boyd and her sister Brenda Carnegie. Their purpose s two-fold: to find and extract a missing CIA operative who is held captive in an underground cell in the bogs; and to see Dylan's grandmother before she passes away.

The book is one of my favorites because I loved the backdrop of Ireland and the tiny village the three travel to. The myths of Ireland come alive in the book, especially as Dylan tries to escape with the CIA operative through the bogs at midnight.

Below is a video that will give you a feel for Ireland...



Of course, Dylan and Vicki will have to return to the Emerald Isle. Now that Dylan has confronted his demons there, he is beckoned back... In a book scheduled for release in 2015, they return to face new challenges... and their growing love. I know that's a long time to wait, but two more books will keep you occupied until then! The Tempest Murders might be released soon, and The Pendulum Files is scheduled for release in the spring of 2014.

Tuesday Teaser - Irish Bogs

In Dylan's Song, Dylan Maguire returns to his native Ireland to locate and extract a missing CIA operative who is imprisoned in ancient castle dungeons below the surface of the bogs. Below is an excerpt as Dylan and two other operatives ride on horseback through the bogs:

Lightning flashed across the sky and a few seconds later, a low rumble of thunder shook the ground beneath their feet. The horses whinnied and turned completely around.


“What’s that?” Perry asked as all three men fought to control their horses.

Dylan followed his gaze to the distant horizon. “Blue flames.”

“Fire?”

“It’s caused by the bog gasses. Methane. It’s common durin’ storms. When I was a tyke, the old-timers used to say they were faeries, cookin’ their supper.”

It felt as though it was taking far longer for them to reach their destination than it had in broad daylight with Brenda and Vicki. But that’s the way it was at night, Dylan reminded himself. During the witching hour and in the pre-dawn hours that followed, the terrain took on the feel of a vast, empty space in which compasses no longer functioned properly. It was said there were little folk who lived in the bogs, mischievous creatures who watched every movement and waited for the perfect opportunity to play havoc—or worse. Fooling with their compasses was just one of their tricks.

They were known as ballybogs or bog-a-boos, depending on who was telling the story. Some said they were the remains of the dead rising out of the bogs. Others said they were nasty creatures that were not related to humans at all.

“You’re sure you know where this place is?” Perry asked uneasily.

He looked toward the horizon. “Aye.”

The thunder and lightning grew and intensified and the mist began to turn to more solid precipitation, though it stopped short of becoming a rainstorm. It was well known that one had no business being in a bog when it rained. It often came fast and furious and often the peat was buried beneath ponds that could suck men into them in mere seconds. Dylan found himself wondering whether the water would pour into the castle remains. It would be a horrific way to die.

He turned in his saddle and peered behind him.

“What is it?” Rich asked.

Dylan shook his head. “Just feel eyes on me, tis all.”

Purchase the book on amazon in Kindle or in trade paperback. It is also available on the Nook, iPad, and other eBook formats.

Tuesday Teaser - Dialogue

When I first began writing, I followed some great advice and began listening carefully to people talk. It wasn't just what they said that interested me, but how they said it - the accent, the regional dialect, their choice of words or lack of words. It's often a place where writers experience problems; they've been taught to write so it's grammatically correct, but dialogue usually isn't - unless you're portraying some ultra elites, which doesn't capture much of the public's interest.

Then sometimes the conversation takes a turn I didn't even suspect, and it seems almost to write itself, such as the scene below from Dylan's Song. Dylan Maguire answers a Skype call from Sam:

Dylan's cell phone rang and he reached for it, his brows furrowing. “It’s Sam on Skype.” He answered the call. “Aye?”

“Dylan, it’s Sam.”

“Aye, I know it’s Sam ‘cause I’m lookin’ at your face.”

“Whatever. Look, we’ve got a little situation.”

“Are you in the fish house?” Dylan asked, peering closely at the screen.

“Yeah. Everything’s fine. Look—”

“Is that a cat I see in the fish house?”

Sam frowned. “So what if it is?”

“Cats eat fish.”

“Not my cat. My cat does not eat fish.”

“What did you feed ‘er for breakfast?”

“Tuna, if it’s any of your business.”

“Tuna is a fish.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like these fish.”

“Does your cat know that?”

Tuesday Teaser - Technology

In yesterday's post I mentioned the thermal imaging that was used in last week's capture of the bombing suspect.

I use new technology in my books, especially in relation to spy technology. I find it fascinating. It is changing our world like never before.

In Dylan's Song, Sam uses Ground Penetrating Radar technology. It's a step up from thermal imaging. Used via satellite, it can be positioned to a specific longitude and latitude. It then "sees" beneath the surface to the ground below.

The same technology can be used in a variety of forms, including handheld devices. It's currently being used by archaeologists as an alternate to excavating when they're not sure what they might find. It is also used by the construction industry, inspectors, and to locate things such as utility cables and pipes.

Used as spy technology, it can be used to determine what is housed within certain confines - such as nuclear facilities, enemy combatants' camps, and even into buildings which could be useful during a hostage crisis or robbery in progress.

Thermal imaging and ground penetrating radar are often used together in spy technology. Thermal imaging picks up heat sources while ground penetrating radar shows most materials.

Monday Musings - It's Magic

This is always a great way to start the day, especially a Monday! The video has been around for a few years but it's always worth watching again:

Congratulations to the winners of the three Celtic necklaces that were given away during my spring book tours:

Chelsea Brooks from Mississippi, who won the Celtic Trinity Necklace;

Lysette Lam from California, who won the Celtic Key;

And Mary Preston from Australia, who won the Celtic Circle!

Thank you for faithfully following my book tours!

Tuesday Teaser

Today I am a guest at Janna Shay's Fair Play. I hope you'll drop in and leave a comment. This is my fourth book tour since the start of the year, and I have already given away a gift basket from the town of Lumberton as well as two beautiful Celtic necklaces. Another Celtic necklace will be given to a randomly drawn commenter at the end of my current tour.

I've been asked which order readers should read my Black Swamp Mysteries series, so here goes:

Exit 22 was the first book. It was meant as a stand-alone but has been so popular that it developed into the Black Swamp Mysteries series. This book introduces Christopher Sandige, a political strategist who is traveling along Interstate 95 when he is involved in an accident at Exit 22 in North Carolina. Stranded for the weekend in Lumberton, he meets a beautiful but mysterious woman named Brenda Carnegie, and is immediately drawn into a double homicide. He finds himself on the run from a dogged detective--and from a hired assassin. Now he doesn't know if the woman he is falling in love with is a killer.

Vicki's Key is the second book. It introduces Vicki Boyd, a psychic spy who has decided to leave the CIA and begin a new life in a small town helping an elderly woman with her angelfish breeding business. But when she arrives at Laurel Maguire's home in Lumberton, North Carolina, she finds the elderly woman has suffered a stroke and is confined to the third floor of a rambling home. Her nephew, Dylan, has arrived from Ireland to care for her. Vicki quickly falls in love with the charming, handsome Irishman. But everything in the old home is not as it seems. And when the CIA return to coax her into one last job, her past and her future are about to collide... In murder.

In Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, the characters from Exit 22 and Vicki's Key come together and what happens to them will forever bind them together through blood or circumstance. In Dylan Maguire's first assignment with the CIA, he must interrogate recently captured Brenda Carnegie. But when she escapes again, it's obvious she's had help from within the CIA's own ranks. Now he must find her again and also find out why some in the highest levels of government want her killed -- and why some will risk everything to help her.

In Dylan's Song, Dylan Maguire returns to his native Ireland with Vicki Boyd. Their mission: to locate and extract a missing CIA operative. But when Dylan receives word that his grandmother is dying, it plunges him into a past he thought he'd left behind forever. Now he must confront his demons as his past interferes with his mission and places his life and Vicki's in danger. And as Vicki discovers the real reason he left Ireland for America, she harbors a secret of her own.

Tuesday Teaser - An Irish Village

Today I'll be stopping by Hywela Lyn's blogspot and I hope you'll drop in and visit me there.

My 15th release, Dylan's Song, takes the reader to Ireland and to the Irish village where Dylan grew up. It is where Dylan and Vicki - with Brenda in tow - rent a small cottage and it's where his next CIA mission is launched.

The village is in a rural area, one of the remote regions of Ireland that is difficult and time-consuming to reach. The population hasn't changed much over the centuries; those who can, move away. Those who remain eventually pass away, like Dylan's grandmother. But the village itself remains the same, decade after decade.

The focal point of the village is the Catholic Church, which sits atop a hill and looks down upon the village from a mile away. It is where Dylan's childhood friend, Thomas Rowan, is now priest.

In front of the church is an unpaved road that intersects with another; to the right, the road leads to the home where Dylan grew up. To the left, it leads to the cottage he is renting. Straight ahead leads into the village... and into his past.

And just beyond the village begins the Bog of Allen... and a missing CIA operative.

Fiction Writing and Other Oddities

I am continuing my month-long blog tour for my 15th release, Dylan's Song, and today I am appearing at Fiction Writing and Other Oddities. I hope you'll drop by and read the latest interview. Be sure to leave a comment so you have a chance to win the Celtic necklace I'll be giving away at the end of the tour.

I enjoy these interviews because I never know what I am going to be asked. Some of the questions are quite inventive, even to one who writes fiction!

I was asked recently why I write fiction when I first began my career writing non-fiction. The truth is, I enjoy fiction much more. I don't have to check and re-check every fact to make sure it is 100% accurate or risk being sued. And the characters can come to life in my mind and do things or go into directions I would not have imagined when I first began writing the book.

Yes, I do get surprised by my characters - frequently! If I didn't, I think the process of writing would become boring. And my theory is, if I am boring myself while I am writing, the reader will be bored to pieces while reading it. Perhaps the reason my books are non-stop action is because I like something that is engaging... and addictive.

Thursday Thoughts, a Muse and a Full Moon

I hope you'll join me today at The Muse, where I am being interviewed by Claire Ashgrove. Then please hop over to Full Moon Dreaming for a different interview. Leave a comment at both blogs and you could win this beautiful Celtic necklace.

A muse is anything that helps to inspire an author, though it's often thought of as a person or spiritual assistance.

My muse is Ireland. I can't think of my mother, who is now deceased, without thinking of the Irish sense of humor and how much she loved to laugh and how she coveted a good joke. She often looked for her "Laugh of the Day" and long before the Internet and email, I used to mail her funny jokes or cartoons cut from the newspaper.

She was drawn to people with sincere smiles and a gleam in their eye. She also had a soft spot for the downtrodden, the poor and the unfortunate, and was generous to a fault.

I imagine those characteristics came from a long line of Irish ancestry. Two of her sisters had red hair and all had green or hazel eyes. Her mother had a striking resemblance to Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones) and had piercing blue eyes that didn't miss a thing.

If you are a writer, what inspires you to write?

WIP Wednesday and the Sweet Spot of Life

Today I am visiting Christy McKee, who writes about women in the "sweet spot" of life. I hope you'll drop in and read the interview Christy conducted with me. Leave a comment and you could win this beautiful Celtic necklace.

This year I am writing two novels with an Irish connection. The first is After the Tempest, the working title of the sequel to The Tempest Murders. Neither book has been picked up by a publisher yet but I know it will be just a matter of time. It always is.

These novels are considered slipstream novels. They begin in a particular era but flash forward to the present day. As the suspense unfolds, the reader begins to see the connection between both eras - realizing, as the main characters do, that the experiences they are having have deep roots that reach back hundreds of years.

The Tempest Murders begins with The Night of the Big Wind, which occurred in Ireland on the Day of Epiphany, January 6, 1839. There was a religious sect that believed the world would end on this date; and when a freak hurricane raced across the Atlantic and slammed into Ireland, many of the island's inhabitants thought the world was indeed ending.

The Atlantic Ocean washed across Ireland from west to east, all the way to the Irish Sea. The waters rose and the wind was so strong that homes were ripped from their foundations and flung hundreds of yards away.

And during this storm, an Irish constable, Rian Kelly, learns that the love of his life has disappeared - at the hands of a serial killer.

Thus begins a mystery that unravels in the present day as Hurricane Irene bears down on the North Carolina coastline... And a serial killer with the same physical description as another two hundred years earlier is on the loose.