My Second Novel

My first novel, Murphy’s Troubles, was released in November 2013.  I knew I had an opportunity for holiday sales so I devoted all my activity to marketing.  My emphasis was to market locally by having author discussions at our local library, the coffee shop, and an article in the local newspaper.  One of the questions always asked at the author presentations was:  are you going to write another book and have you started writing it?

The little voice inside my head screamed – are you kidding?  I’ve been working on this book for over ten years – off and on, the last three years intensely.  No, I’m not ready yet but yes I will definitely write another novel.  Fortunately, my internal editor squashed the little voice inside and I would politely respond that yes I want to write another novel but am not quite ready yet.

By February of 2014 I was ready to begin thinking about the next book to write.  At that time I had no idea what I wanted to write about.  I started a few books, two or three maybe – writing about three chapters and deciding it just didn’t feel right.

One evening I had a dream and the protagonist in Murphy’s Troubles told me he wasn’t done with his story.  It may sound bizarre but that’s exactly what happened.  I began researching what happened in Northern Ireland in the months following the vote on the referendum approving the 1998 Peace Accord.  It was a rocky road.  In August 1998 a group of disenchanted IRA members formed a new group called the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA).  The RIRA refused to accept the Good Friday Agreement and vowed to continue the violence. 

In addition, the British government didn’t trust the citizens of Belfast, fearing that violence could/would/was likely to erupt at any time.  Their solution was to build more walls separating Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods.  These two historical events became the plot to continue Ian Murphy’s story.