St. Patrick's Day

     As far as I know, I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in my veins but Ann Malone Kern, the main character in my Malone mystery series, is of Irish descent as is her husband, David. Like me, the Kerns live in Cincinnati, a city where the Irish played an important role. Next to the Germans, they were the largest group of immigrants between 1840 and 1910. 

Cincinnati was a major destination for immigrants from Ireland who left their homeland because, due to the potato blight and resulting famine in their country, they couldn’t pay their mortgages and they were starving. Many were poor, spoke English with a brogue and were Roman Catholic with large families. Some came with nothing more than a few pieces of clothing.

The city offered many opportunities for work on the riverfront, digging for the Miami and Erie Canal and on railroad construction. Although most had hoped to become farmers, with no money and desperate to feed their families, when they arrived in the Queen City, many Irish took jobs that were dangerous and unskilled with low pay. 

Through the years, the Irish have contributed greatly to our city’s growth and culture. During the Civil War, the Irish formed several militia units, which became the core of the Ohio 10^th Regiment. Later, many became policemen and firemen, some were prosperous in industry and others were active in politics.

Today, we have The Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati. The IHC was founded to promote the Irish Culture through the study of customs, dance, education, film, genealogy, history, language, lectures, literature, music, mythology, poetry, social interaction, song, sport, theater and the visual arts.

 

                               “May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

                                        Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Moving on

 

On September 30^th, my publisher and I mutually agreed to terminate our contract for my Malone mysteries. Eric, my publisher, had told me shortly after he published Mixed Messages that at some point many authors who are published by small presses will choose to move on – to go in a different direction. At the time, I was so thrilled to see my first novel in print that I couldn’t even imagine that. I will always be grateful to Post Mortem Press for giving me my start.

However, I decided a few months ago that it was time to do just that - to move on. I knew I needed to create new covers and to format all five of my books so I got busy. And I do mean busy! As I struggled to accomplish my goal, I tried very hard to think of the project as a challenge. But, trust me, along the way I used lots of other words to describe what I was trying to do. Some of them not suitable for this post. Because it was a daunting and very frustrating task. (I’m not a blonde but the picture above is an accurate depiction of how I felt at times.)

Fortunately, prior to that, I had written and self-published Secrets in Storyville, a small town mystery separate from my series. With a lot of help from my friends, I managed to do it and I learned so much along the way.

So I’m happy to report that I’m now in the process of self-publishing the "second" editions of my five Malone mysteries. In the next few weeks, I’ll post the new covers and, when available, the new amazon links to the books. I hope you'll stop back to check them out and, if you haven't yet read my series, here's your "second" chance.