CORK STORIES (Doire Press, 2024)

CORK STORIES (Doire Press, 2024) is an anthology of short fiction co-edited by Madeleine D’Arcy and Laura McKenna. These stories, contributed by writers who live, or have lived in Cork, are set throughout the city and county. The anthology celebrates the great diversity of people who live in Cork, drawing vivid portraits of place and capturing the unique spirit of communities and their idiosyncratic inhabitants. The anthology also features maps displaying where each of the stories takes place.

Writers featured in CORK STORIES include Kevin Barry, Tadhg Coakley, Danny Denton, Martina Evans, Marie Gethins, Danielle McLaughlin, Donal Moloney, Oonagh Montague, Mary Morrissy, Grainne Murphy, Jamie O’Connell, Mel O’Doherty, Eileen O’Donoghue, Anne O’Leary, Tina Pisco, Sean Tanner, William Wall and Fiona Whyte.

Rejuvenation Book 2: The Rejuvenation Trilogy

Is Rejuvenation really humanity’s savior, or is it the hidden doorway to slavery and persecution?

Bobbie Chan has escaped the clutches of the all-encompassing Belus Corporation. She and her comrades are forced to seek sanctuary amongst a band of renegades – outcasts who eke out a meagre existence in the barren wastelands which emerged from the Melter War.

However, Bobbie finds herself at the heart of a game plan, devised by the renegades, to bring the Belus Corporation to its knees.

This second installment of the Rejuvenation Trilogy sees old friends becoming enemies and one-time enemies becoming friends as the true, diabolical nature of Rejuvenation becomes clear.

Rejuvenation Book 1: The Rejuvenation Trilogy

The Melter War has left the Earth’s surface devastated, leaving humanity to survive on what little land is left between the Scorch Zones and the rising oceans, where towering subscrapers dot the dystopian shore lines.

Then Came Christmas

Every time she thinks about Christmas this year, Tracey experiences a vortex of panic and confusion. How can she face it while grieving for her best friend? But life marches on, and Tracey will have a Christmas with someone she truly loves for the first time ever. Tommy has been the warm, bright light in a very rough year. Tracey is also looking forward to her baby niece’s first Christmas, as complicated as sharing the day with her seems right now. However, Christmas day will not be the same without spending it with her big brother, Dermot. But Tommy can’t bear to be in the same room as him. How will Tracey keep everyone happy this year and get through the day herself?

March to November

Five people. Eight months. Lives end. Lives begin. March to November navigates the entangled points of view of Tracey Duggan and her circle of friends and foes in modern-day Belfast, Ireland as they struggle with bereavement, broken marriages, broken dreams and broken minds. All Tracey wants is a normal life. All she has, however, is violence and betrayal from those closest to her. Can Tracey escape the pattern of destructive relationships that plague her? Will her new boyfriend Tommy decide to be right or be happy? Will her sister-in-law Molly find the strength to deal with her new situation? Will her brother, Dermot let go of his past and man up to his mistakes? Can Dermot’s lover, Sheila really have it all? Belfast is not the city of bombs and bullets of their childhood, but it’s still full of trouble for these five as they alternately walk, run and stumble along the road toward a shocking finale.

Rejuvenation Book 3: The Rejuvenation Trilogy

Out of a clear, blue sky, a mysterious alien race wreaked havoc on planet Earth, thus beginning the Melter War.
Alien energy weapons struck the Polar ice caps. Oceans rose, drowned huge swathes of land, swallowed up great cities and left much of the earth as an irradiated wasteland.

Millions of people died.

But a saviour emerged; Lisette Fox and her Belus Corporation supplied the weapons and technology to defeat the Melters and bring peace back to the world.

Some two decades later, Bobbie Chan, a child at the outbreak of war, now works as a doctor caring for the ultra-elderly. Bobbie encounters a previously unidentified disease; ‘Rejuvenation’ which makes the old young but has homicidal side effects.

In this gripping final instalment of Byddi Lee’s Rejuvenation trilogy, Bobbie discovers the shocking truth behind the Melter’s attack and Rejuvenation. Bobbie faces a decision with untold consequences, not only for Bobbie but for the entire human race.

LIVES REUNITED

LIVES REUNITED (Book 3)

The final book in the ‘Lives’ trilogy, set in counties Clare and Wexford and in Boston, the family saga continues, taking us up to 1970s Ireland..

Quiet, gentle Catherine falls for the charming but controlling Thomas who manages to destroy the family in a way that no-one could ever have envisaged.

Catherine’s daughter, Eileen, returns from America for her mother’s funeral but finds herself having to stay to look after a father she despises.

All her life Catherine’s niece, Dorothy, has hidden an unmentionable secret.  Everyone has their suspicions but nobody can give voice to them.

It may take a lifetime, but secrets seldom remain buried.

Reviews for LIVES REUNITED:

“An unforgettable story which poignantly and heartwarmingly navigates us through the
maelstrom of powerful emotions. . .  This book moved me deeply and while I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions as I moved from chapter to chapter, it was the poignancy of the final chapters that reduced me to tears.  One could not but feel a tug at the heartstrings and a sympathy for all of those caught up in the fallout as a result of the actions of one person”. 

“A born story-teller, writing of the era in the language of the era, weaving the lives of her characters skilfully into the history of the time.” 

“A beautifully written, compelling novel in gentle prose that packs an emotional punch.” 

“McLoughlin draws us into the midst of their ordinary everyday lives, right up to the
event that ruptures their relationships and has a domino effect down through the generations”. 

“How I loved the scenes involving the hopeful young Catherine, lighting the candle in the quiet of the darkened church and later after a life of disappointments, sitting in her garden admiring the activity around the bird bath, while having to cope with a knowledge that she would rather not have.”

www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Reunited-Irish-family-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B0C3MXHCRJ

LIVES WITHOUT END

LIVES WITHOUT END (Book 2)

An emotional tale of family secrets spanning three generations. ‘Lives Without End’ focusses mainly on Johanna’s niece, the beautiful, but emotionally fragile, Bridie.

A young bride, full of hope and courage, who, following a tragedy, emigrates from Ireland to build a new life in America.  After her involvement in an affair that would rock society were it to be discovered, she is forced into making a heartbreaking decision.  She returns home to Ireland with her arsenal of secrets, in her search for peace and the meaning of life.

Hidden lives, memories of the past – who knows what lies beneath the surface we present to the world?

Set in counties Clare and Wexford in Ireland and Boston, USA.

Reviews for LIVES WITHOUT END:

“From the first sentence . . . the author had me hooked, captured in a web of beautiful descriptive prose, a delicious assault on my senses and drew me irrevocably into the lives, the joys, the agonies, the minds and very hearts of the two main characters”.

“I found myself enthralled with Mary Ann and Bridie as they each encountered the many complexities of life . . . the highs and the lows, at times, bearing a silent lonely grief that will move the hardest of hearts.”

“As each woman walks in her own valley of darkness . . . we are moved by their plights. McLoughlin explores and portrays superbly that aching feeling of loss, the abandonment of dreams, the descent from hope to despair, but the book has lots of moments of joy, that serve to sustain the characters as they go through their lives.”

“The author is wholly in tune with the vagaries of country living and is truly at her best when she writes about events and community interactions in vivid detail. With scenes like the reciting of the rosary at a village wake, the quiet night-time atmosphere of the lambing shed, she manages to bring life in rural Ireland alive.”

“. . .  a beautifully written, evocative story of that time. It tells of an Ireland long gone, capturing memories of rural Ireland that will resonate with anyone with an Irish connection and will delight those who don’t.  What makes this novel stand out from others in the genre is McLoughlin’s lyrical prose, you can almost see the places she describes, the landscape of her characters’ lives.”

www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Without-End-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B0937FM2LY

LIVES APART

LIVES APART (Book 1)

A family saga of betrayal, tragedy and survival.

1877.

Young Johanna McNamara leaves her quiet life on the family farm in Ireland to join her brother in America.  However, tragedy strikes shortly after she arrives, putting an end to her plans for adventure, and she finds she must put the care of others before her own needs.

Back in Ireland, farming life for the family continues through the seasons, with her brother Art having to deal with his troubled son Declan. Sending him to the USA is an option that might help turn him into a man. Little does Johanna know what lies ahead when everything in her life changes with the arrival of her nephew whose act of betrayal blows her life apart.

Set in Ireland, Boston, San Francisco and Nova Scotia the book explores sibling relationships and how a disastrous action by one reverberates through the lives of the extended family.

Reviews for LIVES APART:

“In spite of being set a hundred years ago, the characters’ thoughts, joys and worries are so relatable and global. The dialogue is sparkling and witty, the scenes evocative of a time now lost and the interplay between the characters, and especially between the generations , is rendered wonderfully.”

“I was genuinely moved by the plight Johanna found herself in. . . .  a beautiful build up to the major events and a harrowing account of their consequences. The descriptive passages throughout the book are stunning . There is no doubt that this story came from the heart of the author.” 

“. . . the story paints the drama of individual lives onto a canvas of great historical events. Some of the more contemplative moments are really vividly and finely portrayed – this writer knows how to paint colour pictures!”

Poolbeg Books

www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Apart-betrayal-tragedy-survival-ebook/dp/B08MWY632B

Wacky Eire

Imagine BBC’s Country File crossed with the cult series Eurotrash, or Father Ted… Now imagine it as a book of true stories, written by an insider who has traveled the length and breadth of Ireland seeking out the weird, the wacky, the raunchy and the downright shocking… this is Wacky Eire.   An outrageous romp through the real Ireland – where ancient traditions and modern obsessions make lively bedfellows and where people constantly surprise you: naughty farmers, dodgy faith-healers, secret swingers, strippers, animal antics – they’re all here in words and pictures. Ranging from scandalous exposes to charming vignettes of rural life, this is the brazen face – and other bodily parts – of modern Ireland. Welcome to Wacky Eire – it’s stranger than fiction.