Hello!

Welcome to my new website/blog.  First off , I wish to say a huge thank you to the creative and gifted Colleen Sheehan for her work on this site and for giving it its professional gloss.  Anyone who would like support in starting up a new website, or have their Facebook or Twitter pages redesigned, their ebooks formatted or any one of a number of excellent services, click on this link.  You will not regret it.  write.DREAM.repeat Book Design

Monday 3 April 2017

THE COVEN MURDERS

Sadly there will be a delay in publishing The Coven Murders due to publisher time constraints (probably May).  However, here is a little blurb to whet the appetite:

The Coven Murders opens with a horrifying account of a ritual Black Mass with a human sacrifice in an abandoned church. Twenty- one years later, in an area of outstanding natural beauty, near an old ruined church, Chief Inspector Sheehan and his team discover the skeleton of a young woman. But what seems initially to be a straightforward case, brings the team into conflict with a powerful Satanist who has plans to offer up to Satan another human sacrifice on the evening of the great Illuminati feast of Lughnasa. Several murders occur, baffling the Inspector until he makes a connection between the modern murders and the killing of the twenty-one year old skeleton. The team’s pursuit of the murderer and their determination to protect a young woman who is targeted by the coven, lead to a horrific climax in a hellish underground crypt where Sheehan and his team, supported by an exorcist and a bishop, attempt to do battle with a diabolic coven and a powerful demon of Baphomet, jeopardising not only their lives, but risking the wrath of Satan upon their immortal souls. 



Friday 27 January 2017



THE COVEN MURDERS


The Coven Murders has now gone off to the publisher, all 120,000 + words of it. It has, as I feared, developed into a double genre book (I suppose I could best describe it an an Occult Mystery.)

To date no one has seen it except myself. Normally I would get someone to read my work for typos and the odd suggestion about the way the story might be changed ... but not this time. Maybe I wanted to hold my cards close to my chest; maybe I wanted to be able to chop and change right up until the last minute; maybe I was just ashamed of it.

In any event, no has yet seen it. I await my publisher's critique with bated breath. In the meantime, if any faithful followers of this blog would like to see the Word version (typos and all included), and you have the expertise to download such a version on to your ereader, please contact me at brianohare26@hotmail.co.uk and I'll be happy to send a free copy.

Sunday 18 September 2016

WHY DO WRITERS WRITE?

After a recent talk I gave on writing, some people waited behind to speak with me. More than one of them jokingly remarked, “What do you do with all the money you’re earning?” There are some writers, I know, who write with the hope of making money – a vain enterprise – but the great majority of writers are concerned more about finding readers. One famous writer, whose name I no longer remember, once asked to have written on his tombstone the simple legend, “He wrote only to be read.” Money for him was neither an issue nor an objective.

Reflecting further on this, I have come to the realisation that recognition, or fame perhaps, is little more a motivating factor to the truly committed writer than is money. So what drives the urge? There is simply the creative spirit that desires to bring into being something original, and there is the creative ego that yearns to share that creation. Most writers would confess, if they’re honest, to a secret wish to stand at the shoulders of everyone reading their work, to watch their every facial expression, to decipher their every reaction, and hopefully, to win appreciation, even praise, for their brainchild. So, while writing may appear initially to be a fire in the belly that must need find expression, ultimately it cannot be an end in itself. The creative ego is a hungry beast.

Saturday 17 September 2016



Something of a Dilemma

I am working on my new novel and I'm sitting here wondering about the extent to which loose plotting causes a book to take over the author's thinking rather than the other way round. (Loose plotting is my preferred mode of writing. I like surprises to suddenly emerge from the actions of the characters and I tend to allow these surprises to influence the growth and development of the plot and story.)

I am currently about half-way through writing the third novel of my Inspector Sheehan Mysteries Series in which the Inspector finds himself pitted against a coven of Satanists. It's called The Coven Murders. The book was initially intended to be a straightforward mystery but I have just now completed writing 3500 words that fit more obviously into the supernatural/horror genre. How did this happen? Where do I go from here? I think I'm going to have to run with it and see if I can marry the two genres (mystery and the supernatural) without falling between two stools.

As I have just said, I tend have to let the consequences of character action dictate what happens in my books. All right! That's how it will be. There are going to be some strange, even frightening, episodes in this new book (Black Mass, exorcisms, demons running around!!!) I'll keep you posted about further developments.

Saturday 3 September 2016


Readers' Comments. Don't You Just Love Them

A friend told me recently that my books never failed to disappoint. I hope this was something of a lapsis lingua rather than a deliberate slight. It was, perhaps, somewhat less barbed than Disraeli's comment to an author he had little time for: "I shall lose no time in reading your book." or Ambrose Bierce's less oblique judgement: "The covers of this book are too far apart."

Tuesday 16 August 2016


ANOTHER AWARD

I am pleased to record that today I received an email from the New Apple Literary Awards Service that The 11.05 Murders was chosen as the solo "Medalist Winner" in the Mystery category of the New Apple 2016 Summer eBook Awards!

The solo selection is somewhat odd, and I do not have an explanation for it. Others of my books have won similar New Apple Awards and there have always been first, second and third places.

Anyway! Throughout the coming months, New Apple will roll out the prizes associated with the awards, including press releases, tweet blasting, banner advertising, awards certificate, and digital medallions to place on the book's various covers. I look forward to that.

Saturday 13 August 2016


WILDE-LY FUNNY

         I came across this little epigram this morning, written by Dorothy Parker in 1937.

"If, with the literate, I am 
 Impelled to try an epigram, 
 I never seek to take the credit, 
 We all assume that Oscar said it."

        Reading this reminds of a story I once heard about a second-rate writer, well noted for his propensity for plagiarism. He was at a party where Oscar Wilde was holding the guests spellbound with his rhetoric and wit.
       At one point Oscar said something that had everyone laughing and clapping.
       The plagiarist said, "Wonderful, Oscar, I wish I'd said that."
       Wilde replied, "Don't worry, you will."