One of the questions I get asked sometimes is, "Where did the idea for your book come from?" People often imagine authors having these grand moments of inspiration, perhaps gleaned from exotic travels or profound experiences. I'd love to say that was the case for "An Irish Mystery," maybe that I'd just returned from a whirlwind tour of Ireland... but the truth is a little less glamorous and a lot more locked down!
Picture this: it's the height of the COVID pandemic. Like many people, I found myself with unexpected time on my hands. I was sitting on my sofa, having just finished reading a book – I can't recall the exact title, but it was one of Clive Cussler's Fargo Adventure novels. I looked over at my bookcase... empty. Nothing left unread.
In that moment, faced with a distinct lack of reading material, a thought popped into my head: "Well, maybe I'll write my own."
So, I did. I just started writing, tapping out a sentence, then another. This was the very first paragraph I wrote:
It was the dawn of a new day for Hans. At last, he was getting out of this dump he had called home. The six feet by eight-foot space that has been his home for seven years is in Safford, Arizona. FCI Safford is the building his room was in.
That was it. The seed was planted. (Interestingly, that opening has since evolved through editing into this: The razor wire glinted under the Arizona sun, a stark reminder of the seven years Hans had spent behind the walls of FCI Safford. Seven years in a six-by-eight cell. Seven years… Sieben Jahre.)
Around this time, my job involved opening up a school building one day a week, every Tuesday from 8 AM to 5 PM. This was part of the effort to provide childcare for the children of essential workers (like NHS staff) during the lockdown. My instructions were basically to open up, be present, and stay out of the way. This meant I had about nine hours of quiet time each Tuesday with literally nothing required of me except being there. What better time to write?
So, I continued Hans's story. I wrote a chapter about this German man leaving prison. But then I hit a wall. Why was he in jail in the first place? What was he going to do now? Honestly, I had no idea.
My story needed a plot, a driving force. I've always had an interest in treasure hunting and lost artefacts. One day, while Browse online, I stumbled upon articles about lost treasures around the world, and one entry, in particular, caught my eye: the disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels.
That was the spark! The Irish Crown Jewels.
I dove into research, reading everything I could find about how and when they went missing, the circumstances surrounding the theft, and even what else was happening in Dublin at that time. All this fascinating historical detail formed the basis of what would become the Prologue of the book.
And that original paragraph I wrote, about Hans leaving prison in Arizona? That became the beginning of Chapter One, kicking off the present-day storyline.
So, that's how it happened. A combination of lockdown boredom, an empty bookshelf, a random paragraph about a man leaving prison, and a deep dive into a historical Irish mystery all coalesced into "An Irish Mystery." It wasn't planned, it wasn't glamorous, but it was the start of not just one book, but what I hope will be the whole Newman Adventure series.
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