I really like the idea behind Water, because I fully believe that this is the kind of action while will happen in the future. And, it should be a good story to document such a historical moment.
However, with very little dramatic tension in this story, it would be better as a small scene within a far larger piece.
I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2021.
Background
The original prompt word for this particular short story was just the word that became the title. And, heh, sorry, not sorry about the horrible play on words in the first section.
Plot
There is not too much of a plot to speak of. Still, it is the kind of activity which it makes sense for someone to write about: terraforming.
However, you should contrast this with the plot and overall soul of the far superior Mettle.
Characters from Water
The characters are Jason and Shelley, inventors in the future.
Memorable Quotes
“If this works, we’ll be rich,” said Jason.
“And if not?” asked Shelley.
“Eh, we’re no worse off than before, I guess.”
“How does it work?”
“It grabs hydrogen—the planet’s full of this stuff.”
“But there’s not a lot of oxygen,” she said.
“I know. But we only need half. And if we really need to, we can do little fancy molecular footwork.”
“I won’t pretend that I get the mechanics of it all. But whatever—let’s see if it all really works.”
Genre and Overall Mood
The genre is science fiction. The mood is cautiously optimistic.
Rating for Water
The story has a K rating.
Takeaways for Water
Whenever we as a species are truly able to perform this task, I feel that it would be a vital part of our overall development. This is the kind of activity that will be revolutionary. It will thoroughly alter the course of our history.
As such, it deserves a far more subtle and in-depth treatment than in this little throwaway story. Truly, it will be an epic achievement, and this short tale does not do it justice, not by a long short. And that is unfortunate.
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Of course, many if not all of us have heard the term it’s five o’clock somewhere before. It is always in the context of drinking at some weird hour. For this disturbing short story, that is precisely what is going on.
I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2018.
Background
I wrote something relatively similar to this back when I was writing a lot of fan fiction. But back then, I pulled a lot more punches, and that scene and story ended much more happily. Much, much happier.
Not so this time.
Plot
As the head of a time travel team talks about how time travel should be impossible, she also goes into what is essentially almost the Sapient Timeline theory. The idea about the Sapient Timeline theory is that time travelers are almost off the hook.
That is, that everything will eventually right itself in the end. Is it wishful thinking? Of course it is!
The narrator does not actually refer to it as wishful thinking in so many words. However, she does make it clear that looking at a timeline over the course of millennia does not do a damned bit of good for the people in the here and now.
Characters
The characters are really just the narrator, who supervises her team and her junior engineer. They work as time travelers or to support time travelers.
Memorable Quotes from It’s Five O’clock Somewhere
This is not supposed to be possible. The very thought of it just plain doesn’t work, in a philosophical sense. Yet here we are, and it exists so therefore it must be possible.
Cogito ergo whatever.
I shouldn’t be so flip about it. It’s bloody tragic and depressing is what it is.
Time travel is a beast and a wild invention and I’m glad I’m in charge of our team but at the same time, it’s got collateral damage. I suppose we don’t stop to think of some poor fellow who perishes in Pompeii, AD 79 who wasn’t supposed to. We don’t stop to think of the extra casualty at Antietam or the extra survivor of the Titanic who marries someone and another doesn’t get the opportunity. We don’t think about such things. {Rather,} we just let them go. They all are supposed to just even themselves out over the course of the millennia.
Genre and Overall Mood
It is science fiction. More specifically, it is time travel. And the mood is exceptionally depressing.
Rating for It’s Five O’clock Somewhere
The story has a T rating. The ending is seriously disturbing, and you may want to reach for a bottle of your own once you are done reading. Sorry.
Takeaways
This one is quite the gut punch. And it should remind a reader that there is every reason that time travel, if it is even remotely possible, should be hard to do. Really, really hard to do.
Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?
If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.
And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.
Now, I enjoy freshly baked bread about as much as, well, anyone does, I suppose. But I really only get to enjoy it the same way the narrator of this short story does, by making it in a bread machine.
I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2018.
Background
I suspect that the prompt word for this short story was simply the word bread. But I will be the first to admit that I cannot be certain. Ah, well.
Plot for Freshly Baked Bread
The narrator, a young girl from Appalachia, comes from a family where the father does not trust the government at all. She and her parents live in a small cabin with a dirt floor and no running water or electricity.
With a belief system and a mistrust of the government a lot like the Branch Davidians, her parents make it clear: schooling is of the devil and reading is useless because the only things to read are sad and upsetting.
But the narrator, while she does not necessarily know better, at least to start, feels that her life could be different.
When she sees other children in the area going to an unfamiliar building, she joins in one day. Although she does make sure that her parents do not know what she is trying to do, or where she is going.
Since the school is essentially a modern version of a one-room schoolhouse, the teacher can advance her from grade to grade without anyone getting too suspicious. There is no place for the normal bureaucracy that goes along with enrolling a child in school, so that is not an issue.
Which I realize is unrealistic, of course. Normally, I would fix this by simply changing the story to an earlier time in history.
However, I do not want to do that because I would lose the idea of a bread machine, and I would lose the enormous gulf in the narrator’s circumstances between her and the rest of us.
After all, there are photographs that came out of Appalachia during the Great Depression which showed people in her exact, same circumstances. And I do not want to lose the contrast.
Are there still people in her original circumstances? How would we know?
Characters
The only real character is the unnamed narrator, who talks about her family and what happened after she could finally get herself out of a horrible situation.
Memorable Quotes
I suppose for some people it’s their earliest memory or it’s one of the early ones. It’s a homey smell, with the promise of something rich yet light and wholesome. It’s like the smell of incipient satisfaction. And I have never smelled it, until now. But I’ll start from the beginning.
We were poor growing up. Not the genteel poverty of quietly selling off the family jewelry. It also wasn’t the reckless maxing out of credit cards and then robbing Peter to pay Paul and sweet-talking collection agencies to keep them from repossessing the car.
It was different. I grew up in the mountains. There are still some homes without electricity or indoor plumbing. I know because I was brought up in one.
We ate wild game on the good days. On the bad ones, we would forage or make do with whatever was on the already-bare pantry shelves. My father didn’t believe in charity or government handouts, so we got neither. He would rather starve, and so that extended to us, that he would rather see us starve than take a handout.
At least I was an only child. That was most likely the sole bit of good luck my family has ever seen.
When I was six, I realized some nearby children would go someplace during the day. I asked my mother about it, and she said I shouldn’t talk about it anymore. Schools are of the devil, she said, and reading never did anyone any good because the only things to read were sad and painful things.
Genre and Overall Mood
The genre is contemporary fiction. The mood goes from a recounting of particularly hard times to becoming rather hopeful by the end. And if you have ever, personally, baked bread, you might see a parallel to disparate moments (ingredients, if you will) coming together at the end.
Rating
The story has a K rating. Her circumstances are hard, and she is hit on occasion. Still, I hope the reader can see that her story is moving in a positive direction. She ends up more than all right.
Takeaways (Time to Take that Freshly Baked Bread Out of the Oven)
I am not so certain that I want this character to be yet another genius. But she may very well not be one.
More likely, she is just some student, but she had to overcome incredible odds. She is the kind of person who should gain admittance to a truly great university, based on her resilience alone.
Frankly, as I have reread this story for the writing of this blog post, I have begun to wonder a bit. Like if she might merit her own actual book. Hmm.
And since her mother immediately says the only things to read are sad and upsetting, it gives me pause. Would the mother of the narrator warrant some more background and development?
Double hmm.
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And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.
You will not need to get a good buzz on, in order to read about this short story!
I wrote this story during the second quarter of 2018. I believe the title is the prompt word. This seems to be as good a guess as any.
Background
While I cannot recall exactly what I was thinking a good (Egad, really? Yes, really!) seven years ago, the idea of using the term to denote caffeine ingestion is my kind of zig instead of zagging writing.
Plot
A member of a remote religious order loses their place in the community and their home for the unpardonable sin of going out for coffee.
Along with drinking something clearly impure and forbidden, the narrator has left the order’s compound.
And that, quite simply, is never allowed to happen.
A Small Buzz of Characters
The characters are the narrator, who talks about a person they only call the Guru, a barista for the coffee shop (never seen on screen) and at least one other person in the coffee shop.
Memorable Quotes
So I drank way too much coffee this morning and now I might be able to smell colors.
Okay, so I’m kidding about the colors, but I really am wired. Which is kind of odd, because everybody is so mellow at the retreat, so loose and calm. We all reflect, usually silently, and we eat our wholesome raw vegan foods and do yoga and the predominant fashion color choices are white, beige, blush, and saffron.
We are one with the universe.
And now my universe is hopelessly caffeinated.
It all started when I did something wrong, which I will admit to gladly and with no forcing. But we don’t call it wrong there or bad or evil or criminal or anything of the sort. I mean, it’s not horrible in the greater scheme of things, although I can tell the Guru thinks so.
My crime?
I went out for coffee.
Genre and Overall Mood
The genre is contemporary fiction, I suppose you could say. The mood? It is neutral more than anything else.
Rating for Buzz
The story has a K rating.
Takeaways
I really like the idea of the buzz from coffee waking us all up from our slumbers. And then, with the narrator, waking them up from simply blindly accepting every single little thing that goes on in the unnamed religious order.
In fact, they wake up so much so that they start to realize it was really a cult.
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And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.
So, Killing Us Softly came from one hard to resist idea, that the alien invasion would come with neither a bang nor a whimper.
Rather, it would come with a sigh.
Of love.
Background
As far as I can tell, there haven’t been any stories about hostiles essentially killing us with kindness and love. Hence Killing Us Softly (named for the Roberta Flack song) follows that conceit.
I originally called the story The Callade Love Us. But the Flack song made a ton more sense to me.
Plot
When we finally get a signal from SETI, it is from the Callade. And they are so friendly that we let our collective guard down quickly. And that’s when things start to go downhill.
Fast.
Characters
The characters are General Susan Sheffield, President Talia Brookfield, and President Elmer Davis, along with Marshall Porter. Sheffield and Porter are scientists at SETI. Of course, Sheffield also has a military background.
Memorable Quotes
Susan stared up at the night sky. The view was off-the-charts spectacular, with more stars than she could possibly ever count. It was one of the perks of being stationed in the middle of the Australian continent.
The downsides were the abysmal shopping and dining choices, but sturdy drones and a trusty helicopter – which she flew herself – fixed all of that. She even had a tiny airfield at her disposal, in case anyone wanted to fly in but choppers gave them the willies.
The new president was gaga over anything to do with space. And so General Susan Sheffield’s agency, SETI, was more handsomely funded than it had ever been in its history.
She had her Bluetooth earpiece in her ear and was listening to a bit of late night radio when she heard the SETI ringtone. It was one special tone, directly linked to the array.
Rating for Killing Us Softly
The story has a K+ rating. While there is nothing explicit, you do know exactly what is going on. And what is going on is none too pleasant.
Killing Us Softly: Upshot
I was so happy Killing Us Softly found an audience. Corner Bar Magazine has published it. They also published Darkness into Light.
Killing Us Softly — because what if it’s not a slam-bang Apocalypse after all?
Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?
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Short Stories
And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.
How was first quarter 2026 for writing? So, I spent first quarter 2026 mainly working on completing the November 2025 novel, The Invisible Gang. I did a ton of writing while juggling, well, the rest of my life.
And then in mid-February, my father passed away. This colored a lot of what I was writing, and naturally took up a ton of my time. Which of course I do not mind in the slightest.
First Quarter 2026 Posted Works
First of all, I worked on The Invisible Gang, to finish up the plot and tie up loose ends.
Then on Wattpad I posted nowhere, although I did take note of stats. In particular, there was a rather kind review of Side by Side.
Milestones
Also, I have written over 4.05 million words (fan fiction and wholly original fiction combined, with about 2.26 million words in original writing!). So right now, my stats on Wattpad for wholly original works are as follows:
† Dinosaurs – 46 reads, 11 comments
• How to NaNoWriMo – ended up with 26,183 reads, 340 comments (pulled from Wattpad due to their severing their association with NaNoWriMo)
† My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 1,006 reads, 133 comments
• Revved Up – 59,567 reads, 531 comments
† Side By Side – 29 reads, 2 comments
• Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 17,194 reads, 592 comments
† The Canadian Caper – 542 reads, 37 comments
• The Dish – 260 reads, 24 comments
† There is a Road – 197 reads, 28 comments
Published Works as of First Quarter 2026
Also, I am amassing quite the collection of published works! So, here is everything that has found a home so far.
Untrustworthy, which is my first published novel. So, yay!
Almost Shipwrecked, a story in the January 2019 edition of Empyreome, a site which unfortunately is no more. In addition, this story is now a section within a longer story completed in 2025.
There is even a great review of my short story on Amazon: Two of my favorites was actually The House Next Door’ by Trish Wilson and Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline.
The first being a ghost tour type story of Borden house and the second being. Type of what if for me which i cannot stop thinking about.
Hey, I’ll take it.
WIP Corner
In addition, my current WIPs are as follows:
The Obolonk Murders Trilogy – so this one is all about a tripartite society. But who is killing the aliens?
The Enigman Cave – can we find life on another planet and not screw it up? You know, like we do everything else?
The Real Hub of the Universe Trilogy – so the aliens who live among us in the 1870s and 1880s are at war. But why is that?
Mettle – so it is all about how society goes to hell in a hand basket when the metals of the periodic table start to disappear. But then what?
Time Addicts – No One is Safe – so this one is all about what happens in the future when time travel becomes possible via narcotic.
Time Addicts – Nothing is Permanent – this is the second in this trilogy. What happens when time is tampered with and manipulated in all sorts of ways? It is the ultimate in gaslighting, for one thing.
Time Addicts – Everything is Up For Grabs – as the timelines smack together and continue to diverge, it gets harder to tell the “real” timeline from all the newer fake ones. And what if some of the changes are for the better?
More WIPs
The Duck in the Seat Cushion – in the 1960s, MJ Tanner is the only Jewish student in her school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Navigating antisemitism is one thing. But when her mother abandons the family, MJ’s life gets even more complicated.
The Invisible Gang – Tommie Schellenbach is 63, underemployed, still looking for purpose in life. When her cousin Jackie gets sick with stage 4 breast cancer, Tommie won’t sit idly by. Neither will their friends Lola and Eden.
The economics of uninsured Jackie getting care are a nightmare, until the quartet starts to fix the problem at its source.
By robbing banks.
Prep Work
So, currently, my intention, for my 2026 or 2027 November writing, is to write the third trilogy in the Time Addicts/Obolonks universe. But I need to iron out the plot! So, I will undoubtedly spend some of this year on that. I have no name for this one yet.
For 2022 – 2026 NaNoWriMo/30Day50k events, I have decided to create a prequel for each of the 5 main universes.
In 2022, I wrote the prequels for Time Addicts and The Real Hub of the Universe. For 2023, it was the Untrustworthy prequel and Obolonk prequels. And for 2024, it was the Enigman Cave prequel. The Mettle prequel is set for 2026.
So, I anticipate a lot of fun and perhaps a little confusion. But it is all good!
First Quarter 2026 Queries and Submissions
The older ones have moved. You can find them on my Publishing Stats page.
It has been quiet. But that has been by design. Right now, I just plain do not feel like putting myself out there these days. There, I said it.
In Progress
As of first quarter 2026, nothing is in the running for publishing.
I have updated the Submissions Grinder and know that, at some point, I will have to get back up on that horse.
But not yet….
First Quarter 2026 – Most Popular Posts and Pages
And, if it interests you, here are the five most popular posts and/or pages from this site!
My biggest priority had been my father. I went to see him twice during this quarter and the second time ended up being for his death and subsequent funeral. He was 94 years old when he passed, almost exactly three years after my mother.
In addition, at the end of January, we got over a foot of snow. And the truth is, that runs your life, because we had to shovel our (no lie) seven car length driveway.
It is more than just time-consuming. It is also an act that fries your brain after a while. Therefore, snow shoveling days were usually sparse when it came to creativity.
Then we had another major snowfall in February, when I was sick and then my husband was. So, again, there was a lot of mind-numbing shoveling to do. At least March eased up.
So, it was also looking for work. First quarter 2026 is most certainly not the end of that.
Also, I have been kicking around self-publishing for quite a while. And I just might have an idea to get it underway. But this will take a while…
I can scarcely recall how I got the idea for Canaries. It is entirely possible I had recently heard the Police song, Canary in a Coal Mine. But I will be the first to admit it: I am not sure.
Background
The great battle for the Earth is over. And – spoiler alert, sorry, not sorry – we lost. So, what do we do now?
The Plot of Canaries
The first paragraph contains one of my favorite phrases to write. And yes, I have used it before. But it still works.
“… when they came.”
It is obvious there has been some sort of a disaster. And we humans types are not doing so well. Nope. Not at all.
But there is an opportunity out there. We just need to figure out how to seize it.
Characters
The characters are the narrator mainly, along with the birds she (he?) has brought along. The narrator references other people, but the reader never really “meets” them. Plus there are the birds he or she is carrying, in a cage.
But where are they?
Memorable Bits
The first night, in the big common room, their twittering kept people up. People complained, yes, but no one threatened me or the birds. After all, there are so few of us. To harm or threaten one of us is to threaten all of us.
I carried my cage wherever I went on the ship. I got to see what other people had brought along. One woman had a glass bottle of expensive perfume, wrapped in layers and layers of plastic. She told me she had been wealthy back on Earth. It was all she had from her glory days. So she understood why I had brought the birds.
Rating for Canaries
The story has a K rating.
Upshot or, Birds to the Rescue?
It was so great to hear Canaries would be published in Theme of Absence in March of 2019. So this was my second short story published by them. The first is The Interview.
So, I am also glad that the story ends with the slenderest thread of hope. There may be a way out, somehow, some way, after all.
And what would this review be without a quick musical interlude?
Canaries — because an early warning system just might save us all.
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Short Stories
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The Interview came about because I conjured up a kicker of an opening line. After that, it immediately started to fall into place.
Background
Since I have been on countless job interviews, this one was rather easy to write. So, I brought forth a memory I have of an interview being conducted over lunch. It was an odd situation. Two guys met with me and neither of them ate anything. I ate a Caesar salad by myself.
Also, as I recall, they were supposed to take me to some swanky-ish place. But instead, we went to Pizzeria Uno. At that moment, I should have known damned well it was not going to go well.
Plot of The Interview
The narrator meets a woman who runs an agency which hunts demons. And then things go a little haywire from there. In particular, during their meeting, the narrator gives away how she can sense demons. So this starts out as being vital information. But not when the story ends, it isn’t any longer. Then it turns into an albatross around her neck.
As for the restaurant, it is a combination of a number of places I have been to. The parking lot, in particular, is from Jasper White’s Summer Shack in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But with the wine steward and all, the pretend restaurant in The Interview is a lot more hoity-toity.
Characters
The characters are the narrator and the head of the agency. The narrator is the interviewee.
Memorable Quotes from The Interview
“So, how long have you wanted to hunt demons?” The question hung in the air for a second.
The job interview was being conducted over lunch and I had just taken in a big forkful of Fettuccine Alfredo. I washed it down with iced tea, swallowed, wiped my mouth, and tried not to look stupid. “It’s since I was just out of school. My classmates didn’t see them. But I did.”
Rating
The Interview has a K rating. While there is some menace behind it, nothing violent happens “on screen”.
Upshot
I was so happy when The Interview was the featured story in the December 14, 2018 edition of Theme of Absence. So they even interviewed me! Canaries is another story in Theme of Absence. So I guess they like me.
Fortunately I have never had an interview quite like this. #amediting
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Short Stories
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In 2021, I tried to write or at least start one short story per day. Fatima’s Minnesota Wish came from a single-word prompt: carousel. It is the third story I wrote during the first quarter of 2021.
Background for this Minnesota Wish
Fatima’s sister Aaliyah is dying of some unnamed heart or muscular disease. Their parents have brought their children to the Mayo Clinic, in the hopes that somewhere, somehow, there can be a miracle and there will be a suitable donor. But Aaliyah’s time is running out.
For Fatima, who is in the seventh grade, school is a mystery. She is learning English on the fly, but at least she understands math, for the numbers are the same. In order to help her acclimate better (and faster), the school offers the services of its speech therapist for some individualized instruction.
Into this difficult and sometimes bewildering world comes an expression from the speech therapist, Miss Crane: Go for the brass ring.
The first part of the story is Fatima figuring out just what that is, and hoping against all hope that it will be the one thing that saves her dying baby sister.
Plot
It’s all the Hussein family can do to try to keep their younger daughter Aaliyah alive. But every day, that gets harder and harder. Fatima, their elder daughter, is just trying to navigate life in a new country, with a bewildering new language.
Fatima’s own grief and sadness are spiked with a dose of the novelty of being in the United States and learning English. And maybe talking about boys with her new friends. But then there is that brass ring, and all it symbolizes.
Characters
The characters are mainly Fatima, her parents, Ali and Maryam, and her sister, Aaliyah. At school, Fatima’s teacher is Mrs. Murphy. Her speech teacher, helping Fatima learn English, is Miss Crane. Fatima’s friends are Nicole and Debbie.
At the hospital are Mr. and Dr. DePels and their daughter, Doris, along with Dr. Rosenthal. Also, there are Shmuly Baum’s parents, Herschel and Raya.
Memorable Quotes
Months went by, and of course Mrs. Murphy was right about the Minnesota winter. But it was only my parents and me who ever saw it. Aaliyah stayed in the hospital, month after month.
In the meantime, I was making friends with some girls: Nicole and Debbie. My father went to work at an engineering firm whenever he could. He would switch off with my mother, who would work in architecture, from home. But I could see how worried she was. It was hard for her to be creative. I suppose that’s understandable.
When May rolled around, the lovely weather got us all itching to go outside. Miss Crane used a rather odd expression with me. She said I should “reach for the brass ring”.
Rather than ask her what she meant, I decided to figure it out for myself. I just asked her for a hint, and she told me to go to a local park, to the carousel. She had to show me a picture, as I had never seen one before.
The park was open that weekend, and so I, in my halting English, asked the man running the carousel what the brass ring was. So, he showed me. There are rings in the center and, as your ride goes up and down and around, you lean over and reach out to try to grab one. And he said I could get any prize if I brought him one.
Rating
The story has a K rating.
Upshot for Fatima’s Minnesota Wish
I like the idea of this story probably more than how it actually came out. In part, this may be because it does not quite end. Rather, it just sort of runs out of gas. Which can happen with stories, naturally. And it follows vis a vis how her sister’s health is declining.
Perhaps I will try to pick it up again in the future, particularly if it becomes a story to query or to self-publish.
Fatima’s Minnesota wish is truly heartfelt. And maybe one day medicine will be able to grant it. #amwriting
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Consider Ceilidh O’Malley, One of My Original Characters
Who is Ceilidh O’Malley?
The main character in The Real Hub of the Universe series is someone I originally thought of as “a plucky Irish scullery maid”. But then she grew and changed. And I like her better now. Readers seem to love her, too.
To get truly technical and formal, this character is Ceilidh Aisling O’Malley Barnes Radford.
Oh, and her name is pronounced Kay-Lee, and her middle name, Ashling. Dance and dream.
Where Did Ceilidh O’Malley Come From?
The name came to me first. Because the idea behind Real Hub was to marry science fiction with the Victorian Era, the perfect character to observe the goings on would be in the serving class.
With a story that goes from the serving class to the Boston Brahmins and back again, she could be there for all of it.
The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Ceilidh O’Malley
Considered an old maid in her tiny home village of Ballyvaughan, Ceilidh, her sister Maeve, and her mother are starving. The crops are unreliable, and the entire village is barely on the right side of grinding poverty.
And that even includes the most powerful family in Ballyvaughan, the Barneses.
Ceilidh has stayed away from the men in her village. She is a cousin of some degree to near all of them. But it is more than that. She is just plain not interested in any of them.
A part of this is because she (and one of the Barnes sons) is the best student in the one-room, multi-year schoolhouse. The teacher? Her father. But by the time she is in her teens, her father has died of what was likely food poisoning. Things are not looking good.
And so, even though Maeve likes him, it is Ceilidh who ends up being married off to the middle Barnes son, Johnny. When Johnny attacks her, she flees the country and the story begins, as does the Real Hub of the Universe series.
Description
Extremely pale, yet with the map of Ireland on her face, Ceilidh is semi-unique looking. But not so much that she should seem out of place. What I did not want was a stereotypical redheaded, freckle-faced Irish Colleen.
I decided Ceilidh would resemble Naomi Watts, an actress I like a great deal, particularly because she does not seem to be afraid of looking her age.
Purpose/Theme/Mo
This is Naomi Watts (as Gertrude in Ophelia) – looking a bit like Ceilidh O’Malley but probably too well-dressed and not as young as I’d like
Motivation
Ceilidh’s original motivator is getting away/lying. When she leaves Ballyvaughan, it is essentially under false pretenses. But there is no way that she can stay.
Her struggle to not only survive, but to turn her life around, is at the heart of the series.
Quotes (Ceilidh is talking to Dr. Devon Grace, who speaks first)
“And so you left?”
“Yes. I packed and my cousin was still in the village but he was leaving. So I went with him. He took me to Kinvara and I got passage on the Atlas because Captain Underwood took pity on me. We stopped in Cornwall and I met his wife and befriended her. She agreed to be the go-between for me and my mother and sister. Helen has kindly forwarded letters and even money to them for a few years now. She has exceeded my expectations a thousandfold.”
“And your mother and sister know nothing of your whereabouts?”
“That’s correct. They don’t even know I’m in America.”
Relationships
Ceilidh, like many characters, is well-defined by her relationships in life. Friend, family member, and employee—and eventually employer—she does it all.
Friendships
A true, understanding friend, Ceilidh feels it is important to help her friends whenever she can.
Frances Miller Ashford
Ceilidh’s first friend in the states is fellow scullery maid, Frances Miller. In fact, Frances makes it easier for Ceilidh to pass a test to be able to work at the Edwards House.
To return the favor, Ceilidh works to bring Frances’s admirer, plumber’s assistant Gregory Ashford, to the house more often so the two can get to know one another. The two women are so close that they are in each other’s weddings.
Shannon Duffy
Shannon is a strange creation of mine, essentially a colony of tiny cells which, together, make up a form of collective intelligence. The colony chooses her by vote, as they choose virtually everything else. When they meet, it is almost by random.
Shannon, at the time called Levi Altschuler, is being chased by a number of bullies in the Boston Public Garden. Running from them, Shannon runs directly into Ceilidh and knocks her down.
But when the bullies catch up, Ceilidh rises to defend Shannon, even though they have never seen each other before.
Shannon helps her in several different ways (trying to avoid too many spoilers here!), including helping Dr. Grace to save her life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
This very real figure from history is initially snobbish and somewhat mean to a mere serving girl. But they grow on each other, and he takes the place of her father in some ways.
As he ages, he slows down and suffers what we would recognize as a form of senile dementia, possibly Alzheimer’s disease. She cares for him whenever they are in the same room together and mourns him when he dies.
Dr. Devon Grace
Devon is Ceilidh’s originally stern and mysterious employer. He likes her discretion and company, and she, initially, enjoys bouncing ideas off him. In that way, he is also something of a father surrogate to her.
She accepts his faults, smooths out at least some of his rough edges, keeps his secrets, and they both make each other better.
Devon’s greatest gift to her is given in Ireland.
Ellen Remy Grace
As Ellen lives in somewhat genteel poverty, Ceilidh can relate. And when Ellen’s employment prospects are nearly zero due to her having an illegitimate child, it is Ceilidh who gives the semi-starving woman a sandwich.
And it is Ceilidh who treats Ellen like a friend and not a pariah. In her own way, Ceilidh also realizes Ellen is in mourning and has lost a great deal more than just her reputation.
Judge John Lowell and the Other Members of SPHERE
SPHERE, the secret society at the heart of the story, is the source of several relationships for Ceilidh.
Apart from Winthrop Edwards, all the members of SPHERE are real historical figures. Lowell is Ceilidh’s second employer. He treats her well and gives her responsibilities she would normally never have gotten. He and his wife treat her fairly.
Henry Adams is mainly aloof, but in the third book, he confides that he and a woman he corresponds with are involved in what we would nowadays call an emotional affair.
George Weld had been a yachtsman, but by the time Ceilidh knows him, he is becoming disabled (possibly due to a stroke). Much like with Emerson in his later years, Ceilidh fetches him tea, helps him up and down stairs, and otherwise treats him with special care.
Alexander Graham Bell joins later, and he is initially suspicious that a woman could possibly be a good confidante. She wins him over, in a way—but lets Mrs. Lowell speak up when Bell argues at a party that women should never be working.
When Emerson dies, Ceilidh turns to SPHERE member Bronson Alcott to take his place as the father figure in her life. Delighted, Alcott makes her promise to keep in close touch.
Finally, Winthrop Edwards is Ceilidh’s first employer in the US. Snobbish and very private, we get to know him better in the second and third books than we ever do in the first.
Family
Ceilidh’s family relationships are complex, mainly due to the tininess of her home village (so she is related to pretty much everyone) and her immediate family’s grinding poverty.
Her beloved father dies when she is young, and so her mother, she, and her sister are forced to fend for themselves. And it does not go well at all.
Mam (Mary O’Malley)
When the first book starts, Mary has been backed into a financial corner. She and her family are members of the cottier class, a kind of tenant farmer.
But when the crops fail too many times in a row, Mary knows that Maeve in particular probably will not survive for too much longer.
As a result, Mary surveys her valuables and essentially “sells” one of them—Ceilidh—for more food for all of them.
For the time, Mary’s actions are justifiable and even kind. Giving up Ceilidh to the Barnes family means her elder daughter will never starve. And it also means that the meager rations she, Maeve, and Ceilidh have been living on can instead be split between two people.
Furthermore, a connection to the Barnes family means occasional meals or at least allowances to be late with the rent. Jack Barnes is already Mary’s cousin. But handing over Ceilidh strengthens that.
When we finally meet her in Book Two, Mary is a doting grandmother but still starving, giving her share to her grandsons even if that means it could eventually kill her.
Maeve O’Malley Barnes
With Maeve, things are complicated. But that is understandable. Much like in the Old Testament story of Rachel and Leah, it is Maeve who is originally pledged to Johnny. But things go south when the family goes through yet another bad winter.
And Johnny does not want to wait for what at the time was called ‘wifely duties’.
Mary is cognizant enough of Maeve’s ill health to offer up Ceilidh instead. Ceilidh is about twenty, an old maid pretty much anywhere. Maeve is fifteen, and technically old enough to wed.
After Ceilidh flees Ballyvaughan, Johnny and Maeve take up anyway. And when Ceilidh, Jake, Shannon, and Devon go to Ballyvaughan in the third book, Ceilidh discovers Maeve is living in her cottage. Ceilidh’s cottage, that is.
Yep, like they say on Facebook, “it’s complicated”.
People Ceilidh Doesn’t Like
While technically Johnny Barnes should be here, he belongs in the next section. These people are not necessarily enemies, per se. But they are not pals with Ceilidh all the same.
Margery Cabot Edwards
Like in many wealthy American households of the time, it is the lady of the house who is in charge of the servants. Mrs. Lowell is fair and smart, running her house like a business.
Margery Cabot Edwards, on the other hand, is a snobby, spoiled rich girl, more than happy to treat all of her household help like dirt. But her maltreatment is a catalyst to get Ceilidh to find work elsewhere, with the Lowells.
Gerald Price
The lesser of the two louts working for the Lowell House, Gerald is a sexist, but that was par for the course at the time. This stable hand is a bit too nosy for his own good, but otherwise he and Ceilidh mainly stay out of each other’s way.
Ceilidh’s semi-revenge is to hire Gerald in Book Three.
Gerald has his name because I have been in more than one working situation where a guy named Jerry was just the biggest jerk.
My apologies to those who love people named Jerry (and hey, how about Jerry O’Connell?)! But I will often name a jerk in my writing Jerry, and that is the case in the Time Addicts trilogy as well.
Donald Smith
This character got his name due to the election of the 45th/47th president, a person who has never impressed me.
In the books, Donald is the gardener to not only the Edwards and Lowell Houses, but really to all or most of the Boston Brahmins. Talented and hard-working, he turns that on its head and uses his good qualities to get away with a lot.
As a result, he has a girlfriend in nearly every house he works in, and most if not all of those relationships are sexual in nature.
With Ceilidh, he is rough and nasty. Jealous of her education and her position with Devon, he is also sexually attracted to her. He calls her Duchess, and he is not trying to be flattering.
Donald’s comeuppance happens in Book Three (if you’ve only read the first two, trust me, it is coming), and I spent a lot of time trying to come up with what would punish him the most. Did I succeed? You tell me.
Romantic Relationships
Johnny Barnes
The first time we see Johnny, he is attacking Ceilidh for having the audacity to try to bring him home after he has been on a multi-day bender. Most women of the time would have accepted his treatment, although a lot of Irish villages and towns would have held a shivaree.
While Johnny’s behavior is far from defensible, some of it stems from marrying the wrong sister. In some small way, he loves Maeve, but he does not treat her much better than he does Ceilidh.
But at least with Maeve, he ostensibly provides care for her and their sons. Well, kinda.
Jacob Radford
Their meeting is far from auspicious, as they first see each other at the Charles Street Jail, on the opposite sides of the bars. But there is something about Jake. Originally, he is just her handsome, pleasant, polite suitor.
And when he learns the truth of her marital status (covered in her quote, above), he is all set to do the honorable thing and bow out. But when he learns why she is in America, he takes up her cause and is a large part of proving her case in the annulment hearing.
When they wed, he reveals real heat under his manners and Southern charm, and their sex life is certainly more active and consensual than it was for a lot of women at the time.
But the time they truly grow close is when he reveals his secrets to her about his service in the Civil War.
And when both of them see a possible future for themselves, he includes her in decision-making, treating her far more like an equal than most husbands did in the 1870s and 1880s.
Conflict and Turning Point for Ceilidh O’Malley
Ceilidh experiences several turning points within the series, and the first one happens in the first scene.
When the series starts, it is 1876. In this time period, most women would have accepted abuse as their lot in life.
But not Ceilidh. She is not going to continue pretending everything is fine.
In the second book, I tackle more of her marriage to Johnny. The abuse is just the cherry on a nasty sundae.
Without giving away too many spoilers, Ceilidh changes with major upheavals in her life. This is whether they’re from the start or end of relationships, or from external factors like trouble with the law. And, of course, the main change in her life is by aliens.
I do not necessarily have a lot of plans for Ceilidh, because I have already finished the trilogy.
But people love her, and I suspect her early life or her future could be of interest to readers.
So, I may not have seen the last of her.
Ceilidh O’Malley: Takeaways
For a character whose first appearance is a beating, Ceilidh O’Malley grows to become somewhat middle class. She grows to become a certainly respectable member of Boston society.
And she ends up with powerful friends, a great love, and a promising future. Her happy ending is the kind any of us would wish for.
Ceilidh O’Malley — a character who turns around completely.
Want More of Ceilidh O’Malley?
If Ceilidh resonates with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about Ceilidh, Johnny, Devon, Frances, Shannon and everyone else as they work in order to prevent a temporally jacked-up genocide.
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