by Des Sheridan
They both looked at each other then smiled. Alain looked on baffled, attributing his lack of comprehension to his limited English. It often happened that way, he found, when you conversed with foreigners.
Acknowledgements
The two earlier books in the Triskell Mystery – being instalments in a series – didn’t merit an Acknowledgment as the tale was only part told. But now the time has come to talk about the journey of writing this story and like any trek the interest lies in the people you meet, the places you pass through and the events that unfold en route.
A first thank you is due to Janet Beadle as my earliest supporter. Every author needs one person who believes it is all worth the candle and Janet’s support has been unwavering. Thanks also to Jan Wiltshire for an early master class in how to tackle the task of chapter construction. It has been said that behind every good writer is a better editor and without the services of my editor, Jill Clough, the Triskell Mystery would have been a pale shadow of its final form. Jill challenged me repeatedly to aim higher and if the characters convince you can be sure her advice is in no small measure responsible. She also stuck with me through thick and thin to final completion. All errors and shortcomings in the writing remain, of course, my responsibility as author.
The other great presences in the Triskell are the places and the buildings. Many - the Sligo Hills, Ormond Castle, Mont Saint-Michel, La Roche aux Fées – are places of enormous resonance and if it weren’t for the hypnotic fascination they wrought on my imagination I doubt these stories would ever have been told. For me these places beg to be described and their essence captured in words. All I can suggest is that the reader go there and visit them in person. I hope you will experience the magic first-hand for yourself and fall under its spell. And of course there is Josselin, the protoype for the fictional Breton town of Arz, with its wonderful château. We stayed with Pip and Janet - who as it happens are the only contemporary non-fictional characters in the Triskell story - in their beautiful longère in a nearby village. In the early hours I looked up through the glass panes of the conservatory to the night sky and its shooting stars, just as Robert does in Part 3. Pip and Warren indulged me when I insisted we spend hours tracing every twist and turn of the chase scene on the narrow lanes of Mont Saint-Michel. Happy times for which much thanks and, yes, our friends did think it odd that I kept disappearing to write something or other up on my laptop like a man obsessed. Five years down the line the Triskell Mystery is the result of those first endeavours.
An unexpected aspect of writing for me has been the way themes and motifs kept resurfacing in my mind. Certain preoccupations of mine were calling out to be expressed – how the modern world destroys diversity with industrial efficiency; how casually we destroy the traces of our past on the land surface about us, and how intolerantly our materialistic world slams the door on exploration of matters of faith and spirit. I don’t claim to do justice to such great themes but I offer no apology for putting them on the table. They deserve to be raised even if the exposition is sometimes little more than a howl of protest.
The creative experience is a remarkable one. The Triskell Mystery for me is not just a jumble of words on a page. It inhabits a real world where the characters are alive and eat and drink and dwell. It is a place of colour, smell and taste. It is above all cinematic. A most rewarding aspect of publishing the books has been the collaborative relationship with my graphic designer, Andy Fielding. In the three covers of the e-books and with the Triskell logo, Andy has captured – to my unending amazement – the essence of the stories perfectly. To look at these covers is for me to enter the world of the Triskell completely. To come across someone who, through some strange alchemy, can take your verbal ideas, translate them into a totally different medium and make them sing and dance in line and colour is extraordinary. I was lucky to find Andy. Visit Andy’s website, www.andyfielding.co.uk , and feast your eyes on his other work.
Thanks are also due to Diana and Matt Horner, at eBookPartnership for making the process of conversion and distribution of the e-books pain-free. Not being e-literate, I was dreading the experience but they were unfailingly capable, professional and reassuring. I can’t recommend them highly enough (http://www.ebookpartnership.com.).
And that is more or less that. Just one more thing – if you are wondering whether you will meet Robert and Tara again in another story, I can’t as yet say. As in real life people come and go and who can tell where they will end up. What may well be true is that ARAD and its troupe of characters – only some of whom you have met - have a job to do and could pop up anywhere. Anywhere, that is, that something unusual and scarcely credible is brought to light. Then the chase will be on again.
Glossary
A number of Celtic gods are referred to repeatedly in Magic Lantern. For ease of reference they are explained below.
Daghdha (pronounced as dawg-da): a male Irish god of immense power - king, father figure and protector of the tribe.
Mórríoghain (pronounced as moor-ree-o-ghan): the Irish goddess of war and sovereignty - the Great Queen who sometimes takes the form of a crow. In Magic Lantern I conflate her with the Triple Goddess although this is a poetic license on my part.
Cernunnos (pronounced as ker-noo-nos): the Celtic horned male god of the underworld, an incarnation of animal life and the hunt.