Hello!

Welcome to my new website/blog.  First off , I wish to say a huge thank you to the creative and gifted Colleen Sheehan for her work on this site and for giving it its professional gloss.  Anyone who would like support in starting up a new website, or have their Facebook or Twitter pages redesigned, their ebooks formatted or any one of a number of excellent services, click on this link.  You will not regret it.  write.DREAM.repeat Book Design

Wednesday 9 September 2015

RRBC Book and Blog Block Party


A big welcome to my friends from RRBC and anyone else who might happen by.  


Hi and “WELCOME” to Rave Reviews Book Club’s BACK-TO-SCHOOL BOOK & BLOG BLOCK PARTY at the Official Site of:


 Brian O’Hare and the 
DCI Sheehan Mysteries

Location:  Northern Ireland


Here’s What I’m Giving Away Today:



*$10.00 Amazon Gift Card
*$5.00 ITunes Gift Card
*One copy of the award winning, non-fiction paperback: The Miracle Ship 
*One  e-book copy of the award winning first book in the Inspector Sheehan Series:  
The Doom Murders
*One ebook copy of the award winning contemporary fiction novel: Fallen Men 


# of Winners for this stop:  5


Note (re the paperback): I can arrange for this to be posted to an American winner by my publisher.  Anywhere else, I will post it myself.



Competition Rules: 

Read the blog and leave a comment at the end. That’s it. Your comment can be humorous, serious, bland, or it can be astute, erudite or astringent. The choice is yours.



FIRST OFF

Let me say, this is a new site, so there’s not a lot here to hold your interest. And right away we’ve got a problem because one of the RRBC’s key instructions was that we should make your blog stop fun, exciting and interesting. Jeez. ‘Interesting’ on demand? Being an infant, in blogging terms, I don’t even have a clue what I’m supposed to be doing.

Okay! Let’s see. What have we got on this site? There are a couple of short essays on Page One about what prompted me to write Fallen Men and The Doom Murders. The one about Fallen Men is vaguely interesting, I think. Dunno about the other one. Then there’s a page that tells readers about the whole four of my books. Yawn! And then there’s a page about me. Wow! Don’t know if any one could be interested in that but hey, if you are, knock yourself out. It’s the second page.

NEWS


My writing has followed a strangely circuitous path. From writing articles for academic journals, I progressed to writing book length academic reports. From there,  after a serious illness, I wrote to two religious books, one an autobiographic memoir, the other, The Miracle Ship, a strange and incredible biography of a most extraordinary man, a miracle worker. Retired by now, and fancying a move to writing fiction, I was prompted by the widely-reported shenanigans of corrupt clergy in Ireland to write a contemporary fiction novel, Fallen Men.

And then, because my favourite genre for the past several years has been crime thrillers, I thought I’d have a go at writing one of my own, et voila, there appeared The Doom Murders.

And now, there’s something happening in my writing life that might interest visiting writers. I found a publisher…yeah! You guys know how hard that is… who is willing to publish all my stuff. Crimson Cloak Publishers is owned by a lovely lady called Carly McCracken. Carly liked The Doom Murders with it’s introspective but perspicacious (Like that? That’s the way we writers talk!), anyway, the perspicacious Detective Chief Inspector Sheehan. She suggested a series. A series? Yeah, a series, and my immediate reaction was, ‘No way that’s possible. I’ve only written one detective book in my life. Where would I start?’

But guess what? I have only just this week completed Book Two of the Inspector Sheehan series: The 11:05 Murders. I thought initially I might have enough of a plot for about 50000 words but the final tally was 104500 words. Go figure! I am not sure when Carly will be able to get it out but I am hoping it won’t be much longer than about six or seven months from now. Not a soul has read it, not my wife, not any family members, not even the beta readers who were reading and commenting upon The Doom Murders during the process of my writing it. This time I wanted to hug the new story to myself. Don’t ask me why. Was it because The Doom Murders won a couple of awards and garnered 37 very positive reviews on Amazon.com and I’m afraid to let anyone see the sequel in case it doesn’t measure up? Maybe. Or as it because the plot this time is much more complex and I just wanted to be able to drift back and forward making multiple changes without having to reference them to anyone? That would probably be true. Or did I just want the thing to be whole and complete before anyone came to it? Whatever the reason, I am now totally without feedback. Writers among you will recognise that that’s a scary place. Do I want feedback? Of course I do…but I’ll deal simply with Veronica Castle, Crimson’s Cloak’s indefatigable editor, and go by what she says. Fingers dutifully crossed…but that doesn’t mean that I’m not crappin’ myself.

Five Great Indie Writers

Many of my colleagues in RRBC have been supporting me with tweets and other comments.  I would like to point towards a few great writers, members of the RRBC, who have supported me and whose books gave me that special frisson of enjoyment as I read them:

Rebecca Reilly

Rebecca is a pastor who has been in ministry for several years. She enjoys writing mysteries (Into Dark Waters and Haunting Megan), but has also written humour (Diary of a Christian Woman: How I Used 50 Shades of Grey to Spice Up My Marriage), a children s chapter book (The Geek Club), and two picture books (Heart of a Kitty and Jammers and His Flying Bed Adventure). Right now, Rebecca is working on follow-up novels in all four genres. Read Haunting Megan, a heart-stopping story from the pen of a gifted writer.

Robin Chambers

Robin is a very erudite, retired school principal, well versed in Philosophy and Literature. Despite this, he has chosen to write children’s fantasies. One of the great books from the Myrddin’s Heir series is Gifts from the Gods, a hugely appealing children’s fantasy that many adults, too, will derive a sneaky enjoyment from.

J.M. Shorney 

J.M. Shorney has graduated from writing about vampires to thrillers.  Her flawed hero, Aidan McRaney, will soon become a by-word for thriller readers.  Meet him for the first time in her gripping, suspense-filled thriller, Progeny of a Killer.

Ronesa Avila 

This is actually the pen name for a collaboration between Rebecca Carter (very supportive member of the RRBC) and Anelia Samovila. Their book, Mystical Emona is a story to touch the hardest heart. A mystical and wonderful world leaps from these pages. Absorbing reading.

Harmony Kent  

From a peaceful and lyrical opening to a horror story in the mould of Stephen King, The Glade will keep you riveted. A delicious spine-chiller, skilfully written.

If anyone has got this far, thanks for sticking with my blog, and thanks for coming.

And remember, genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

And finally, If somebody says to you that they shall lose no time in reading your book, don’t take it as a compliment!!

Wee Note

If anyone would like to make the acquaintance of Chief Inspector Sheehan and his
team, The Doom Murders will be available for the next month or so at a reasonable $2.08 (£1.32).


Fringe Festival, Edinburgh


My wife an  I visited the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the middle of August. The Royal Mile was filled with characters weird and wonderful, but none so strange as this guy.



And Finally

Below is a photograph of Marcie who treated us like royalty in Guiliano’s Italian restaurant when we were in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. My wife asked her if she would like to take me home but, alas, she already has two dogs and a cat and has no room for any more pets.


MARCIE AND ME



Tuesday 21 July 2015

The Miracle Ship Has Been Released by Crimson Cloak Publishers





Hi! My new publisher has now published the first of four of my books, The Miracle Ship. I apologise to anyone who has been trying to buy it during the last couple of weeks while the change in publisher was being made. It is now available in both paperback and ebook versions,

We have decided to go with the orignal cover but the editing is now professional and complete. Not likely to be seen in British bookshops; their demands are crazy. They want between 35% and 40% of the book's price as their cut. They want postage paid from the US AND they want to return all books not sold, again with postage paid by the publisher. What business could countenance terms like those? But never worry, The Miracle Ship is available from Crimson Cloak Publishers, Smashwords, Amazon, Kindle, and Ingrams. And, coming soon, Apple iBookstore, Barnes and Noble, Nook, Sony Kobo and others.


Tuesday 21 April 2015

What Inspired The Doom Murders?

The Doom Murders, my second novel  represents a dramatic change of genre from my first novel, Fallen Men..  It is basically a murder mystery set in Belfast. Echoes of ‘the Troubles’ and their lingering aftermath are never far from the surface but these echoes are just background. The story, the themes and the plot have a much more general appeal.

What triggered The Doom Murders? Among my various interests, I like to read about art and have many books on artists from all over the world.  I was browsing through one of these books and spent some time contemplating a painting of The Last Judgement by a fifteenth century artist, Rogier van der Weyden.  For some reason, a piece of advice to writers from Stephen King came into my head.  King said, “Always ask ‘why?’, or ‘what if?' ". I was studying the distorted figures of the damned souls hurtling down into the abyss and wondered: “What if a Chief Inspector was faced by a series of gruesome murders and found the bodies posed in strange and grotesque shapes identical to those on this Doom?”  And came the next question, “Why would anyone want to do that?”

From these two questions came the inspiration for a new story and The Doom Murders was written. Dooms are mediaeval paintings of The Last Judgement.  The killer in this novel has been inspired in his “work” by the painting of The Last Judgement by Rogier van der Weyden.

This “work” comes to the notice of Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan when a number of high profile figures in Belfast are brutally murdered. The bodies are left naked and oddly distorted. No clues are left at the forensically immaculate crime scenes except seemingly pointless theatrical props and some random numbers and letters. Sheehan is baffled. How are the victims linked?  What message is the murderer trying to send via the vaguely religious symbolism of the killings?  Faced with one of the most complex cases of his career, the Chief Inspector turns to an eminent Professor of Psychology at Queen’s University and a senior cleric who is a biblical expert. With their help, he begins to piece together some understanding of the killer’s psychopathy but can he learn enough to identify the killer and put an end the murders?

The Doom Murdersis now available from Amazon Kindle Books and will also be available in paperback from Crimson Cloak Publishers late in 2015.


Interesting Developments: Two Awards! The Doom Murders was awarded the IDB Award for valuable contribution to the Indie writing community in March 2014. The book was also chosen for the Official Selection Award  for the 'Mystery' category of the 2014 New Apple Book Awards for Excellence in Independent writing.

Added Note:

In January last year, The Doom Murders climbed to #3 in the Top 100 British Detectives rankings.  It would hardly have done so were it not a reasonably enjoyable book. 

If youare reading this blog and have not yet ordered your copy of The Doom Murders yet, why don’t you give it a try?  It costs only a little over £1 and less that $2. Read some of the 36 reviews (average4.4 stars) using this link:




Why Did I Write Fallen Men?



Some time ago a very nice lady asked me to write her story for her. She told me that until her late thirties she had a complete belief that she had had a wonderful childhood and a most loving mother. She was very successful in her job (manageress of a large office), Lady Captain of the Golf Club, and very much the life and soul of any gathering she found herself in.

Then out of the blue she was attacked by some very debilitating symptoms - first her shoulder, then her neck and, finally, most of her body… aching pains for which the doctor could make no diagnosis and for which he could prescribe no successful remedies.

This phase of illness was followed by a very severe depression which could not be explained by the physical symptoms alone. She could no longer function normally, had to give up her job and began to lock herself in her house. But counselling, followed eventually by hypnotherapy, revealed that she had for most of her life been blocking out memories of most horrific abuse (sexual and physical) by her mother and that the life-long memories of a wonderful mother-love had been a mental sham.

I spent a number of hours (over several interviews) talking with her, hearing details that froze my blood, details about what the mother herself did to the child at home, details about how she hired out the four-year-old child to local paedophiles. The more I heard, the more I did not want to write this book. It came as a huge relief to me when the lady lost her nerve and asked me to abandon the project.

The lady did find some sort of healing and still receives counselling but she remains very fragile mentally, insecure, and still unable to hold down a job. The book will never be written now, but the awful story continues to remain stuck in my head.

Then came the terrible revelations in Ireland about paedophile priests and the resultant fall-out on perfectly innocent priests, about the clerical ambition and cover-ups that made matters worse… and a story started to form. I wanted to write about priests who were good, men who were solid, but men who had flaws that were simply human. I wanted to show that good men can fall and that good men can find redemption I wanted the ‘good-looking young priest’ to have an affair with one of the choir girls…but how to do that and still preserve the character’s essential integrity? It would only be believable if he had somehow lost control of his will, of his spirituality.

And then I thought about the lady’s story…..and…

….Father Ray was born and Fallen Men came to be written. It’s a rather strange sort of book. I think the idea that it is religious fiction (it is actually a lot more than that) puts people off but those that actually read it are giving it 5* reviews …even a self-confessed atheist. Go figure!

JANUARY 2013

Interesting development re Fallen Men. On January 16th, 2013 this book was awarded the IDB Award. It's an award that is given to 240 authors each year out of the million plus independent books that are published each year. Not the Booker...but it is a recognition of sorts!

The curious can find "Fallen Men" on Amazon Kindle books.


AUTUMN 2015

I have just heard that Fallen Men has been awarded Top Medallist Honours in the 2015 New Apple Summer Awards for Contemporary Fiction.