Artefacts

Clonmacnoise, Clonfert, Clontuskert

2011-10-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

DAY SEVEN

From Galway we pressed onward into the Midlands, the next thing to heaven for bog-lovers! Started out at Clonmacnoise, an early Christian monastery with many high crosses and grave slabs, and an interpretive center that imagines life there in the eighth and ninth centuries. The site looks over the River Shannon, and the fall color was spectacular—especially the currant bushes outside the entrance. Early autumn is a great time to travel in Ireland; most heritage sites are still open, and September is (statistically speaking, of course) the least rainy time of the year.

From Clonmacnoise we began to make our way over to Clonfert Cathedral and Clontuskert Priory, but our wonderful guide and driver Patrick pulled over when he saw a tower house and thought we might be interested in snapping a few photos. Paddy and I had visited this place, Clonony Castle, about seven years ago, when it was uninhabited and covered in graffiti. Now there was a large gate (closed, of course), but as we approached, a dog came out of the tower. And then a woman appeared, and asked, "Would you like to come inside?" Who could say no? Rebecca and her faithful Schnauzer Oscar, live in the tower; she's in the process of restoring it. The castle was once home to Mary and Elizabeth Boleyn, cousins to Queen Elizabeth I, lived out their lives here; their tombstone still stands on the castle grounds (it's now under the tree in the photo). Clonony was also occupied for a time in the early 17th century by Matthew de Renzi, a cloth merchant who was supposed to have created the first English-Irish dictionary.

Clonfert Cathedral is in a tucked-away little village in east Galway. It has a wonderful Hiberno-Romanesque arch, with six orders of arches featuring strange human and animal heads.Some of the faces are recognizable as individuals, and some have exaggerated features, similar to carvings from Mexico and South America. When we went inside, there was some fluttering movement, almost too quick for the eye to see. At first I thought it might be a few bats from the belfry, but it turned out to be a flock of orange and brown moths.There's also a nice little mermaid carving on the wall, below a row of angels.

Not far from Clonfert is Clontuskert Priory—you may be wondering why all these places have 'clon' in their names. It comes from the Irish word 'cluain,' which means, 'meadow.' Clonfert is actually 'cluain feartha,' which means 'meadow of the grave.' Place names in Ireland are clues to the human and natural history of a particular spot.

I like to revisit Clontuskert because it was the inspiration for the excavation in HAUNTED GROUND. Cormac and Nora are working away, sifting through earth and gravel for clues to the human habitation of the place, and Cormac asks Nora to look across the fields and tell him what she can see. What she sees is this... an ancient burial mound masquerading as a hill, out in the pasture with the cows. There's also a broken Christ figure that I put in the story. Reading from the story while we're looking out over the place that inspired that very passage always gives me goosebumps.

DAY EIGHT

One of the highlights of the tour (for me!) was our visit to Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan. It was founded in 1757, and is now a museum. The tour shows off all the old machinery and huge wooden vats, the barrel-making operation, and of course you get to sample the wares, both the un-aged clear whiskey (yikes!), and the smooth and golden finished product. There's even a challenge, to see if you can discern the difference between regular and peated whiskey (that one's a doddle!) and regular and sherry-casked. Congratulations to our friend Pat Wellingham-Jones, who won the whiskey challenge!

After Kilbeggan, we headed out to Leap Castle, which has gained a reputation as the most haunted castle in Ireland. We met Sean Ryan, the man who lives there with his family. Sean is a whistle player and storyteller, so in addition to playing a few tunes, he also gave us a bit of the castle's colorful history. Then he lit some candles and let us take them up the winding stairs to the Bloody Chapel, where one of the O'Carrolls murdered his favored elder brother, a priest, way back in the 12th century. We also heard a bit about the spirits that the Ryan family has encountered while living there over the past twenty years.

Very near to Leap Castle is a place where the road splits, and goes around a small blackthorn tree known as Saint Kieran's Bush. It's a rag or 'clootie tree,' a place where people visiting Saint Kieran's well just down the hill can make offerings or intercessions on behalf of someone who has died or is in poor health or spirits. Like other rag trees found all over Ireland, this bush is covered in bits of cloth and rags, old socks and neckties, plastic bags and key chains, rosary beads and eyeglasses and baby shoes. Each represents a wish or a prayer for some ailing person. It's a bit of pagan Celtic culture lurking under the veneer of Christianity. After seeing Saint Kieran's bush for the first time, I had to include a tree like it in LAKE OF SORROWS, which is all about the notion of sacrifice, past and present.

We arrived at our hotel (the Hodson Bay in Athlone) in late afternoon. I had cut some rushes at the cliffs at Bunglas, and after keeping them alive in bathtubs of various hotel rooms, I finally sat down before dinner and showed interested folk how to make a traditional Brigid's Cross. Many thanks to Marty Davidsohn for her scissors and yarn to tie up the ends, and to Carey Sidla McKay for sharing this photo!

Connemara, Galway City

2011-09-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

DAY SIX

A half day's drive through Connemara started with a trip to the coral beach outside Carraroe, Co. Galway, where we hunted for shells and studied tidal pools. It's a magical place, one I always imagine as a spot where a selkie might come ashore.

Found a perfect, intact scallop shell that opened just like a mermaid's compact. The beach itself is not sand, but bits of coral that feel and sound like crushed bone beneath your feet. A great spot for beachcombing and just communing with nature. You can hear the sound of the water at this beach in a short video I shot in April 2011. I think everyone loved this place.

The landscape of Connemara is one of my favorite places on earth, probably because I spent a bit of time there in my youth, going to Irish school for a few weeks in Carraroe. The blue and purple colors of the stone, the blooming heather, the dark green bracken ferns bring it all back. We saw some beautiful Connemara ponies about, and whenever you're in Connemara, there's usually an opportunity for a great shot of a white cow in a stony field. On that score, our trip did not disappoint!

We made our way to Roundstone (a bad English translation; the place is actually 'Cloch na Rón,' or 'Seal Rock' in Irish). There we visited Malachy Kearns, Ireland's preeminent maker of bodhráns, the traditional Irish goatskin drums. We had a bite to eat and visited with Malachy and his wife Gifty, and then had a look around at the workshop, where goatskins were being dried and stretched before being nailed to round wooden frames.

On the way back into Galway, we stopped off at the grounds of the Ballinahinch Castle Hotel, to walk the labyrinth made out of stones from the sea. It's a peaceful, meditative exercise, walking the concentric circles of the labyrinth until you reach the center. The site is open to the public, just part of the parklands around the hotel. Fly fishing seems to be the real ticket there. A lovely spot.

After our day trip, we had a little time off, so we walked around Store Street in Galway City, looking at all the marvelous medieval buildings. After perusing some great shops and pubs, and we ended up having dinner at the King's Head, built in 1612, and so called because the place was supposed to have been granted in payment to the Galway man who beheaded Charles I of England in 1649. Mussels, fish and chips, Irish coffee, beer, and a bit of bloody history. What more could a body want?

We had a little time to visit the statue of Oscar Wilde in the city centre, and poke our noses into a few pubs just as the music was starting. Galway is a great town for traditional music, but the sessions usually don't begin until 9:30 or 10 pm.

Mayo and Galway

2011-09-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

DAY FIVE

We started the day with a look at a lovely crannóg (fortified man-made island) and a few swans in the middle of the lake, and tried to visit the Knockranny court tomb in the woodland across the lake from the castle. Unfortunately the wet summer had done a number on the path up to the tomb, so it was closed for construction. Undaunted by signage, we tried heading into the woods, but ankle-deep mud sent us back to the carpark after about 100 yards. Even wellingtons were no match for it.

You can see a photo and a short video of the court tomb (with fantastic birdsong and bluebells in the woods) from my April 2011 trip here.

Our second stop was Ceide Fields, a Neolithic field system on the north coast of County Mayo that lay buried under bog for thousands of years, only discovered in the 1930s. The site is the most extensive Stone Age monument in the world, including fields, dwellings, and megalithic tombs. The stone-walled fields, extend over thousands of acres, and are almost 6,000 years old, making Ceide Fields the oldest known agricultural site in the world.

Turning south towards Castlebar in Mayo, we spent some time at the Museum of Country Life (part of the National Museum of Ireland), which has great exhibits of folkways and folklife, including seasonal celebrations, traditional crafts and foodways and trades like thatching and barrel-making, along with clothing and decorative arts of the countryside. There are cradles and hen houses and mattresses all made from hay rope; lobster pots made from heather. The ingenuity of it all, just using natural materials at hand, really quite astounding. There are also examples of the various types of houses, including wattle and daub, dry stone construction, various thatched roofs. I love this place!

Stone Age to Iron Age in One Day

2011-09-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

DAY THREE

On Sunday morning we headed north to visit Brú na Bóinne (The Boyne Valley), the home of Newgrange and Knowth, a couple of very fine Neolithic temples/passage tombs. Last year's group visited Knowth, which is a group of 18 (1 large and 17 smaller passage tombs). This year we got to see Newgrange, built around 3200 BCE, and known for the lightbox that allows a beam of light to enter the very center of the tomb on the shortest days of the year. I had heard that visitors weren't allowed inside the tomb any more, but I was wrong! Each small group goes through the narrow passage into the central chamber. Once everyone is inside, the guide switches off the lights, showing what happens in the chamber at sunrise on December 21. It's amazing and quite moving, being cast back 5,000 years into the past.

Heading west to Longford, we visited the Corlea Trackway Centre, a road constructed from more than 300 oak trees felled and split during one season in 148 BCE. The excavation of the roadway was carried out by a team headed by the late Barry Raftery, professor of archaeology at UCD in Dublin, and the person who related the true story of the red-haired girl from the bog that became the basis for my novel HAUNTED GROUND. It's a fascinating site, with an 18-meter stretch of the roadway preserved in the visitor center and museum (and the rest still out under the bog!), and home to a wonderful display about the excavation and scientific investigation, and what those things can tell us about life in Iron Age Ireland.

We stayed overnight at the Kilronan Castle Hotel (a 19th-century estate, formerly known as Castle Tennison), a lovely place on the shores of Lough Meelagh, near Ballyfarnon in Roscommon.

DAY FOUR

Monday was our day trip to Donegal. After stopping at Drumcliff Churchyard to see the grave of poet W.B. Yeats, we headed north through Sligo into Donegal, and visited the cliffs at Bunglas, also known more widely as Slieve League—the highest sea cliffs in Europe, almost 2,000 feet. It's also the seal-breeding area that Cormac Maguire visits several times in FALSE MERMAID. On the way back from the cliffs, we passed the house of Kitty Sean Cunningham, a local singer and all-around great character who makes a cameo appearance in the novel...

We continued to the Glencolmcille Folk Village, a sort of outdoor museum with replicas of typical Donegal cottages, a shop, school, and traditional fishermen's homes. Very like the place I imaged as home to the Heaney family from FALSE MERMAID, even down to the cast iron bed. Had a great time chatting with the Margaret Cunningham, a singer with the traditional group Na Dorsa, who works in the shop/office at the Folk Village. One reviewer said of Margaret that she "has the voice of a mermaid." Have a listen and see if you agree.

After a quick stop to take pictures of turf-cutting (as if one can ever have enough pictures of turf), we ended up at Triona Designs in Ardara, a traditional handweaving studio run by the family of Dennis Mulhern, a sixth-generation weaver. Dennis and his wife Ann had prepared some Irish coffee for us, which was welcome on this rather blustery Donegal day. I asked Dennis what runs through his mind when he's at the loom, and he said, "You can be miles away." Then he told about hearing his father lilting tunes as he worked.

The Holy Ground Once More...

2011-09-25T23:27:00.000-07:00

Posting from just outside Ballyfarnon, County Roscommon. This year's tour group couldn't be a nicer bunch of people, and we are having excellent adventures so far!

DAY ONE

Our first day in Dublin (despite a bit of jet lag), we took in a city tour, the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College (where you can see two open folios from the Book of Kells, along with one each from the Book of Armagh and the Book of Durrow). Once again, the beauty and exquisite detail of the ancient manuscripts astonishes. Such life and texture in the words and creatures, even after all these many centuries.

After all that, a short rest, dinner at the hotel, and a few of us even managed to stay awake for An Góilín, the traditional singers' session held every Friday night in the Teachers Club at Parnell Square. We heard a huge variety of singers and songs, everything from beautiful sad love songs in Irish, to rowdy sing-alongs and American ballads about the banks of the Rio Grande, and even a recently-composed comic song of praise about the Dubs' great victory in the All-Ireland football championship!

DAY TWO

A visit to the National Museum of Ireland started with the KINGSHIP AND SACRIFICE exhibit about the bog people found in Ireland, and how they got there. Visiting Oldcroghan Man (who was discovered by Paddy's cousin, Kevin Barry), always seems rather like a family obligation. We learned a lot about the possible reasons an Iron Age person might have been sunk into a bog. Some people believe it had to do with kingship rituals that sought to marry the leader of a people to the great goddess of the earth, and perhaps the bargain had to be sealed in blood. Of course, no one knows for certain, because the Celts of Ireland left no written record of their rituals and beliefs. Fascinating and chilling.

A visit to the Guinness brewery was next, something I'd never had a chance to do before, and great craic. An excellent exhibit about the history of the black stuff, and all the work that went into brewing, storing, transporting, advertising, and drinking it. Oh, and they give you a wee taste as you go, and pint at the end as well! Paddy's father used to work the canal boats that transported the wooden barrels of Guinness down the Grand Canal from Dublin to the Shannon, and he had great tales of drilling undetectable holes and (ahem) perhaps siphoning off a few pints along the way.

A smaller group of us headed back to the Museum in the afternoon (after a stout lunch!) to see the Broighter Collar and the Faddan More Psalter, the 9th-century book of psalms found in a Tipperary bog about five years ago. Some pages were still readable; others were fairly badly damaged. I've been waiting ever since it was discovered to get a gander at it, and finally got my chance. No photos allowed in the exhibit, but here's one from the National Museum.

Did manage to get a few good snaps of some of my favorite Iron Age artifacts though, including this one, the Loughnashade Trumpet, an ancient instrument found sunk in a lake near Navan Fort (aka Eamhain Macha). Here's a link to a video about the horn, including information about how and where it was found, and how John Creed of Glasgow made a replica of it in 1998. You can even hear the replica played by Irish musician and scholar Simon O'Dwyer. Simon's got a whole website devoted to his obsession with ancient instruments: www.prehistoricmusic.com.

After a nice Italian dinner (con gelato) in Temple Bar, we wandered down to M. Hughes in Chancery Street (home to wonderful traditional sessions every night). Had a few after-dinner drinks and listened to fine tunes (and a couple of extra fine songs) from Dermie Diamond, Helen Diamond, Vincent Doherty and company. Fiddles, pipes, flute, guitar—food for the soul.

All right, children, time for the leaba (bed) now. Much more (and many more snaps) later...

Packing for Ireland

2011-09-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be traveling to Ireland once again with my friends from New Departures. We leave Thursday, September 22, and return October 2. We've got a smashing custom-built itinerary this year, visiting many of the places that feature in my books. And the group this time around looks to be just as interesting and as much fun as the last.

One of our travelers, Pat Wellingham-Jones, is a fellow writer, and did an interview with Betty Dobson, who writes a blog called InkSpotting. You can read the interview here.

This trip will include some familiar places (the National Museum, and the Book of Kells, Newgrange/Brú na Bóinne complex, Ceide Fields, the Burren) and a few new stops as well: the Corlea Bog Trackway Centre (home to a 2,000-year-old wooden road), a day trip to Slieve League and the villages of Port and Ardara in Donegal, the ancient monastic sites of Clonfert Cathedral, Clonmacnoise, and the Rock of Cashel, and the Lough Boora boglands, Saint Kieran's Bush and Leap Castle (the most haunted place in Ireland), among others. We'll also visit a distillery museum, and sit in on a few traditional music sessions as well.

Full itinerary at the New Departures website.

I know that many people were interested, but unable to go this year, so I'm hoping that this will be an annual trip. I can see changing things up or adding different sites as the Nora Gavin/Cormac Maguire series develops!

I'll be posting snaps from the trip here...

Meet Me in Saint Louis

2011-09-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm bound for Bouchercon in the morning! It's the international mystery convention held every year in a different city. I haven't been in a while (didn't have a new book, broken arm, etc.), so I'm thrilled to be able to go this year.

Adding to my excitement will be the two stellar panels I'm on this year. Practically beside myself with giddiness to be in such august company:

Thursday, September 15, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
SISTERS
Landmark 5,6,7
These gals are doing it for themselves.
Robin Agnew (M), Jan Burke, Deborah Crombie, Erin Hart, Hank Phillippi Ryan

Saturday, September 18, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION
Landmark 1,2,3
Down These Green Streets-Irish crime fiction
Erin Mitchell (M), Eoin Colfer, John Connolly, Erin Hart, Stuart Neville

If things go as they have in the past, authors will be signing right after their panel appearances. Hope to see many fellow mystery-lovers in the halls (and bars!) at Bouchercon.

2011-09-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

My pal Declan Burke has a new book out. Well, two new books, counting the one he edited. And you'll want to read the pair of them, honest.

Dec's new novel is ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. Those who've taken my Compleat Scholar course ('Bleeding Green: Contemporary Irish Crime Fiction') will of course be familiar with Mr. Burke and his previous caper, THE BIG O, the story of a kidnapping gone wrong in all the right ways. He's got two other books as well, CRIME ALWAYS PAYS, and EIGHTBALL BOOGIE.

He gets some exceptional blurbs for the new one as well:

“A genuinely original take on noir, inventive and funny. Imagine, if you can, a cross between Flann O’Brien and Raymond Chandler.” — John Banville, author of THE SEA

“A fascinating hybrid of MISERY, AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN, and who knows what else … ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL isn’t quite like anything else you’ve read, in any genre. It’s clever, intimate, passionate, and funny: altogether a wonderful achievement.” — Irish Times

Find out more about ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL here.

The second book you'll want to pick up without delay is DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS: IRISH CRIME WRITING IN THE 21st CENTURY. Published by Liberties Press, this is a smashing collection of essays, articles, short stories and interviews by Irish crime writers on the subject of the phenomenal rise of Irish crime fiction. Contributors include John Connolly, John Banville, Tana French, Eoin McNamee, Stuart Neville, Arlene Hunt, Alan Glynn, Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen, Jane Casey, Gene Kerrigan, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Brian McGilloway, Declan Hughes, Cora Harrison, Paul Charles, Colin Bateman, Alex Barclay, and many more. Michael Connelly provides the foreword.

“A thoroughly entertaining miscellany of essays, interviews, short stories, memoir and first-hand perspectives that offers intriguing insights into the genre … [a] wonderful collection.” — David Park, Irish Times

Find out more about DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS here.

To purchase a copy at the Liberties Press website, please click here.

And if you haven't yet sampled this amazing crop of Irish crime writers, don't delay.

Another from the 'I Don't Have to Make Anything Up' Department

2011-08-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Another set of human remains were discovered in early August in Cul na Móna bog in County Laois (Ireland). According to Ned Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland (who very kindly sat for an interview with me in April), the lower limbs may have belonged to someone who was a victim of human sacrifice a couple of thousand years ago. At first the archaeologists believed that the lower portion of the body was encased in a leather bag, but now they're trying to determine whether the 'leather bag' found with the body is actually its torso.

This is one of the very few Irish bog bodies discovered in situ, that is, in its original location, so it's a rare find indeed. More will be revealed as the archaeologists and forensic scientists begin their work.

IRISH TIMES story on the bog find

RTE news story on the Laois bog body

IRISH ARCHAEOLOGY article about recent bog bodies

THEJOURNAL.IE article on the Laois bog body

Another cask of bog butter found, in Tullamore, Co Offaly

2011-05-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Two turf-cutters have just discovered a wooden cask of bog butter outside Tullamore, Co Offaly that may be two to three thousand years old. Joe Clancy and his nephew Brian were cutting turf in Ballard Bog when they came upon what they described as 'a huge piece of timber.' They took it out with a spade, and found that it was bog butter in container.

The container has carved marks around the edges, a removable lid with handles and holes, possibly for carrying. It's about a foot in diameter, about two feet tall, and weighed just over 100 pounds. After going home and researching 'bog butter' on the Internet, Joe Clancy packed the container in wet peat and brought it home, and immediately contacted the National Museum of Ireland. Joe Clancy also remarked that the white substance inside the container still had a 'dairy smell.'

Or, as Seamus Heaney put it in his poem, 'Bogland': 'Butter sunk under / More than a hundred years / Was recovered salty and white.'

Andy Halpin, the archaeologist from National Museum who visited the site to take measurements and recover the specimen for further examination, said that tests would reveal how old the butter is, and speculated that it could have been buried in the Ballard area because it was on the ancient boundary between two territories.

Coral beach outside Carraroe, Co Galway

2011-05-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a short video of a coral beach just southwest of Carraroe, Co Galway. There's no sand on this beach, just crushed coral that looks like bone, and lots of limpet shells. Here's a still photo of the coral and shells, too. If you listen closely, you can hear the hiss of the waves as they retreat from the beach. Ahh...what a delicious sound!

Knockranny Court Tomb, near Ballyfarnon, Co Roscommon

2011-05-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Thought you might like to see and hear the sound of a wood surrounding an ancient court tomb in Roscommon. A feast of bluebells and birdsong. Betty and I stumbled upon this by accident, one of those spectacularly serendipitous discoveries that you remember forever...

Archaeological tidbit: A 'Court Tomb' usually refers to a Neolithic (New Stone Age ~3000 BCE) burial site with a flat-roofed gallery, sometimes fronted by a semi-circular 'courtyard' marked out by stones. Sometimes the structures are quite complex, with more than one internal chamber. Other names for Court Tombs are Court Cairns, Court Graves, or Horned Cairns.

Ireland, April 2011

2011-05-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Just back from a research trip to Ireland for THE SERPENT'S EGG. And I just figured out how to embed a slideshow here in my blog, so I hope you enjoy it!

The trip was unbelievably wonderful, with visits to Sunny Meadow Farm (an impressive operation run by my friend Dermot O'Mara); farmers' markets in Mountshannon (organized by my friend Molly Lynch O'Mara) and Dingle; cheesemakers in East Galway and Dingle (okay, I just realized that I have lots of pictures of goats—I only posted a few!); went for a luxurious soak at the bog spa in Clara, Co. Offaly; walked out onto Faddan More Bog in Tipperary, where the 9th-century Faddan More Psalter was discovered in 2006; and stopped by the National Museum of Ireland, where I had a great chat with Eamonn Kelly, the Keeper of Antiquities. All very useful and enlightening!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Eileen and Tim Collins in Dingle. Eileen and her family run Kirrary House B&B and Scuird Archaeological Tours in Dingle, both frequented by our friends Sherry and Don Ladig. They hit it off so well that Sherry came home the last time and penned an air for Eileen, which Paddy and his group O'Rourke's Feast played at their February 4 concert. I had the honor of playing a short video from the concert for Eileen and Tim, which was exciting.

I also spent a lot of time dashing around to ancient sites with my delightful Aunt Betty, who proved to be a most congenial traveling companion. We found neolithic cemeteries, court tombs, crannogs, ringforts and places where the little people might live, as well as the entrance to the Otherworld (it's near Rathcroghan in County Roscommon—who knew?)

And did I mention the food? I love eating like France in Ireland, and we managed very well, finding artisan cheesemakers in Galway and Kerry (even French-style paté in Dingle), and feasting on homemade breads and home-grown vegetables from farms and markets.

I also sussed out a few of the places we'll be staying on the tour in September, including Cassidy's Hotel in Dublin, the Kilronan Castle Hotel in Roscommon, and the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon, all very comfortable places. Thanks to Mary Pat Flanagan and everyone at CIE Tours for their help in making arrangements.

Many, many thanks, also to the friends whose hospitality buoyed us along the way—Jody and Sean Henry in Portumna, and Sean and Mary O'Driscoll in Cork. Margaret and Brian McGrath also gave us a fine welcome at Riverside Lodge outside Kilfenora in County Clare. Margaret made some fabulous brown bread and the MOST delicious Guinness cake, and Brian showed us around to monuments not many people ever get to see in the Burren. Of course, we had to climb over several stone walls and get up close and personal with some nervous cattle, but that's why we were there!

Free MP3 for Friends and Readers

2011-03-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the month of March, and the paperback release of FALSE MERMAID, I’m offering faithful friends and readers a free MP3 of ‘Willie-O,’a song I recorded back in 1997. Just click HERE to download!

To give you a little background, I originally recorded the song for a CD called ‘Hunger No More,’ a fundraiser for Minnesota food shelves organized by our friend Dermot O’Mara in 1997 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Great Hunger in Ireland (also known as the Famine). I actually learned ‘Willie-O’ eons ago, from the singing of Cathal McConnell, an old friend of Paddy’s who plays the flute and sings with the Boys of the Lough. At the time I learned it, I hadn’t yet met Cathal or Paddy, but loved the beautiful, sad lyrics of this ghost story set to music. For anyone who’s interested, here are the words of the song:

Willie-O

My Willie sails on board a tender,
And where he’s bound, I do not know.
Seven long years I have waited for him,
Since he’s crossed the Bay of Biscay-o.

One night as Mary lay a-sleeping,
A knock came to her bedroom door,
Saying ‘Arise, arise, my lovely Mary,’
‘To take one last look at your Willie-o.’

Young Mary rose, put on her clothing,
And opened wide the bedroom door.
It was there she saw her Willie standing,
And his two cheeks as white as snow.

‘O Willie dear, where are those blushes,’
‘Those blushes you had many years ago?’
‘Oh Mary dear, the cold clay has changed them,’
‘I am only the ghost of your Willie-o.’

‘O Mary dear, I must be going,’
‘For now the cocks they’ve begun to crow.’
And when she saw him disappearing,
It was down her cheeks the tears did flow.

O had I great stores of gold and silver,
And all the gold in Mexico,
I would give it all to the King of England,
If he could bring me back my Willie-o.

FALSE MERMAID on Indie Next List 'Now in Paperback' for March 2011!

2011-03-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the
March 2011 Indie Next List - 'Now in Paperback'

Thrilled to be selected for the March 2011 Indie Next 'Now in Paperback' feature!

“Wherever she goes, Nora Gavin is haunted by the unsolved murder of her sister. Now she is ready to make a final assault on the man she believes to be guilty. Nora's efforts will unearth dark secrets, and bring closure to old wounds. There is a subtle, lyrical quality to Hart's writing, coupled with an emotional insight into even the most peripheral characters. Immensely enjoyable.”

-- Jennie Turner-Collins, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH

Real Good Words on KAXE - Interview with Heidi Holtan

2011-02-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

Just did a great interview earlier this week with Heidi Holtan of KAXE Radio's 'Real Good Words' program, about the residency Paddy and I are doing at the Kitchigami Regional Library System this week and next. We're on at the Brainerd Public Library tonight, and have lots more events coming up. Check the full schedule below...

Erin's interview with Heidi Holtan of 'Real Good Words' on KAXE

Here's a link to Heidi's blog as well. She's also on Twitter. If you're interested in books or Minnesota, or Minnesota books, you definitely need to follow her!

February 24, 5 pm
BRAINERD, MN
Brainerd Public Library
416 South 5th Street
Brainerd, MN 56401
218-829-5574
brainerd@krls.org
5 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien
6 pm - Writing and music workshops

February 25, 2 pm
CASS LAKE, MN
Cass Lake Community Library
223 Cedar
Cass Lake, MN 56633
218-335-8865
casslake@krls.org
2 pm - Writing and music workshops
4 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien

February 26, 2 pm
BEMIDJI, MN
Bemidji Public Library
509 America Ave NW
Bemidji, MN 56601
218-751-3963
bemidji@krls.org
2 pm - Writing and music workshops
4 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien
5 pm - Mini-concert with Erin and Paddy

February 28, 5 pm
PINE RIVER, MN
Pine River Public Library
212 Park Ave.
Pine River, MN 56474
218-587-4639
pineriver@krls.org
5 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien
6 pm - Writing and music workshops, plus mini-concert!

March 1, 11 am
LONGVILLE, MN
Margaret Welch Memorial Library
5051 State Hwy 84
Longville, MN 56655
218-363-2710
longville@krls.org
11 am - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien
12 pm - Writing and music workshops following

March 2, 2 pm
BLACKDUCK, MN
Blackduck Community Library
72 First Street SE
Blackduck, MN 56630
218-835-6600
blackduck@krls.org
2 pm - Writing and music workshops
3:30 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien

March 3, 1 pm
WALKER, MN
Walker Public Library
207 4th Street
Walker, MN 56484
218-547-1019
walker@krls.org
1 pm - Writing and music workshops
2:30 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien

March 4, 1 pm
PARK RAPIDS, MN
Park Rapids Area Library
210 West First Street
Park Rapids, MN 56470
218-732-4966
parkrapids@krls.org
1 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien
2 pm - Writing and music workshops

March 5, 12 noon
WADENA, MN
Wadena City Library
304 First Street SW
Wadena, MN 56482
218-631-2476
wadena@krls.org
12 pm - Writing and music workshops
1 pm - Author talk with Irish traditional music by Paddy O'Brien

Brigid's Day - February 1

2011-01-31T22:04:00.000-08:00

February 1 is the Feast of Saint Brigid, now a Christian saint, but once the goddess of fire and learning in ancient Ireland. Also known as Imbolc, the feast of Saint Brigid is one of the four major fire festivals on the old Irish pagan calendar. People still light fires on hilltops to celebrate these festivals.

A Brigid's Cross, made from green rushes

Here's a song in Irish that celebrates Brigid's excellent qualities, from the singing of my friend Dáithí Sproule on his CD "A Heart Made of Glass." Hear him singing it here.

Gabhaim Molta Bríghde

Gabhaim molta Bríghde,

Iníon í le hÉireann

Iníon le gach tír í,

Molaimís go léir í!

Lóchrann geal na Laighneach,

Soils’ ar feadh na tíre,

Ceann ar óigheacht Éireann,

Ceann na mban ar míne.

Tig an geimhreadh dian dubh,

Gearra lena géire,

Ach ar lá le Brighde,

Gar duinn Earrach Éireann.

We Praise Brigid

I sing loudly the praises of Brigid,

She who is daughter,

Not just of Ireland,

But of all the countries of the world.

A shining lantern of Leinster,

A flame throughout the land,

Leader of the women of Ireland,

One of the finest women ever.

The hard, dark winter comes,

Short and sharp,

But once Brigid’s Day appears,

Ireland’s spring is not far behind.

And here's a video to teach you how to make your own Brigid's cross -- though it's a little hard to find green rushes where I live this time of year. (Still four feet of snow in back yard!)

I especially like the detail that each arm of the cross should be made from seven rushes, to represent the seven days of the week, and the 28 days of the month of February.

ALA | ALA Press Releases

2011-01-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to all the winners, and may I say -- it's delightful to be lumped in with the estimable Louise Penny!

*************************************************************************
NEWS
For Immediate Release
January 10, 2011
Contact: Elizabeth Markel

Top genre fiction titles named to 2011 RUSA Reading List

SAN DIEGO —The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has announced its selection for the 2011 Reading List.

The Reading List annually recognizes the best books in eight genres: adrenaline (including suspense, thriller and adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and women’s fiction. This year’s list includes novels that will please die-hard fans, as well as introduce new readers to the pleasures of genre fiction.

The winning titles were selected by the Reading List Council, whose members include Jacqueline Sasaki, chair, Ann Arbor District Library; Alicia Ahlvers, Kansas City Public Library; Jennifer Baker, Seattle Public Library; Cheryl Bryan, Massachusetts Library System, Waltham, Mass.; Craig Clark, formerly with Cuyahoga County Public Library; Kathleen Collins, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle; Megan McArdle, Berkeley Public Library; Joyce Saricks, Downers Grove, Ill.; Sharron Smith, vice-chair, Kitchener Public Library; Kimberly Wells, Denton Public Library; Neal Wyatt, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va. And Alan Ziebarth, Chicago.

The 2011 winners are:

Mystery

“Bury Your Dead” by Louise Penny, Minotaur (9780312377045)

Troubled by past mistakes, Chief Inspector Gamache, in his sixth outing, retreats to snowy and insular Quebec City, where he becomes embroiled in intertwining investigations both old and new. Penny expertly delivers a layered story that is haunting, moody, and exquisitely drawn.

Read-Alikes:

“A Test of Wills” by Charles Todd

“Haunted Ground” by Erin Hart

“In the Bleak Midwinter”by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Short List:

“Faithful Place” by Tana French, Viking (9780670021871)

“The Taken” by Inger Ash Wolfe, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (9780151013531)

“Think of a Number” by John Verdon, Crown (9780307588920)

“Vermilion Drift” by William Kent Krueger, Simon & Schuster (9781439153840)

More on the ALA site

Sisters in Crime: Method Writing

2011-01-14T07:33:00.000-08:00

Sisters in Crime: Method Writing: "by Jude McGee We've all heard of the style of acting taught by the Russian director Konstantin Stanislavsky and the Actor’s Studio -- the k..."

FALSE MERMAID coming soon in French

2011-01-12T09:22:00.000-08:00

Good news for Francophones!

Just heard from my wonderful translator, Frédéric Grellier, that the French title for FALSE MERMAID is going to be
la légende de la sirène. The artwork isn't up on bookstore sites yet, but the designers posted an image on their blog...

What do you think? I absolutely love it. It captures the bleak, beautiful look of Donegal, where the Irish portion of the story is set.

The book will be coming from Payot & Rivages / Payot Suspense in a few months.

Aunt Agatha's Top Ten for 2010

2010-12-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to have received this glowing review from Robin Agnew at Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Makes all those months (*ahem* years) of tearing one's hair out seem worthwhile!

"If I were pressed, I would have to say this was my favorite book of the year—in my initial review I said that the best books are read with a lump in your throat, thanks to a combination of emotion, narrative and character. The third in Hart's fine Nora Gavin series, this is just such a book. Hart's time off has matured and deepened her writing even more—which is saying a lot. In this one she weaves together myth and metaphor to tell the surface-simple story of Nora returning home to Minnesota from Ireland to find out who was responsible for her sister's five year old murder. Grief and distance have created an estrangement between Nora and her parents; she's coming home to old family entanglements that have to be dealt with as well. Hart is a writer who has many similarities to Elizabeth George, P.D. James, Louise Penny and Deborah Crombie, with a similar skill set of complex character development and a story that accumulates more depth as the book progresses. She also shares some of Penny's poetry. This is a compelling and well crafted story of grief and attachment, highlighted by lovely writing. Welcome back to a major talent."
— Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha's Mystery Books

Read all of Robin's Top Ten for 2010 reviews at Aunt Agatha's website.

FALSE MERMAID out in audiobook format

2010-11-22T13:09:00.000-08:00


Rosalyn Landor Photo by Arielle Rudman

FALSE MERMAID is now out in audiobook from Audible.com, and I’m happy to report that it’s read by none other than Rosalyn Landor, who also read the unabridged versions of HAUNTED GROUND and LAKE OF SORROWS (under a different stage name, Jennifer McMahon).

Roz is an amazing reader, who has also narrated the work of P.D. James, Elizabeth George, Ruth Rendell (AND Barbara Vine!), Henning Mankell, Peter Robinson, Charles Todd, and that’s just in crime fiction — she’s also well-versed in historical fiction, romance, so-called chick-lit, and literature, including A.S. Byatt’s latest, THE CHILDREN’S BOOK. You can see a sampling of Roz's recent narration work at Audible.com.

And in addition to doing audiobook narration, Roz is a multi-talented actress with extensive theater, film, and television credits. Mystery fans might be pleased to know that Roz has appeared in Rumpole of the Bailey and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett. (Roz played Helen Stoner, step-daughter and would-be victim of Dr. Grimesby Roylott in The Speckled Band. And for all you sci-fi geeks, she was also in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation...)

The audiobook of FALSE MERMAID was released while I was in Ireland in mid-September, but I haven't yet trumpeted the news to the whole world. (See post below for explanation...)

Falling Down a Mountain

2010-11-08T10:49:00.000-08:00

Just after leaving the Hart of Ireland tour group in Galway on September 17, I zipped out to Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands, with my aunt and uncle. They were staying on an extra week after the tour, and I was to drive them around to some of my favorite places -- bogs, ancient stone forts, holy wells, etc.

Dún Aengus, Inishmore, Aran Islands, Co. Galway

Our first stop was going to be Dún Aengus, an ancient cliff-fort at the edge of the big island of Inishmore. We took a minibus up to the interpretive center, and started to climb to the fort. Ironically, I'd spent a good bit of time warning my wonderful aunt and uncle that the path was rocky (here's an excellent picture of the spot), and that it wasn't exactly a walk in the park -- so it was particularly ironic when I was the one who took a tumble.

Now, I don't recommend breaking a bone on an island with a population of 800. No hospital facilities, only a doctor's dispensary. But the doctor was very nice, and suspecting a fracture, she shipped me off on the 8-seater plan to Inverin, where I got a cab to the University Hospital in Galway. X-rays there confirmed a fracture of the surgical neck of humerus, in other words, the long bone of the upper arm, right near my shoulder.

Okay, not my bone -- but similar!

All the while, a song kept running through my head... "The Sick Note" or "Why Paddy's Not At Work Today":

Dear sir, I write this note to you to tell you of my plight
For at the time of writing I am not a pretty sight
My body is all black and blue, my face a deathly grey
And I write this note to say why Paddy's not at work today.

Whilst working on the fourteenth floor, some bricks I had to clear
To throw them down from such a height was not a good idea
The gaffer wasn't very pleased, he was an awful sod
He said I had to cart them down the ladder in my hod.

Now to clear away these bricks by hand, to me seemed very slow
So I hoisted up a barrel and secured the rope below
But in my haste to do the job, I was too blind to see
That a barrel full of building bricks was heavier than me.

Now when I had untied the rope, the barrel fell like lead
Clinging tightly to the rope I started up instead
I shot up like a rocket till to my dismay I found
That half way up I met the bloody barrel coming down.

Well the barrel broke my shoulder, as to the ground it sped
And when I reached the top I banged the pulley with my head
I clung on tightly, numb with shock, from this almighty blow
And the barrel spilled out half the bricks, fourteen floors below.

Now when these bricks had fallen from the barrel to the floor
I then outweighed the barrel and so started down once more
Still clinging tightly to the rope I fell towards the ground
And I landed on the broken bricks the barrel scattered round.

As I lay there moaning on the deck I thought I'd passed the worst
But the barrel hit the pulley wheel, and then the bottom burst
A shower of bricks rained down on me, I hadn't got a hope
And in all of this confusion, I let go the bloody rope.

The barrel then being heavier it started down once more
And landed right across me as I lay upon the floor
It broke three ribs, and my left arm, and I can only say
That I hope you'll understand why Paddy's not at work today.

I even started composing my own (albeit much abbreviated) version:

While climbing up Dún Aengus, I had nearly reached the top
When my foot went out from under me and I did a belly-flop


Chevaux-de-friese outside Dún Aengus (photo by Betty Rogers)

Another view of the chevaux-de-friese (photo by Betty Rogers)

Cliffs at Dún Aengus (photo by Betty Rogers)


Cliffs at Dún Aengus (photo by Betty Rogers)

So the upshot was that I had a whirlwind tour of most of the hospitals, clinics, and x-ray and A&E departments of west Galway, was forced to cancel my Saturday night reading at Portumna Castle (rats!), and had to cut the whole trip short. And I didn't get a lick of research done for Book Four. Very disappointing altogether. I guess I'll just have to make another trip to Ireland in the spring.

It's been just over four weeks now, and I'm on the mend. Fortunately the writing hand is still intact, and I've become quite proficient at putting socks on one-handed.

Minnesota Library Association annual meeting, October 7 in Rochester, Minnesota
(photo by Dáithí Sproule)

The only silver lining is that everything is fodder for a writer. Now everyone is asking whether Nora Gavin is going to break her arm in the next novel. I can't say whether that will happen, but it's likely that someone is going to break something!

So thanks to everyone for the well-wishes. I'll be back in fighting form in no time.

Hart of Ireland Tour Photos - September 2010

2010-10-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Round tower at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow

Kevin's Kitchen, Glendalough, Co. Wicklow


Hawthorn berries at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow

Taking the cure from a bullaun stone at the "Meeting of the Waters," the rivers Avoca and Avonmore

Music night at the Teachers' Club in Dublin with Jock Burns, concertina; John Kelly, fiddle; and Pat Good, guitar and vocals

Traditional musicians Jock Burns, John Kelly, Jimmy Kelly, Brian McCarthy


Death mask of Jonathan Swift, dean of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and author of Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal

Neolithic burial mounds at Knowth, part of the ancient Brú na Bóinne complex along the Boyne River

Kerbstone at Knowth


From the slopes of Ceide Fields, Co. Mayo, looking out to sea -- part of 5,000-year-old complex of field enclosures

The 4,300-year-old Scots pine tree that dominates the center of the building at Ceide Fields

Harvest knot made from wheat at the Museum of Country Life, outside Castlebar, Co. Mayo

Famine memorial coffin ship, Murrisk, Co. Mayo

Fairy tree, Killary Harbor, Co. Galway

Aunt Betty in the doorway of the old cottage at Rathbaun Farm, Ardrahan, Co. Galway

Window of the old cottage at Rathbaun Farm, Ardrahan, Co. Galway

The Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare


Statuary inside the grotto at Saint Bridget's Well, near Liscannor, Co. Clare

Sile-na-gig at the ruined church of Kilnaboy, Co. Clare

Blackthorn berries on the path to Dun Aengus, Inishmore, Co. Galway

Flower on the path to Dun Aengus, Inishmore, Co. Galway -- can anyone identify this? Last photo I took before falling and breaking my shoulder!

Romanesque doorway at 12th-century Clonfert Cathedral, Clonfert, Co. Galway

Detail from the Romanesque doorway at Clonfert Cathedral, Clonfert, Co. Galway

A high cross from the monastery at Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly

Looking through the window at Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly

Ireland snaps - Port, County Donegal

2010-08-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

I promised to post more pictures of the Irish and American settings for FALSE MERMAID...

This batch is from An Port, County Donegal, the model for my abandoned fishing village of Port na Rón, or Seal Harbor. It's a beautiful, desolate place, surrounded by blanket bog. All you can hear is the noise of the surf knocking stones together on the beach.

My favorite sort of spot!

Bogland near Port, County Donegal

Looking back towards Glencolumbkille from Port, County Donegal

The harbor at Port, County Donegal

The stony beach at Port, County Donegal


Bridge at Port, County Donegal

Looking down on the harbor at Port, County Donegal

Lumpy pasture at Port, County Donegal (ovine evidence in lower left!)


Pier at Port, County Donegal

Waterfall on the far side at Port, County Donegal

Book Club Reader Guide for FALSE MERMAID

2010-08-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

Just finished the book club discussion questions for FALSE MERMAID. These will appear in the trade paperback edition coming out in March 2011. Let me know if you have other ideas or suggestions for discussion!

1. False Mermaid opens with a newspaper article about the disappearance of a young Irish woman believed in some quarters to have been a selkie (a seal temporarily transformed into a human). What ideas and images did this newspaper article bring to mind? How did the piece set up or color your impressions about how the novel would take shape?

2. What parallels do you see between the murder of Nora’s sister in Saint Paul, and the hundred-year-old disappearance of Mary Heaney, the young Donegal woman who was rumored to be a selkie? How relevant is the selkie story to the tale of Mary Heaney, or to Tríona Hallet’s death?

3. In the selkie myths from Ireland and Scotland, a fisherman captures the selkie by stealing her sealskin, which gives him power over her. Nora believes that her brother-in-law Peter Hallet had some sort of power over her sister Tríona. Did Peter Hallett actually wield such power over his wife, and what is the metaphorical ‘sealskin’ he has stolen from her?

4. Nora remembers what Tríona said, that Peter’s behavior seemed harmless at first, but that she ‘let things go too far.’ What do you think Tríona meant by this? Do you think it’s possible that she still loved her husband?

5. What are some of the qualities we associate with mermaids and selkies? They’ve been portrayed in art and literature as wild, primitive, irresistible, sometimes dangerous or wicked. They live in the sea—an unfathomable, mysterious world that’s inaccessible to humans. Some people say that on a psychological level, the mermaid/selkie’s dual nature—part human, part animal—represents men’s irrational fear of female sexuality. What do you think?

6. Why do you think that so many people—and so many women, in particular—identify with the plight of the selkie, the mermaid, the fairy-bride? What sorts of impossible choices are ordinary human beings faced with every day—choices perhaps given symbolic flesh by the selkie’s dilemma?

7. Division is one of the major themes in False Mermaid. The novel itself can be seen as divided, on the one hand functioning as a detective story, complete with forensic evidence and clues, and on the other hand exploring the mysterious underworld of the subconscious. Many characters in this novel are also divided, either figuratively or quite literally; what sorts of references to divided creatures did you perceive as you read the story?

8. Shape-shifting and transformation are among the major themes in False Mermaid. Several characters are shown changing shape, wearing disguises, or assuming a different identity. Can you think of several instances where this sort of change is depicted or suggested?

9. Ireland has long been a place where belief in the otherworld remains strong. But doesn’t the American portion of False Mermaid also contain other-worldly elements? Which characters, scenes, or images in the Saint Paul-based chapters help to underscore the novel’s other-wordly atmosphere?

10. There are numerous fairy-tale elements in False Mermaid: the unsettling danger that lurks in the woods at Hidden Falls, the crone on the park bench who tells Nora where to find Harry Shaughnessy, the one-eyed seal that appears in Seattle and later in Ireland, and perhaps most especially the notion of a seal shedding its skin and transforming into a human. How do these fairy-story elements and characters get under the surface of human emotions, and in what ways do you think they connect with our subconscious?

11. A woman leaving her husband, even an abusive one, was so unusual in the past that legends like that of the selkie may have been made up to explain it. What other bits of lore and legend could be interpreted in similar ways?

12. Tales of fairy abduction, fairy brides, selkies, and changelings often refer to the person in question being out of sorts, not herself—as in the lyrics of the mermaid song: ‘It seems you’ve faded away and abandoned the love of life.’ People who had lost the love of life were supposedly more susceptible to being taken away or transformed by other-wordly powers. Do you think stories of shape-shifting, abduction, or “spirit sickness” might have been a way to explain things like mental illness or depression in an age before these subjects were as broadly understood as they are now?

13. Each section of False Mermaid begins with a quotation from a Victorian folklorist or naturalist. What did you learn about the prevailing Victorian attitudes toward the subjects these men were writing about—the relationships between humans and animals, between civilized societies and so-called ‘primitive cultures’ (which included most of Irish rural culture at the time), and unsettling, ancient notions of female emancipation represented by the selkie stories?

14. Both Nora Gavin and her sister fear that they’ve lost the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Think about the different meanings of the words ‘true’ and ‘false.’ In folk songs, people are sometimes described as ‘true’ or ‘false’ lovers. How do these different meanings come into play in False Mermaid?

15. The title False Mermaid is an obvious reference to the botanical clue that eventually solves Tríona’s murder, but are there other references to a ‘false mermaid’ in the story? Did this story make you examine your own ideas and perceptions about gender roles and sexuality?

16. What sorts of experiences and connections do Elizabeth, Tríona, and Nora have with seals in this novel? If the one-eyed seal is a symbol, who or what do you think it represents? Doesn’t Cormac also discover something about his own previously unknown connections with seals and selkies?

17. Nora Gavin, in observing Elizabeth’s first meeting with Garrett Devaney’s daughter Róisín, thinks about the way children use ‘animal ways of knowing.’ Cormac and Devaney both seem to believe that children perceive much more than adults realize. How important is the element of nonverbal communication in this story? Do you remember any scenes where a person’s behavior is at odds with the words that character speaks?

18. Music plays a strong role in False Mermaid; it’s one of Nora’s strongest connections to her sister. Cormac also discovers that his father played traditional music at one time, something he didn’t realize that they had in common. How is music part of the thread of nonverbal communication that winds throughout this story?

19. Water is another important element in False Mermaid. The Atlantic and the Mississippi River are central to each setting. Why do you think water is such a powerful force in the human imagination?

20. The novel ends with Elizabeth unable to believe her father culpable in her mother’s terrible murder—how realistic do you think this choice was? Why do you think the author chose to leave Elizabeth Hallett’s feelings for her father unresolved?

21. Which were the most memorable scenes in False Mermaid? What ideas or images stayed in your mind after reading the book, and what were the most interesting bits of insight or information you gained?

22. How does Erin Hart’s work fit into the tradition of mystery/crime writing? Are there any authors—past or present—that you would consider similar in style or tone?

Many to Wendy Webb, Marlyn Beebe, Marlys Johnson, and Linda White for their excellent ideas and suggestions. Go raibh mile maith agaibh!

Reader's Guide for FALSE MERMAID

2010-07-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

I'm working on the Reader's Guide that will be in the trade paperback edition of FALSE MERMAID. I've got lots of questions of my own, but wondered if anyone who's read the book would like to contribute a question or two. Anybody whose question ends up in the book club edition will receive a little prize -- a cool FALSE MERMAID refrigerator magnet -- and of course a humble author's undying gratitude!

Just send any questions to me at: mail@erinhart.com

My official deadline is August 1, but I'd love to get them in sooner!

Go raibh mile maith agat!*

-- Erin

* A thousand thanks

Minnesota Crime Wave Presents - Interview

2010-05-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Minnesota Crime Wave (Carl Brookins, Ellen Hart and William Kent Krueger) has just posted a new round of interviews on their website, including Brian Freeman, Cara Black, Richard Thompson, Judith Guest, and yours truly. (Parts Two and Three are below; I'm not actually interviewed in Part One of program #22.)

Check the Minnesota Crime Wave site for lots of fascinating discussions with local and visiting crime writers...

Bleeding Green: Irish Crime Fiction Overview

2010-05-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

My first novel, HAUNTED GROUND, was based on a true story I heard from an Irish archaeologist: In 1955 two farmers, cutting turf for their fire in the west of Ireland, discovered the perfectly preserved, severed head of a beautiful red-haired girl. From all appearances, she had been decapitated, and her remains had been buried in the bog for about 350 years. The moment I heard that story, I was convinced that it would make a smashing opening for a crime novel. Questions burst like fireworks in my head. Who was the girl? How did she come to be buried in the bog, and what crime could she have committed—why else would someone have deliberately cut off her head? And archaeology seemed a particularly apt metaphor for police work: digging through layers, searching for incomplete fragments that might help piece together a picture of the past.

In 1996, when I started writing HAUNTED GROUND, I decided it might be wise to undertake my own cursory survey of existing Irish crime writing. Feeling like an American upstart, trying to screw up my courage in order to write a story set in a country that was not my own, I wanted to see who else was writing crime fiction in and about Ireland. I scoured libraries and bookshops, expecting to be inundated.

Ireland seemed to me a setting rife with raw material: its long history of violence and bloodshed, including an underground guerilla war that has raged for centuries; a culture, like every other, replete with domestic secrets and resentments, not to mention decades of repression in the name of morality. The ruins and stones underfoot seemed ready-made set pieces for dark and moody crime fiction. And yet Ireland seemed oddly under-represented in the field. I admit that I took my survey no further—I had a book to write.

But when I was invited to this conference, I decided to approach this lingering question as a detective might: interviewing fellow writers and experts, tracking a few clues and even dreaming up a few theories of my own.

I make no pretensions to scholarship, but only note here some trends and convergences that I and others have observed.

When I say that Ireland seemed under-represented in crime writing, it’s not that crime is not present in Irish writing in general. The element of crime figures profoundly in Irish literature. One has only to look into the work of contemporary icons like Edna O’Brien and William Trevor—among others—to see that crimes, criminal psychology, and aberrant behavior are as much a part of their work as in that of any self-professed crime novelist.

Perhaps that’s where most Irish crime fiction was hiding, in amongst the general fiction. But why? Where was the writing that publishers, bookshops, and libraries might shelve under the heading “Crime Fiction”?

Rural society, low crime rate

Perhaps one reason that crime writing has been slow to take off in Ireland is that—outside of Dublin, of course—Ireland has remained, until quite recently, a very a close-knit mostly rural society. Violent crimes were committed, of course, but oftentimes there was not a lot of mystery about whodunit. Most murders, in particular, were solved very quickly, since they were rarely committed by someone unknown to the victim.

But—no doubt sharing my view about its mystique—several British writers of the early twentieth century used Ireland as a setting: Sheila Pim, who wrote what might be called traditional village mysteries, and others including Nicholas Blake (Cecil Day-Lewis, A Private Wound,1939) and Michael Innes (J.I.M. Stewart, The Case of the Journeying Boy, 1949).

I queried John-Gavin Scaggs, a professor at the University of Limerick, whose new book, Crime Fiction was published in 2004, and he observed that, “…while rural idylls are central to the fiction of Agatha Christie, the painful truth of rural existence in Ireland probably made an approach like Christie’s either unpalatable or unworkable for most Irish writers of the same period.”

However, in the early 1950s, an Irish children’s author named Eilis Dillon published three detective novels, the first of their kind to be set in Ireland. Scholars of the genre politely dismiss those stories today as “mainly interesting as vintage works.”

I was hard-pressed to find any crime writing at all between the late 1950s and the early 1980s, when Donegal writer Patrick McGinley explored some dark territory in rural Ireland. But his influence was clearly closer to the kind of fantastical, absurdist writing coming from fellow Irish authors—Flann O’Brien springs to mind—than any British crime writer.

Political violence took center stage

It’s probably not coincidence that this empty period in Irish crime fiction writing coincided with the worst of the recent so-called Troubles in the north of Ireland. Another factor in the Irish lag in crime writing might be that political violence has long overshadowed what might be termed ‘ordinary crime’ in Ireland. Novelist John Connolly points out, in trying to explain the lack of Irish crime fiction: “Many of those writers who have tried to write mystery novels have ended up using the structure to explore the situation in Northern Ireland, since there was no crime to compare with what was happening across the border.”

On the other hand, it’s important to point out that political violence has more recently given rise to variations in the crime genre in Ireland, in the work of writers like Eoin McNamee, Eugene McEldowney, among others. While not the major focus of the plots, Northern Ireland politics also flavors the writing of many others as well, including Colin Bateman, and John Brady.

A literary tradition suspicious of success

Perhaps Ireland’s late entry into crime writing had something to do with a literary tradition that was just that—literary. Crime writing has long languished in the cellar, the unacknowledged bastard child of literature, which has probably discouraged some young Irish writers from giving it a try. In a few instances, there’s been outright hostility to writers of genre fiction.

A case in point: Ken Bruen’s works are praised around the world. Bruen’s works are sharp, violent, stark, and funny—what some have called ‘Hibernian noir.’ One critic described his novels as “crime fiction on the scale of Sophoclean tragedy.” Yet in the first fifteen years of his career as a crime novelist, Bruen never had a book reviewed in the Irish newspapers. When he attended a literary festival a few years ago, a well-known poet was quoted as saying that it was a “thundering disgrace” that someone like Bruen had been invited and that he should be summarily ejected.

But literary snobbishness is hardly unique to Ireland, and doesn’t really explain the lack of crime fiction. In trying to characterize Irish crime writing, it’s important to look to the larger literary universe. Because it’s written mainly in English, Irish fiction has always been held up beside British and American fiction, its characteristics analyzed within that context.

Ireland has always enjoyed what might be termed an idiosyncratic literary tradition, if there can be such a thing. In Irish literature, as in other avenues of Irish life, there is a natural and inborn rebellious streak. James Joyce once confided to a friend: ‘It is my revolt against the English conventions, literary and otherwise, that is the main source of my talent.’

Terry Eagleton, a professor of English literature at Oxford, who has written extensively about Irish literature, puts it this way:

Unhampered by an imposing classical tradition, fiction in Ireland was free to fantasise, experiment, mix its genres, make it up as it went along. It is no accident that in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, the country produced two of the greatest anti-novels of all time, flouting the sedate protocols of English literary realism.

He says, further:

Irish writers were never as convinced as their English counterparts that there was some inherent merit in reflecting the world as it is. . . From Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels to Patrick McCabe’s Mondo Desperado!, it is non-existent worlds which enthral the Irish imagination, realms of extravagant fantasy which can be played off against the small-town tedium of the actual. A literature which includes such spiritual extravaganzas as Maria Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent, Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Samuel Beckett’s Molloy and Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman can hardly be accused of slavishly mimicking Trollope and Thackeray. Irish fiction never bothered its head too much about well-rounded characters, narrative continuities or integrated endings…

Eagleton says, which some consider fairly critical to crime writing as a form. Instead, Irish fiction in general carried a lot from the Irish language in its genetic makeup—a love of language, color, and exaggeration, a passion for satire, riddles, and double-meanings. So it seems quite natural to postulate that the detective story—and especially the staid British detective story, which in its early structure tended to follow certain narrowly prescribed literary conventions—was not a form that would have appealed to many Irish writers.

And as the contemporary Irish crime novelist John Connolly notes (a little distastefully, it seems):

In what is regarded as ‘Golden Age’ detective fiction, the books of Christie, Sayers, etc… there is a conservatism which is a product of their time, a faith in the institutions of law and of the state…

Some would argue the point further, citing that the conventional values of detective fiction—pitting the forces of law and order against law-breakers—runs in opposition to one of the deepest undercurrents of Irish culture, which is an abiding mistrust of convention and authority. In a country racked by civil unrest and rebellion for hundreds of years, where ordinary citizens could so easily run afoul of the law by asserting their natural human rights, where outlaws and brigands enjoyed the status of popular heroes, most things do not operate by a strict black-and-white moral code.

John Connolly, again:

In Chandler, Hammett and Macdonald, there is no real sense that the police or the government will stand up for you if you are poor or vulnerable, so frequently those who act on behalf of victims come from outside the law. They are independent operators or, even when they are policemen, they are mavericks, uncomfortable with the ways in which their peers and superiors work… in Chandler and Macdonald, there is a lot of pity for the victims. Marlowe hears voices crying in the night and goes to see what’s the matter. Archer cannot ignore a plea for help. They aren’t motivated by money, or because they carry a badge and it is expected of them that they do their jobs. They act because if they do not, they are less than human. So when I came to write my own novels, I found myself naturally attracted to an American, rather than a British, tradition.

Ken Bruen also cites his influences as Chandler, James M. Cain, and James Ellroy as the writers who influenced him most, and their literary offspring could be said to include others as well:

Colin Bateman’s wise-cracking Belfast journalist Dan Starkey, who is usually caught up in circumstances beyond his control and trying to wisecrack his way out of a jam
Vincent Banville’s private eye John Blaine, known for taking hardboiled metaphors and machine-gun repartee to a new level.
There’s also newcomer Declan Burke, writing about private eye Harry Rigby, whose patter is so over the top that one critic described him as ‘the gin-soaked love child of Rosalind Russell and William Powell.’

Even Irish police procedurals tend to favor the conflicted, usually hard-drinking maverick hero as well. Some examples might include Eugene McEldowney’s Belfast RUC Superintendent Cecil Megarry; Jim Lusby’s Inspector Carl McCadden series; and John Brady’s Matt Minogue, who has been called “Dublin’s answer to Maigret.”

Some cops go even further than taking an extra drink or breaking a few procedural rules, crossing into anti-hero territory: Adrian McKinty’s hero, Alexander Lawson, is an conflicted ex-cop with an active heroin habit. Ken Bruen’s policeman, Jack Taylor, is a drunken shambles, brimming with wry humor and a sense of his own mortality, on occasion just as casually amoral as the criminals he’s charged with bringing to justice.

Other currents Irish crime writing

After having traced this strong connection from hard-boiled American writers back to Ireland, you may be wondering, as I was, where are all the dames—excuse me, the women—in Irish crime fiction? What had happened to women crime writers since Eilis Dillon penned her three detective stories in the mid-fifties?

Again, there seemed to be a thirty-year gap, until Jo Bannister, from Northern Ireland, started writing a police procedural series in the 1980s. But the series was set in England. Bannister has since started a new amateur sleuth series set in Northern Ireland.

Irish born Ruth Dudley Edwards has written several books in her satirical mystery series, set in Oxford, which gleefully skewers British academia.

The last ten years or so have seen the emergence of newer female writers like Julie Jordan, who writes strong psychological suspense, and brand-new authors like former journalists Ingrid Black and Liz Allen, whose work favors the fast-paced modern thriller.

Of the writers who turned up in my initial, and admittedly cursory survey, I found Gemma O’Connor most like the kind of writer I hoped to be. She created complex characters and stories, drew connections to Irish history, and had a strong and immediate sense of place.

I will admit that some of my greatest influences were British crime novelists. (My favorite mystery writer is the great P.D. James.) But the story I felt compelled to tell was that of a red-haired girl from Ireland, and I was intrigued by the notion of telling it in my own peculiar and idiosyncratic way, blending what I knew of traditional music and folklore of Ireland with history and archaeology and modern forensics. And in so doing, I became part of another element of Irish crime fiction. The Irish diaspora has given rise to a whole sub-set of stories set in Ireland, but written by non-Irish writers:

The popular Peter McGarr series written by Bartholomew Gill, the pen name of Mark McGarrity, who was born in the Providence, Rhode Island, and received a master’s degree in literature at Trinity College in Dublin.
Boston-born Ann Fallon also attended Trinity and lived in Dublin for a number of years, and uses her experiences to write the adventures of a Dublin solicitor called James Fleming.
The Sister Fidelma series, set in 7th-century Ireland, is written by Peter Tremayne, the pen name of Peter Beresford Ellis, a popular and well-known British historian whose field of study is the ancient Celts.

I hope this brief, non-exhaustive survey has give you some little insight into Irish crime writing. I have to admit that looking back now, I realize that—checkered though its history may be—there’s actually more Irish crime fiction than I imagined.

And I have a suspicion that there will be much more, though it may not take the exact shape one might expect. Because, to paraphrase Terry Eagleton’s assessment, Irish crime fiction—like Irish fiction in general—is free to fantasise, experiment, mix its genres, make it up as it goes along.

Ireland is a marvelously complex and contradictory place, where unseen worlds exist side by side with grim reality; where writers can carry on what is distinctive in the voice of Irish literature, and still maintain their own quirky and idiosyncratic styles; where there are enough stories, enough writers, and enough diverse styles to support a lively and burgeoning crime writing tradition.

Originally presented at the First European Detective Novel Meeting - Barcelona, January 2005

FALSE MERMAID Makes Booklist's Top Ten Crime Novels for 2010

2010-05-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Just got the thrilling news that Bill Ott at Booklist has selected FALSE MERMAID for his Top Ten Crime Fiction Novels of 2010. (The magazine does a Mystery Showcase in May, so their year goes from April to April.) Here's the entire Top 10 list:

Louise Penny ~ The Brutal Telling
Gar Anthony Haywood ~ Cemetery Road
Craig Johnson ~ The Dark Horse
Johan Theorin ~ The Darkest Room
Erin Hart ~ False Mermaid
Stieg Larsson ~ The Girl Who Played With Fire
Laurie R. King ~ The God Of The Hive
John Burdett ~ The Godfather Of Kathmandu
Olen Steinhauer ~ The Nearest Exit
Simon Lelic ~ A Thousand Cuts

Link to the Booklist article

Guest blog at Jungle Red Writers, tour dates, local bestseller list!

2010-03-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

I've been guest blogging this morning over at Jungle Red Writers, a six-woman crew (Rhys Bowen, Jan Brogan, Hallie Ephron, Rosemary Harris, Roberta Isleib, and Hank Phillipi Ryan), who provide some of the liveliest discussion in the mystery world. My guest piece is about what I have to know to begin writing a crime novel. I'm VERY curious to know how other writers work, so stop by and contribute to the discussion if you can...

Ruth Rendell, speaking at Bouchercon in Las Vegas, was asked whether she always knew who the killer was before she started writing a novel. "Oh, yes, I always know," she said, in her wonderfully plummy English voice. "And then I change it."

On the road now in Chicago, going to the great Centuries and Sleuths bookstore this afternoon, and then on to The Little Read Book in Wauwautosa, WI tomorrow. Then it's on to Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, New York, Connecticut, Boston, Providence, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Dates are posted on the website, with more coming soon...

And thanks to everybody in the Twin Cities for putting me on the Star Tribune's local bestsellers list for two weeks in a row!

Why I am crazy about Bill Ott...

2010-02-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

One of the most rewarding experiences for a writer is to feel as if all the difficult things you've struggled so hard to describe are being taken in and understood by readers. So it's doubly rewarding when one of your readers also communicates that understanding to the wider world. That's why I'm crazy about Booklist's Bill Ott. He gets what I'm trying to do. As in:

"the culture of traditional Irish music is integral to her stories, not merely as set decoration but as a key, plot-driving mechanism. Similarly, the folklore and mythology of Ireland give the novels a thematic depth and metaphorical richness that sustain the reader far beyond questions of whodunit."

Read the full text here: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/discoveries

Go raibh mile maith agat, Bill!

THE CROSSING PLACES by Elly Griffiths

2010-02-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

When I first conceived of an archaeological crime novel set in Ireland (way back in the mid-Eighties), I couldn't really find anything that fit the ideas tumbling around in my head. You'd imagine, wouldn't you -- and I certainly did -- that the very act of unearthing of human remains was a situation ripe for mayhem and skulduggery.

Imagine my delight, then, in the recent discovery of a new series of archaeological crime novels by Elly Griffiths, set in the English coastal marshlands, full of Iron Age artifacts and holy places... Here's a short review!

THE CROSSING PLACES
by Elly Griffiths
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 978-0-5472-2989-8

Against the eerie backdrop of the Saltmarsh—a dangerous, desolate stretch of coastline that’s not quite earth, not quite sea—forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway stirs up fears and passions among the living even as she unearths Iron Age remains.

Although she’ll admit to being a walking cliché—she’s an overweight, unmarried, cat-loving academic—Ruth Galloway actually defies such slender classification. She’s an uncommon, down-to-earth heroine whose acute insight, wry humor, and depth of feeling make her a thoroughly engaging companion on this spooky, sometimes harrowing ride.

Early on, Ruth is called to a site where the body of a young girl has turned up on the Saltmarsh; the police fear it might be a child who went missing ten years previously. That’s where ancient history begins to cross paths with a not-so-distant past, and Ruth must tread carefully on the shifting quicksand of the Saltmarsh, and fathom the depths of her own history to determine whom to trust—even among her closest circle of old friends.

Like her protagonist, author Elly Griffiths has a strong affinity for ‘the crossing places,’ the borderlands between realms, those liminal places in the human psyche that link past and present.

And the good news is that there are three more books in the series!

Trade reviews of FALSE MERMAID

2010-01-28T10:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, modesty really should forbid, but what the heck... I'm verklempt!

"Rich in human drama, complex relationships, and vivid local color. Few writers combine as seamlessly as Hart does the subtlety, lyrical language, and melancholy of literary fiction with the pulse-pounding suspense of the best thrillers."
—Booklist (starred review)

"Readers will find this passionate, complex novel almost impossible to put down."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Pinpoint plotting and sure sense of place make this tale a winner."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A haunting, eerie page-turner..."
—Irish America Magazine

"Rich with atmosphere and Irish legend, this exceptionally crafted story of murder, family secrets, and redemption is a welcome addition to Hart's suspenseful series. Nora Gavin is an intelligent and engaging protagonist who leaves the reader anxious for her next adventure."
—Library Journal

"Wherever she goes, Nora Gavin is haunted by the unsolved murder of her sister. Now she is ready to make a final assault on the man she believes to be guilty. Her efforts will unearth dark secrets, and bring closure to old wounds. There is a subtle, lyrical quality to Hart's writing, coupled with an emotional insight into even the most peripheral characters. Immensely enjoyable, especially for fans of her earlier work."
—Jennie Turner-Collins, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati

Conjuring images

2010-01-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Hardcover copies of FALSE MERMAID are supposed to be arriving next week, and the giddiness is setting in. I'm trying to revisit all the images that helped shape the story, to begin putting together the multimedia presentation that will resemble the slide show that plays in my head: a leaf-littered riverbank, scullers on still water, the polychromed ceiling of a library reading room, an abandoned village, craggy cliffs and seabirds and curious seals. These are all the pictures in my head as I think about FALSE MERMAID, and that I hope to conjure in the reader's imagination. I'll start posting some pictures here to give you an idea...

Secrets of the Stones

2009-12-18T22:11:00.001-08:00

Am in the midst of watching a great archaeology program about Ireland's megalithic and other ancient stone monuments! Excellent visuals of carvings, plus the most spectacular aerial shots of earthworks at Carrowmore, Tara, Newgrange, and Knowth. I wish they'd spent a little more time explaining the science of geophysics, but maybe that's just me!

http://www.rte.ie/tv/secretsofthestones/watch.html

Welcome—Fáilte

2009-11-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

Hope you'll grab a trowel to pitch in and have fun exploring and excavating this site. I'm hoping we can use this space to start conversations about a host of different topics:

news of archaeological discoveries made in Irish bogs and elsewhere
the latest cutting-edge ideas in forensic science
other fascinating information we happen to stumble across during the course of doing research
musings on the creative process and/or the world of publishing
new book reviews and interviews people might enjoy reading
what we're currently reading/viewing -- books, magazine articles, television, movies
pictures of the people and the places that inspire our stories
announcements of upcoming book signings and other events of interest

I'm hoping that visitors will feel free to post their own interesting discoveries and observations.

FALSE MERMAID, the third novel in the Nora Gavin/Cormac Maguire series, will be on bookstore shelves in March 2010. Meanwhile, I'm already hard at work on Book #4, and will keep everyone updated here.

Thanks for stopping by!