 Ever
since HAUNTED GROUND was first
published
in 2003, I’ve had great pleasure meeting and corresponding with people
from all
over the country and all over the world. Even after all this time, I
confess I’m
still a little stunned— and incredibly honored to have been
nominated and selected for
a number of awards.
I'd like to offer a sincere and grateful thank
you to all the wonderful
readers, booksellers, librarians,
and fellow writers who have helped to make this such an incredible and
rewarding trip!
NEWSLETTER
::: Get
all the latest—drop-in
signings during December, and other dates coming up; book
club visits for LAKE
OF SORROWS; bargain hardcovers from BarnesandNoble.com; and my
husband
Paddy's newest CD with his band, Chulrua, called THE
SINGING KETTLE (and a link to a video of the band at YouTube.) Check out the latest newsletter...
BOOK
THREE :::
Seems
like everyone (including my mother) wants to know
when the next book will be out. At the moment, I’m
still hard at work on the third novel in the series (working title, FALSE MERMAID).
In this story, Nora returns home to Minnesota to re-open her sister's
unsolved murder,
leaving Cormac to make amends with his father back in Donegal.
Everything between them seems a little up in the air, and just when
things were going
so well, too...
Although I now have a deadline, I’m
afraid
it’s still going to be a while before the third book is
finished—though I can't wait to see how it's going to turn out!
 BIG NEWS FOR BOOK CLUBS ::: LAKE OF SORROWS is officially out on
August 7, 2007 in trade paperback
format—a special book club edition!
I hope to be visiting with lots of book clubs (either in person or over
the phone) this fall and winter. More details here...
You should be able to find the new edition of LAKE OF
SORROWS at your local
independent bookstore, at most chains, and online. And if you need a
signed copy, just check in with my local bookstore, Once Upon A Crime in
Minneapolis, and we'll get you fixed up.
MUSIC DOWNLOADS ::: While
I'm still listening to my favorite old LPs, the rest of the world is
downloading and carrying around music in tiny little iPods and MP3
players. If you'd like to hear my husband Paddy playing the accordion,
you can download his music from lots of different sites, including:
calabashmusic.com
emusic.com
itunes.com
and many others
as well. Look for a song called "The Wounded Hussar" from Paddy's album
Stranger
at the Gate and you can
even hear
me singing!
Thanks to the marvels of even more
modern technology, you can also now order Paddy's CDs from him at his band website.
THE
BOG CONNECTION ::: There’s
been a lot of publicity recently about two bog
men found recently in the Irish midlands. The BBC
and PBS/Nova
have both done fascinating documentaries about the pair, known as
Clonycavan
Man and Old Croghan Man. Both seem to have been victims of ritual
sacrifice.
As
it turns out, I have a family connection
to Old Croghan Man...
In
the spring of 2003, as HAUNTED
GROUND was being published in Britain and Ireland, I was
finishing up
work on LAKE OF SORROWS and wishing
for a few more real-life details
about ancient bog remains. I knew some of the corpses found in bogs
were
believed to be Iron Age sacrifices—that’s actually what LAKE OF SORROWS is all
about.
Then
a friend sent along a newspaper
story about a recent grisly discovery
on an Irish bog—a body that museum experts figured to be around 2,000
years
old. The body that came to be known as Old Croghan Man was discovered
in County
Offaly, only about a mile from where my husband Paddy was born. I knew
he’d
be interested, so I started reading the piece aloud. It happened to
mention the
name of the local man who’d found the body:
“When
he
stepped out of his mechanical digger and close to the body, farmer
Kevin Barry
particularly noticed the fingernails were still intact.”
Paddy’s
head shot up. “Did you say
Kevin Barry?” he asked. I checked the name again—yes, Kevin Barry, from
just outside the village of Daingean. Paddy said, “I think that fella's
my
cousin.”
We
were on our way to Ireland, so of
course we phoned up Kevin as soon as we landed in Offaly. He very
kindly took us out to
the site and described in detail exactly how he'd found the
2,000-year-old corpse.
And
of course all those details about Old Croghan Man—right
down to his braided leather armband—went
directly into LAKE OF SORROWS.
Update 6/21/06
::: Iron
Age men found buried in peat bogs are on exhibit at the National Museum
of Ireland in Dublin. The display, 'Kingship
and Sacrifice: An exhibition of bog bodies and related finds,'
was officially opened this week by Arts Minister John O'Donoghue. The
ancient remains were found in a preserved state in 2003 at Oldcroghan,
Co. Offaly, and Clonycavan, Co. Meath. The exhibition explores the
theory that bog men were victims of sovereignty and kingship rituals
during the Iron Age. Objects on display include horse trappings,
weapons, feasting utensils and textiles. Admission to the Museum on
Kildare Street is free.
CHECK BACK AGAIN ::: Check back
often for more news
and an updated list of readings
and appearances. Or if you’d like to
receive notice of the next book or the next tour stop in your city, you
can
sign up for the mailing list.
Fans of Irish traditional music
can find out more about my husband, button accordion player Paddy
O’Brien, at his
band websites: Chulrua and The Doon Céilí Band.
And
now for all those who've just been dying to know...
Q:
I am going crazy trying to
figure out how to
pronounce the name ‘Aoife.’ Please help!
A: It’s
actually pronounced ‘EE-feh’!
Any time you see the letters A-O-I in sequence, at least in Irish,
it’s pronounced as a long ‘E’ sound. Check out other strange words and
expressions in the pronunciation
guide and glossary.
Thanks
again for visiting—slán go
fóill!
P.S.
I’d love to hear your feedback
about this site...
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