My reading tastes are eclectic, encompassing literary, mainstream, historicals, and thrillers. I like a plot that gets my pulse pounding, and as a writer I strive to create characters and atmospheres that can drive that kind of action. I have written two historical novels about Ireland: Operation Red Hand, set in the 1940's and Sugar and Ice, set in the 18th century. Operation Red Hand is about the secret Nazi plot to invade Ireland during World War II; Sugar and Ice follows the white slave trade from Ireland to Barbados, the Sugar Island.
Growing up in Ireland provided me rich experiences for writing, where the ancient world is often just a field away, hidden in a wood, or in a ruined church clothed in ivy. However, I harvest ideas for writing not only from foreign travel, but from here at home as well. I like to go camping; the wife, not so much, having the thoroughly unreasonable expectation that each day begin with a shower. She’s not crazy about the bears, either.