Eileen Donohue is a respected investigative journalist in her mid-thirties with two children and a husband who is an aspiring politician.  In the Cork community the Donohue’s are considered a “power” couple.  However, with the stress of two professional careers and two children their marriage has become an empty hull without love.  Their commitment to their professions leaves them without time, energy or interest in maintaining a strong marriage.

Eileen is attracted to Ian Murphy through his writing and she decides she must meet him by taking an adult learning course on literature from him at University College Cork.  Eileen is both selfish and self-centered.  She has no guilt in actively pursuing a relationship with another man and emotionally abandoning her marriage.

Middle aged bachelor Ian Murphy is fascinated with Eileen and astonished with her interest in him.  In a short time Ian is infatuated with Eileen which he believes is love.  Ian wants Eileen to divorce her husband so they can marry.  Eileen reminds Ian she is Catholic and Catholics don’t divorce.  Eileen needs Ian’s adoration and professed love but doesn’t make the same emotional commitment, she never considers it.

Eileen demands their relationship remain a secret and goes to extraordinary lengths to be discreet and secretive.  She fears the consequences to her career if her relationship with Ian is exposed.

Eileen accidently discovers handwritten drafts of what she learns are the Green Book.  Her curiosity and sense for a sensational investigative story drive her to expose Ian’s secret involvement with the Provisional Irish Republican Army.  She struggles with the decision to betray her lover or keep his secret.  Her selfishness and need to be the preeminent Irish investigative reporter have unintended consequences for Ian Murphy.   

Kieran Fitzpatrick is from County Donegal, the most northern county in the Republic of Ireland and the county with the longest border with Northern Ireland.  Kieran’s major flaw is his obsessive devotion to both the cause of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and his friend Ian Murphy.

County Donegal has the reputation for being fiercely independent and boasts the greatest number of Gaelic speakers of any county in the Republic of Ireland.  Kieran is one of the founding members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and a member of their ruling Council.

Kieran recruits Ian to join the PIRA following the death of Ian’s best friend, Timolty Doyle, during a raid in Belfast.  Kieran convinces Ian to use his skills as a writer to write propaganda for the Cause.  In 1977 Kieran recognizes that the PIRA recruits are not disciplined and are disorganized.  Kieran convinces Ian to write a training manual for PIRA volunteers.  Ian writes the manual that became known as the Green Book.  The tide turns for the PIRA with disciplined volunteers and the friendship between Ian and Kieran is impregnable.

Kieran’s devotion to The Troubles and Ian clash in the last chapter of Murphy’s Troubles and he’s forced to make a choice between his devotion to the PIRA and his devotion to his friend, Ian Murphy.  Kieran has the choice to betray the Cause or to betray friendship.  Whatever decision Kieran makes he will pay a personal price.

Caitlin is Ian Murphy’s younger sister.  Ian is ten years old when she is born and at that age has no interest in having a sibling – especially a girl.  Caitlin looks up to her older brother but finds him aloof and a bit of a mystery.  By the time Caitlin is eight her brother is off to Dublin to attend Trinity College.

The relationship with Ian begins when Caitlin is 18 and engaged to be married.  Caitlin wants Ian to be a brother to her finance, Brian Lourigan, because she believes Ian has always wanted a brother rather than a sister.  One of Caitlin’s flaws is that she is always trying to fix things that don’t need fixing.

Ian completely rejects Caitlin’s idea that Brian Lourigan can be his brother.  The two men, on the surface, have nothing in common.  When they meet Brian is 20 years old and a mason by trade.  Ian is 28 years old, a graduate of Trinity College, an author and lecturer at University College Cork.  However, the two men are unaware they have two things in common.  First, they both have secrets and second their secret is that they are volunteers in the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Caitlin’s major flaw is that she is an idealist.  After Brian Lourigan is killed in a botched IRA bombing she moves to Belfast with their one year old daughter (named Brianna for her father) to work with Sinn Fein to bring peace to Northern Ireland.  Her move causes major heartache for her mother.  Her father refuses to visit her in Belfast because as a young man was a volunteer with the IRA and believes violence is the only way to reunite Ireland.  Caitlin’s idealism is the cause of her own family dysfunction.

Brianna is injured by a Molotov cocktail while playing in a Peace Zone in Belfast causing Caitlin’s idealism to be shattered forever.

      

I prefer flaxed characters in literature, plays, and television drama.  In literature we tend to remember the flawed characters.  Take for example the famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes.  His flaws and his strengths are often the same.  He is capable of intense focus but it is obsessive and results in him excluding anything but the case he is working on.  Having the ability to focus in life is certainly an attribute.  However, taken to extreme, as Holms it becomes a flaw because he loses the ability to interact with others.

A flaw can take many forms.  A flaw can be an imperfection, a limitation, in the extreme a phobia, a personality defect, an addiction, hubris, insecurity, or a mental health problem such as depression.  I’m sure readers can add to this list.

Flaws can be divided into three categories:  minor, major and tragic.  A minor flaw is one that makes the character unique and memorable.  A minor flaw might be a noticeable limp from having one leg shorter than another.  A major flaw can be either positive or negative.  For example having rigid beliefs could be positive or negative based on how it drives the characters’ actions.  A tragic flaw is one that causes the character’s own downfall, the tragic hero such as Hamlet. 

Murphy’s Troubles has four primary characters:  Ian Padraic Murphy – the protagonist; Kieran Fitzpatrick, Ian’s friend and member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army Council; Caitlin Murphy (Lourigan), Ian’s sister who is 10 years younger than her brother; and, Eileen Donohue.

Each of these characters has one primary flaw and it is the flaw that drives their behavior and also provides motivation for their actions. I will blog about the flaws of each character in the next few weeks.

Folks in Ireland do not dress that differently than those of us in the USA, but there are some differences based on culture and climate.  Again, for authenticity it was important in Murphy’s Troubles that the characters be dressed appropriately.

The protagonist, Ian Murphy, is aloof, traditional and mildly eccentric and I wanted his clothes to reflect his personality.  In the novel this is best expressed when he goes hiking.  He has very specific clothing he wears for his outdoor excursions.

Weather can change quickly and dramatically in Ireland, especially along the coast and on the Dingle Peninsula where Ian Murphy spends a great deal of time hiking.  Ian wears a Dobbs walking hat, leather boots, a vest, a day jacket and a rain jacket.  The vest and day jacket are worn for warmth and to protect from the wind.  The rain jacket could also protect from the wind if it didn’t rain.

Small details such as how a character dresses can show us something both about the character and their occupation.  The bartenders in Murphy’s Troubles wear starched white shirts, without a tie and creased black dress trousers.

Researching detail such as clothing makes the writing more authentic too.   

When writing about a specific country and time period it is very important to be authentic, especially about the details of daily life.  It’s the snippets of detail on food, clothing, beliefs, customs, traditions, history, and geography. that give the reader an image they can create in their minds as they read.  I revel in readers who tell me that the scenes in Murphy’s Troubles are realistic, credible and have a movie like quality.  That is key to my style writing.

I was once told in a critique group that no Irish person outside of Northern Ireland would drink Bushmill’s whiskey.  I believed that person and removed all references to Bushmill’s in my manuscript.  When visiting Ireland in 2008 all the pubs in Dublin, Killarney and Limerick served Bushmills.  Being an ignorant American I asked the barman about serving the Northern Ireland whiskey.  “Why not serve Bushmill’s, its whiskey isn’t it?”  That’s the last time I took advice from any critique group about the details of daily living in Murphy’s Troubles.

I wanted my protagonist, Ian Murphy, to show he had been successful as a writer by some of his habits.  While in Ireland I learned the most prestigious whiskey is Midleton which is distilled in Midleton, County Cork.  The distillery was originally owned by two brothers named Murphy, so Ian Murphy became one of the descendants of the distillery owner.  Ian Murphy can afford the whiskey and has a family connection, it was perfect.

For research, Google is the perfect tool.  I was able to find learn about traditional meals in various regions of Ireland.  I had read that often potatoes are served in three different forms at an Irish supper.  I thought that was historical but again my trip to Ireland proved eye opening.  We went to a traditional Irish restaurant in a rural area near Killarney.  My meal came with mashed potatoes, several boiled potatoes and fries and a small piece of white fish – no other vegetables.  It was a lesson.

All of the meals in Murphy’s Troubles are authentic and you can find them served in pubs and restaurants throughout Ireland today.

I used several methods to choose the names for the characters in Murphy’s Troubles.  I didn’t want to make Dublin the setting of the novel because it was too common for an Irish story.  The main setting is Cork which is a very international city surrounded both by hills and a port.  County Cork was the home of Michael Collins and the county has a reputation for being rebellious.  I researched the most common surname in County Cork and it was Murphy, so the protagonist is Ian Padraic Murphy.

My son’s best friend is John Doyle so I chose ‘Doyle’ as the surname for Ian’s best friend growing up in Cork.  I read a story about Ray Bradbury when he spent a summer in Ireland working on the screen story for the movie Moby Dick.  He was given a driver, Timolty.  Timolty was such a unique Irish name I thought it was perfect so Timolty Doyle became Ian’s best friend.

For all the other characters I researched Irish male and female first names and surnames.  Many names in Ireland have been Anglicized but I wanted the characters of my book to have original Irish names.  In my travels I’ve learned that names are common to their country of origin and it made the novel more authentic.  I didn’t use the English version of a name.

However, I mixed the spelling of names between Irish and English.  The Irish spelling of ‘Ian’ is ‘Ion’ or ‘Eion’.  I worried that readers wouldn’t understand and settled on using the English spelling.  For some of the minor characters, especially when their setting was in rural Ireland, I used the strictly Irish name with the Irish spelling, again to make the novel more authentic.

I believe names are important and one hint about a character’s traits is found in their name.  For example, “Murphy” means warrior and in his own way Ian Padraic Murphy is a warrior during The Troubles.

As grandparents we’ve decided that our mission is to enrich the lives of our grandchildren by sharing experiences with them.  We have no interest in buying them “things”.

For Christmas this year we have searched for gifts that, at their age, our grandchildren may not understand but will, we hope, give them opportunities they will enjoy.

For our granddaughter in Omaha we purchased a family membership at the Omaha Zoo.  When we visited earlier this year the entire family visited the zoo and the pictures we have of our granddaughter staring at the aquarium and the dinosaur exhibit are priceless.

Our oldest grandson loves to visit the library with me.  This summer he learned how to select books he wanted to have us read to him.  There’s a children’s corner with a variety of activities that he has become expert in and he makes instant friends with whoever is there that day.

We decided that while only 3 ½ our grandson should have his own library card.  We completed the form, got Mom & Dad’s signature and I took him to the Library to get the card.  I showed him that his card looked exactly like mine.  We walked to the picture book area and he ran up and down the aisle grabbing books off the shelf asking, “How about this one Poppa O?”  Then he discovered the cd area and was thrilled to find Curious George cd’s.

We took our collection of books and the cd to one of the self check out areas that was at his height.  I showed him how to enter his code on the touch screen and scan the bar code on his selections.  Listening to the machine talk to him captivated his attention.  As we left the library I asked him if he wanted to carry his things, “No thank you.  You can carry them for me.”

We hopped into the car and as I turned the ignition, from the backseat he said:  “Thank you for taking me to the Library Poppa O.”  My grandson had given me the best Christmas gift ever.

   

I took a month off from fiction writing after completing the first draft of my second novel.  I’ve vacillated on a title but recently have settled on Out of Darkness, at least for the time being.

While I took a month off from fiction writing I didn’t stop working as a writer, I continued my blog, my Extra Innings column and most important, researched self-editing a novel.  Of course, I would never take on editing by myself.  I will hire the same copyeditor and proofreader, Christine Keleny, who worked with me on Murphy’s Troubles.  I am also working with my dear friend and mentor, Marshall Cook on story development and novel structure.

About a week ago I sent Marshall the first three chapters to read.  As usual, he gave me thorough, thoughtful comments – three pages worth of detailed review.  The last line of his review said it all.  “After studying these comments I think it would be a good idea to re-write the first chapter.  I hope you agree.”

I felt like a train that just derailed.  I didn’t need to tinker with this or that I need a complete re-write.  I studied his comments and read my manuscript together so that I could learn from his analysis.  Of course, Marshall is right, the chapter needed to be re-written.  I spent three days re-writing that one chapter and have sent it to Marshall for critique.

This experience has taught me that I misjudged the time I’ll need to edit a 97,000 word novel.  The first chapter is absolutely critical and I may need to change the point of view, meaning a complete overhaul.  I am thankful that I have someone like Marshall to help me learn the craft.  I need to get on the right track.    

I have always believed that much of the story of Thanksgiving is an American myth.  We want to believe that early European settlers were able to co-exist with native Americans and even that the Europeans survival depended on learning and adapting from the Native Americans.

In spite of the historical murkiness of Thanksgiving, the notion that we should, as a society, set aside a day each year is important and not frought with religious overtones.  Being thankful in life is important.

I don't want to judge what readers may be thankful for, however, I would hope that material things are low on your list.  Here's my short list:

--a life where I can pursue my creativity
--a caring, loving relationship with my wife
--two great sons and two wonderful daughter-in-laws
--my granddaughter
--my two grandsons
--my siblings
--friends
--the resources to have experiences leading to growth 
--opportunities to volunteer, give back and pay forward

So, don't forget to give thanks for what you cherish on Thanksgiving Day 2014