Back to the Research by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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Ask almost any author of historical fiction and we'll tell you we love doing the research for our books almost as much as we love writing them. My favorite was the research I did for Erin's Children, the sequel to my debut novel, Kelegeen. The reason it was extra enjoyable was because I set Erin's Children in Worcester, Massachusetts, the city in which I have worked for almost 20 years. 

I grew up in Holden and I still live there. The town line runs down my street so all I have to do is walk across the street and I'm in Worcester. Despite living so close to Worcester and working in that city for so long, I didn't know much about its history until I started researching it for my novel. Once I got into it, I found the history of Worcester in the 1850s to be a fascinating study.

I don't know if it was because of the setting or because I was already familiar with several of the main characters, they having come from my first book, Kelegeen, but I had more fun writing Erin's Children than any other book I've written. That's saying a lot since I greatly enjoy the writing process.

Now that I've decided to write a third (and, possibly, a fourth) book in this series, I am excited to dive back into the research. This time it will be Worcester in the 1860s which will take the reader into the time of the American Civil War. Most of the characters will remain on the northern home front, but I will be sending a few of them to the battlefields. To write this story accurately, I need to research Worcester at that time, the volunteers sent by the City to serve in the Union Army and what life was like for them, as well as the war itself, not to mention everyday life in 1860s Worcester. 

The books have been amassed, the map of 19th century Worcester unrolled and spread out on the table, the notebooks ready to be filled, and trips to the Worcester Historical Museum await. As is true for every author of historical fiction, I know my research will encompass much more than I will actually use in the story. I'm also sure I'll travel down a great many rabbit holes in the process. All of that is okay. More than okay - it's welcomed. It is the joy of research! 

I am determined that the books I write are as historically accurate as possible. I found from the response to Erin's Children that readers love finding out the history of Worcester and "seeing" it played out on the page, especially readers who know the City. So, I know it will be a pleasure to offer them more as well as to learn about it myself.

The timing on this turns out to be perfect since I recently met a local author, Mary Anne Kalonas Slack, who has just released her debut novel, The Sacrificial Daughter, also set in Worcester and featuring an Irish family. We are now planning some author talks together this spring focusing on our Irish in Worcester books. Talking to readers about Erin's Children should really galvanize my momentum towards digging into the research so I can start putting words on the pages of the next book. I truly love those characters and can't wait to revisit my old friends!

The table in my home library where I read and take notes.

The book open on the table contains the annual reports of the City of Worcester from 1861 through 1865.

Among these books are several on the American Civil War and its aftermath.

My steadily growing collection of books on Worcester's history.

My 1870s map of Worcester. 

It's been rolled up for so long I needed to put something on every corner to hold it down.

Erin's Children Now Available!

 

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I am very excited to announce that my new novel, Erin's Children, the sequel to Kelegeen was released by BWL Publishing, Inc. on December 1, 2020! 

Erin's Children picks up three years after the end of Kelegeen. Meg has arrived in America, found employment as a domestic servant in Worcester, Massachusetts, regularly sends life-saving money back to her family in Ireland, and saved enough to buy passage for her sister, Kathleen.

Sounds like everything is going just fine, doesn't it? Not quite.

Meg and Rory married just before she sailed for America. They had planned to wed anyway and thought it safer for Meg to arrive in a strange country as a married woman. Wrong! It turns out that a domestic servant, the best job for a female Irish immigrant, must live in with the family she serves. There's no room for a husband and the children who will undoubtedly soon follow. 'No Irish Need Apply' signs among the help wanted ads abound making it difficult for Irish men to find work. When they do, it pays little forcing them and their families to live in squalid housing tenements, if they're lucky. Meeting the rent is hard enough, but they still have to eat.

Meg loves and misses Rory. She came to America with the plan that he would join her and they would make a life together. Used to a one-room, nearly bare cottage, and a diet almost soley made up of potatoes (before the blight left them with nothing), Meg shouldn't mind making the best of living in a tenement. That's what she believed upon her arrival.

But that was before she moved in with the Claproods in their Grecian style home in the up-and-coming neighborhood of Crown Hill. A beautiful house, a room to herself, three good meals a day, money enough to send home with extra to save and a little more to buy clothes as nice as those of her employers - it's all become the norm now. How can she give it up? But how can she give up Rory?

While Meg struggles with her internal conflict, her sister, Kathleen, faces the daily invective of the Pratts, particularly Mrs. Pratt and her eldest son, Lemuel. Mrs. Pratt is suspicious, bigoted, and impossible to please. Lemuel seems downright dangerous. The only bright spot is Clara Pratt, the sole daughter of the family. A bright, friendly, but lonely girl, she befriends Kathleen much to her mother's dismay. Eventually Clara is all that holds Kathleen to the Pratts until she is finally forced from the home. Where she goes from there is the start of an adventure she could never have imagined.

Surrounding everyone is the tumult caused by the fight over slavery, the rise of the nativist, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Know Nothing political party, and the ever-present specter of a looming civil war.

Meg, Kathleen, and the other Irish immigrants must navigate all these obstacles in a land very different from their own while trying to keep their personal lives together even as their new country seems about to be torn to pieces. They will need all of their resiliance, faith, and mutual support to make it.

To celebrate the release of Erin's Children, I invite you all to join me for my blog tour beginning today. Click here for a list of blog sites where Erin's Children will be featured over the next ten days with spotlights, interviews, reviews, and guest blog posts as well as a chance to win free copies of Erin's Children!