Pam Lecky's Blog, page 39
October 23, 2015
Competition
All you have to do is post a picture of you reading the book
to the Facebook Page –The Bowes Inheritance.
If you purchased the ebook please show the first page (Prologue) on your Kindle or laptop.
Closing date is 31st October 2015 – best of luck!
October 5, 2015
Finding a Home for my Characters
Louisa Campbell, my female protagonist in The Bowes Inheritance, didn’t materialise out of thin air – she had a past. Back stories give your characters more flesh and bone, so sprinkled throughout my tale, the reader slowly learns about Louisa and her family’s past and where they lived.
As I have family connections and a deep love of the west of Ireland, it was probably inevitable that I would choose this area as the home of this typical Ascendancy family. A crucial part of character development is that I have to be able to visualise their world and to this end, besides being fun, I spend a lot of time on research for all my locations. Without the benefit of time travel, that meant looking up the Landed Estates Register set up by NUI Galway, browsing good old google and checking out Archiseek.com and similar websites.
And I was spoilt for choice …
Here is a small selection of the wonderful old estates, now mostly in ruins, that I discovered. Sadly over 200 houses were lost during the Irish Civil War in the early 1920s, as the houses were often regarded by Republicans as symbols of British imperialism and burnt down.
Cool Park was the home of Lady Gregory, dramatist and co-founder of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
Cool Park
Gortnamona House – frequently visited by Percy French and inspiration for The Woods of Gortnamona. The house is now a ruin.
Gortnamona House
Eyrecourt Castle was home to Colonel the Right Hon. John Eyre who was granted the land by Cromwell. He built the house c. 1660. However, by 1883 the estate was insolvent and was offered for sale.
Eyrecourt Castle
Louisa could have been born in any of these houses and perhaps one day she may have returned … but that would be telling.
Images are copyright of Archiseek, and NUI Galway
If this topic is of interest check out:
http://www.landedestates.ie
http://www.NLI.ie
The books of photographer Tarquin Blake. Visit his website http://www.abandonedireland.com to see his amazing work.
September 21, 2015
A Foul Victorian Murder
Are you a witch?
Are you a fairy?
Are you the wife
Of Michael Cleary?
— Children’s rhyme from Southern Tipperary, Ireland
Everyone enjoys a good fairy-ta
le. Being Irish, I grew up with them and often heard tales of fairy forts and changelings and the consequences of interfering with either. Many cultures around the world believe in fairy abductions when a human child is replaced by a fairy. The theme of the swapped child is common in medieval literature and was often a way for people to explain children thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities. But changelings were not necessarily only children. There is a rather grisly tale which took place in Ireland in 1895.
It is the tragic story of Bridget Cleary
Bridget was born around 1870 in County Tipperary, Ireland. She married Michael Cleary, almost ten years her senior, but after the wedding she returned to her parents’ house, while Michael continued to work away from home as a cooper. Bridget’s independence grew. She was attractive, and forthright, with a reputation for a quick wit, and a direct gaze – none of which were common characteristics of young Irish Catholic women. Bridget was an accomplished seamstress and in addition to her income from sewing, she kept hens and sold their eggs. Following the death of her mother, the couple set up home with Bridget’s elderly father, Patrick Boland, in a house reputedly built on the site of a fairy ring fort.
By 1895 the couple had been married about eight years but had no children. Bridget continued her egg selling but often had to walk miles to deliver her eggs. It would appear that after a particularly bad rain soaking, she took ill. Over the course of a few days this seemed to develop into pneumonia or she may already have had tuberculosis. More than a week into her illness, on 13 March 1895, Dr. Crean, the local doctor, visited her at her home. He found her suffering from nervous excitement and a slight bronchitis. She was in bed, but the doctor “could see nothing in the case likely to cause death.” Dr. Crean then gave her some medicine. Father Ryan, who visited Mrs. Cleary on the same Wednesday afternoon, said that her conversation was quite coherent and intelligible. (Above image is Lily Fairy, by Falero Luis Ricardo, 1888)
Soon Michael Cleary and Bridget’s uncle, Jack Dunne, a seanchai well versed in herb lore, began to circulate the story that Bridget had been taken by the fairies, and the woman in the bed was a changeling. Michael even claimed she was taller and finer than his wife! The next day, Thursday March 14, he went to a herbalist and bought herbs as a “fairy cure.” A traditional remedy for someone “taken” by fairies, was to boil specific herbs in milk. Michael dosed Bridget repeatedly that evening, but only by having his wife physically restrained by family members. Witnesses said she was also held over the fire and questioned rigorously as to whether she was really Bridget Cleary.
On the morning of Friday March 15th, Michael fetched the priest, who performed mass in Bridget’s bedroom, where Bridget was lying in bed. Michael told the priest that he had not been giving his wife the medicine prescribed by the doctor, because he had no faith in it. That night, according to Bridget’s cousin, and other family members who were present, she was dressed and brought to the kitchen, where an argument about fairies ensued. Again Michael repeatedly questioned Bridget. “Are you Bridget Cleary, my wife, in the name of God?”
Eventually she refused to answer any more questions and in a rage Michael flung her to the floor, and half strangling her, forced some bread and jam down her throat. He then stripped her down to her chemise, fetched a lighting stick out of the fire and held it to her forehead (a gesture meant to chase out the fairy). Her chemise caught fire and whether this was deliberate or not is unknown, but then he drenched Bridget in paraffin oil from a lamp, until she was consumed with flames. He stood over her and stopped the other members of the family from helping her.
One witness testified that when he cried out to Michael Cleary “For the love of God, don’t burn your wife!”
Cleary replied: “She’s not my wife. . . . She’s an old deceiver sent in place of my wife. She’s after deceiving me for the last seven or eight days, and deceived the priest today too, but she won’t deceive anyone any more. As I beginned it with her, I will finish it with her! . . . You’ll soon see her go up the chimney!”
In the early hours of the following morning, Michael asked a relative to help bury Bridget’s twisted, and partially incinerated corpse. They wrapped the body in a sack and carried it to a boggy area about a quarter of a mile away. Michael threatened all of the witnesses but by the 16th March, rumours were beginning to circulate that Bridget was missing. Some time afterwards, it was reported to the local priest that Bridget had been burned to death by her husband and other family members. The priest went to the police. On the 22nd of March, after a week of speculation, newspaper reports, and intensive searching, the Royal Irish Constables discovered the body in its shallow grave. A coroner’s inquest the next day returned a verdict of death by burning. In the intervening time, Michael Cleary, in the company of his father-in-law and neighbours, spent three nights at the fairy fort at Kylenagranagh, convinced that he would see his wife emerge on a white horse, at which point he would cut her free, and rescue her from the fairies.
The police arrested nine people, including Michael and Bridget’s family members, neighbours and friends, in connection with the murder. All nine were indicted on charges of “wounding”. Michael Cleary served 15 years for manslaughter after which he emigrated to Canada. It is debatable whether Michael actually believed her to be a fairy – many believe he concocted a “fairy defence” after he murdered his wife in a fit of rage, and he maintained until his death that he did not murder his wife.
Her death and the publicity surrounding the trial were regarded as being politically significant at a time because Irish Home Rule was an active political issue in England. Press coverage of the Cleary case occurred in an atmosphere of debate over the Irish people’s ability to govern themselves and worries were expressed about the credulity and superstition of rural nationalist Catholics as a result.
Unsurprisingly, Bridget’s murder has been the inspiration for many books, myths and plays.
Check out:
Angela Bourke’s “The Burning of Bridget Cleary” and
“The Cooper’s Wife is Missing” by John Hoff and Marian Yeates
August 28, 2015
Angel Meadow – Hell upon Earth!
In my novel, The Bowes Inheritance, there is a brief glimpse of life in Angel Meadow, Manchester, where Fenian sympathies ran high and lawlessness prevailed.
The area was undoubtedly named for its idyllic scenery on the banks of the River Irk. However, the Industrial Revolution with its factories and workers’ houses soon swallowed up those verdant pastures. At the height of its notoriety, it became known as one of the worst slum districts in the United Kingdom. Today, regeneration has restored some of the area and Angel Meadow is now a public park – a far cry from a nineteenth century, rather chilling, description of the area:
“The lowest, most filthy, most unhealthy, and most wicked loca
lity in Manchester is called Angel Meadow. It lies off the Oldham Road, is full of cellars and is inhabited by prostitutes, their bullies, thieves, cadgers, vagrants, tramps, and, in the very worst sites of filth, and darkness.” (Image copyright Manchester Libraries)
For the period 1888-1890 the death rate was 50.9 per thousand per annum, while the average for all of England was less than 19.
Destitute Irish made up most of the 20,000 to 30,000 who lived in Angel Meadow. They had fled the famine in Ireland and had come to Manchester, the beating heart of the Industrial Revolution, looking for work and a roof over their heads. However, most lived in terrible conditions, often in the cellars which were dank and disease-ridden. The following is a description of such an abode, from about 1850:
“The place was dark, except for the glare of a small fire. You could not stand without stooping in the room which might be about twelve feet by eight. There were at least a dozen men, women and children on stools, or squatted on the stone floor, round the fire and the heat and smells were oppressive… the inmates slept huddled on the stones, or on masses of rags, shavings and straw which were littered about. There was nothing like a bedstead in the place.”
The Scuttler Gangs
Living in grim conditions, with little space, territorial fighting soon flourished with rival gangs (called Scuttlers) regularly engaging in violence. In an article he wrote for the Manchester Guardian in 1890, Alexander Devine attributed scuttling to four major causes: lack of parental control; lack of discipline in schools; base literature (such as the sensationalist ‘penny dreadful’ novels about pirates and highwaymen) and the monotony of life in Manchester’s slums.
The ‘Angels’ gang from Angel Meadow became so notorious that the police would often think twice before entering the area. The gangs gave status, excitement and respect to individuals who had little else. The Scuttlers were easy to spot. They used soap to flatten down their long fringes over the left eye, the so called ‘donkey fringe’ and closely cropped the back and sides of their hair. They often sported peaked caps and silk neckerchiefs. The flaps of their coat pockets
were cut into peaks and were buttoned down. They wore bellbottomed trousers, and some had pointed, metal tipped clogs on their feet. The clogs weren’t just a simple fashion statement they could inflict vicious wounds when kicking a rival. Each gang had its own distinctive colours and look. This attention to appearance served a practical purpose. In the heat of battle, it helped distinguish friend from foe.
Unlike the gangs of today, the Scuttlers had little interest in robbery or extortion. Their primary purpose was defending their identity by battling other Scuttler gangs in huge brawls, one reputedly numbering 500 people in 1879. They policed their territories and meted out blunt retribution to anyone who crossed them. The gangs flourished up to about 1900 but then slowly died out, mainly due to the clearing out of some of the worst slums. The setting up of Working Lads’ Clubs, the spread of street football and the advent of the cinema are all attributed to getting the young men away from the gangs. The football clubs deliberately targeted the young disaffected youths of Scuttle gang age; one such club was West Gorton, now known as Manchester City FC.
For more information on this topic read, The Gangs of Manchester, by Andrew Davies, or take a look at http://www.friends-of-angel-meadow.org.
August 6, 2015
Strange Connections: From the American Civil War to James Bond
The Fenian dynamite campaign (1881 to 1885) forms part of the backdrop to my novel, The Bowes Inheritance. During my research I discovered some intriguing nuggets of information.
It appears that both sides in the American Civil War (1861-65) engaged in terrorist tactics, planting landmines and clockwork explosives to deliberately injure civilians and damage property to invoke terror. The American Fenians were only too happy to look back and borrow the idea, and when Mr. Alfred Nobel was good enough to invent dynamite in 1867, an easy means of causing mayhem was born.
A Professor Gaspodin Mezzeroff (who was, in fact, an Irishman but claimed to be Russian), under the instruction of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, set up the Brooklyn Dynamite School in New York, where he trained students in do-it-
yourself bomb making ($30 per 1 month course). The British police became aware of the American Fenians coming into Britain with their deadly ‘infernal machines’ and subsequently monitored the ports. This pushed the bomb making underground with the explosives being put together in kitchens and backrooms throughout the Irish enclaves of Britain.
In 1883, the British Metropolitan Police set up a small unit within the Criminal Investigation Department called The Special Irish Branch, in an effort to curb the Fenian threat. This would later become known as Special Branch. Ironically, it was a Kerryman, by the name of William Melville, who was one of the founding members of The Special Irish Branch and his remit included dealing with anarchists of all nationalities. In 1893 he became Superintendent and ten years later he was secretly recruited to lead a new intelligence section in the War Office, which eventually became known as M05.
Melville, using the alias William Morgan, ran intelligence operations from a flat in London, using his knowledge and contacts from his years running Special Branch. In 1916, MO5 became MI5 and it is speculated that Melville then became the head of the British Secret Service with the code name “M”
… sound familiar?
If you’d like to know more about the Fenian terrorists, get comfortable with a vodka martini (shaken not stirred) and take a peek at Shane Kenna’s book – War in the Shadows.
July 24, 2015
Book Launch Today!
I am delighted to announce that my debut novel, The Bowes Inheritance, is available on Amazon from today in paperback and ebook format.
The story will take you from the bustling streets of 1880s’ Dublin to the north-west coast of England and into the sweeping majesty of the beautiful Lake District. When a young Irishwoman inherits a property in England, she encounters nothing but suspicion and discovers her property is steeped in dark secrets. One man in particular seems determined to send her back to Ireland as quickly as possible. Will she find the courage to solve the mysteries her property holds and can she find happiness with the man who is surely her sworn enemy?
I hope you enjoy the book and if you do, please tell your friends about it.
Pam
A book trailer is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RySnd...
July 19, 2015
Book Trailer: The Bowes Inheritance
I am delighted to launch my book trailer for The Bowes Inheritance
Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RySnda4z1zY
July 14, 2015
The Bowes Inheritance – Prologue
Prologue
The Safe Haven Inn, Carlisle, England, 1867
Alex Maxwell lifted his head from his hand and tried to focus on the player across the table. As his vision cleared, his whiskey-addled mind struggled to follow. The man’s eyes were hard and unyielding but there was the suggestion of humour there too; but at his expense. Everything about the man suggested the gentleman. He was convivial and charming, spoke with a cultivated accent and was dressed with quiet elegance. But there was just something about him that Alex didn’t trust. Until the last few hands he had shown no great skill at the cards, but Alex had noticed that as the stakes had gradually increased, so had the man’s luck.
Fumes of alcohol and tobacco were making Alex feel nauseous and his hands were slick with sweat as he picked up his cards. His eyes momentarily rested on the piece of paper in the centre of the table, where he had placed it, minutes before. It was utter folly to pledge one of his properties as a bet, but some sort of madness was driving him tonight. He looked at his cards one last time – three queens and two aces – a great hand, but was it good enough? Slowly he revealed his cards, his stomach churning, because he knew he had bluffed once too often.
From the bar came the rumble of talk and laughter, but silence dominated the cramped and darkened backroom where the men were playing.
“I believe my hand wins, my friend,” the man across the table said. He placed his cigar in an ashtray before laying the cards down on the table in a leisurely and confident manner.
Four kings.
Those around the table, who had had the good fortune to fold early, drew in a collective breath of reverence; whoever this man was, he was damn good.
Alex felt the room spin as all eyes fell on him, most full of pity, one pair brimming with derision.
“Where is this godforsaken place, anyway? I hope it’s a decent bit of land,” the stranger said, breaking into the stunned silence. He reached for the bottle of Bushmills and poured himself a glass with surprisingly steady hands; earlier in the evening he had given the impression of being quite inebriated. With an ironic twist of his mouth, he offered to refill Alex’s glass.
Alex shook his head. His tongue felt thick, dry and uncooperative. “It’s down the coast from here, three miles from Newton.” He felt his hands tremble; to lose such a fine farm in a game of chance was unconscionable. But he was an honourable man and he had willingly entered the game. His opponent had not cheated – as far as he knew.
“Never heard of it!” exclaimed the stranger. He eyed Alex shrewdly before leaning back in his chair. “I hope it is worth what you claim.”
Alex glared back at him in horror. “Who are you, sir?”
“Jack Campbell – at your service,” the man said, with a mocking nod of his head. “Perhaps we will become better acquainted now that we will be neighbours.”
Alex drew a ragged breath. Had he really just lost Bowes Farm to this man? His family would never forgive him and, most importantly, he would never forgive himself.
***
Available on Amazon on 24th July 2015
June 22, 2015
Under Cover Operations: My Search for the Perfect Book Cover for my Self-published Book
How important is your book cover? Crucial – pure and simple.
It’s a window to your world for the buying public. It’s marketing – and you need to get it right. If you are self-publishing, the cover is the first point of sale – it will either catch people’s interest or they will scroll past until they see something that says ‘buy me please I’m very interesting ’. If you are a well-known author then its significance probably drops a little, but if like me you are just starting out, it is incredibly important to pull those sales in.
Covers scream genre and you can’t get away from that. At first I balked at the idea of trying to emulate what other authors in my genre were using. I wanted to stand out from the crowd. But think about it. They are the competition and they are selling books – you want to join that particular party.
So now you need to make a decision: go the DIY route or get a professional to do the job for you. I had just spent a fortune on editing and proofing so mainly for financial reasons, but also because I was dying to try, I decided to have a go. (OK; I admit to being a bit of a control freak when it comes to all of this – well this book is like my fourth child!)
First stop was Canva.com. It’s easy enough to use if you want to do a Kindle cover and they look professional. You choose the Kindle ebook template and off you go … except I could not find an image that I really loved. I wanted something that hinted at the story and was simple and elegant.
Here are some of my first efforts using Canva images. I showed them to family and friends. Some had read the book and others hadn’t. I asked them which images appealed the most and what the images hinted at. Opinion was split – I went back to the drawing board.
But you can also import your own images, which is what I did in the end. My search for the perfect image took me to iStock. Canva costs are low – if you use Canva elements and images in your design they cost about $1 each and quite a few are free. If you import your own images there is no image cost at all, but you will have to pay iStock or the source site for your bought image licence in the first place (but it is very reasonable). By using an iStock image you can be sure that it is of the correct resolution, etc., and Kindle and CreateSpace are fussy about that.
I eventually chose an image I liked. It hinted at romance and letters which were themes in my book. But the original image was quite grey. I just used the photo editor on my laptop to pink it up and hey presto I had my basic image. I didn’t mess with it too much for one very good reason – if I cropped it I would lose resolution and get into trouble down the road when I would try to upload to Kindle or CreateSpace. I imported the image to Canva and added the text elements. Lovely … Kindle cover sorted.
BUT … CreateSpace is different. The easy route is to download the cover template that is correct for your trim and interior size and hand it over to a professional or if you have a graphics background you could probably do it yourself. I downloaded a recommended graphics software program but I knew it would take me weeks to get up to speed on how to use it and time was an issue. I was stumped because I could not use the Kindle cover (wrong size, and wrong format).
In the end I decided to see what the CreateSpace cover creator was like. The choice of templates is good but the amount of manipulation you can do is limited (fonts, size of text, etc.), however, if you are prepared to accept that, you can come up with a pretty good cover and I was able to import my iStock image. I’m very happy with mine and so far I am getting very good feedback on it. I changed my Kindle cover in Canva to get it to match as closely as possible and now we are good to go.
June 13, 2015
My Self-Publishing Journey
The publishing world is incredibly scary for the first time author. You’ve produced your lovely book and have every right to feel proud of yourself. But what now? Do you try to get an agent or go directly to a publisher? The answer is: don’t do what I did if you want to be traditionally published.
I completed the first draft of my book in six months and thought I had a masterpiece on my hands. Little did I realise that typescript (which turned out to be draft one of about six hundred!), held every novice writer error it is possible to have. (I still cringe!) So in my innocence I decided that the world definitely needed to see it and that an agent would bite my hand off to represent me. (More cringing!) The response from the publishing world was polite but negative. Worst of all, I had burnt my bridges – a traditional book deal was dead in the water.
Feeling rather glum I sought advice from a published author friend. She recommended two things: get an editor and consider self-publishing. Invaluable advice as it turned out. I contacted Inkwell in Dublin and arranged for a structural edit of my book. This proved pivotal – the editor considered the story was strong, suggested changes, and told me how to eliminate those errors that blatantly proclaimed the script as a rookie effort. My confidence was boosted and I started to consider self-publishing seriously.
In the meantime, I attended the Dublin Book Festival and sat enthralled by authors, agents and publishers – I was starting to get a feel for the industry and how it all works. A Self-Publishing Day in the Irish Writers’ Centre clinched it for me and I could see that my dream could still be a reality. One of the speakers that day was author, Catherine Ryan Howard, who has written and blogged extensively in this area. I ran out and bought her book, “Self-Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing” and I am very glad I did. Trust me, this book is the bible.
At this stage I knew I had to have another more in-depth edit done, preferably by someone who had an interest in my genre. I sought recommendations from historical fiction Facebook groups and found Hilary Johnson in the UK, who did a copyedit on the book and was kind enough to encourage me to publish.
In the world of self-publishing Amazon is king, so you will have to tackle what that entails. Preparation and formatting for Kindle and Print on Demand (POD) isn’t easy. You really do need to have a good grasp of the techy stuff and plenty of wine on standby. But it is possible – hey I have managed it! And, if you feel that is beyond your skill, there are people out there who will format your typescript for you.
And now my book baby is about to be born – next month hopefully.
So if you are starting out and considering this option, my advice is to give it a go. My one proviso is, however, that whatever you publish must be as perfect as possible. Pay to have your book edited and proofed professionally. The quality of your ‘product’ should be so high that unless the buying public actually investigate, they shouldn’t be able to tell that it wasn’t published in the traditional way.
Of course, now the task of promoting and marketing begins and I have a feeling this might be the most difficult part of the job yet … but I’m up for it.
