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Thank you Ms. Raybourne for providing this copy and for being such a good friend to the PaperBackSwap Blog!
Thank you to everyone who commented on the Blog!
We would like to welcome Robin Murphy back to talk about her third book “Federal City’s Secret”.
Thank you Diane, it’s great to be back, and thank you for allowing me to chat about my book.
Diane: How are things going with the sales of your first two books?
Robin: I’d say my sales are average. I haven’t reached my dream of writing full time, but that day will come and I’m in it for the long haul…it’s my passion. Paranormal mysteries are a sub-genre, so it takes quite a bit of marketing to get my book into a new reader’s hands.
Diane: Are you planning on continuing with the series with every new book you write?
Robin: With regard to fiction writing, it’s hard to say. It’s been the case so far, but actually, I just finished my first nonfiction book, A Complete “How To” Guide for Rookie Writers in February of this year. It’s a very practical, hands-on and user-friendly book to enable a rookie writer to learn how to get their newly created work produced and available to readers.
I write what “nags” in my brain. I am a bit of a panster, so I do write what pokes at me and gives me the most pleasure. I work at writing for myself first, and then for everyone else. When I follow that rule, I’d like to think it comes across in my writing.
Diane: Your third book “Federal City’s Secret” brings us to Washington, DC for another adventure. Is there any significance in the locations you have picked for your stories, and are you going to continue with a different location for each book?
Robin: There isn’t any significance, other than these places excite me and I’ve enjoyed visiting them to use as my settings. Washington, DC is very close to where I live and I’ve been there many times, so it was a natural fit for this book.
My fourth book will be back in South Carolina, but will include another island. I love the beach, so it’s a natural pull for me to travel there and discover new areas to include in my book.
Diane: Marie is continuing to grow as a psychic and gain new abilities. Is this going to change her relationship with the other members of the team as she grows?
Robin: I love that you noticed how Marie is growing, which is something I tried to convey through each of these stories. Even though these stories are fiction, readers need to be able to associate with them, flaws and strengths, it makes us enjoy being around the characters in the books we read.
The changes that take place in the relationships between Marie and the SIPS team, as well as Cory, are gradual but very important. The team has come to genuinely appreciate Marie’s gifts and they rely on her during their investigations, as well as to help solve the crimes. For Cory, well why don’t we just let the readers learn how Cory really feels about Marie’s gifts.
Diane: One of the SIPS team members has moved on to the spirit world, is she going to continue to help the team with investigations through the members abilities?
Robin: Oh I’d love to share with you how this will play out, but you’ll have to wait and read the fourth book in my series. 🙂
Diane: What is next for this series and the SIPS team?
Robin: As I said, the fourth book will take place back on Sullivan’s Island, as well as Folly Island. There will be a new beginning for Marie, along with more murders and mystery. However, this book will involve local folk lore, pirates, possibly buried treasure, and more.
Diane: Where is your book available?
Robin: Paperback and Kindle on Amazon
Diane: In my searches online I came across a Serial Killer named Robin Murphy, have you heard about this person? Maybe you could incorporate some of that into one of your books.
Robin: Interestingly enough, I came across that also, and I used the story for a bit of research on my second book, Secret of the Big Easy, but it was creepy to see my name associated with a serial killer. 🙂
Diane: Thanks again, it is always a pleasure talking to you!
Robin: Thank you Diane, it was a lot of fun. I love Paperback Swap!
Several years ago a friend recommended the Lady Julia books to me and Deanna Raybourn instantly became one of my favorite authors. Recently I joined the twitter-sphere and one of the first people I chose to follow was Deanna Raybourn. I was so happy to find she was personable and willing to communicate with readers. Her posts are fun, endearing, intelligent, and creative. These same characteristics are in her novels and her characters come alive on the page. I recently reached out to Deanna via twitter and asked if she’d be interested in an interview for PaperBackSwap. I am so happy she agreed and hope you enjoy the following Q&A. And her generosity extends beyond just this interview, so keep reading!
MIRAH (MW): In 2013 you expanded beyond the Victorian era and the world of Lady Julia. FAR IN THE WILDS and A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS are principally set in Kenya around 1920. CITY OF JASMINE takes us to Damascus. What brought about this new direction and how did you select your new settings?
DEANNA (DR): My publisher wanted me to take a break from Victoriana and gave me carte blanche to write whatever I wanted. It was daunting! I made a list of topics I read about for pleasure—I jotted down about thirty or forty items. Then I started circling a few that jumped out at me and tried to piece them together. The result was A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS. When my publisher asked me to continue with 1920s adventure novels, I started thinking about the Gothic novels I grew up loving—those of Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt—and I considered the settings I enjoyed most from those. Damascus was at the top of the list. Mary Stewart and Elizabeth Peters both set books there, and you cannot find a city more steeped in history. I also wanted to incorporate some of my own personal history. When I was a child, my parents hosted four young men from the Middle East, one of them a Bedouin. They were my first encounter with a culture so different from my own, and they were very gracious and kind. I wanted to weave that in, so Damascus was the best fit. I’ve also always been fascinated by the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia, so a snippet of his story went into the pot as well.
MW: My family hosted a student from Brazil when I was a sophomore in high school and I feel the same, getting to know her was my first experience with someone from a culture unlike mine. Going to Brazil and staying with her family is when I became almost obsessed with learning about other cultures and traveling. Your novels are set in a variety of locations. Once you have selected the locations for your work, what type of research goes into your writing process so it feels authentic? I’m thinking here primarily of the hunting scenes and descriptions of Kenya and Damascus. I’ve never been to either place but your writing made it feel real to me.
DR: Thank you—I’ve never been either! However, I do a LOT of armchair traveling. I love to read travel memoirs, and I’ve learned to track down the childhood reminiscences of authors who grew up in exotic locales. Their writings are full of sensory detail and interesting characters because children are hugely observant of the smaller stories we tend to overlook. Adults will often discuss a country’s politics while a child will tell you about the pets they had, the words they learned, the folklore they were told. It gives a much more rounded picture of a culture if you can see it through a child’s eyes. I also start my research in the children’s section of the library. Nonfiction books for kids give a brief, broad history of a region, and from there it’s simple to narrow your focus in the books for adults. Otherwise, you can end up wading through fourteen centuries of backstory to get to what you need to know—lovely if you have the time to research that thoroughly, but usually that isn’t the case. The other trick I use is asking friends of mine who travel to share their experiences and travel photos. I have friends who go on safari regularly who were only too happy to let me log into their online albums and see candid shots of Africa. I also try to approximate visiting a place as much as I can from a distance. If I can’t get to France, but there’s a French specialty perfumer in a city I’m visiting, I’ll pay a visit. When I couldn’t get to Africa, I had a few directors of wildlife parks show me around and introduce me to the animals. It wasn’t the same as going on safari, but I did at least get to stand five feet in front of a lion as it roared at me, and that helped!
MW: Checking children’s nonfiction books is a great idea. And I imagine just being in roaring distance of a lion would be exciting! In addition to your strong locale descriptions, you give us strong characters. I love the character of Delilah Drummond. She is what my dad would have affectionately called a ‘spitfire’. And I love that she reappears in your novella WHISPER OF JASMINE, the prequel to your recent novel CITY OF JASMINE. Is there the possibility I’ll see her again in future projects?
DR: It was such fun to bring Delilah back in WHISPER OF JASMINE! She was one character I was very reluctant to turn loose of simply because at the end of A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS, her story wasn’t yet complete. She has a lot of baggage from the losses she’s suffered, and we know she still has a journey ahead of her at the end of SPEAR. I would love to write more of her, but there are no plans at present. I wouldn’t rule it out, though…
MW: I’ll keep my eyes peeled for her! I have come to expect strong female lead characters from you…Lady Julia, Delilah Drummond, Evangeline Starke. What characteristics do you think are essential when creating your female leads?
DR: I write strong women because that’s the position I try to live my life from. I don’t like to dither, and I don’t have a lot of patience with my own insecurities. Frankly, they bore me! I would much rather write about the women who are embodying the type of badassery I think we should engage in on a daily basis. Whether it’s sleuthing around to solve a murder or making the best of a bad situation or coming to terms with the ghosts of our past, when we tackle life instead of wallowing in indecision, I think it’s more compelling, more interesting, and more fun. So I believe strength and a strong sense of humor–along with a certain intrepid spirit–are essential for my heroines. They don’t always behave as I do; Delilah is a serial adulteress, for starter. But they always have good reasons for what they do. And if a character is misbehaving, as Delilah does, it’s because it comes from a place of unresolved pain. I won’t write a female lead who is a bitch for no reason. If she’s doing something awful, it’s because something awful happened to her and she hasn’t processed it properly yet. She’s stuck in a place where she’s lashing out, and she has to come to terms with that. And I make sure to show the reader what her pain is all about. I can’t expect a reader to come on board with her and invest in her journey if I haven’t demonstrated that she’s worth caring about.
MW: I love the word ‘badassery’! And having investment-worthy characters is an amazing skill. What are some of your favorite female characters created by other authors? What about these characters make them appealing to you?
DR: From the classics, I love Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Eyre for their spirit—and Jane Eyre is more spirited than many people give her credit for—and naturally, I want to put Fanny Price through a window. I’d far rather hang out with Emma Woodhouse who might be bossy but at least she’s got gumption. When I want a girl who is not very likeable, I am in the mood to read about Catherine Earnshaw and Amber St. Clare; when I want to see a somewhat limp character find her backbone, I turn to the narrator of REBECCA. And I love mysterious characters like MY COUSIN RACHEL. Was she a villainess? Was she a heroine? We don’t know, and that ambiguity is fascinating to me. I am also particularly fond of Amelia Peabody and Lucy Eyelesbarrow and Flora Poste. I like their forthright, matter-of-fact competence. There are at least a few dozen I could name, but I’ll stop now.
MW: I love Jane Eyre and could talk about her all day! Sometimes we’re lucky and you let us revisit characters we love in your work. I enjoy that characters are woven through your recent projects. In addition to Delilah I mentioned earlier, Evangeline has a connection with Ryder White, your male lead character in A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS. While he’s not in CITY OF JASMINE, he is mentioned by Evangeline several times. What made you decide to go that route with your characters in these recent novellas and novels?
DR: After I wrote A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS, I was brainstorming CITY OF JASMINE and realized I could tie the two together to make the stories even more engaging for readers. Then I took it a step further and plotted out how to connect those two novels with future projects and past projects, and it was all just so much fun—like a giant logic puzzle! The more connections I forged, the more I wanted to create. I found all sorts of little things I had layered into previous projects that I was able to go back and exploit, things I hadn’t even intended to use again, but they fit so beautifully into what I wanted to do I had to make the most of them. And I’m not finished yet! Just last week I realized there are two more characters who have only appeared as minor figures in previous projects but whose stories I really want to tell at some point. Fingers crossed…
MW: I’m intrigued! Now I want to know who will return! In WHISPER OF JASMINE we are introduced to Evangeline and Gabriel, the main characters in CITY OF JASMINE. They have an instant connection with one another and make choices they wouldn’t have foreseen. Have you ever had an instant connection with someone or been affected by an event that led you to do things you never thought you would? How did that connection or event change you?
DR: My husband and I had a fairly instant connection when we met, but it wasn’t nearly as romantic as Evie and Gabriel’s! It wasn’t so much love at first sight as it was a feeling of complete and utter inevitability. I just knew that my life was going to be tied to his, and I accepted it. We were engaged within three months of our first date and married on my graduation day from college—something I would NEVER have imagined myself doing. I thought I’d wander off to Paris or Rome and scribble novels while having interesting love affairs and finally marry at about thirty. I was entirely shocked to find myself married at 22! But I adore him and he’s an amazing husband, so I’m rather glad I listened to the gut instinct that told me he was mine.
MW: That’s a wonderful love story! Love can be an amazing adventure all on its own. In CITY OF JASMINE, Evangeline and Gabriel are on an epic adventure. If you could pick any sort of adventure to go on, what would it be and whom would you take with you?
DR: Without hesitation, I can tell you I would love to go on safari in Kenya or Tanzania with my husband. He’s a great travel companion—my partner in adventure! And he’s never faked his death, so we have that going for us…
MW: Hold on, I’m having a fit of the giggles. Not faking his death is a good sign! In addition to the wonderful Evangeline, Aunt Dove is a marvelous character! I actually want an Aunt Dove of my very own to spend time with. If you had to pick one of your characters to spend time with, which character would it be and why?
DR: Oh, that is the least fair question you could possibly ask! I love Julia Grey, but she’s very like me, so I suspect I’d be bored with her because there wouldn’t be any surprises. And I’d be a little frightened of what Delilah might want to get up to…Aunt Dove would indeed be a hoot, and if she’s too busy dashing off somewhere interesting with one of her old lovers, I wouldn’t mind taking tea with Portia, Lady Bettiscombe. I imagine she has some very interesting stories to tell.
MW: Most novels have characters the readers like or dislike but what about from your perspective? They are all your creations but do you like or dislike them as readers might?
DR: It’s a very different perspective to what readers have. They can approach a character dispassionately and love or hate them; they can look at a bad deed committed by a character and call it a deal-breaker. But I see what goes on behind the bad deeds. I know what they’ve suffered and why they act up sometimes, so I might have a little more compassion for them. Occasionally, readers will surprise me and have more patience with a piece of nastiness than I will because their life experience has made them more sympathetic than I might be. Everyone draws the line of acceptable behavior in a slightly different place. And I take a sort of unhealthy delight in my villains. I like to find something to enjoy about them! The twistier I can make them, the better. I don’t expect readers to particularly like them though.
MW: Having a variety of characters is what makes a good book so much better. In addition to connecting with characters, as a reader, I enjoy being transported to other places (times and locations) through novels. This is one of the reasons I enjoy your work so much. On the flip side of that, what do you enjoy most about being an author?
DR: I love the fact that I can immerse myself so thoroughly in a place I’ve created wholly out of my own imagination. It’s like the most glorious game of “pretend” that you played as a child, only no one tells you to clean up your toys and come to dinner. You can just keep playing, moving the people around and giving them problems to overcome and dangers to face. And I love bringing readers into that magical place and sharing the experience with them. When you can take someone out of their everyday life for just a little while, that’s an extraordinary thing, and I feel privileged to be able to do it for a living.
MW: You are (gloriously) in contact with your readers via facebook, twitter, your website and blog and on behalf of your readers everywhere I say ‘Thank You’ for that. How do you think social media has changed the literary world? Is it a change for the better?
DR: Thank you! I think the change is almost entirely for the better. Writing is such an isolating occupation. My pal Susanna Kearsley likens Twitter to our water cooler; we emerge, blinking, from our writing caves and catch up with each other and the world. We get to be human again for just a little bit before we skitter back to work. And I love connecting with readers! It’s the best feeling to be struggling with a scene and put it aside to check in with social media and find someone’s tweet to you telling you how much they love your work. Or wrestling with a deadline and finding a writer friend has a project due exactly the same day and you can encourage each other by holding each other accountable. It’s lovely to get out of your own head for a little bit—and when you share yourself with readers they do appreciate it tremendously. That’s definitely worth the occasional bad apple who just wants to spread their sourness.
MW: We do appreciate it! Just a few weeks ago on twitter you reached out to followers for help identifying someone you had on your ‘inspiration board’…how does the inspiration board process work for you?
DR: When I’m preparing to write a book, I scour magazines for photos that somehow evoke a character or setting or mood for me. When I have a file stuffed full, I pull out a large piece of tagboard and my glue sticks and get to work. There’s no particular method to my madness—sometimes the photos don’t have anything to do with the action of the book, they just conjure the right state of mind for me. When I’m finished with the gluing, I embellish a little with rubber stamps and then the whole thing gets framed and hung opposite my desk so I can see it when I look up from my computer. I create one for each book, and when I’m finished with revisions on a book, its inspiration board gets taken down and the new one goes up. I try to post photos of the boards so readers can see what they look like, but now they’re asking to have the actual boards–maybe I should auction them off!
MW: Auctioning them is a great idea! And getting a peek into your process is really interesting. And you gave me all of the internets (most generous of you, by the way) for helping you identify your inspiration board mystery man, Adam Rayner! Because of that entire twitter conversation I feel I already have something invested in this project. When can I hope to read the project associated with this particular inspiration board?
DR: Oh, you deserve all of the internets for that! He was the physical model for the male character in my October 1 release, NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS. Characters in this book are tied to those in A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS and CITY OF JASMINE, so everything is linked in some way. It’s also set in Damascus in 1920 and the action actually dovetails with a few events in CITY OF JASMINE telling different stories of what was happening at the same time.
MW: More connections! I love it! I will anxiously await NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us at PaperBackSwap! Before we go, what other tidbits would you like to offer us on your upcoming releases or events?
DR: On June 1 I have a new Lady Julia digital novella, TWELFTH NIGHT, and on November 1 is another Lady Julia digital novella, BONFIRE NIGHT, in addition to NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS, the 1920s adventure novel out October 1. Lots of good things coming up, so readers can keep track by signing up for my newsletter or following me on Twitter or Facebook.
Special thanks to Deanna Raybourn for taking the time to give us great insight into her preparation, research, characters, and upcoming projects. Trust me, you don’t want to miss CITY OF JASMINE, it’s a wonderful historical adventure!
To see a past interview with Deanna Raybourn please click here: LINK
And Deanna has generously offered a signed copy of CITY OF JASMINE to one lucky PBS member who comments on this post. So leave a comment and enter to win! We will choose one winner at random who comments on this Blog. You must be a PBS member to win. Winner will be announced on Tuesday April 30, 2014! Good luck to everyone!
The winner of the copy of Frania Shelley-Grielen’s
Congratulations, Veronica! Your book is on the way!
You can read the interview with Author Frania-Shelley-Grielen here: LINK
Thank you to everyone who commented on the Blog!
Frania Shelley-Grielen is an expert on animal behavior, training and environments. She holds two Master’s degrees and has taught for the ASPCA, NYU’s Langone Medical Center, and vocational schools. Her company AnimalBehaviorist.us offers consulting services on many animal issues for both individuals and companies. Her new book Cats and Dogs: Living with and Looking at Companion Animals from Their Point of View has just been published and is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Frania has a ridiculously endless smile, a quick wit, and a dangerously high IQ, which is what makes her friendship with me so weird. She bears (see what I did there?) a strong physical resemblance to Bebe Neuwirth, except that Bebe’s Facebook page does not include a picture of her covered in brown bear saliva. That I know of. We used to pass notes back and forth in class. I probably still owe her money. Frania, not Bebe.
Q: We met years ago when we were young and cute. We’re both older now, but you’re still cute. What’s your secret?
A: Well if there’s any truth to that, it might be that I’m still drinking that New York City tap water!
Q: You have an MA in Urban Planning from New York University. Assuming you took this degree so you could plan a workable getaway from me, to a location I could not possibly find you, was it shocking to get my Friend Request on Facebook? Which do you regret more, joining Facebook or wasting all those years in college?
A: I did think that Planning degree had relocation potential with all those cities out there, and in addition to planning for human animals I kept wanting to know what the non-human animals – not you, Greg – in the city might have to say about things – so no choice there except for more university! And these days you get friend requests from every single person you went to high school with. And guys like you.
Q: You also have an MA in Animal Behavior and Conservation from Hunter College. It’s impressive to have TWO Master’s degrees, and it obviously means you worked extremely hard throughout your schooling. Since this likely limited your time for the more… social… aspects of college life, did you get my selfie? Sorry it’s a little blurry, the dog was licking my leg, he loves the taste of olive oil. So, um, what are you doing next Saturday (see Question 1)?
A: I was married in graduate school, so Spring Break was out of the question. I did work hard but being an animal behavior nerd I loved it, and my husband got to hear about animal behavior all the time, every day… *sigh* it’s the little things that make a marriage work. Also, if you think Fido loves olive oil, use the old actor’s get-the-dog-to-act-happy-to-see-you trick: bacon grease!
[Editor’s note: astute readers will note that Ms Shelley-Grielen has not actually answered either of Vostromo’s questions. Calls to the NYU Alumni Association and Bebe Neuwirth were not returned as of this writing; we do not believe “Hunter College” is a real place.]
Q: Your book Cats and Dogs does not mention me at all. Have you fired your editors? Will there be a Revised Edition with this material restored?
A: Now that you have brought that to my attention I will be looking into it.
[Editor’s note: Vostromo is in error. He is mentioned in all editions of Cats and Dogs, except the Revised Latvian verse translation, in Chapter 42: Why Pets Pee On Your Stuff.]
Q: You’ve worked on research projects on such fascinating topics as canine and equine domestication for the Museum of Natural History in New York. Are the bathrooms there as clean and pleasant as I’ve heard?
A: So the secret’s out! They are, all those great old porcelain fixtures and windows and such. And the exhibits are pretty cool too.
Q: If you were in a lifeboat and could save only your pets or me, would you promise to let my mom know I died a hero?
A: Of course. She will be very proud of you.
Q: I have developed significant lower-back problems from years of being emotionally unable to move the cat a few inches towards the edge of the bed. Does this make you respect me more, or less?
A: So much more! – for I not only share this affliction, I also suffer from an inability to move the dog from the couch.
Q: Finally, if you could live with only one animal for the rest of your life, would it be a cat, a dog, a horse, or Russell Crowe?
A: A trick question, because everyone knows that Noah gets to take two of every animal with him!
Q: So not me, then? Hello? … Hello? Frania?
Q: … Bebe? What are you doing here? What five dollars?!
While Greg gets that straightened out, we are very glad that Frania Shelley-Grielen has generously offered a copy of her book, Cats and Dogs: Living with and Looking at Companion Animals from their Point of View as a prize to a member of PaperBackSwap!
To enter to win, please leave a comment here on the Blog. You have until Friday, April 18, 2014 at 12 noon, EDT to enter. Winners will be announced on Saturday, April 19th.
Good luck to everyone!
Here we are, at the end of another year. I have to say that, all in all, it was a sad year in that we lost some wonderful authors in 2013. I thought it would be appropriate to remark on a few of them here. I have read works by all the following writers, and I can honestly say that I will miss every one of them.
Tom Clancy (1947-2013) published his first novel, The Hunt for Red October, in 1984 and basically gave birth to the military thriller genre. Clancy hoped to see 5,000 copies 
of that first printing; an endorsement from President Ronald Reagan (“That’s my kind of yarn”) made it a huge success. His best known character is Jack Ryan.
Elizabeth Peters (1927-2013) wrote a wonderful series of mysteries featuring Amelia Peabody and her husband Emerson, archaeologists and amateur sleuths. She also wrote romantic suspense novels using the pen name Barbara Michaels. Her real name was Barbara Mertz, and she had a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago.
Richard Matheson (1926-2013) wrote about normal guys suddenly thrust into abnormal and/or terrifying situations. He was superbly talented; Stephen King lists him as one of his major influences. Matheson is probably best known for his novels I Am Legend and Bid Time Return (which became the movie “Somewhere in Time” with Christopher Reeve).
Vince Flynn (1966-2013) died far too soon, of prostate cancer. His character Mitch Rapp, the CIA counter-terrorism agent, thrilled readers in novel after novel. Flynn was dyslexic, and started writing to help cope with the difficulties of that disorder. He listed Clancy as one of his influences.
E.L. Konigsburg (1930-2013) wrote for children, and was loved because she never wrote down to them. She submitted two novels for publication in 1966, and they were both published in 1967: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth. She won the Newbery Medal in 1968 for Mixed-up Files, while Jennifer was named a Newbery Honor book, making her the first author to accomplish a double ‘win.’ She won the Medal again 29 years later for The View from Saturday.
Janet Dailey (1944-2013) is known to romance readers far and wide, and is probably best known for her series of books about the Calder family. She wrote Harlequin romances for years before breaking into mainstream publishing.
Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) was from Detroit, and broke into publishing by writing westerns. He eventually became known for his crime mysteries, such as Rum Punch, Get Shorty and Out of Sight. Many of his novels, both thrillers and westerns, were made into movies, and he acted as screenwriter because of his sharp sense of dialogue. Leonard’s advice to writers: “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.”
Andrew Greeley (1928-2013) was a Catholic priest who wrote both novels and non-fiction, but was probably best known for his fiction: The Cardinal Sins, Thy Brother’s Wife, and his series of mysteries featuring Nuala Anne McGrail. He may have been outspoken when it came to both religion and politics, but he could definitely tell a good story.
