It is the classic tale, writer turns hobby into profitable business and, to make it all the more romantic, this business is writing fiction. All the ingredients are present – a sudden illness and a laboured recovery. This author abandons all to head to the country. He reluctantly leaves the safety and surety of family, and goes to live in a small west Cork village. The cottage he rents is ample, it is in a small estate, a mixture of vacant holiday homes and private rented accommodation. The village is quaint with a harbour and a lifeboat. Three pubs are sleeping on its long main street. The population here in winter is less than 300 and yet the writer knows this is the place. Courtmacsherry is a quiet village full of character and characters; here the writer is far away from turgid south Dublin, where he will find the peace and inspiration to recover, and to write his first novel.
And I did. Viaréggio, my first novel, was a catharsis.
This from the boy who wrote his first story at the age of seven. It was the quintessential masterpiece, complete with drawings of Mullins Hill in green crayon. I was chuffed; I won a packet of crisps for my story of a Sunday walk with my father. We had spotted a rabbit – this was the main theme. The story was displayed on the classroom wall for an age. Afterwards I spent many years writing and hiding. The embarrassment if others were to read my work was overwhelming. It wasn’t until my final years in school that our school magazine took an interest and several pieces of what today would be best described as flash fiction were published. But that was it. Writing wasn’t deemed to be a reliable enterprise. Putting food on the table and pints on the bar needed funding.
I worked at various jobs, too many to mention, but I ended up driving trucks all around the country for many years. This was followed by a leap into the world of sales, which I did successfully. During this period I wrote a play for the PJ O’Connor Awards, it didn’t win but my play was broadcast. It was a delight to attend RTÉ for the recording. However, once again the world demanded food on the table and pints on the bar so many years passed by.
My illness was sudden and brutal, but I survived and my little cottage in Courtmacsherry was the perfect home to pause and reflect. Viaréggio was a work full of holes. It was also technically challenged as I hadn’t a clue what I was doing. The self-publishing route was useless and the whole sad project blew up in my face. Viaréggio got a good review in the Sunday Independent and elsewhere, but the ordinary readers hated it. My next novel, Wood Point, was well received, but unfortunately I doubt if many people actually read it.
My two books of novelettes have renewed my confidence in the writing business. In The Mad Marys of Dunworley and Other Stories I wrote five 10,000-word stories all set around Courtmacsherry and environs. I have followed this up with The West Cork Railway and Other Stories. Once again these are five 10,000-word novelettes. My ambition now is to become the master of the novelette, an underused literary form. My novelettes all say something as I pick out subjects that I am passionate about and then present them in an offbeat way. The Mad Marys features stories on the conflicts of idealism, sexual loneliness, mental illness and abuse. The title story looks at the complexities of a child with special needs.
The Railway stories are fixated on neoliberalism along with the dark side of relationships. In the title story, Billy wrestles with the cold economic wisdom of his teacher, Miss Forde, versus the harsh life experience of his Grandad. They All Ran after the Farmer’s Wife sees three women fall for the charms of a wealthy rancher’s wife. She plays with each perniciously until each suitor in turn has their tail clipped. The Sad Lady Of Lislee depicts a mother of a non-verbal adult autistic daughter seeking solace in her imagination, as through her writing she endeavours to give her daughter a voice. Under A Broken Tree brings the reader to the dark Mayo mountains during the civil war. Michael Dillon runs away after his brother is executed by Free State soldiers. He takes refuge with two sisters on an isolated farm, knowing that soon he must go back up the mountains to seek his revenge.
The final story is On This Almighty Road where two washed-up middle-aged men get jobs as caretakers in a millionaire’s seaside home. All goes according to plan until Cecilia Harte arrives to work as a chef. Little do they know that she is about to destroy the brave new world they have found.
Both these series of novelettes will also be available in the West Cork Collection, which will be published this month.
So now the writer has returned to Dublin. He has just launched The West Cork Railway in the Irish Writers Centre. He is careful not to succumb to delusions of grandeur. He plans a series of short stories set in Sallynoggin – they are all about growing up there. Will a publisher come along for this one, or will he continue to publish under his own imprint Black Cormorant Books. We will wait and see!
