WRITING AND IRELAND

Pat Mullan

There's no way that one can grow up in Ireland without being surrounded by writers. Everybody writes! And, if they don't, they tell stories. The Celtic oral tradition is alive and well. When I was a little boy in our country farmhouse home, people (neighbors, friends, strangers) would come in of an evening, sit around the fire, and tell stories till the 'wee hours' of the morning. Later Irish writers: James Joyce, John McGahern, Brian Moore, Brendan Behan, Oscar Wilde, Sean O'Casey - and today there's so many, starting with my old schoolmate, Seamus Heaney, and others such as Roddy Doyle. Of course my favorite read is the thriller and I love Irish thriller writers such as Jack Higgins and Victor O'Reilly.But I must not leave out my favorite American writers and there are so many of them: Hemingway, Steinbeck, O'Connor, Clancy, James T. Farrell, and many more. I've been scared by Dean Koontz and by Stephen King and Evan Kingsbury ( whom you may know better as Robert W. Walker, author of the INSTINCT and the EDGE series ) and I've laughed out loud in bed reading Carl Hiaasen. Lately I've been reading my favorite Irish author, Ken Bruen. At College I read the great Russian writers, such as Turgenev and Tolstoy and began a whole new love affair. I suppose every writer that I read has influenced me. I believe that if one wants to (has to) write, one must read, read, read.

I have always had a desire to write. Putting words together seems to be an innate ability. Over the years I exercised that (or maybe I should say, 'exorcised') in my business life by writing business papers and other creative documents - while my scribbled poems ended up in the 'sock drawer'.    Some years ago I left a senior position in finance in the US and returned to live in Connemara in the west of Ireland. I had always wanted to write but I had never had the time. Of course, that was a convenient excuse. I was afraid that, if I ever sat down to write, I'd discover that I couldn't. Now that may seem to be a contradiction to you if I always had an innate ability to put words together. Contradiction or not, that's what I felt. So, I forced myself to write. I reserved three or four hours each day for writing. The weeks and months passed and one page turned into ten and ten into fifty. Soon I realized that I had written 25,000 words of my first novel and that I had created a family of characters. The new world they inhabited took over my consciousness. I stayed with it. It's a lonely pursuit and one that demands lots of fortitude and stamina. So the muse was always there with me. But I exorcised it by scribbling poems that conveyed my feelings or described an event I had witnessed. Over the years this became a kind of poetic diary. I never considered myself a poet. I still don't. When I think of poets I think of names like Yeats or Wordsworth or Seamus Heaney. When I think of American poets I think of Theodore Roethke, Galway Kinnell, W.S.Merwin, John Ashbery, James Dickey, and Dan Masterson who once told me "you can write - no doubt about it";..you have a voice that is your own and that's important. I want to help your voice confine itself to the pure statement that carries the image to the reader." I get most enjoyment from listening to a poet talk about the written work and the work in progress: why a poem was written, the spark that ignited the vision, the snatch of overheard conversation, the incident that retrieves a past memory, the choice of words and imagery, the simple scene transformed, the need to be a witness.




I’m a morning person so I do try to write every morning – even if it’s just scribbled thoughts for my next poem. I do find that I’m more driven when I’m half way into a novel. The story and the characters take over and, if other matters permit, I just lose the sense of time. When that happens, I can write just as readily in the middle of the day or in the evening as I can in the morning. If I go somewhere in the car and I know I will have to kill some time waiting for something or someone, I’ll take my briefcase along and use it to jot notes, plot, write, etc. I have three distinct briefcases, one for my poetry, one for my short stories, and one that contains the flotsam and jetsam of my current novel in progress. As you can imagine, they are all overflowing, some more organized than others. But, in a sense, I’m always writing in my head even when I’m gardening or mowing the lawn. … and some of my best novel setpieces come right out of my dreams. I always keep a notebook on my bedside table for those special dream segments that I happen to remember upon waking. In many ways one must be disciplined and set a writing schedule but one shouldn’t be deluded into thinking that that will produce the best or most creative output. Less structure and more development of the writerly mind creates a consciousness that is pervasive. Then writing in all its manifestation covers the entire day.

In my early days I only wrote using pen and paper. I would type it later into my computer. The word processor was the most efficient way to revise and cut and paste. But there was something distinct about the symbiosis between my hand, the pen, the paper and my mind; something that harnessed my creative mind, something that was missing when I used the computer keyboard. Since then I have adapted somewhat. I can now write directly into my desktop PC. But I still use pen and paper a lot. I imagine a laptop might be valuable when I’m traveling but I haven’t crossed that threshold. Pen and paper still serves me well when I’m on the move.




I have just finished a crime thriller set mostly in Ireland (titled THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL ).  

TRIBUNAL ( the opening chapter from my novel THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL ) has been published  in the anthology DUBLIN NOIR, edited by Ken Bruen. (published in the USA by Akashic Books and in Ireland and the UK by Brandon Books).

I am working on a new thriller at present, tentatively titled, CREATURES OF HABIT.  

I have also published the following on Amazon's new KINDLE reader:

JAMES DICKEY'S POETRY: The Religious Dimension.  James Dickey is a poet who raised my consciousness at a time when I was not writing any more, a time when I had abandoned it, a time when the muse had departed. Well, James Dickey has now departed. He died on January 19, 1997. I suppose he was best known for his novel Deliverance but he also wrote about 20 volumes of poetry. James Dickey’s Poetry: The Religious Dimension is my elegy to the man.

ELEVEN DAYS IN JULY: A Family Ordeal :   Eleven harrowing days in the life of my son who is a hemophiliac, a Von Willebrand.

...and look out for his short story, GALWAY GIRL, which will appear soon on Amazon SHORTS.
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ABOUT PAT MULLAN

Pat Mullan was born in Ireland and has lived in England, Canada and the USA. Formerly a banker, he now lives in Connemara, in the west of Ireland.

He has published articles, poetry and short stories in magazines such as Buffalo Spree, Tales of the Talisman, Writers Post Journal. His poetry appears frequently in the Acorn E-zine of the Dublin Writers Workshop.

Recent work has appeared in the anthology, Dublin Noir, published in the USA by Akashic Books and in Ireland and the UK by Brandon Books.

He received two nominations: one for Best First Novel and one for Best Suspense Thriller at the 2005 Love Is Murder conference in Chicago. His last novel, Blood Red Square, was published in the US (LBF Books, 2005).

World Rights to his novel, THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, are available from his agent, Svetlana Pironko at Author Rights Agency.  ( www.authorrightsagency.com )

Pat Mullan is a member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America.  James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of BLACK ORDER, calls Mullan’s latest novel, The Root of All Evil, “… a razor blade down the spine. So fast-paced, expect whiplash. This is Irish noir with a hero whom you’ll want at your back in any gunfight. Grab a copy and clear your schedule!”

www.thrillerwriters.org/connect/Pat Mullan

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THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL (World rights)

Burned-out lawyer Ed Burke flees New York , a failed marriage, and a high pressure career as a criminal attorney and returns home to Dublin , Europe ’s most happening city.

Hand-in-hand with the new prosperity, a culture of ruthless corruption has taken root and threatens to pervade the highest levels of government in Celtic Tiger Ireland and the EU.

Ed’s new job, defending a prominent developer in a tribunal investigating the rezoning of prime residential property, draws him into the world of Ireland ’s elite movers and shakers who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. He is also drawn into a passionate affair with an old flame, Pia, now the glamorous wife of a corrupt and powerful political leader.

As his infatuation turns into love, Pia is murdered in his own bed, and Ed has no doubt that her heartless, power-hungry husband is behind it.

Edmund Burke’s quest to avenge Pia and free himself from a troubled past becomes an adrenaline-pumping race to save Ireland from the grip of a cabal of corrupt power brokers.

He must find his way through a tangled web of lies, deceit and murder as he matches his wits against the Machiavellian schemes of the rich, the famous and the powerful who seek to mould the future of Europe and the West.

Advanced praise for The Root of All Evil

"A high-powered legal thriller chocked full of betrayal, deceit, corruption, and murder. Mullan is Ireland 's answer to John Grisham, with a smattering of Ross MacDonald thrown in. THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL  will make your head spin."
- JA Konrath, author of RUSTY NAIL.

“Pat Mullan’s latest, THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL , is a razor blade down the spine. So fast-paced, expect whiplash. This is Irish noir with a hero whom you’ll want at your back in any gunfight. Grab a copy and clear your schedule!”
- James Rollins , New York Times bestselling author of BLACK ORDER.


“THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL  is a tight, intelligent thriller. Author Pat Mullan blends political intrigue and murder with a unique Irish flavor that goes down smooth. His hero, Ed Burke, is striking – almost an anti-hero in some respects. To unravel the deception and save himself, Burke must test old friendships, and determine who to trust in an Ireland changed by the Celtic Tiger. Mullan writes suspense with an edge reminiscent of Bob Ludlum. An author to watch.” - Cerri Ellis, Mostly Mystery Reviews


“Pat Mullan is a natural born storyteller with a gripping, engaging style. He may just be the next big thing in Irish crime fiction.” - Jason Starr, author of LIGHTS OUT.

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CREATURES OF HABIT (World rights)

Two boys flee in terror across the grounds of their boarding school, on a night when the rain slices the air like sheets of broken glass and trees bend and groan under gale-force winds.  Before midnight one will die, exposing a dark world, centuries old.

Burnt-out lawyer Ed Burke, recovering in Florida from an attempt on his life in Ireland a year earlier, learns that the boy who has died is the son of his cousin, Emmet.   Emmet rejects the school’s assertion that his son died accidentally and asks Ed to find out what happened.

Ed returns to find that the Ireland of the twenty-first century is still the Ireland of James Joyce where ‘Christ and Caesar go hand in glove’.   His quest for the truth leads him from Galway and Dublin to Boston and Rome, following a trail enmeshed in one family’s desire to occupy the chair of Peter, a desire under threat from that dark world, centuries old.

But an avenger stalks the land, one who exacts justice at the end of a rope, one who seeks revenge, not truth.  Ed knows that all roads lead to Rome and he also knows that, if he is to uncover what really happened to his cousin’s son, he must protect the guilty.

LCC Panel: Covert Specialists as Thrilling Authors

One of LCC's most talked about panels was ITW's "In from the Cold: The Spy Thriller Today". It consisted of ITW members David Morrell, Gayle Lynds (both co-presidents), Barry Eisler and yours truly, Pat Mullan.

The Saturday (March 18) panel attracted about 100 people, who listened to their favorite authors speak. Morrell opened by passionately explaining ITW's mission-to bring thrillers in from the cold and to recognize, warm and assist their authors. The moderator was charismatic Ali Karim-scientist, writer, assistant editor at Shots Magazine (UK), and a man of encyclopedic knowledge of thrillers. He guided the panellists through a wide-ranging discussion, from the post-Berlin Wall era to the aftermath of 9/11. "Who are the new bad guys today?" he asked. "Where are the new threats coming from?" And most importantly: "Is the world safer today?"

Each of us spoke from our personal, diverse experiences. Acclaimed author Morrell shared his thoughts based on his former job as a special operations man. The pioneering Lynds called on her days inside a government think tank, where she had top-secret security clearance. The articulate Eisler spoke about how his time as a CIA agent informs his novels. And I could only allude to my stint in the U.S. Army and my years in the murky world of international banking.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the panel was summed up by an attendee, who said: "That panel really held my interest. No one turned the promotion of their book into a dominant topic."

Clifden Arts Week
2006 programme

18 September

Reading with crime writer and poet Pat Mullan
Reading with crime writer and poet Pat Mullan, of whose latest thriller Tribunal, Ken Bruen wrote ‘ it bristles with ingenuity, and a plot to kill for…..with dizzy narrative and marvellous readability.’ Admission €5
Clifden Library, 4:30pm

http://cerriellis.blogspot.com/2006/08/pat-mullan-reading_26.html

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