Several weeks ago I received a letter from Bear Creek, Wisconsin.  I don’t know anyone in Bear Creek, Wisconsin.  I don’t even know where Bear Creek, Wisconsin is located in our fair state.  I opened the envelope and a check for $20.00 dropped to the floor.  The check had been wrapped in one of the forms I used for people to order books while I was at the Oshkosh Irish Fest in May.

There was a note in the bottom right hand corner of the form:

“Rex, I hope your offer is still good.  I just found the form in my jacket pocket.” (July 23, 2015).

I laughed out loud.  Who would expect a person to find the form months later and still want to buy my books (she wanted in on the Two Books for Twenty Bucks deal.

I remember talking with the young woman and her husband.  She had a desire to write and wanted to know how I had gotten started.  I shared my story and was impressed that her husband was extremely supportive of her dreams.  In addition I learned that her husband is a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker, skills I may need to hire soon.

This is an example of a connection writers can make with readers only by looking them in the eye.  I know the common wisdom is to rely on social media to market and sell books and I do some of that.  Yet, nothing, nothing can replace talking directly with readers, looking them in the eye, exchanging viewpoints and experiences.

For me, one of the best aspects of the writing life are connections.  Without writing I never would have met this young family.  I hope I offered enough encouragement for this young woman to follow her dream.  I’d like to buy her book some day.    

An author friend, Valerie Biel Johnson, stated a book club in a pub in Columbus, Wisconsin several months ago.  The idea was to support local authors by having the author sell books in the pub and at the monthly meetings the author would talk with readers.  Valerie called the club Books and Beers.

I was the third author to speak to the book club on Thursday, August 6th.  When Lynette and I entered the pub it was packed, people were standing four deep at the bar.  When we visited in July there were only four folks having dinner and they left once the book club meeting started.  About 15 attended the book club meeting.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk over the noise of the patrons and began to worry that the book club meeting and my presentation would be canceled.  I searched for Valerie and couldn’t find her.  About 6:45 Valerie arrived and we searched for the pub owner, Sandye to ask for a place for the club to meet.  Sandye told us that earlier in the day she and her husband, Aaron, decided to close the pub – TONIGHT!

Word of their closing spun around town and well wishers were there for their last beer and a bit of pub grub.  Sandye suggested the group meet in a room upstairs.  The upstairs office was hot and musty smelling as if it hadn’t been cleaned in the last century.  Our small group of seven persevered for an hour and I autographed books.

We all returned to the pub after the meeting.  A couple introduced themselves to me, they had been waiting in the pub, and no one told them our group had moved upstairs.  I had a nice conversation and autographed their books.  The party went on to closing.

The next morning I received an e-mail from other Sun Prairie friends who had arrived late the previous night and also weren’t told the book club had moved upstairs.  It happens.

I still sold more books in a single month that I have ever sold at an independent bookstore in a year and a half.  Entrepreneurs always struggle and working as an independent author I empathize with their challenge and obstacles to success.  Thank you Sandye and Aaron will miss the Hydro Street Brewing Company.

That evening Valerie began the search for another location for the foundling book club to meet.  She is an ambitious and creative indie author and I’m confident that in September the book club will have a new location. 

   

  

I am fortunate to have a small following of fans.  For me a fan is a person who has read both Murphy’s Troubles and Out of Darkness.  I even have a few fans that don’t want to purchase my books on Amazon but purchase them directly from me because it’s more personal and of course I always write something in the cover and sign it.  Please understand, I don’t have many that fall into this restricted definition of a fan.  Of those that are fans, I listen to them when they comment on each book.

Two of my fans have made the exact same, surprising comment.  They feel that Out of Darkness concentrates too much on Ian’s love life.  One fan thought that Ian was too amorous and that Irish men don’t behave that way (this fan is 100% Irish male).  Another fan said there was just too much sex in the book.

Really?  Too much sex?  Trust me; this book is not 50 Shades of Grey. 

I did want to show how a middle age man can fall deeply in love with a woman of the same age and how their life experiences mold the unique love they develop.  Certainly one aspect of a love relationship is physical intimacy and I didn’t want to avoid that in my book.  To be honest, I don’t like writing sex scenes.  I once took a class at UW Madison Continuing Education on how to write a sex scene in a novel.  It’s not about body parts; it’s about intimacy, sharing, innocence, vulnerability, laughter, joy, etc. etc.

I also wanted to demonstrate in Out of Darkness that having an honest, open, empathetic love relationship was healing and helps Ian fight his depression.  Love brings balance and a new perspective into Ian’s life.

 It’s not about the sex but good sex is a part of any healthy, balanced, loving, relationship.  What is most curious to me is that these comments came from men.  Who would have guessed?           

An author friend of mine, Valerie Biel, recently started a book club called Books with Beers in a Columbus.  Her idea was to support both local business and local authors.  The book club is held at the Hydro Street Brewing Company on a Thursday evening of each month.  Each month a local author is invited to make a presentation and sign books.  The pub owners agree to sell books and give the entire proceeds to the author.  That’s right – the pub owners don’t take a consignment cut.  Pub owners, Aaron and Sandye appreciate the business on a Thursday night and don’t feel the need to take a cut from book sales. 

Valerie presented at the first event in May, which is right, because she is the marketing genius behind the whole idea.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend because of a theater commitment.  I attended the event in June with author Silvia Acevedo.  There were 15 attending, larger than any book store presentation I’ve made.  The discussion was lively and it was an entertaining evening.

I was invited to leave books for sale in July prior to my presentation on August 6th.   As I was putting together the display following Silvia’s event a woman at the bar bought both Murphy’s Troubles and Out of Darkness.  When I asked her name in order to autograph the books she explained they weren’t for her but a friend who likes Irish history.  This is a pub in Columbus, Wisconsin.

This past weekend I received an e-mail from Valerie, they sold out of books and needed more.  I rushed another allotment of books to the pub on Monday.  I have now sold more books at the Hydro Street Brewing Company than the total number of books I have on consignment at three independent book stores.

Ya gotta love Wisconsin.  Please support my friends:  www.valeriebiel.com and www.hydrostreetbrew.com.

Out of Darkness

Rex Owens, author

CKBooks, publisher

Historical fiction, 400 pages

9780983298489, $14.95

Four of four stars

Reviewed by Inkspots Reviews

Complex relationships and human frailties compliment a rich, multilayered cultural, geographical, and political backdrop in Out of Darkness, the second book in Rex Owens’ Murphy series, a deeply rewarding and enlightening exploration of tenuous 1990s peace efforts in Ireland.

Owens brings back Ian Murphy, the conflicted and hard-drinking, yet vulnerable novelist from 2013’s Murphy’s Troubles. He’s joined by a mixed cadre of some familiar and many delightful new characters.

The story picks up in May 1998, soon after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and following a referendum in which citizens of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland vote to keep Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom, and call for an end to decades of violence, including the disarming of paramilitary groups.

Murphy’s abrupt flip-flop in Murphy’s Troubles, from being the longtime author of a secret training manual for the Irish Republican Army to helping to write the Good Friday Agreement, has left him reviled on both sides of the political aisle.

“Because of my work on the Peace Accord, I was considered a hero,” Murphy muses in the first few pages of Out of Darkness.  Yet, “the Provisional IRA announced months ago that I was a traitor for betraying the Cause, which we Irish had shed blood over for the past thirty years. Was it possible for one man to be both?”

But those political issues diminish in importance – at least temporarily -- when Murphy meets Mairin McCarthy, a librarian at University College Cork, where he lectures on Irish literature, history and culture when he’s not writing best-selling novels.

With Mairin at his side, Murphy begins to battle long-neglected demons, including alcoholism and depression. He begins to step away from the reclusiveness that had defined his adult life, and begins to think about his future path, that might include writing his memoir. At the same time, he relishes a closer relationship with his sister and niece, who have relocated from Belfast to Cork.

All of that is potentially shattered, however, when Murphy is asked to perform one more, critical act of service toward peace that would require him to move to Belfast. How he responds to the request could profoundly affect not only the lives of those living in Northern Ireland, but also his own personal destiny and his relationship with Mairin.

Owens demonstrates a masterful command of Irish political history, which while fictionalized is thickly intertwined with real events, such as the August 1998 bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland, by the separatist group the Real IRA. The Omagh bomb killed 29 people and injured more than 200 others.

As masterfully, the author strikes a fine line between simplifying the politics enough to hold the interest of those not intimately familiar with them, while infusing enough to hold the interest of those with a deeper passion and understanding.  

The author also, masterfully, breaks up the politics and related intrigue via an abundant, continual interjection of personal, cultural and geographical color, most notably heavy regional references to food and drink, particularly distinguishing between northern and southern Irish tastes.

There are also soul-searching, scenic mountain and seaside hikes, questions about religious redemption, romantic getaways, lots of malt whiskey drinking and exploration of the demons released by Murphy’s incessant consumption of it, hand-mixed pipe tobacco smoked by peat fires, and an understanding of mature love that finally envelops Murphy at the age of forty-eight.

Finally, there are insights that will be most meaningful to fellow writers. “The Peace Accord was my first nonfiction writing, and it would be my last. I lived in a world of fiction that I created, with only the characters I breathed life into keeping my company,” Murphy muses. “My relationship with all my characters we intimate. I understood their history, their motives, what they cared about.”

Like a first-rate Irish stew, Out of Darkness blends all the ingredients necessary for a great politically-inspired novel steeped in danger and intrigue, while also charting one man’s deeply introspective journey toward personal peace. 

With that perfect mix, the Murphy series just keeps getting better.

-Inkspots Reviews 

Attending the 2015 Oshkosh Irish Fest was a learning experience, a challenge and a smashing success for book sales.  The fair grounds are small and estimated attendance for the four day event was about 2500 but was hampered by rain for two of the four days.

Friday night attendance was surprisingly light.  I was to speak at 7:00 p.m. and just as the first words were leaving my lips the premier band for the night started playing – a full 30 minutes early.  It takes a lot to unnerve me, but the blast of sound almost knocked me off my chair.  My tiny audience hung in with me and I got through my 30 minute spiel, they applauded – for endurance, not content.  We sold two books that evening to an older woman who didn’t understand how debit cards worked; she thought she had a credit card.  I gave her my address and just asked her to send a check.

Saturday afternoon it poured rain which drove the attendees into the cultural tent where we sold books.  I had a table to myself and put up two huge posters of both books.  As folks strolled by I watched their eyes and if they rested on either book poster I would ask:  “How would you like to read a great Irish story?”  We sold out of books that afternoon and took orders for ten more books that I promptly mailed out Monday afternoon.  I’ve never sold out before.  NEVER.  What a thrill.  My presentation was at 5:00 p.m. and I only had four in the audience.  Later that night Lynette pointed out that half the audience purchased books after my presentation (she’s a pro at seeing the silver lining).

Sunday we didn’t have any books to sell, we could only take orders.  My presentation was at noon.  For the second day in a row the lady from Green Bay spoke to long and robbed 10 minutes from me.  The MC actually went on stage, took the mic from her and introduced me.  She still didn’t leave the stage.  I walked up to her, placed my hand gently on her back and told her she had to leave.  Finally, she left.  In the back row and large family was having their own discussion as I was talking.  Their rudeness made me very angry.  I told them they were being rude and asked them to take it outside the tent.  Lynette wasn’t happy with me.  I was people tired and my tolerance for their inconsideration burst.  It happens.

I hope to receive an invitation to the 2016 Oshkosh Irish Fest; I learned a great deal about connecting with people in that setting and sold a record number of books.  From my viewpoint, the presentations are problematic but probably necessary.     

Ireland Struggles Post – Good Friday Peace Accord

New fictional novel by Rex Owens:  Out of Darkness

 

The novel, Out of Darkness, is a compelling narrative of the personal journey of an ex-IRA member and his rocky road to redemption.  Once part of the now-defunct IRA, author Ian Murphy feels the need to account for his role in the conflict:  writing the “Green Book,” the survival manual used by IRA fighters and the lives those fighters took to further their cause.

After the bloody bombing in Omagh, Sin Fein turns to Ian, asking him to confront the IRA hold-outs and persuade them to end the violence.  Even though Ian succeeds, he feels he needs to do more.  In the fall of 1998 the British government is determined to build walls in Belfast to separate Catholics and Protestants.  The walls are a symbol of continued British intervention in Northern Ireland.  Sinn Fein leaders again recruit Ian, this time to convince the people of Belfast that new walls are not needed.  Ian fails and is forced to look within to complete his quest for redemption.

Out of Darkness is book II of the Ian Murphy series, book one, Murphy’s Troubles is available on Amazon or from the author.

Out of Darkness is available at: www.amazon.com/Out-Darkness-Murphy-Rex-Owens

Today is my official, public coming out.  I am revealing that I was born on April 1st and my Mom was 39 years old when I was born.  The day I was born my brother was 16 and my sister was 13.  That makes me the “whoops” baby.  Later in life I joked with both my brother and sister that effectively I was an only child.  By the time I was old enough to remember them they were both in college.

When I tell people I was born on April 1st they ask – Really?  I generally respond – You think I’d make that up?

I grew up in a small town neighborhood on Lincoln Street.  Hard to get more middle glass than that.  My next door neighbor’s Dad was a butcher, across the street was a salesman and an electric line worker.  My best friend’s Dad worked for the city and farmed part time with his brothers.  All of the Mom’s in our neighborhood stayed at home to run the family, my Mom did too.

My parents enjoyed giving me birthday parties for both friends and family.  I have some great pictures of wearing a cowboy outfit, my first bike and other best in the whole world birthday presents.

All of my life I’ve had the disadvantage of being gullible and overly trusting.  Every year my friends pulled April fool’s jokes on me.  I never once figured it out before they pulled off the prank successfully.  It was all good fun and we all had a big laugh, even though inside I felt it was at my expense.

Later in life I researched how the day became known as April Fool’s Day.  It’s all about the calendar.  The original ancient calendar was the Julian calendar which celebrated New Year’s Day on April 1.  Pope Gregory for reasons unknown changed the date of New Year’s to January 1.  The Holy See degreed in 1582 that the world would use Pope Gregory’s calendar which we now call the Gregorian calendar.  Word traveled slowly in 1582.  Those who either refused to adopt the new calendar or didn’t know about the change were given fool’s errands on that day.

Gotch ya! Happy April Fool’s Day!  The whole calendar story is a hoax.  But I really was born on April 1st.

        

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.   

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.