photo courtesy of FlickR As Mary Boland contemplates suicide after her brutal rape by three crew members of the Pilgrims Dandy coffin ship, she looks down and sees two black feet standing before her. It is a boy, darker than anyone she has ever seen in her life. She recoils in terror from the boy, […]
Month: September 2014
The Mystery of Mary Boland
People often ask where my characters in Shanty Gold came from. You know, how did I ever dream them up? The answer varies some. Today, I’ll tell you about my protagonist—Mary Boland. That was the name I heard from childhood of the girl who would become my great, great grandmother. My mother and aunts […]
The Magic of Ireland
So, this is the tale of two women. Very different women. First, there was me, really years short of being a woman at 18 but, like most girls that age, quite certain I knew the scoop on everything. It’s wonderful to be 18 years old, pretty, confident, and smug that your life is going to […]
The Irish and Catholocism
In Shanty Gold, Mary Boland experiences a crisis of faith. Can she stay in a church that she believes is treating women in a manner sometimes injurious to their health, both physical and mental? I shared the same issue many years ago. A cradle Catholic, I found myself at odds with many of my […]
Research: Darling or Demon?
So, when you’re writing an historical novel, research is sometimes fascinating and often frustrating. And sometimes, it’s downright maddening. For instance, how long would it take my protagonist, Mary Boland, to cross the Atlantic from Ireland to Boston in a ship like the one above back in 1849? Or, how does one get in […]