An Irish Christmas Wedding
Everyone loves a wedding and what could be more idyllic than combining one with Ireland and Christmas? In the sixth book of the Black Swamp Mysteries Series (to be released in 2017) Vicki Boyd and Dylan Maguire head to his native Ireland for their wedding and...
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
An author’s life and writing process is often misunderstood so when I read the synopsis of The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, I knew I had to read it. It is about an author that is writing an historical novel about the Jacobite rebellion of 1708. She chooses to write...
Visiting Ireland’s Croaghgorms
The winds whistled and swirled in the frosty night like a chorus of apparitions dancing and bobbing, leaving soft whispers against Dylan’s ear, enticing, cajoling, flirtatious and deadly. Ah, but they could drive a man insane on a night like this, he thought, pulling...
Walking a Rope Bridge
Would you walk a rope bridge at gunpoint? Cloak and Mirrors, the 6th book in the Black Swamp Mysteries Series, features a rope bridge in the climactic scene. I was inspired by the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, situated along the coast of Northern Ireland in County...
Where is that Irish Village?
Ballytullmac is a fictional Irish village where Dylan Maguire was raised by his grandmother in the Black Swamp Mysteries series. It is set near the Bog of Allen and is located near Croghan Hill, a real place that is the site of an extinct volcano. From the top of...
The Legend of St Patrick on White Island
The climactic scene in Cloak and Mirrors, the 6th book in the Black Swamp Mysteries Series, takes place along the Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. There are actually two lakes, the Upper Lough and the larger Lower Lough and in between is the beautiful and picturesque...
When Fact Is Stranger Than Fiction
For authors of suspense, the political landscape has posed some interesting challenges. It has always been a popular theme to select an enemy government that our hero must infiltrate and take down, even if it’s done in bits and pieces. Consider Ian Fleming’s James...