Noel Coughlan

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Noel Coughlan

Goodreads Author


Born
in Ireland
Website

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Genre

Member Since
August 2013

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Noel lives with his wife and daughter in the West of Ireland. He writes epic fantasy, science fiction and horror.

From a young age, he was always writing a book. Generally, the first page over and over. Sometimes, he even reached the second page before he had shredded an entire copybook. And you couldn’t even recycle all that wasted paper back then.

When he finally wrote and published a book, it took him fourteen years. The Golden Rule became two books so let us be generous and say he averaged seven years per novel. He has gotten a little faster since then. Honest.

His hobbies include writing, reading, and reading about writing. He has written about reading in the past, and he occasionally writes about his writing. He would happily stay at ho
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Noel Coughlan From my early teens, I wanted to create an original secondary world with a novel mythology. I conceived the Photocosm, as I now call it, as a world wh…moreFrom my early teens, I wanted to create an original secondary world with a novel mythology. I conceived the Photocosm, as I now call it, as a world where the inhabitants practiced a religion/pseudoscience centring around colour. Mr Blue Sky by ELO may have been an influence. The gods of this world were Lights of different colours, and matter was simply a tangible form of light. Also, darkness was not merely the absence of light but a light in its own right. The universe was a product of the interaction of these divine lights. I wrote a creation myth around this idea, and you get a glimpse of some of the events in that story in the novel.

The initial focus of my writing was the offspring of the Dark Light, the Sables. However, I was eventually drawn to the Ors, the people of Aurelian, the Golden Light. One influence in their creation was an image of a pre-Christian Irish stone head I had seen in some school history book. I suspect that the head actually may have had three faces, but the picture showed only two, in effect making the bust a sort of bald Janus.

I like looking at the world from radically alien perspectives, though they are very challenging to write because the reader needs to understand the mindset of those characters to appreciate the logic of their actions. Sometimes they’re a bit counterintuitive. I created the Stretchers initially as proxy for the reader, but they took on a life of their own. The forked cross is based on a forked stone in Ireland. It is also like a fork in a road. The saints are loosely based the early church in Ireland with a frisson of druidic authority. Irish folklore, particularly the changeling, plays a big part in their relationship with the Ors.

Lastly, the name of the book is an inversion of the normal association of evil with darkness. One of Aurelian’s many titles is Bright Lord, an inversion of Dark Lord. I like twisting and inverting things because well it’s more fun. (less)
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A Bright Power Rising The Unconquered Sun
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A General History of the Pirates by Charles   Johnson
"An absolute cornerstone of pirate lore and maritime history. First published in the early 18th century, this book remains the definitive source for anyone fascinated by the golden age of piracy. One of the enduring legends surrounding it is the ident" Read more of this review »
Noel Coughlan made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians GroupRestore Book Cover topic
" Hi Can the cover for the book below be restored please.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Thanks in advance,

Noel
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Noel Coughlan made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians GroupCover Is not showing up topic
" Thanks so much "
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Kelly  Kesh Hi Noel, I truly enjoyed reading The Fate Healer. The premise and execution were very engaging. I’ve already reached out to you via Gmail as I wasn’t able to send a direct message here on Goodreads. I hope we can connect there and continue the conversation. Wishing you continued success with your writing.


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