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.

As with any relationship my relationship with my former publisher, Mischievous Muse Press was a learning experience for me.  Soon after the contract was signed suggestions for improving my manuscript were made.  One of the owners edited the first three chapters and instructed me to use her edits as a guide to re-writing the novel.  I followed her suggestions; however, my learning style requires constant exchange and a lot of questions. 

My re-write based on the suggestions of the first three chapters was only moderately successful and represented some growth and improvement in writing but I admit, not a great deal.  After reading the first re-write another owner suggested I purchase and study the book Word Painting – A Guide to Writing More Descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan. The instructions I was given for the next re-write was:  Show me Ireland!  I purchased the book and decided to read it carefully before embarking on the second re-write.  The chapters include:  What is Description?; The Eye of the Beholder; From Eye to Word; The Nose and Mouth and Hand and Ear of the Beholder; Figuratively Speaking; Bringing Characters to Life Through Description; The Eye of the Teller: How Point of View Affects Description;  Descriptions of Setting;  How Description Shapes the Narrative Line and finally The Big Picture. 

I took weeks studying McClanahan’s book.  My habit is to extensively underline both to help me to remember and to look up and find key passages months later.

McClanahan’s book has had a profound influence on my writing.  I must admit when I worked on the second re-write I realized my plot took place in a vacuum.  I hadn’t described characters by their appearance or mannerisms or what they ate and drank.  I had also omitted all but the most scarce detail on physical setting. It was a different manuscript when I was finished. 

All of the reviews I’ve received and comments from readers and book clubs extol the sense of actually being in Ireland when they read Murphy’s Troubles.  I’ve been complimented for capturing what it’s like to be in Ireland both from the characters and the landscape.

  

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.

After high school my son, Tim, and his best friend John Doyle (called just ‘Doyle’ ) saved enough money for a trip to Europe.   Doyle had relatives living in Ireland and their plan was to make their farm home base and make excursions from there.

The plan worked for about two months, they tried to get green cards to get odd jobs and extend their stay.  The world was in the midst of an economic depression and Ireland didn’t feel the need to have two Americans wandering their island taking the odd job.  As a result they ran out of money.  Once day I received a call from Tim, he needed $500 to get a flight home.  I wired him the money and within a week he and Doyle were back in Wisconsin looking for a job.

As part of his thank you for bailing him out of Ireland, Tim brought me a stack of Irish newspapers.  He thought I would enjoy reading papers from Ireland.  I’ve never understood what gave him that notion but it caused a euphoric moment for me.  In 1997 Ireland was still a year away from approving the Good Friday Agreement that ended The Troubles.  The papers carried stories of civil violence and atrocities.

One story in particular caught my attention.  A ten year old girl was maimed in a ‘peace zone’ in Belfast.  The government had created areas between the walls that separate Catholics and Protestants that were neutral zones where no violence was to take place.  Neither the Protestants nor the Catholics accepted the peace zones because they were imposed on them from the British government.

From that story I began to imagine what it would feel like for a family to have their daughter injured while just playing outside – being in the wrong place and the wrong time.  That became the major incident that I built the story of Murphy’s Troubles around.

In the front cover of Murphy’s Troubles in the Appreciation Section I thank Tim for bringing me those newspapers.

          

The last blog of 2014, this is the 48th blog for the year.  Weeks when I was traveling either for family or book events or just plain fun I didn’t write a blog.  Everybody, especially me, needs a break from time to time.  Forty-eight blogs in a year is respectable, I think.

In 2015 I have agreed to be the discussion leader for two book clubs.  One book club is in a local assisted living facility.  The book club is the direct result of a community reading program sponsored by our local library to have the entire community read the book Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman.  The readers at the assisted living facility didn’t want to read just one book and asked me to continue leading a monthly discussion.  Who could resist a request like that?  The only condition the group had was that they wanted small books, 200 pages or less.  Our local library staff researched the availability of books with 200 pages or less and gave me a two page list.  Library staff scours other libraries to order the number of copies needed for our group and I deliver them each month. 

Our library has several book clubs that meet there monthly including the evening book club, the mystery book club, the romance book club and the afternoon book club.  The discussion leader of the afternoon book club is moving out of state and the group was in need of a leader.  They invited me to attend one month to lead a discussion and give me a try.  We talked about plot, writing style, characterization and author intent.  It was a different approach for them and they liked my approach, they took me on as their leader.

I also participate in the Tuesday Morning Book Talk group lead by Dr. Emily Auerbach.  Being a member of three book clubs means I get to read three books a month and inevitably, some of them are repeats.

This month I’m re-reading Plainsong by Kent Haruf, who died recently.   I distinctly remember my first reading when I had to work to become accustomed to his style of not using quotation marks for dialogue.  At my first reading I was also amazed at how he wove the stories together at the end of the book.

For my second reading more things are being revealed.  First, I realized it is a literary work, not commercial fiction at all even though it had enormous commercial success and received several awards.  I also now feel that the beginning chapters when the characters are introduced to us with their own chapters are bleak and dark.  Gutherie is a high school history teacher with two sons and a wife suffering depression who moves out of the house.  Victoria Roubideaux is a pregnant teen whose mother kicks her out of the house and ends up living with two bachelor cattle ranchers, the McPherons.  While the story is unlikely Haruf makes in believable and credible.

I know there’s the adage that there are too many books and not enough time to read the one’s we’re interested in.  However, I am also learning there are some books, some authors in particular, that deserve a second maybe even third reading.  Wallace Stegner is another author in that category for me.    

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.