Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting a stop on the Secrets We Keep Blog Tour
Its a real pleasure to welcome back to Jaffareadstoo the author of Secrets We Keep
Today Faith is sharing her thoughts about the Inspiration for Secrets We Keep
I have a confession to make….
As a writer, I’m blessed to be
surrounded by inspiration! You see, I live in the west of Ireland – far away
from the big city and bright lights. We have the Ballycroy national park just
out the road and Beleek woods only a walk away. Our landscape is littered with
the remnants of a history both creative and bloody, our folklore lives on in
the images and sounds that dominate our pageants and festivals to this day. The
Atlantic Ocean sweeps up to our doorstep.
The best novels, for me, are the
ones that hand over a starring role to a sense of place. The Nordic writers
like Menkell, the Scotts, like Rankin and all the great American’s from Ann
Tyler through to Stephen King, have one thing in common and it travels across
genres – it is a sense of place.
When it came to writing my second
novel, I very much wanted to write something that featured where I live. I
wanted to capture a sense of the beauty and community, I wanted to show that
love can be a very different thing when you take it away from the distractions
of city living and that sometimes, taking away what we think we are can leave
us with who we always hoped we might be.
As a child, my mother brought
both myself and my sister to the nearby Ennsicrone beach every Thursday during
our summer holidays. It was a big deal – our day out. We travelled by bus and
it didn’t particularly matter if the sun was shining or if the beach was wetter
than the sea – when you’re six, the rain doesn’t really count if you’re having
fun.
We would spend hours on the water’s
edge, never allowed to go too far because my mother was no great swimmer.
Often, we would pitch up on the large flat basalt rocks that are a feature of
the beach. Enniscrone has five miles of golden sands – but at its town end, it
is perfectly chiselled for picnicking. At our backs – the Cliff Bathhouse, a
small white castellated building that always intrigued us. Even then, the
bathouse looked as if it had been closed for many years. My mother would say,
she could remember it being opened, but then, times change and at some point, a
new bathhouse was built on the main road high above the rocks. As with all new
buildings, it was bigger, more spacious and more modern and the older building
fell into disrepair and closed.
In our childhood, the Cliff Bath
House seemed to represent all that was different and alien to this holiday
place compared to our own small town existence.
Later, as I got older and we
visited Enniscrone with our friends, the Bathhouse still stood there, a silent,
squatting overseer, reminding me of those days of innocence and fun. As I got
older and began to walk along the beach in all weathers the bathhouse has been
a point of focus and very often, we would talk of the possibilities that it
might present, if one had the time or the energy or the opportunity.
It was one evening as I was
walking back along the beach that I realised, I do have the opportunity to do
something for the Cliff Bathhouse. I could make it come alive again – in my own
way and from there I began to see what it might be, then it was all about who
could put things right and that’s when Kate Hunt came along…
About the book...
 |
| Head of Zeus 1 February 2017 |
Two distant relatives, drawn together in companionship are forced to confront their pasts and learn that some people are good at keeping secrets and some secrets are never meant to be kept..
A bittersweet story of love, loss and life. Perfect for the fans of Patricia Scanlan and Adele Parks.
The beautiful old Bath House in Ballytokeep has lain empty and abandoned for decades. For devoted pensioners Archie and Iris, it holds too many conflicting memories of their adolescent dalliances and tragic consequences – sometimes it’s better to leave the past where it belongs.
For highflying, top London divorce lawyer Kate Hunt, it’s a fresh start – maybe even her future. On a winter visit to see her estranged Aunt Iris she falls in love with the Bath House. Inspired, she moves to Ballytokeep leaving her past heartache 600 miles away – but can you ever escape your past or your destiny?
Faith Hogan was born in
Ireland. She gained an Honours Degree in
English Literature and Psychology from Dublin City University and a
Postgraduate Degree from University College, Galway. She has worked as a fashion model, an event’s
organiser and in the intellectual disability and mental health sector.
She was a winner in the 2014
Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair – an international competition for emerging
writers.
Her debut novel, ‘My Husband’s
Wives,’ is a contemporary women’s fiction novel set in Dublin. It was published
by Aria, (Head of Zeus) in 2016.
‘Secrets
We Keep,’ is her second novel out on Feb 1st 2017..
Find out more on her website by clicking here
Follow on Twitter @GerHogan
Visit on Facebook by clicking here
You can check out the books on:
Kobo Kobo Secrets We Keep
iBooks - http://apple.co/2hBcaQR
Google Play http://bit.ly/2gS3iVH
Huge thanks to Faith for her guest post today and for the invitation to be part of her blog tour for Secrets we keep. Thanks also to Yasemin at Head of Zeus for all her help with organising this blog tour.
Tour runs between 1st February and 1st March so do visit the other blogs for more exciting content.
~***~
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