Behind the Book Part 2: April in the Back of Beyond

This is the second part in the true stories behind the book, April in the Back of Beyond. Part 1 can be found here: https://pmterrell.blogspot.com/2019/08/behind-book-part-1-april-in-back-of.html

 Watch the video below for the inside story, or skip below to read it. The video can also be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/-jsmYf4osR8.

Throughout April in the Back of Beyond is another story inspired by fact. The main character, Hayley Hunter, is a writer that is researching her family’s history, beginning with her ancestor’s migration to Ulster from Scotland who became involved in O’Doherty’s Rebellion. 

These scenes are based on my creative nonfiction book, Checkmate: Clans and Castles, which was released in 2017 by Drake Valley Press. In Checkmate, my own ancestor, William Neely, arrived in Ulster with William Stewart. Their land bordered on Cahir O’Doherty’s Inishowen Peninsula, separated only by the lough. When Cahir set fire to Derry and began O’Doherty’s Rebellion, it would require my ancestor to make a choice: whether to fight for King James against the uprising or side with the Irish that had lived and ruled that region for over a thousand years. Checkmate was the result of years of painstaking research and I attempted to remain faithful to the facts.

Though the battle of Derry depicted in Checkmate occurred in 1608, it would not be the first and far from the last. The city was rebuilt through London private donations and renamed Londonderry. Today, more than 400 years later, it continues to be a city divided between those loyal to Britain and largely Protestant (unionists or loyalists) versus those fighting for a united Ireland that are largely Catholic (republicans or nationalists). The ideological war between the two factions was originally those loyal to Britain versus those loyal to Ireland, but it became a religious war as well, fueled by zealous ministers and priests. The city is often referred to as the “slash city” Londonderry/Derry because the republican/nationalist Irish do not recognize the name “London” in their city, it having been named Derry centuries earlier, prior to England’s invasion.

During the writing of this book, tensions increased in Ulster—most notably Derry and Belfast. A journalist was killed covering a violent uprising in Derry and several Catholic churches were burned. The increase in violence was attributed to Brexit, which could possibly lead to checkpoints and guard posts between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which had unfairly targeted Catholics in decades before the Good Friday Agreement and the removal of those border walls.

Check out the book trailers below for April in the Back of Beyond and Checkmate: Clans and Castles:

Behind the Book Part 1: April in the Back of Beyond

A couple of weeks ago, I announced the release of my 23rd book, April in the Back of Beyond. In case you missed the blurb, here it is below followed by one of three true stories that inspired the book.

Writer Hayley Hunter has arrived in Ireland to complete a book on Irish history. When she discovers the old carriage house she is renting is haunted, she is determined to uncover the truth behind the burned ruins of a nearby manor house and the abandoned British barracks it overlooks. 

With the assistance of Shay Macgregor, an Irish historian, her quest will take her to 1919 and the Irish War for Independence, exposing the murders of two young men and why their mother, April Crutchley, refuses to leave the back of beyond even in death. 

With a budding romance and the opportunity to begin life anew, Hayley finds her own life is now in jeopardy as she gets closer to a truth the villagers have long sought to bury.

Watch the video below or at  https://youtu.be/zAq9XUd4vJQ for the true story that inspired the book, or continue reading it below the video:

While researching Irish history for a series on my Neely ancestors, I came across the story of two teenage boys who were murdered in Ireland in 1919. Their family had been in the country for generations and by all accounts, they were admired and valued in their original home, but they relocated to a larger estate in what would turn out to be a horrifically fatal mistake.

Unlike their original home where Catholics and Protestants coexisted, their new home was in the middle of a war zone. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and RIC Special Forces (better known as the Black and Tans for their mismatched uniforms) were fighting against those campaigning for Irish independence, such as the Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the forerunner of the IRA (Irish Republican Army). Their new home, like the one portrayed in April in the Back of Beyond, overlooked British barracks and when the two teenage boys informed their neighbors they were not allowed to trespass on their property, they were shot and killed and their home burned to the ground.

The story, however, did not end there; it was only the beginning of a nightmare that would culminate in their mother suffering from severe emotional trauma, having tried vainly to save her sons from bleeding to death while their home and all their possessions burned. The true attack was particularly vicious, the shots delivered so they would suffer at least a day before dying; it was so imprinted on my mind as I learned of it that I was unable to replicate the savagery in April in the Back of Beyond out of respect for my readers. The information regarding the sale of their home is accurate as well as their migration to Australia, where the family’s descendants continue to live today.

     I did not feel comfortable placing the home in my book in the same county as the actual events took place, so literary license was used to move the location of the house, carriage house and British barracks. Only the barracks survive today as an abandoned property, a relic of World War I. The names have also been changed for both the victims and the perpetrators as descendants of both are still alive today.

Visit http://pmterrell.com/wp/april-in-the-back-of-beyond/ for more information about this newest release, and check back for more of the true stories that inspired this book. Watch the book trailer below:

Book Review: The House by the Lake by Ella Carey

The House by the Lake by Ella Carey is historical romance, mystery and in many ways, a reminder of a past that can too easily be repeated. Watch the video below or at https://youtu.be/umxbkxOpuXU or skip below the video to read the full review.

Max is part of the privileged, elite German class who has fallen in love with Isabella from Paris, France. But Adolf Hitler is rising and so is his Nazi party. There are many things about the Nazis that Max does not like, such as their hatred of minorities, but he is willing to a certain extent to look away from that because Hitler appears to be the only one offering Germany a way forward from its crushing defeat of World War I. Too late, he realizes that despite all his reservations, he will be forced to join the Nazi party and the military as Germany begins to invade its neighbors. Not only does his own life hang in the balance but also every member of his family’s lives depends on his choice.

As we switch to the present day, Anna lives in San Francisco with her aging grandfather. Max is now at the end of his life, and he has one regret. He asks Anna to return to Germany to recover an item he’d hidden below the floorboard. As she journeys to Old Prussia to perform what turns out to be Max’s dying wish, she finds herself in the midst of a mystery. The village near her grandfather’s old estate is stuck in the distant past like a ghost town and when they discover her identity and her relationship to the estate, many become hostile toward her. She finds a Berlin attorney willing to help her recover the item but it places both of them on a path that will uncover secrets of the past and change their own lives in the process.

Max’s position in the 1930s and the choices he must make remind me all too much of the rise of current nationalism, along with its consequences. It is well worth reading; not only is it a war-time romance between a French woman and a German man and a personal mystery that affects generations, but also a lesson in what happens in the early stages of a party’s rise to power, the ability for people to look away from those aspects they don’t like… and what happens when their eyes are opened too late.

Book Review: The Drowned Village by Kathlen McGurl

Some books have the power to remain with the reader forever; The Drowned Village is such a book. If there is one lesson to be learned from this story, it is that none of us can expect to have complete control over our lives. There is always the possibility that we will be dealt an unexpected blow, even an undeserving one, and even the most unfortunate among us must continue to put one foot in front of the other and make the best from what we have left.

Read the full review below or watch the video here or at https://youtu.be/fp03wQGuvX8.

Stella is ten years old in 1935 as she walks the Old Corpse Road with her father, her younger sister and a funeral procession for her mother. The family is poor, the father cobbling together the barest of income by making repairs to neighbors’ equipment, such as bicycles. With his wife gone, he must support his family while also babysitting three-year-old Jessie while Stella is at school. When his elderly father requires assistance with his most basic of needs, he must move him into his own home and care for him as well. Added to this weight is the news that Brackendale Green, the English village in which they live, will be completely demolished as a newly built dam is expected to flood the village.

Through the course of this book, we see a motherless child forced to grow up all too swiftly as catastrophic events beyond her control cause her to lose everything she’s ever known. She blames herself through the decades for being unable to stop these events, despite the fact that she was only a child when they occurred.

As we flash forward to the present day, Stella is an elderly woman urging her grown granddaughter Laura to visit the Lake District after an unusual drought has left the lakebed dry, exposing the village for the first time in decades. There are secrets hidden in the ruins, secrets that have haunted Stella for an entire lifetime and now, too frail to go herself, it is up to Laura to uncover them and set things right. Laura is rebounding from a disastrous relationship and needs a break from her job and caring for her grandmother. What she will find in the drowned village will change not only her grandmother’s life but also her own.

The Lake District with its condemned village, inspired by the real Haweswater reservoir and Mardale Valley, comes alive. I could feel the heaviness as Stella walked along the Old Corpse Road, could picture the variety of characters in the village—both friend and foe—and I felt as though I had been transported back in time. The characters are so multi-dimensional that I realized I was intentionally slowing down my reading because I did not want the book to end. And when it did, I found myself dreaming about Stella, her father and her sister. 

The Drowned Village by Kathleen McGurl is a classic. I highly recommend it.

Read more book reviews at http://pmterrell.com/authors-and-books/. p.m.terrell is the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 22 books in a variety of genres.

The Forgotten Secret by Kathleen McGurl

In The Forgotten Secret by Kathleen McGurl, Clare Farrell is approaching her 50^th birthday. For half of her life she has been married to a narcissistic man who has systematically cut her off from everything and everyone that did not center around him. So when Clare inherits her uncle’s home in Ireland along with a monetary inheritance, she decides to take the leap and separate from her husband and begin life anew. The house holds secrets, including a stash of guns and weapons under a floor in the barn and a birth certificate and communion medallion from two separate people tucked away in the stuffing of an old armchair.

Watch the video below or skip beneath it for the rest of the book review.

I rooted for Clare. I cheered for her, cried with her and laughed with her. Breaking away would not be easy and she encounters events such as wrecking her automobile on an Irish country road to renovating a centuries-old home that has fallen into disrepair. But she makes friends in the nearby village and she exhibits a lot of grit, determination and courage.

In between Clare’s chapters, we learn of a woman connected to the house a century earlier during the Irish War for Independence. Ellen O’Brien lives with her crotchety father in a modest home but she’s dating Jimmy Gallagher, a young man she’s known an entire lifetime. They were best friends in school and now they’ve become lovers as well as clandestine members of the Irish underground volunteers fighting for independence from Great Britain. It is Jimmy who grew up in the house that Clare inherits and it’s both Jimmy’s story and Ellen’s that rolls out through the book.

The author, Kathleen McGurl, describes the countryside so well that I could see the village in my mind’s eye, both as it was in 1920 as well as present day. I came to respect the danger that Ellen, Jimmy and others willingly undertook to fight for their cause—a cause that would cost some their lives. And when Ellen discovers she is pregnant yet she is still unmarried, I felt her anguish at being sent to one of the Magdalene Laundries, a convent for unwed mothers and their babies that turned into an unsaintly prison.

We also see the contrasts in what women could accomplish within a brief hundred years—at Ellen’s dependency on her father and the kindness of strangers to Clare’s struggle for independence.

Like all of McGurl’s books, there are multiple threads that seem unrelated but all blend together into a seamless mosaic of love and war, endings and new beginnings. I highly recommend The Forgotten Secret by Kathleen McGurl.

Wildfire at Midnight

I just finished reading Mary Stewart’s book, Wildfire at Midnight. The book was originally published in 1956 and was re-released in 2011. Reading it was such a pleasure that it reminded me why Stewart’s books landed on the New York Times and other bestseller lists multiple times, and why many consider her to be the founder of the romantic mystery genre. My review is contained in the video below, or you can skip the video and read the review beneath it.

Mary Stewart was born in England but she died in Scotland, and her knowledge of the Highlands—and particularly of Skye, the book’s setting—is apparent. I do not fish and I have never climbed and never thought I would be interested in the details of either sport, though books on Mount Everest are among my favorites. In Wildfire at Midnight, the heroine—Gianetta or more commonly called Janet—is much the same. In need of a break from her job, she heads to a resort on Skye and runs right into her ex-husband Nicholas. Determined to remain there and enjoy her time anyway, she is soon caught up in the tension at the resort—a tension, it turns out, to have been brought about by a ritual murder on the mountain. It is a murder in which the resort’s guests are each suspect—all except Janet, who arrived after it had taken place.

We meet a wide range of characters, from cheating husbands to unhappy wives and when two women become lost on the mountain, the suspense ratchets up. One is found dead after her rope had been cut and the other nearly dead several days later. Now unconscious, Roberta cannot tell the authorities who the murderer is, and the killer makes an attempt on her again. Then another guest is found murdered, his throat slit—and our heroine, wishing for a quiet afternoon fishing, winds up in a fight for survival.

The action is fast, the words concise. Though it was written in the 1950’s, the heroine is surprisingly independent and quite capable of standing up for herself. After her divorce, she returns to a very successful modeling career and has become somewhat of a celebrity—though in the end, in typical 1950’s fashion, the book turns to a woman-in-jeopardy with a romantic ending.

There are twists and turns in this book, each time causing me to question which of the resort guests could be the killer—and it isn’t limited only to the men. Amid the suspense are the sweeping vistas of the mountains, the varying experience of the climbers, both the serenity and the dangers of a land that is so enticing and yet so unforgiving.

Mary Stewart wrote around 17 romantic suspense novels in addition to books in four other genres. If you haven’t read any of them, Wildfire at Midnight is a great place to start.

Watch videos on books and authors at http://pmterrell.com/authors-and-books/ and behind the scenes of p.m.terrell's own 22+ suspense, historical and children's books at http://pmterrell.com/wp/inside-the-stories/.

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley - Review

In The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley, archeologist Verity Grey begins an excavation in Scotland. The Ninth Roman Legion was rumored to have camped there as they marched north from York to fight the Scots, and the owner of a remote manor house is convinced his property contains the bones of the lost legion.

From the first night in the manor house, Verity hears the horses thundering across the fields beneath her window, whinnying and snorting as their hooves pound the ground. Yet when she begins her first day of work, she discovers there are no horses within miles around.

The cook’s son has paranormal gifts that Verity vainly attempts to logically explain away. He sees the ghost of a Roman sentinel walking through the fields. Verity reminds him of his sister, so the phantom is determined to remain near her, watching over her and protecting her—which factors into the climactic scenes. The cook’s son also sees things before they happen and occasionally is consumed by other unseen presences.

As Verity begins the excavation work, she is joined by others including a handsome Scot named David so in addition to the ghost and the work, she finds herself caught up in romance.

I have loved every Susanna Kearsley book I’ve read. Her beautiful style reminds me of books I read while growing up; a modern-day Daphne du Maurier or Mary Stewart. The characters are complex, revealing themselves one layer at a time. The setting is described so exquisitely that I could smell the heather in the fields, the rain moving in, the fish market in the village. I could hear the shadowy horses thundering through the fields, I could feel the ghostly presence of one that can never leave his last encampment. Reading any of Kearsley’s books is truly an immersive experience.

There is a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming but in retrospect, all the clues were there, cleverly hidden in plain sight.

I definitely give this book five stars and I’m anxious to read another of Kearsley’s books as quickly as possible. They are addictive.

Watch the Book Tuber Video below:

In Geography Lies Your Destiny

I have often heard the phrase “geography is destiny”. Originally a geopolitical theory that refers to certain geographic regions that carry strategic advantage, it can also be applied to the way your life unfolds, the opportunities open to you and ultimately to what you are able to achieve in life. This philosophy was brilliantly portrayed in the 2017 neo-Western murder mystery movie inspired by a true story, Wind River, starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen.

The story takes place on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming in the middle of winter. It is an inhospitable place, isolated from the rest of the world in a winter wonderland that can turn vicious in an instant. Early in the movie we learn the atmosphere becomes so cold that the air in the lungs can actually crystallize, leading to death. When expert tracker and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Cory Lambert (played by Jeremy Renner) discovers a young woman’s body six miles from the nearest structure, he recognizes the telltale signs of pulmonary hemorrhage. The question is why she was so far from anything; tracing her footsteps, he comes to the conclusion she had been running for six miles—barefoot on ice and snow.

The Wind River Indian Reservation is a place forgotten by modern man, though it encompasses over 3,000 square miles as well as 3,500 square miles of water. It is the home of just over 26,000 Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Native Americans, descendants of people pushed onto the reservation from their original territory beginning in 1868, some 30 years after the Cherokee were relocated along the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

The Reservation has only a handful of people on their police force and because the FBI has jurisdiction on federal property, an agent is called in from Las Vegas when the coroner confirms the victim had been sexually assaulted. Jane Banner, played by Elizabeth Olsen, is unfamiliar with the unforgiving landscape and relies on Cory Lambert to assist her in the investigation.

The landscape itself becomes an antagonist. Regardless of the temperature in the room, you will find yourself shivering and reaching for an extra throw or blanket. The fact that Native Americans were forced to live there—and they survived—is a testament to the ability of human beings to adapt. Opportunities there are nearly non-existent; in one scene, a young man is asked why he didn’t get out when he might have been able to escape the poverty, high crime and hopelessness. One gets the sense that because these people have lived there for generations, sometimes the land itself prevents them from straying far, regardless of the opportunities that might be available to them elsewhere. It is as if their feet have roots grown deep into the frozen ground, fusing them forever to that place and time.

I admit I closed my eyes during a scene toward the end of the movie, where we learn in a flashback what occurred to the young woman and how she came to be outside in her bare feet, running for her life for six miles over ice and snow that would have stopped an average human being in their tracks long before it stopped her. By this time, the haunting landscape and the plight of its people had pervaded my spirit and long after the movie was over, I felt as if I was still there.

Missing person statistics exist for every demographic except Native American women. The life expectancy on the Wind River Indian Reservation is only 49 years and unemployment rates are more than 80%. (Bustle,2017) Though missing person statistics are not kept, Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than other groups and experience rape and sexual assault at 4 times the national average. (NewYork Times, 2012)

If geography determines our destiny, it is difficult to fathom why anyone would remain in a place that appears destined to kill them—perhaps the original intent when these tribes were forced from their original territories. And yet it happens all across the globe. The invisible system that anchors us remain so strong that it is often difficult—if not impossible—to break free.

Wind River: five stars and highly recommended

How Stressful Events Make Great Books

Conflict always drives fiction. In real life, we may wish for things to fall into place easily, days go by smoothly, and relationships unfold effortlessly. But in fiction, nothing can be easy—because easy equates to boring. Watch the vlog below for all the details, or skip through to the list below.

Plots and subplots take on greater significance if they contain one of the Most Stressful Events, as defined by the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale:

Death of a spouse, a child or a close friend or family member. Especially when this takes place at the beginning of the book, it can take us on a journey to discover the cause of death or the events that unfolded culminating in the death. It can also serve as a departure point for the future, such as the surviving spouse learning to redefine his or her life without the one they love. It can also become an investigation into a double life or secrets hidden. And it can also open the door into the afterlife, such as Richard Matheson’s What Dreams May Come.

Divorce or marital separation. Fiction can begin with the separation, as my book, A Thin Slice of Heaven did, which began a journey for the spouse left behind. (See trailer below) The plot could include other factors with a divorce or marital separation as a subplot woven into the tapestry of the book. Or events could unfold that lead to a climactic scene involving the divorce or marital separation. In each of these scenarios, there must be a sense of moving on, such as Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Robert Getchell.

Imprisonment. I can’t mention imprisonment without bringing to mind The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, which begins with the imprisonment of an innocent man into a corrupt and cruel prison system. Imprisonment is also a common theme outside the law, particularly with the kidnapping of young women or children, leading the parents or someone close to the missing person on a quest to discover how and why they were captured—and of course, to attempt to free them. 

Personal injury or illness. This plot is meant to turn the character’s life upside down, forcing them to look inside themselves for the strength and the courage to survive. It is often used with the injury or illness occurring in the beginning of the book. The plot then brings the reader along for the daily struggle, causing us to empathize with their misfortune. It is often through reading books of this nature that we strengthen our ability to sympathize with others and appreciate their personal struggles and misfortunes. The injury or illness can also be used as a reason to keep the person in one place or incapacitate them in some way. An interesting book is The Art of Looking into Hitchcock’s Rear Window by Stefan Sharff, which provides a detailed analysis of the main character’s injury and his fixation on what is happening outside his window.

Marriage. This plot can revolve around an existing marriage and can lead the reader to the point where we’re unsure whether the marriage can survive the traumas inflicted upon it. It can also begin with a marriage of two unlikely partners, perhaps two people from different walks of life or separate cultures, people whose personalities are not compatible—or the wedding can be the focus of the book. It can also be the story of reconciliation, in which two people that walked away from one another are brought back together through extraordinary circumstances.

Work. This plot lends itself to an infinite variety of genres, as the characters’ vocations are key elements. It could begin with something traumatic happening at work that catapults our hero into a journey of mystery, romance or adventure. It could be a character study in how one person melts down due to work stress and how each decision that person makes impacts countless others. It can also include a new job or retirement, both of which cast the hero into a new situation. My book Vicki’s Key begins with Vicki leaving her job at the CIA after a failed mission, embarking on a new journey to a small town where she hopes—but doesn’t get—a peaceful transition to civilian life. (See trailer below.) Work can also include war, palace intrigue, historical backdrops, and a variety of locations and scenes.

In each of these situations, we place the main character into an unknown situation where they must adjust to changes they may not have wanted or even imagined. It is the conflict that propels the story forward, placing the reader into their shoes and causing us to ask ourselves what we would do if we were caught in a similar situation. We may even straddle the fine line between good and evil, sanity and unhealthy states of mind—or even circumstances that could cause an otherwise law-abiding citizen to go off the rails. In all of these situations, we know the hero—and perhaps other characters—will be transformed at the end of the journey.

Secrets of the Lighthouse

I love a great ghost story, and Secrets of the Lighthouse by Santa Montefiore is a unique one. The first page instantly drew me in as I pictured a young wife and mother looking at a lighthouse in the beautiful Connemara region of Ireland and a tiny chapel by the sea where family was gathering for a funeral. As the chapter drew to a close and I discovered the narrator, a woman whose shoes I'd set myself into, was actually a ghost watching her own funeral, I was completely intrigued. I had to find out what happened in the charred remains of the abandoned lighthouse.

In between the ghost’s chapters, we follow the story of Ellen Trawton, who has decided to run away from her family’s home in England and visit her mother’s sister Peg, whom she has never met. In fact, Ellen’s mother had been adamant that her family never visit Ireland so when Ellen arrives, she is shocked to discover that she not only has an aunt but a number of uncles and cousins. Ellen is running away from an arranged marriage she never wanted to a man she doesn’t love, as well as the pretentious trappings of her mother’s life—a life she wants her daughters to emulate. Aunt Peg’s home sits along the same coastline as the abandoned lighthouse and Ellen is intrigued with the rumors of what happened there, each piece of gossip more salacious than the last.

The author causes the village to come alive. I could feel the Wild Atlantic Way as the ocean’s spray reached Ireland's west coast, could smell the salt on the air and taste the rain that is ever present. Within the pages, I witnessed a large group of characters spring to life and yet I never felt overwhelmed by them all, and each was easy to remember. Each, in fact, carried a story of their own, a small piece of the larger puzzle that brought the mystery to life.

Secrets of the Lighthouse is a story of decisions made, often in haste and without regard for the consequences. In turn, they placed each character on a particular path, some by their own choice and others as collateral damage.

Ellen discovers secrets that were hidden for thirty years, secrets that impacted both her past and her future. Her mother’s story unravels to reveal the lies that were told, the life that was chosen—and that life which she left behind, the consequences of which reared up when least expected.

When Ellen falls for Conor, the ghost’s widower, she must decide whether to believe the tales told in the village pub or discover what really happened that fateful night at the lighthouse. As she grows ever closer to Conor, his dead wife must decide what she will do, where she will go, and whether to leave this life behind or continue haunting it.

If you enjoy stories set in Ireland, a ghost story, romance, mystery and adventure, you will enjoy Secrets of the Lighthouse. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

What We Believe

I saw a fascinating video while surfing Facebook, which got me to thinking about personal belief systems. We don’t have the option of saying that 1+1 does not equal 2, or that the letter ‘a’ has been removed from the English alphabet. We can’t declare that Washington, DC is no longer the capital of the United States, or question whether Shakespeare and Dickens ever existed.

Yet in so many other instances, we choose what we wish to believe even as facts lie before us. We do not question whether World War II actually occurred, and yet some choose to belief the Holocaust never happened. We don’t claim film footage from the War was falsified and yet some claim the filming of concentration camps were.

As scientists confirm global warming and we witness ever-strengthening hurricanes fueled by warmer waters, many in power state flatly that global warming does not exist.

One individual—or a group of individuals—cannot state that the earth is flat and make it so. Yet they believe they can state that global warming does not exist and like waving a magic wand, it will disappear.

Instead, they are like the ostrich, sticking their heads in the sand so they cannot see the predator lurking nearby. The ostrich is not made invisible by their action, and believing they are does not make it so.

The United States has been a world leader since World War II. Yet if we decide we no longer believe in mathematics, literature, history—or science—it does not mean that the rest of the world will believe as we do. Instead, it means that we are giving up our position as a world leader, stepping aside so someone else can fill the gap. And there are many willing and ready to step in—from Japanese robotics to China’s space exploration to India’s renewable energy.

The United States can insist on maintaining fossil fuel dependence; driving vehicles requiring gasoline or diesel, renewing dependence on coal and expanding oil exploration.

But The Netherlands is already planning to phase out gasoline/petrol and diesel vehicles by 2025—and China is leading the world in electric vehicle (EV) design. China is also leading the world in solar energy, followed by Japan and Germany. China has also installed roughly half of the world’s wind energy, followed distantly by the United States.

If the United States wishes to remain a superpower, they must lead the way. They can’t step aside and allow someone else to lead and then insist with puffed chest that they are number one. Saying it doesn’t make it so. Facts will determine who the leaders are, and right now the US is slipping—sometimes badly.

Sometimes believing in something else takes vision and a quantum leap of faith. Consider when John F. Kennedy declared that we would put a man on the moon—only 58 years after the Wright Brothers took their first flight. Yet this country made it happen. And if we hadn’t, Russia would not have abandoned their space exploration; instead, they would have left us sitting literally in the dust.

In writing my books, I often abandon what we’ve been taught to believe and study the cutting edge of science and technology. I was fortunate to be a contractor with the Secret Service in the 1980’s when they were developing the first facial recognition program to assist with presidential and dignitary protection. Now we have smartphones with facial recognition; Facebook has instituted a new facial recognition step in establishing an account—and China is even using it in public restrooms to prevent toilet paper theft. (Yes, really!)

What we once believed was the stuff of science fiction is here and it’s real.

Some thought my use of a psychic spy in the Black Swamp Mysteries Series was science fiction, a storyline fueled by an overactive imagination. But declassified information on the CIA’s own website detail a number of missions in which psychic spies—also known as remote viewers, to prevent public bias—is used to spy on our enemies. The United States isn’t alone. Russia, China, India, Japan, Israel and many others employ psychic spies. When a country blasts it as hocus-pocus and refuses to use it, it doesn’t mean it goes away or fails for the rest of the world. It means the disbelieving country has become like the ostrich with its head in the sand.

The 7^th book in the Black Swamp Mysteries Series (as yet unnamed) has psychic spy Vicki Boyd—now married to CIA operative Dylan Maguire—on an island off the coast of Ireland as a massive hurricane cuts them off from the mainland. Think hurricanes are impossible that far north? The weather services thought them so improbable that their software couldn’t even calculate the path—and then Hurricane Ophelia struck on October 16, 2017.

I’ve written about Irish hurricanes as well, including The Tempest Murders, which detailed The Night of the Big Wind in January, 1839. It struck before the massive storms were called hurricanes in Ireland and there was no forewarning. It stands today as one of the worst storms to ever hit the island.

And that video I mentioned at the start of this blog? Here it is—four minutes of Neil deGrasse Tyson and why we should believe in science:

p.m.terrell is the internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning author of more than 21 books in several genres. She is also the founder of Book 'Em North Carolina and The Novel Business. Find out more about her books at pmterrell.com. 

The Challenges of Writing a Series

I'm very happy to introduce my guest today; award winning author Maggie Thom loves the challenge of creating a web of secrets, lies and deceit. She doesn’t want you to figure it out until the end and as someone who loves twists and turns, I can say that she always keeps me on the edge of my seat. She is the author of The Caspian Wine Suspense/Thriller/Mystery Series – Captured Lies and Deceitful Truths with Split Seconds about to be published – and her other individual novels Tainted Waters (2013 Suspense/Thriller Book of the Year through Turning the Pages Magazine) and Deadly Ties. Take the roller coaster ride. It’s worth it. Get your free copy of Captured Lies.

Her motto: Read to escape… Escape to read…

"Maggie Thom… proves her strength as a master of words, plots and finely chiseled characters… she weaves a brilliant cloth of the many colors of deceit.”  Dii - TomeTender

Writing a Series – The Challenge

By Maggie Thom

I love reading a series don’t you? I was always fascinated by them but swore I’d never write one because they seemed to be a lot of work. Which I learned they are but I have to say I’ve had a lot of fun writing The Caspian Wine Series.

It’s always interesting to see where an author will take the story and how they will do that. Series can take many different formats.

1. It’s about one person. The series of books revolves around one person and what’s going on for them. You see a lot of detective stories that do this.
2. It’s about a place. Sometimes the series will be about a certain town or a place and all that happens there. Often the characters will change but some may stay the same.
3. It’s about a family or a group of people. The series will follow these group of people and may have each book focus more on one person than another but overall it’s about this group.
4. It’s around a theme. In this the series can be around some topic – a quest, romance, solving murders, growing old…

There are so many ways to write a series. For my Caspian Wine series, I had struggled with this when I decided to write book 2, Deceitful Truths. As the ideas were coming to me though I realized that the two main characters in Captured Lies had already told their story. So I was stuck with how do I write a sequel, include those from the first book but don’t make it about them?

In Captured Lies, Bailey learns that her life has been a lie. She was raised by a woman she thought was her mother but after her mom dies, she learns that isn’t the truth. Guy, one of the main characters had a Private Investigative business with a partner. He’s the one that tells Bailey she’s not who she thinks she is. They end up on the quest together to unravel her past and stay ahead of those wanting her dead.

But where to go with book 2, Deceitful Truths? It dawned on me that I could tell Guy’s partner, Graham’s story. But as you will see when you read my stories they are about strong, kick-ass women. So I had to figure out who the woman was and what her dilemma would be but most of all how would she come to interacting with Knight’s Associates, Graham and Guy’s PI firm? Tarin soon came to mind. She was in a difficult marriage that she needed out of but I didn’t want it to be about that. I finally came up with her having something awful happen to her, she’d lost a week of her life but didn’t know by who or why. The consequences of it were unmistakable and that was why she’d ended up getting married. But now someone wants her son. So it was a great reason for her to need a PI firm but rather than hire them she decides to use their resources by getting hired by them. Her story is very much intertwined with Bailey’s, who’s story is told in Captured Lies.

Then it came to Book 3, Split Seconds, where was I going to go with it? One of the questions from book 2 had been about Tarin’s mom. Some readers wanted to know more about her and her story. So it got me thinking, ‘how could I use that in book 3?’ Tijan’s story came to life. Her story is very much intertwined with Tarin’s. They are identical twins that were separated as toddlers. Tijan knew about Tarin but believed she had died as a child. Tarin knew nothing about Tijan. Through a fluke of circumstances, Tijan sets out to find her twin. Not only does she find her but also a father she never knew anything about. He is not what she has pictured a father to be – he is cold and heartless and involved with the mob. After their father is shot and they learn that National Security and organized crime are very interested in their father and his dealings, Tijan switches places with Tarin to protect her. She finds herself running their father’s multi-million-dollar hotel chain, something she knows nothing about. And time is running out…

Although each story is part of The Caspian Wine Series, each is really a stand-alone story. Of course reading all of them will help to understand all of the characters in book 3, Split Seconds but I’ve written each in a way that you know what they’ve been through and what has happened.

Writing a series was a challenge. It is very different than writing one story because I had so much more to keep track of. It truly was interesting though to go back to the same characters and see where they were at and what was happening to them in each subsequent story.

There are no plans for book 4, I think the series is finished but… I have already been asked for it. So, we’ll see.

Split Seconds

Twins separated as toddlers, reunited as adults and now switching places in a deadly game to take on organized crime.

Her sister is alive! Excited to discover that her twin didn't die as a toddler, Tijan can’t wait to meet her other half but she struggles to understand why her only sibling hasn’t reached out in almost thirty years. Although the reunion is joyous, not everyone is excited to discover that there are two of them. Using it to her advantage, Tijan is determined to take down the one man, responsible for it all… her father. The secrets and lies that have kept them apart, soon unravel but with deadly consequences.

Pre-Order Split Seconds and get some amazing bonuses: Click here

p.m.terrell's Review

Just when you think Maggie Thom is at the top of her game, she writes another suspense that takes her to yet another pinnacle. In Split Seconds, identical twins separated as toddlers are reunited. Thom tells the story of their separation in chilling detail that brought tears to my eyes, forced the adrenaline to pump and caused my maternal instincts to feel their agonizing pain—and that was only the beginning. Lest you think all falls into place when they meet again years later, you’d better hang onto your seat because you’re in for more twists and turns than a world-class roller coaster. Thom kept me guessing to the very end with her skillful writing, believably flawed and engaging characters and intriguing subplots. I highly recommend this book.

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