Erin’s Children

Historical Fiction

The Sequel to Kelegeen

BWL Publishing, Inc. (December 1, 2020

Paperback: 412 pages

Synopsis

In 1851 Irish Famine survivor, Meg O’Connor, buys passage to America for her younger sister, Kathleen, and arranges employment for her as a maid. Kathleen’s feisty spirit soon puts her at odds with her employers, the bigoted and predatory Pratts. Driven from their home, Kathleen ends up on a wild adventure taking her to places she could never have imagined.

As a domestic servant in the Worcester, Massachusetts home of the kindly Claprood family, Meg enjoys a life beyond her wildest imaginings. Yet she must keep her marriage to Rory Quinn a secret. Rory, still in Ireland, eagerly awaits the day he will join her. But as the only jobs open to Irish men pay poorly, Rory’s imminent arrival threatens to plunge her back into dire poverty.

On the eve of the Civil War, while America is being rent asunder by the fight over slavery, Irish Catholics wage their own war with the growing anti-immigrant Know Nothing party. Through grave doubts, dangers, and turmoil, Meg and Kathleen must rely on their faith and the resilient bonds of sisterhood to survive and claim their destinies in a new and often hostile land.

Guest Post

How Long Have You Been Writing?

That’s a question I’m often asked in interviews. It’s not easy to answer. I suppose it depends on how one defines writing. Does it mean actually putting words on paper in the form of a story or does it mean the creative process of forming stories in the mind before they ever reach paper or screen?

If it’s the former, then it must have been when I was in junior high school. We had to write a story for an English class. Mine was chosen to be published in the school’s newspaper. Two English teachers pulled me out of another class and brought me to the empty cafeteria to work with me on polishing the story for publication. It was the first time I felt as though there might be something special about my writing. It was a very good feeling.

Throughout high school whenever we had a writing assignment for an essay or short story, mine was almost always the one the teacher would pick to read aloud. In an environment where I often felt invisible (or in some cases, wished I could have been) this was a huge boost to my self-esteem.

I kept writing off and on during and after high school. I started college with the plan of becoming an elementary school teacher, but due to a perfect storm of problems, I dropped out and got a job. But I kept writing. I wasn’t great at it. All the short stories I sent to publications were rejected and with good reason. I also wrote a middle grade novel that never saw the publishing light of day, but I did prove to myself that I could complete an entire novel. I had the imagination and creativity for writing, but I had not yet learned the craft and technique. But I wanted to so I read books on writing and took courses.

In my mid-twenties I went back to college and earned my undergraduate degree in history. History has always been one of my greatest loves. I was thrilled to put that degree to use as a Museum Assistant in the Department of Research, Collections, and Library at Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum that depicts life in an 1830s New England village. I worked with top-level research historians, museum curators, and costumed interpreters. It was an invaluable experience that would benefit me greatly by teaching me how to do the research necessary for writing historical fiction.

Shortly before I landed the job at Old Sturbridge Village I joined the Worcester Writer’s Workshop. I spent the next several years meeting on a weekly basis with a group of dedicated writers. We wrote together and critiqued each other’s work. That’s where I really learned the craft of writing. I will be forever grateful to the group. It was there that I wrote the first draft of what would become Kelegeen, my debut novel.

If by writing one means the creative process of conjuring stories in the mind, which, of course, is essential as one cannot write a story one has not thought about at least a little, then I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember.

I’ve no idea when it first started, but I can recall spending countless hours imagining all sorts of stories. It seemed to happen naturally. It was never something I purposely decided to do. Often it began with a picture. I’d see a photograph in a magazine, a catalog, a book, wherever and something about it would capture my imagination. Without realizing it, my mind would be begin creating a story around the picture complete with plot and characters. It still happens, but to this day I cannot explain why some images trigger that involuntary daydream response and others do not.

Besides pictures, the place I happened to be at the time might also lead to a “mind story.” This was especially true when I was very young. I remember being in a department store with my parents. They were taking a long time picking out whatever they were there to buy and I was bored. Before I knew it my mind had turned the store into a palace and I was a princess. Invaders were attacking and I had to take charge.

I was often rightly accused of daydreaming in school when I should have been doing my schoolwork. I couldn’t help it. If something I read or saw caught my fancy I’d suddenly become preoccupied with the story taking shape in my mind. It got me into a fair amount of trouble at times. Now I am grateful that I was given the gifts of imagination and creativity. They are part of me for a reason. I’ve made a promise to myself that I will always use them to create, to the best of my ability, stories that my readers will become utterly lost in, that will take them to another time and place, stories they wish would never end.

About the Author

Eileen O’Finlan calls her writing “history with a twist” because she is intrigued by the unusual and little known aspects of history – the stories on history’s margins, the things rarely taught in the classroom. For her, that’s where history really gets fun.

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, her family moved to Worcester when she was two.  Four years later they moved to Holden where Eileen grew up and where she now resides with her 93 year old mother and two cats.

Eileen holds a Bachelor’s degree in history and a Master’s Degree in Pastoral Ministry.  She works full time for the Diocese of Worcester and teaches online courses in Catholic studies for the University of Dayton, Ohio.  She is proud to say that Pope Francis owns a copy of her debut novel, Kelegeen. Erin’s Children is her second novel and the sequel to her debut novel, Kelegeen.

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