Guest post – Roy McCarthy

This week, I’d like to introduce Roy McCarthy, who is my very first guest here at Harvesting Hecate.  I was introduced to Roy back in January, when I read his post about Lillie Langtry and since then I’ve been treated to wonderful writing on a variety of subjects, including reading, writing, running and Jersey’s fascinating sights and history.  Having thoroughly enjoyed Roy’s books, which seem to have the things he’s passionate about running through them, I wanted to know a bit about what inspired him to write them and what his next book will be about.  So, over to Roy:

It’s a big responsibility, being asked to contribute to someone else’s blog. Even more so when that blog is of the quality of Andrea’s Harvesting Hecate. Andrea’s wonderfully descriptive writing, inspired by nature and given depth by hints of other worldliness is a class apart, and I always look forward to it.

Andrea has asked me to write on the topic of inspiration – what has inspired my own writing. So first, my three self-published novels.

Barry The original vanity novel which I was delighted to write and have printed with my name on! Coming to the sport of running somewhat late in life I was inspired enough to write a chapter on the subject. Barry, a former champion runner, gone to seed, making a comeback. This first chapter sat there for at least two years. Then, at a dismal time in my life I decided to set myself targets, one of which was to complete Barry. In doing so I found myself enjoying the creative process and, within the confines of a full-time job, have continued to write ever since.

A Jersey Midsummer Tale Running sets the mind free. One day on Jersey’s Railway Walk I took to pondering the link between those railway days – the line closed in 1935, and the present day. Thus began my first foray into historical research with a love affair begun on Midsummer Day 1935 and set in and around the west of the Island. Part 2 of the book was set in the present day with an attempt to parallel Part 1 with modern characters and to find what elements link the two periods.

 

Tess of Portelet Manor I loved the research for Midsummer and I loved Tess, one of my 1935 characters. I therefore decided to follow her story through and beyond the German Occupation (1940-45) with the assistance of the wealth of material available to students of that period. I’m very happy with the result.

All of the above are available for Kindle here

A West Cork Mystery Over the years I have spent a lot of time in Ireland, particularly Cork and the west. On a quiet, misty day and in the evening, as the dim shadows fade altogether, it is easy to feel the spirit of Ireland’s past all around. The country is replete with myth and legend just waiting to be captured within the cover of a book.

But it was Australian author Dianne Gray who provided the spark for this story. She and her husband are renovating an old building which has had a number of uses down the years, one notably as a rugby clubhouse. In stripping back the layers of paint and paper its past has been slowly uncovered. What memories might have been trapped in that building, if they could be revealed?

So this is Dunmurry House in West Cork. The story is complete but needs an extensive rework after which I hope that it might be a commercial proposition.

My thanks once again to Andrea and I hope to be featuring her work over at my place soon.

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Thank you to Roy for sharing his thoughts on inspiration.  I hope you enjoyed reading about Roy’s books and the inspiration behind them as much as I did.  Visit Roy over at http://backontherock.com for more.