A-Z Blogging Challenge - T is for Tom

Tom Keating is another ‘recurring’ character in my Mist Na Mara novels, and features in nearly all of them.

In Irish Inheritance, Jenna and Guy have inherited a house near Clifden in Connemara from a woman named Helena Keating, who had been born in County Galway in 1920. They discover that Mist Na Mara house was left to Helena by her father William Keating. This leads them to visit Tom Keating, an elderly man living in Clifden, who gives them more clues about William and the Keating family.

Tom also gets a mention in Irish Intrigue when he takes his dog to the veterinary clinic, but he has a bigger role in Irish Deceptions. When Finny (see my F post) stops attending school, and it becomes apparent he and his mother have left the house where they were living, Ellie discovers he is still walking Tom’s dog every morning. She arranges to visit Tom early one morning, but Finny runs off when he sees her there, so she is no wiser about where he and his mother have moved to.

In Irish Shadows, Tom has another significant role to play when he puts an end to a family feud which began during the Irish Civil War in the 1920s. Last but not least, in Irish Echoes, it turns out that Tom’s ancestor, Padraig Keating, originally came from Kilcreggan, one of the villages which was abandoned during the Potato Famine in the 1840s and whose location has remained unknown until Elliot finally manages to trace it.

Little did I realise when Tom Keating first appeared in Irish Inheritance that he would insist on appearing in my other novels!

All my books are available from 

Amazon  or from Tirgearr Publishing 

A-Z Blogging Challenge - Q is for Quinn

Quinn, as in Elliot Quinn, is the only place or person name I’ve been able to find in my novels which begins with Q.

Elliot is the ‘hero’ of Irish Echoes, but in fact he started off in a completely different story. Originally, he was a medieval historian, researching the 15th century and, in particular, what happened to Francis Lovell, one of Richard III’s closest friends. Maybe one day I will continue that story, but after writing about three chapters, I changed course and decided to make Elliot the hero of my 6th Mist Na Mara novel. That meant relocating Elliot to Ireland, and giving him a different area of expertise. Thus he became a history professor at Trinity College in Dublin, and an acknowledged expert in the history of the ‘Great Hunger’, particularly in the western counties of Galway and Mayo.

Here’s the introduction to the story:

Rachel Pearse and Elliot Quinn had been deeply in love—until Rachel made a huge error of judgement which deprived Elliot of the acclaim for discovering a long-lost famine village in Ireland. Elliot denounced this as a deliberate attempt to betray him and ended their relationship.

Seven years later, they meet unexpectedly when Elliot turns up at Mist Na Mara Arts Centre in the west of Ireland for a week-long conference which Rachel has agreed to manage as a favour to a friend.

New tensions mount when it becomes apparent Elliot isn’t prepared to forgive and forget, even though they are both aware of the revival of their feelings for each other.

Surrounded by the echoes of their own past as well as those of Ireland’s Great Hunger, how will Rachel and Elliot resolve their problems and find their way back together?

And here, seven years after the disastrous break-up of their relationship, is their first meeting at a wedding reception,:

As Rachel reached the swing door, she was about to push it when it was pulled open from the other side. She would have toppled forward and landed in a heap on the floor if two firm hands hadn’t grasped her arms.

‘I’m so sorry,’ a man said. ‘Are you okay?’

She looked up, straight into Elliot Quinn’s clear blue eyes. A fire of embarrassment rushed to her cheeks. In the same moment, he jerked his hands from her arms, almost as if they had been red-hot to touch.

‘Yes, I—’ Her tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of her mouth. ‘Yes. Yes, I’m grand, thanks.’

She didn’t know where to look, but Elliot stepped sideways and held the door open. ‘After you.’

‘Thank you.’

And that was it.

She walked past him and he went out of the room. No smile, no nothing. They could have been total strangers.

 

Needless to say, they will meet up again – very soon!

All my books are available from 

Amazon  or from Tirgearr Publishing