This story, Getting Over It is…weird. Yeah, that is one good word for it.
I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2016. It was for a mental health anthology that, alas, never came to fruition.
Background
I had wanted to write something or other to get into this particular anthology. But this is not a great effort from me. The truth is, the better story is No Trip to Jupiter. But even then, I may be damning with faint praise.
Plot
From the start of her junior year, the narrator starts watching a construction crew at her school, who are building a new school building. Quickly, she becomes obsessed with a hardhat who she names Curtis. She attributes wealth and status to a man who does not know she exists.
Eventually, the only way she can even start getting over it is to start on medication.
Characters Who are (Maybe) Getting Over It
The characters are the narrator; her Spanish teacher, Mrs. Murphy; a construction worker who she dubs Curtis; and the rest of the construction crew and her mostly unseen classmates.
Memorable Quotes
I have decided his name is Curtis. He looks like a Curtis, with his cute beer belly and his hardhat and boots and sunburn and scruffy cheeks. I think I love him.
But I should start from the beginning. It is my junior year, and this is the last year anyone will go to school in this actual building. A new school is being built next door. When we started the semester a few weeks ago, the foundation was already poured – I think – and the area was being dug up, maybe for the plumbing. I’m not sure. That’s when I spotted him. He was driving a back hoe and he was carefully moving dirt around. He turned the machine and must have seen me, because he smiled and waved. I think he even winked at me!
So you know we go from classroom to classroom and seventh period Spanish is held in a room with windows that look out over the new construction.
I get to watch Curtis every day, while he runs the back hoe or grabs a shovel and digs in with the other guys or eats a late lunch. He’s a nice guy; it’s obvious, because he is so much better than the other workers but he’s a good person so he lets them eat lunch with him.
Genre and Overall Mood
The genre is contemporary fiction. The mood is warped and should 100% give off a proto-stalker vibe. But the girl is young and I know my initial intention was to give her a crush that had gotten out of hand.
However, it is entirely possible that these days we would consider her potentially to be a danger to herself and others. After all, throughout the entire story, she never wavers from her own firm beliefs.
Nothing will crush or change her inner narrative or her overall world view. Never mind that she cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Perhaps she never could.
Rating
The story has a K rating. The narrator is weird and loopy but more or less harmless. More or less.
Takeaways
A good decade later, and I am unsure as to what, exactly, I was going for with this one. This story is odd and feels like it was poorly and hastily executed. It just plain does not have much of a point to it. Ah, well.
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There can be No Trip to Jupiter for this put-upon narrator character.
I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2016. It was for a mental health anthology that, alas, never came to fruition.
Background
When the initial anthology was announced, I was seeing a lot of people in my social media feed who essentially seemed to be (to me) romanticizing mental illness. And all I could think of was: that’s not reality.
In addition, perhaps twenty years before that time, a girl I had known (the daughter of friends of my parents) had had mental illness and she tried to kill herself by jumping out of a window. This had made her a quadriplegic. But she did not have any siblings.
And so, a part of the idea for this story was: what if she had?
Plot
The narrator is the only family her mentally ill little sister will have left. Because the sister is a quadriplegic, she will need care for the rest of her days.
The narrator is clearly unhappy about this turn of events. However, she also does not make anything too super-clear.
Which means that she may resent being her sister’s keeper but act as her caregiver even though she does not want to. Or, she may simply abdicate the responsibility once their father passes on.
This would not necessarily mean abandoning her sister at some bus station. Rather, it would (presumably) be more like hiring a professional care team and staying out of their way.
Characters Taking No Trip to Jupiter
The characters are the narrator who is nearly 100% of the time talking about her sister. She mentions their parents but by this time, their mother is deceased and their father is soon to follow.
Memorable Quotes
I guess I should have seen signs even earlier. She was the one who said there were movies playing on the glass of our dad’s computer imaging scanner. She was the one who made a weird green and blue glass cover for the ceiling fixture in our room and then, a year later, said she was afraid of all the weird green and blue things and people which were only in our room. Well, duh.
Anyway, that all changed when she turned sixteen or so. I’m older; I was nineteen. That’s when the cutting started, although she may have been doing it earlier and just hiding it better. I was off to college so I missed the signs and everything was happy smiles and all the wonders of the world whenever I came home for a visit.
But yeah, I’ll get back to the cutting. It seemed to relieve her stress, to make herself bleed, as if she were a medieval lady being treated for some unexplained fever.
When I went back to college for my senior year, she tried to kill herself in earnest. Not by cutting, but by what happens when you step out of an open window and hit the pavement down below.
Genre and Overall Mood for No Trip to Jupiter
The genre is contemporary fiction. The mood is pretty grim.
Rating When There is No Trip to Jupiter
The story has a K+ rating, as there is plenty of talk of suicide.
Takeaways
When I first wrote this story, I recall being truly peeved at people who seemed to feel that mental illness was some sort of fun and hip thing, like it was cool to be, let’s face it, messed up. And it seemed juvenile. It still does.
And so, I wanted to tell the story from the perspective of the sister who is, in a lot of ways, the one left holding the bag. Because mental illness is far from glamorous or fun, and the people who have to silently serve or step back need some recognition, too.
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The Lost Luggage of Time has a truly strange vibe to it, but it is also easily one of the better stories I wrote at, heh, the time.
I wrote this story during the fourth quarter of 2016. And then I mainly forgot about it. So, it was more or less lost for about a decade. This seems fitting.
Background
I wrote this story for an anthology on Wattpad, The Wattpad Decameron. However, I am not so sure the actual posting is still there. Good thing I keep everything I do.
Given that I have been a road warrior, airlines have ‘lost’ my luggage more than once. And so, I got to thinking about whether time travelers could actually lose their luggage.
Plot
A storyteller sits at a bar and tells what seems to be a fantastical tale about time travel and cleaning up older messes.
Finding the Characters in The Lost Luggage of Time
The characters are Keiran Shapiro, Steve Riley, Elsbeth Mayville, and Miss D’Angelo (I never give her a first name).
Memorable Quotes
Time traveling involved getting into a booth which resembled an ancient voting booth and it really did have a lever. A shepherd would adjust the date, time, and spatial information on a virtual board and then pull the lever. The lever was clunky but rather satisfying to pull. Plus all other methods were fraught with errors and issues. The lever was simply more reliable.
The shepherds’ several booths were overseen by Chief Engineer Steve Riley. Riley was as big as a house and couldn’t even fit into a booth anymore – and those booths were built for up to four people.
“You planning on sowing discord again, Shapiro?” asked Riley as he fiddled with controls.
“When do I not?” Shapiro held up the freeze gun. It was about the size and shape of the palm of his hand. He declared, “Hark, one freeze gun.”
“Got it. I see you had to change your ’do. And your outfit.”
“1066. I don’t think they knew about Mohawks then.” His hair had been shorn to nearly nothing, to get rid of the green. Plus Kieran’s normal outfit, a study in black leather and denim, had been swapped for chain mail. He had a quiver of arrows and a crossbow slung over one shoulder. He almost looked like Robin Hood crossed with a knight.
“Probably not. You gonna meet some Saxon honey?”
“Heh, doubtful. Didn’t they just bathe once a decade or so?” Kieran asked.
“I don’t know from history. I just fix the machines.” A soft chime emitted. “Looks like D’Angelo is about to arrive. Happy trails, Key.”
Genre and Overall Mood for The Lost Luggage of Time
The genre is science fiction. The mood is mostly light although Kieran does have a somewhat messy end.
Rating
The story has a K+ rating. As I often write time travelers, these folks are a little rough around the edges, but are also hyper-smart. Sometimes that means swearing. Although in this instance, it does not.
Takeaways After Finding the Lost Luggage of Time
Rereading this one, I was rather pleasantly surprised that it is actually pretty good! Within it, I can see some of the seeds for works like Time Addicts, The Obolonk Murders, and Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline. Plus, there is even a Shapiro!
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So, one thing about The Playback is it is the kind of story I rarely write any more. While I love lyrics and they can often inspire, this one seems a little too on the nose.
I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2017. It was originally for a third Stardust, Always anthology to fight cancer. However, that book never materialized.
Welcome to Developmental Hell.
Background
I am pretty sure that I was thinking about the old Crash Test Dummies song, Afternoons and Coffeespoons when I first wrote this one.
In particular, there is a line: Maybe if I could do a play-by-playback
I could change the test results that I will get back
And so, I realized, there was the potential for almost a time travel story in that little piece of the lyrics.
Plot
On her death bed, the narrator speaks to a doctor about a wish to save her nephew. According to the narrator, this conversation has occurred several times before. Why?
Because the narrator has perfected a form of time travel, and has been working through numerous iterations to save her nephew. The nephew has a glioblastoma. This nasty form of cancer figures in another of my stories.
But to reveal too much would go heavily into spoiler territory.
Characters
The characters are the narrator and her doctor, and the people in the narrator’s life who she mentions. But she is the only one who does any talking.
Memorable Quotes
I know you think I’m on my deathbed, Doctor, but I’m not. I mean, I am, but I can fix this. I’ll start from the beginning.
Yes, yes, I know I sound like any of however many other crazy, sick old ladies in this hospital. I get that – I do! But I also know that, underneath your lab coat, you’re wearing a blue blouse with a red ink stain.
Don’t look so shocked. And don’t try to tell yourself you showed it to me. I mean, you did. But not today. Not in this version of today.
Yes, I mean version. Because, you see, I can play back my life.
Genre and Overall Mood for The Playbook
This story is in the science fiction genre. The mood is somewhat neutral, as you cannot tell if it is going to be positive in the end.
Rating for The Playback
The story has a K rating.
Takeaways from The Playback
I really like the idea behind this one. It is simple and straightforward.
However, there are definitely a few flaws with this one. One is that it ends on a cliffhanger and with no real resolution. Most likely, I was trying to add a Twilight Zone vibe to the story.
But it does not truly succeed in that area. Rather, the attempt just falls flat.
Another flaw (which may not really be a flaw, as I think about it) is that the method of time travel is extremely basic. Still, that could be an advantage here.
Since the narrator tries to get the doctor to help her, the only way that can make any sense at all is to have the method be exceptionally easy.
This way, the narrator can comfortably ask the doctor to learn the technique. It also works well in the context of a short story. In a far longer piece, the methodology of time travel could have become a lot more complex.
Although for the doctor to be able to realistically learn the method in less than an hour, it does make sense for it to be a ridiculously simply matter to learn.
Argh, I am so conflicted!
So, imagine how my readers must feel. Hmm.
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While I have written about some weddings before, I do not think I have concentrated quite so closely on the bride until this short story. Also, this story is a part of the Real Hub universe.
I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2018.
Background
As I was writing The Real Hub of the Universe, I got to thinking about Shannon Duffy’s subject immediately before Ceilidh. And then I got to thinking about his wife, and her point of view. I felt Blima deserved to have a say.
Plot
In a nineteenth century shtetl in Europe, a teenaged bride gets ready for her wedding day. And night.
She has met the groom maybe one or two times before. This was typical for the time.
But what is different here is that the groom has a friend who will insert themselves into just about every aspect of the marriage. Then again, how many people have an alien shapeshifter for a companion?
As for the casual homophobia, it was unfortunately very typical for the time.
Characters
The characters are Blima Shapiro, her younger sister Chana, and their brother, Yussele.
Memorable Quotes from The Bride
“Blima, do you think he’s handsome?”
“I don’t know. He’s a boy – I mean, man. They are all the same, more or less.”
Chana snipped a loose thread from her sister’s simple gown. “Papa isn’t just some man, the same as all the rest.”
“That’s because he’s Papa,” Blima said. She looked at her light brown hair in an old mirror that was a little wavy and distorted. “I won’t get used to not looking like myself anymore. A sheitl! They all look so horribly ugly: dark brown, straight, in a tight bun. I suppose women all look the same as well – at least, married women do.”
“But you’ll take it off at home,” Chana pointed out. “And you can take it off when it’s just us girls. Aunt Rachel does.”
“Yes, I know. This whole process is so wretched! I don’t even know why Mama and Papa chose him in particular. They’re all the same. Did they close their eyes and point, or something? I do not see the specific appeal of Herschel Taub.”
“Don’t forget his friend, Levi Alschuler.”
“And him!” Blima looked at herself in the mirror again. “I don’t want to be married to either of them.”
“Do you think they…?” Chana’s voice trailed off.
Blima emitted a standard exasperated teenaged sigh. “If they do, then that nonsense stops tonight.”
Genre and Overall Mood of The Bride
The genre is historical fiction. The mood is neutral to slightly positive. I have no doubt that a lot of girls in Blima’s position would have been scared, angry, confused, or worried. But Blima is none of those things. Rather, she is just resigned to her fate.
In keeping with the custom of the time, she would have no say in the matter and no real incentive to do anything about the situation beyond perhaps protecting her family, assuming that she could. And that would only be if she was caught in an abusive situation.
However (spoiler alert), Herschel is a decent person who never hurts her. And so, because she cares for him at least minimally, she wants to have him to herself. This means she shuts Shannon (Levi) out a lot of the time. This includes when Herschel is dying from a stroke.
Rating
The story has a K rating.
Takeaways from The Bride
It was a tough time for young girls. They had very few choices in life, very little agency. The differences between the Shapiro sisters and, say, Kitty and Mink from Mettle or even Nell from that story are striking.
Even Ceilidh has more of a say in her fate. And that is saying a lot.
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I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2018. But I do not believe there was any sort of prompt for it.
Background
The whole idea of an alien civilization requiring us to somehow pass a kind of test is not new to me. In that way, the plot of this one is rather similar to A Show for the Galaxy.
I suppose it comes from the standard nightmare of being suddenly thrust into a situation where you are taking a test with no preparation. But here, naturally, the stakes are even higher.
Plot
If beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, then what happens if that eye just so happens to belong to a sapient non-human species?
With a lot of the usual weirdness that goes on in beauty pageants, there’s only one small problem in the contest to crown a new Miss Milky Way. It’s really tiny.
I probably shouldn’t even bother mentioning it.
What is it?
The losers will have their home planets destroyed.
Not even the runner-up to Miss Milky Way will be able to save her planet.
Characters
The characters are Earth competitor Kristi Smithers; Baenifa, who has glittery scales; Divix, who has lobster-like claws; Baenifa, who has glittery scales; Hruvna, who has numerous feather-like skin tags; and Kyiya, a jellyfish with a methane tank which she breathes from.
Then there are a number of contests who I do not name. One is composed entirely of vapor; another looks like a wolf on two legs; a third looks like a large eggplant with feet. Plus, there are a number of other contestants from other worlds in our galaxy.
Memorable Quotes from Miss Milky Way
“They’re all beautiful, ladies and gentlemen and intersex and non-gendered beings. Let’s all give them a round of applause!”
Applause was a relative term. Sometimes it was like human clapping. At other times, it was like whale songs or clicking or humming. Some of it was silent, and achieved by waiting. Such were the many ways the attendees at the first-ever Interstellar Pageant – at least it was the first one where Earth had sent a contestant – showed their appreciation.
The pride of Bayonne, Kristi Smithers, took it all in, smiling her best pageant smile, the one she had used since she was a child going to toddler pageants and sweeping those awards. Victory was all but assured. The Solar System pageant had been a piece of cake – as if she ever ate cake. This level would be no different.
Smile! Genre and Overall Mood for Miss Milky Way
The genre is science fiction. The mood runs the gamut from silly and cheerful to tense to defiant.
Rating for Miss Milky Way
The story has a K+ rating. A lot of this story is lighthearted and kind of silly. But the consequences of losing the pageant are rather frightening, and they are very, very final.
Takeaways
I like Kristi, who has spunk and heart and is a lot like the USO kick line character in Guilty of Imperfection, Jennifer Wesley. But unlike Jennifer, Kristi has a chance to stop things early.
And the best part about how Kristi can turn the tables is by scrapping the idea of a competition completely. So, the key to victory is to cooperate with the competition.
For the glittering prize of becoming the most beautiful woman in the galaxy pales in the face of potentially saving billions of lives. Kristi will take that tradeoff any day of the week.
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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?
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Short Stories
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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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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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