Everyday Creation
This show has to do with different kinds of creation: human, divine, and a third kind that connects the two. Our human creativity is easy to talk about because clearly we're prolific creators. We make music, we write, we cook; we establish businesses, we design gardens, we invent things. The list goes on and on. Another kind of creation is divine. We feel its presence when, for example, we contemplate birth, death, our life purpose, or have a quiet realization that there's something bigger than us. The third kind is perhaps a little more difficult to grasp and yet, with a little practice, it's easy to put into action. This is the personal power each of us has to direct our thoughts, words and actions every day toward what we want in our life and world, rather than what we don't want.
This sounds heavier than it is. For me, this show is an acknowledgment that while we're all here to learn and grow and do our best, there's still plenty of opportunity to relax, laugh, love, and enjoy this playground we call life. So my hope is that you'll get some enjoyment and illumination out of these episodes. Here you'll find interviews with delightfully creative individuals; short stories about some who have passed away; and essays about personal power.
I'm Kate Jones, host and creator of Everyday Creation. Thank you for following my show.
Everyday Creation
Author Patricia Falvey on Taking a Chance, Being Resilient and Pursuing Your Dream
Patricia Falvey is the author of five historical novels that focus on Irish history and ordinary characters living through major historical events, blending fact with fiction. Her latest, "The Famine Orphans," follows six characters — "orphan girls" — who take part in a real-life effort by the British government to decrease the number of orphans in Irish workhouses and boost the population of Australia.
In this episode, Falvey shares her own experience of immigrating to a foreign land. She talks about how she made her way in the United States, initially working in Omaha for the Job Corps before heading to Boston, where she received a scholarship to Suffolk University and went on to have a successful career as an accountant and CPA.
She spent 30-plus years in that field although she'd always dreamed of being a writer. She had even told bedtime stories to herself as a young child. When she finally took a leap of faith to become a full-time writer, it was the beginning of a fulfilling second act. She encourages others with a dream to consider finding a way to make it come true.
To listen to "Orphan Girl" sung by the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, go to this video. To learn more about Falvey's books, visit her website.
This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.
Kate:
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.360
Hello, this is Kate Jones here with
Patricia Falvey, the author of five
00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:12.080
historical novels, including her latest,
"The Famine Orphans," which came out in May.
00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:16.480
All five novels have a
connection to Ireland.
00:00:17.520 --> 00:00:18.880
Welcome, Patricia!
00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:22.800
I have been so looking
forward to talking with you.
Patricia:
00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:25.255
Thank you, Kate.
It's great to be here.
00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:26.320
I appreciate it.
Kate:
00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:28.640
Let's start off, if you don't mind.
00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:36.480
with you at 20 years old, immigrating
alone to the U.S. Why did you come?
00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:38.560
What was that like?
00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:40.960
And how did you make your way?
00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:42.880
You could start with any one of those.
Patricia:
00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:50.415
Well, yes, I was 20, and there's a long
story prior to that, but I had been raised
00:00:50.440 --> 00:00:53.840
in Ireland with my
grandmother until I was about 8.
00:00:54.400 --> 00:00:58.935
And then my parents, whom I really didn't
know very well, they used to show up
00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:01.960
at Christmas and holidays from England.
00:01:02.120 --> 00:01:03.160
They lived in England.
00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:08.680
And one time my mother just showed up
and took me with her back to England.
00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:15.295
So I never quite bonded with my parents
because I always had wanted to go back to
00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:20.280
Ireland and my grandmother. I mean, it
wasn't a horrible life, but
00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:24.600
it was just fraught a little bit and
a little bit emotionally distant.
00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:27.535
So anyway, I had a sense of adventure.
00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:31.080
The other thing was in looking around at
what my options were
00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:37.215
as a working-class kid in England
looking to make my way in a career of any
00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:43.335
kind, I just thought, well, if I'm going
to have to settle for like a mediocre life
00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:47.720
here, I think I might like
to go and have some fun,
00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:50.040
excitement. Experiment.
00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:54.135
I think what did it for me too was the
long Irish history of people
00:01:54.160 --> 00:01:56.415
immigrating to the United States.
00:01:56.440 --> 00:01:57.695
So I thought I would do it.
00:01:57.720 --> 00:02:00.200
I thought I would come to
America for a couple of years.
00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:02.040
Well, that didn't happen.
00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:07.535
But so what I did was I applied and
answered all the questions,
00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:09.160
including the customs question
00:02:09.720 --> 00:02:12.095
"Are you planning to
engage in prostitution?"
00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:16.120
which was very interesting because they
did ask that on the immigration
00:02:16.920 --> 00:02:17.720
application.
00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:21.560
So I said, no, thinking I hope not.
00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:24.055
So anyway, I looked at the map.
00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:26.120
I had no clue how big America was.
00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:30.400
I looked at the map
and saw that Omaha was in the middle.
00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:33.895
And so I thought, well,
that's kind of cool.
00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:38.480
I can drive to Boston, I can drive to LA.
00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:42.400
I can see all these other
places if I just start there.
00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:47.855
The other reason for that was that I
could not get a visa for the East Coast.
00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:51.655
I was applying as a secretary because I
knew how to type and
00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:53.120
had taken some classes.
00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:57.680
And it was during that phase in the East
Coast in particular that a lot of
00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:03.720
executives were hiring British secretaries
because the accent was very sought after.
00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:08.840
And there was just this run on British
secretaries, and I couldn't get
00:03:08.920 --> 00:03:11.560
agreement or consent to do that.
00:03:11.720 --> 00:03:13.320
So I ended up in Omaha.
00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:16.200
Interestingly, I stopped in New York.
00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:19.880
I felt really sad when I arrived at JFK.
00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.135
I don't know if it was even
Kennedy Airport at the time.
00:03:23.160 --> 00:03:24.040
It probably was.
00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:29.015
But when I arrived there and everybody
else had people rushing to greet them, and
00:03:29.040 --> 00:03:32.200
I didn't have anyone,
and that was a little bit sad.
00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:37.975
And then I got on a bus into New York
City, and I remember the bus
00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.495
driver: "Move along, move along."
00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:41.615
You know how they are in New York.
And I,
00:03:41.640 --> 00:03:46.920
I took out all these coins and promptly
dropped them all on the floor of the bus.
00:03:47.160 --> 00:03:49.295
That was because, you know, I just,
00:03:49.320 --> 00:03:51.575
I got very frustrated, confused.
00:03:51.600 --> 00:03:55.695
But to give people credit, a lot of people
got up and helped me gather up the coins.
00:03:55.720 --> 00:03:59.175
So then I got into New York and I stayed
at the Manhattan Hotel, which
00:03:59.200 --> 00:04:00.920
to me sounded very New York.
00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:08.200
And then I got on a Greyhound bus and went
on this bus across the country to Omaha
00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:13.455
and was kind of let down when the bus
pulled in in the middle of the night to
00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:16.440
Council Bluffs, Iowa, which
is actually a lovely town.
00:04:16.520 --> 00:04:19.055
But it was not what I had hoped for.
00:04:19.080 --> 00:04:22.760
And I thought to myself, oh, my God,
I just came 5,000 miles to this.
00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:27.295
So then the bus started up again and went
over the bridge and into Omaha,
00:04:27.320 --> 00:04:29.000
and I stayed there for two years.
00:04:29.640 --> 00:04:35.655
And then it became pretty evident that in
order to get anywhere in life, I
00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:37.960
would need to get a college degree.
00:04:38.440 --> 00:04:43.880
And I had some college credits to my
credit before I came, but not enough
00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:45.535
for it to mean anything.
00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:49.215
And so that's when a friend of mine said,
"Well, if you're going to go to
00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:50.840
college, you should try Boston."
00:04:51.400 --> 00:04:56.855
And so I ended up going to Boston,
met these girls, who were very cute girls
00:04:56.880 --> 00:05:02.200
from Cincinnati, who were going
to be studying in Boston.
00:05:02.280 --> 00:05:06.095
And they told me about the SATs and all of
that kind of thing,
00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:07.960
which I'd never understood.
00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.920
I'd never taken a multiple
choice exam in my life.
00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:12.800
So I did that.
00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:16.895
And then I wrote to every school I could
find in the telephone directory and said,
00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:20.080
I'd like to go to your school.
And Suffolk University —
00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:25.615
and I told them this the other day at the
reunion meeting — that they were not only
00:05:25.640 --> 00:05:29.095
the only ones who responded, but they
responded with an offer
00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:30.495
of a foreign scholarship.
00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:31.920
So they gave me my start.
Kate:
00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:33.920
Beautiful.
Yeah.
00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:35.855
So what did you do in Omaha?
Patricia:
00:05:35.880 --> 00:05:41.440
I worked for the Lyndon Johnson poverty
program, known as the Job Corps.
00:05:42.080 --> 00:05:46.215
And it was a real
eye-opener for me, because, you know,
00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:49.895
coming from Ireland and England, pretty
much the only people I knew were
00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:51.760
English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh.
00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:53.280
This was a plan.
00:05:53.760 --> 00:05:57.200
I think it's still in
existence, the Job Corps.
00:05:57.440 --> 00:06:04.575
But it was a plan to take girls
between the ages of like 18 and 21 or
00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:09.840
somewhere around there from inner
cities, from poverty-stricken areas.
00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:14.320
And they gave them business
lessons in all kinds of things.
00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:21.120
And so one of my jobs was to help them
with business practices because
00:06:21.280 --> 00:06:22.880
I had a couple of years working.
00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:27.375
I would speak to the girls one at a time
and try to find out what it was
00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:28.800
they were interested in learning.
00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:36.200
And the first one was a young lady from
one of the American Indian reservations,
00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:39.000
and her name was Mary Little Young Man.
00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:41.375
And I was just fascinated.
00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:45.640
It was interesting in that there
were girls from all ethnicities.
00:06:45.960 --> 00:06:48.695
We had some really bad problems at times.
00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:51.080
There were drug problems
or a few knifings.
00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:55.015
There were kids that
really did want to learn.
00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:58.120
I mean, it's a mix like
anything that you would expect.
00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.815
And very often when I went out on the
street at lunchtime, I'd
00:07:01.840 --> 00:07:03.520
forget to take my badge off.
00:07:03.760 --> 00:07:09.575
And I was accosted at times by some of the
good people of Omaha saying, "You people
00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:11.975
are bringing all these
derelict people here."
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.040
And it was a real eye-opener.
00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:19.295
And I was there for two years,
made some friends, like I
00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:21.360
said, and then went to Boston.
00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:25.960
So that was like phase one of my journey.
Kate:
00:07:26.760 --> 00:07:29.735
So you go to Suffolk University?
Yes.
00:07:29.760 --> 00:07:30.920
And what's your major?
Patricia:
00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:33.880
Well, funny you should ask.
00:07:33.960 --> 00:07:39.080
I enrolled as an English major because I
was very interested in either writing
00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:42.815
or being a journalist or
something to do with writing.
00:07:42.840 --> 00:07:45.215
It was just there inside me.
00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:48.840
So I enrolled as an English major and my
first professor
00:07:49.400 --> 00:07:51.800
was a fellow named Eugene O'
Neill.
00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:54.440
And I said, oh, this is a sign.
00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:55.855
I'm going to be a writer.
00:07:55.880 --> 00:07:56.920
As it turned out,
00:07:57.320 --> 00:08:02.335
I mean Suffolk was pretty cheap at that
time, and I was getting a lot of the
00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:07.095
tuition paid for and everything,
but it still was evident that I
00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:09.000
was going to need to earn money.
00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:15.080
I had studied accounting
back in England for two semesters
00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:19.055
because my father had said, "If you're
going to go over there, you need to get a
00:08:19.080 --> 00:08:22.935
job and you need to study
bookkeeping," as he called it.
00:08:22.960 --> 00:08:25.680
And so I had those credits.
00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:31.120
And the dean of the business school, when
I finally did go approach him,
00:08:31.760 --> 00:08:33.495
he said, "We can work it out.
00:08:33.520 --> 00:08:35.920
We can get a transfer of those credits."
00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:39.400
And it saved me a year
of school and tuition.
00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:44.615
But I always tell people it was an
abandonment of my dream that lasted about
00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:51.255
30 years, you know. So I went on and
became an accountant, a CPA, and went back
00:08:51.280 --> 00:08:53.280
and got a master's degree in taxation.
00:08:53.680 --> 00:08:55.855
It was a very good career, I have to say.
00:08:55.880 --> 00:09:01.295
It was an especially good career for women
once they got past the whole idea that
00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:05.615
they couldn't send you out on audits,
particularly if you weren't wearing
00:09:05.640 --> 00:09:07.935
a pantsuit and things like that.
00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:13.215
In fact, when I joined one of the firms in
New Haven, Connecticut, where I had moved
00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:18.255
because I got married, there were two
other firms that had interviews at the Eli
00:09:18.280 --> 00:09:22.160
Club, which is the Yale Club in New Haven.
00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:26.215
And in both cases I had to go in through
the side door because women
00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.375
weren't allowed in the front door.
00:09:28.400 --> 00:09:33.495
But once I got into the system,
I mean, I didn't find much in
00:09:33.520 --> 00:09:35.160
the way of discrimination at all.
Kate:
00:09:35.760 --> 00:09:37.015
That's very interesting.
00:09:37.040 --> 00:09:38.400
So what year was that?
Patricia:
00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:41.720
Late 1969,
1970.
00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:46.600
It had to be 1970 because I was already
married by then.
00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:48.640
So, yeah, at least that time.
Kate:
00:09:49.040 --> 00:09:52.375
And what was your comment
about the pantsuit?
Patricia:
00:09:52.400 --> 00:09:56.120
It was so obvious what
the hidden text was there.
00:09:56.400 --> 00:09:59.000
Of course, that was the
era of the miniskirts.
00:09:59.880 --> 00:10:04.935
And if you were going to be doing an audit
where you had to climb up ladders once in
00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:09.695
a while to look and see if there was
inventory really in some big bin of some
00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.600
sort, then they didn't
want you doing that.
Kate:
00:10:12.920 --> 00:10:13.800
That makes sense.
Patricia:
00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:15.640
Yeah, it does.
00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:19.000
And in some cases they said the client
will not accept
00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:25.880
nor pay for a young woman coming in
and giving them advice, you know.
00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:29.815
Well, that turned out not to be the case
over the years. In the beginning,
00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:31.455
there were instances of that.
00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:36.495
That was, you know, the age of feminism
coming into its own and all of that.
00:10:36.520 --> 00:10:42.295
And I used to want to shake some of the
young girls much, much later who would
00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:46.800
come into these companies and they had
their briefcase and they were on a roll.
00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:49.695
And I used to want to say to them, you
have no idea what the
00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:50.720
rest of us went through
00:10:50.745 --> 00:10:51.920
so you could be here.
00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.720
Probably less than 5 percent of the CPAs in
Connecticut were women
00:10:57.520 --> 00:11:00.320
at one point when I got certified.
00:11:00.880 --> 00:11:03.440
And now I think it's at
least half and half.
00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:05.920
So they've come a long way.
Kate:
00:11:06.880 --> 00:11:07.680
That is good.
00:11:08.560 --> 00:11:11.280
So you had a 30-year career.
Patricia:
00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.120
At least.
00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:15.855
I will not let you add
up the years, but yes.
00:11:15.880 --> 00:11:20.960
You had wanted to be a writer
or at least to pursue English.
00:11:21.040 --> 00:11:26.815
Then you went into this totally other
field, where you must have a tremendous
00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:32.080
amount of aptitude to do as well as you
did and to really rise
00:11:32.800 --> 00:11:34.960
in the firm that you worked for.
Patricia:
00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:40.095
Yeah, I was in industry for a little while
after I left the firm that I
00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:41.920
was working with in Connecticut.
00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:48.055
I then worked briefly, well, four years
for the Department of Motor
00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:49.455
Vehicles in Connecticut.
00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:51.575
I suppose you could call
me a political hack.
00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:54.935
But I was an assistant to the
commissioner and that was great fun.
00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:00.615
I did everything from fiscal work to
public relations work to whatever.
00:12:00.640 --> 00:12:05.280
And it was a very interesting stint
to see how state government works.
00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:10.320
Then I ended up going with the
Travelers insurance as an accountant.
00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:15.600
And I was there for
13 years, 13, 14 years.
00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:21.360
And at that time I never expected I would
go back into the Big Eight, Six,
00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:24.080
Four, as they now are the Big Four.
00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:25.935
But I had an opportunity.
00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:28.720
I was also divorced at
that point and
00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.400
"the itchy feet," as my sister
calls it, were still there.
00:12:32.800 --> 00:12:35.520
And I thought, well, you know,
I never got to California.
00:12:35.760 --> 00:12:37.815
I always wanted to go to California.
00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:44.415
So I met up with one of the partners from
KPMG actually, and he said, "Well,
00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:45.920
why don't you come to California?"
00:12:45.945 --> 00:12:51.415
I was also wrestling with the idea of I
still would love to study
00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:52.720
writing, be a writer.
00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:56.240
Any free time I got off, I
would go to writing conferences.
00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:58.080
I mean, it just never left me.
00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:02.815
But I thought, well, so I agreed to go,
which was a silly thing for me to do.
00:13:02.840 --> 00:13:07.040
I agreed to go part time
at KPMG in Los Angeles.
00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:12.000
And then I thought the rest of the time I
can take classes in
00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:17.120
writing, screenwriting, UCLA, all of this.
00:13:17.520 --> 00:13:22.535
And so that really didn't work out because
I learned very quickly that part time
00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:25.200
meant full-time work for part-time money.
Kate:
00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:27.640
Exactly.
I have found that out too.
Patricia:
00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:28.840
I was there a year.
00:13:28.920 --> 00:13:33.175
This partner told me that I couldn't live
in downtown LA, it was not
00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:34.535
safe for a woman on her own.
00:13:34.560 --> 00:13:39.720
And I should go up to near Thousand Oaks,
which is 50 miles north of the city.
00:13:40.280 --> 00:13:44.175
And I ended up at a place called Westlake
Village, where everyone was
00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:45.960
beautiful, they really were.
00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:50.815
So I ended up
commuting that 50 miles, which it
00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:53.240
sometimes took two hours one way.
00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:55.295
And I got so tired of it.
00:13:55.320 --> 00:14:00.015
And I used to think that if my car went
off into a ditch, no one would ever find
00:14:00.040 --> 00:14:05.320
me because I was up and down the
101 the entire time I was there.
00:14:05.800 --> 00:14:09.880
So then I had an offer
with Deloitte, which I could have done.
00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:14.775
It's interesting, all these forks in the
road, but they were in Santa Monica and
00:14:14.800 --> 00:14:19.160
they said, "We want to give you a
substantial bonus for signing on
00:14:19.640 --> 00:14:23.015
so that you can find a place to live down
here in Santa Monica, because we
00:14:23.040 --> 00:14:24.360
don't think you belong up there."
00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:29.095
But by that time, I had just had enough of
California and I had an opportunity
00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:31.800
with KPMG to move to Dallas.
00:14:32.280 --> 00:14:35.880
And I kept thinking, Dallas is on the way
back to the East Coast,
00:14:36.760 --> 00:14:38.775
so I can do that for a while.
00:14:38.800 --> 00:14:42.840
Well, that was 20 years ago and I'm
still in Dallas, so what can I say?
00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:47.895
But that's when I ended up actually
working with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
00:14:47.920 --> 00:14:53.615
I left KPMG and was able to go
to work for Pricewaterhouse.
00:14:53.640 --> 00:14:59.255
And when I left after, I think it was nine
years, I was a managing
00:14:59.280 --> 00:15:00.720
director when I left.
00:15:00.880 --> 00:15:05.695
And I tell people a funny story that when
I left, I mean, there was a lot of eye-
00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:09.600
rolling and "Patricia's going off to write
the great American novel,
00:15:09.760 --> 00:15:11.415
but she'll be back," you know.
00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:14.080
And then they said, "Well,
you will stay on and consult."
00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:17.520
And after that experience
in California, I said, no.
00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:22.240
I said, I have to be able to do this.
I can't,
00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:27.255
I can't stop and start and stop and start
because I'd already started writing.
00:15:27.280 --> 00:15:33.175
I'd located an agent, a literary agent,
and she already was on my case about
00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:34.960
writing my first book, actually.
00:15:35.680 --> 00:15:40.215
And I realized that in between I was
trying to write it and still work.
00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:43.760
And I was on a plane every other week
because I ran a national
00:15:44.680 --> 00:15:46.840
insurance premium tax practice.
00:15:46.920 --> 00:15:49.000
And I would lose the thread of the book.
00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:54.415
And I got to the point where I would dream
that I was seeing my characters from the
00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:59.480
book pounding on the stage going,
"Where's the rest of our dialogue?"
Kate:
00:15:59.560 --> 00:16:01.535
You would have those dreams?
Patricia:
Oh, yeah.
00:16:01.560 --> 00:16:03.320
It was like, what is that story?
00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:06.040
Six characters in search
of an author or something.
00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:09.295
But it was, yeah, I swear.
00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:13.455
The only thing at Pricewaterhouse
was in one of my evaluations.
00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:18.240
"Well, Patricia is..." You know, obviously I
was doing very well with them
00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:20.560
and bringing in a lot of money.
00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:26.960
And they said, you know, "She is eccentric,
but the clients seem to love her."
00:16:28.800 --> 00:16:30.080
So anyway, quick story.
00:16:31.040 --> 00:16:36.975
By the time I ended up going to this
reunion for PricewaterhouseCoopers, a
00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:41.495
friend of mine who was partner, she was
leaving, and I knew a lot of the people
00:16:41.520 --> 00:16:43.000
that I'd worked with would be there.
00:16:43.025 --> 00:16:46.800
And it was at the Dallas Petroleum
Club, which is very shi shi.
00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:53.975
And by that time I'd finished the book and
my agent had gotten back to me that I had
00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:58.480
gotten a two-book contract
from Hachette, which is the biggest
00:16:58.560 --> 00:17:01.200
literary group in the world.
Kate:
00:17:01.680 --> 00:17:04.560
This is before the publication
of "The Yellow House"?
Patricia:
00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:05.935
This was "The Yellow House."
00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:07.015
I mean, I had written it.
00:17:07.040 --> 00:17:10.280
It was before it went through the edits
and all of that sort of thing.
00:17:10.360 --> 00:17:13.160
But they'd made me not a one-
book, but a two-book offer.
Kate:
00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:15.000
Oh, that's wonderful.
Patricia:
00:17:15.560 --> 00:17:19.480
So, but it was funny, when I went to this
reunion, I already had that information.
00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:24.975
And I tell people when I speak of it that
I'm not usually into revenge, but
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.640
in this case I was — just for fun.
00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:33.175
And so I tell people I went out and I
bought the dress, I got the hair done, the
00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:37.160
makeup, and I sashayed
into the Petroleum Club.
00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:40.680
And so these guys were all
coming up to me, these partners.
00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:42.415
"Hello, Patricia, how are you?
00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:43.560
And how's the book?"
00:17:44.040 --> 00:17:48.600
You know, like they were ready
to console me and invite me back.
00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:50.495
And I did the hair flip.
00:17:50.520 --> 00:17:53.400
I never did the hair flip,
but I did the hair flip.
00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:57.935
And at that point I said, well, funny you
should ask, but I just got a
00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:01.815
two-book offer from Hachette.
00:18:01.840 --> 00:18:03.800
They're the largest in
the world, you know.
00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:06.840
And all of a sudden the
conversation stopped.
00:18:07.800 --> 00:18:13.175
In almost all cases,
the partner or the person would be, "Oh,
00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.455
excuse me, I see John over
there, I must go speak to him."
00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:18.800
Because it was like I was
not following the script.
00:18:19.280 --> 00:18:23.455
And they didn't know what to say except
for one guy who said, "Well, does
00:18:23.480 --> 00:18:25.320
that mean we can get books for free?"
00:18:25.760 --> 00:18:30.135
Most of the other people were like
really happy that I'd done this.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:34.240
And it was almost like I had escaped from
Alcatraz because there is that
00:18:34.680 --> 00:18:39.055
golden, you know, handcuffs that people,
they're doing very well
00:18:39.080 --> 00:18:41.160
financially, they're on the track.
00:18:42.040 --> 00:18:44.735
It's very hard to get off that track.
00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:49.535
And it was hard for me because,
I mean, I knew better than anybody being
00:18:49.560 --> 00:18:55.040
an accountant what the odds were of making
a living and getting a book published.
00:18:55.160 --> 00:18:57.975
And so it was one of those
things that I tell people.
00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:01.655
I just went on faith.
And I really came to understand what
00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.000
faith meant when I did that.
00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:09.575
And so that's how I got to
where I could finally call
00:19:09.600 --> 00:19:12.015
myself a writer, not a wannabe.
00:19:12.040 --> 00:19:13.200
And that took a while.
00:19:13.280 --> 00:19:17.280
It took a while before I could
actually announce that I was a writer.
00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:22.800
And it came in handy later when I would go
and do research and go to places in
00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:24.720
little towns in Ireland or wherever.
00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:29.280
I remember once asking to get into Armhagh
women's prison,
00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:34.200
because in the back of my mind I do have
an idea about writing a book about that.
00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:39.335
And I had my sister with me and
it had been closed because they were going
00:19:39.360 --> 00:19:42.360
to make it into a hotel, oddly enough.
00:19:42.760 --> 00:19:47.935
And I said, well, I'm a writer
and you know, all they wanted was an
00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:50.760
acknowledgement of their
name in the book somewhere.
00:19:50.840 --> 00:19:53.895
And they took me on the
tours and all of that.
00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:56.695
So I grew in confidence after that.
00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:58.160
But it took a long time.
00:19:58.600 --> 00:20:02.015
But it's great for cocktail parties now
because when I used to tell
00:20:02.040 --> 00:20:03.440
people, you know, what do you do?
00:20:03.465 --> 00:20:06.775
Well, I'm a CPA and I
have a degree in taxation.
00:20:06.800 --> 00:20:08.480
I work with insurance companies.
00:20:08.600 --> 00:20:12.775
You know, people are moving away, but
00:20:12.800 --> 00:20:13.935
"Oh, you're a writer.
00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:16.040
Oh, I always wanted to talk to a writer."
00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:18.160
So it's been fun.
00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:24.375
I tell people I'm nowhere near as rich as
I was, but I'm much happier and
00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:26.440
I don't have that pull anymore.
00:20:26.760 --> 00:20:30.600
And then the other thing I like to try to
tell people is there's always a second
00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:35.855
act, and I'm living proof of that, that
you should never, if you can
00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:38.295
help it, give up on your dreams.
It's never too late.
00:20:38.320 --> 00:20:39.320
You're never too old.
00:20:39.880 --> 00:20:42.535
There's always lots of
reasons why you couldn't,
00:20:42.560 --> 00:20:43.800
shouldn't do it.
00:20:44.280 --> 00:20:49.575
But if you want to feel good about
the remainder of your life and what you're
00:20:49.600 --> 00:20:53.120
doing, then I think it's
worth taking the chance.
Kate:
00:20:53.600 --> 00:20:59.735
And there's also a reason you have that
dream that you have that call, that part
00:20:59.760 --> 00:21:07.520
of you that wants to do something,
and if you don't take heed of that call,
00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:10.895
it can be really detrimental.
Patricia:
00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:15.855
It can. And that's what I'm saying, because I used
to feel like I was being pulled in two
00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:19.600
different directions, and
I was never satisfied.
00:21:19.760 --> 00:21:22.975
And lots of people would say,
"Well, you've done so well."
00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:27.680
And what they didn't say was "for an
immigrant," but it didn't satisfy me.
00:21:28.080 --> 00:21:31.935
And I do tell people, actually, because
writing goes way, way back for me.
00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:35.975
When I was a very little girl,
about 4 or 5 years old, I never had
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:40.000
any trouble going to bed because I used to
tell myself serialized stories
00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:43.335
and I couldn't wait to go to bed
to find out what happened next.
00:21:43.360 --> 00:21:47.800
I was always, always
interested in writing.
Kate:
00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:52.335
You would be lying in bed as a little
girl, thinking stories in your head
00:21:52.360 --> 00:21:54.055
or actually telling them to yourself?
Patricia:
00:21:54.080 --> 00:21:59.015
I'll be telling myself the story of a
little girl and what she was doing and
00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:02.335
what her adventures were and what was
happening next and what
00:22:02.360 --> 00:22:04.040
friends she met and all that.
00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:07.560
I was having a good old time in my head.
Kate:
00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:09.160
That is so charming.
Patricia:
00:22:10.760 --> 00:22:12.920
So I was born to do this, anyway.
Kate:
00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:19.880
Yes. You write historical fiction novels,
so why that particular genre?
Patricia:
00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:23.640
Don't know.
I've always been interested in history.
00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:25.880
I always liked history.
00:22:26.600 --> 00:22:28.040
Because to me, they were stories.
00:22:28.520 --> 00:22:30.840
You know, they are stories.
And
00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:36.815
well, first of all, the connection
with Ireland is still very big for me.
00:22:36.840 --> 00:22:41.935
And I think it goes back
to that point at which I always said if I
00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:44.695
were ever to write a memoir,
I might start it with
00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:47.720
"I was 8 years old when my
mother came and stole me."
00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:51.375
Because that is really what happened.
00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:58.280
I was pulled away from the only place I
knew, the only quasi mother that I knew.
00:22:58.600 --> 00:23:03.480
And to this day, I still have that thing.
00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:08.040
It's a lot better now because I've spent
a lot more time over there and so forth.
00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:12.535
But it was that rupture that
just never seemed to heal.
00:23:12.560 --> 00:23:17.400
And in a way, my writing about Ireland is
part of channeling that to kind of
00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:23.320
reconnect with my own history and my
family's history and Irish history.
00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:24.880
That's what I'm drawn to.
00:23:24.905 --> 00:23:29.720
But "The Yellow House" was based on
stories my grandmother told me.
00:23:30.040 --> 00:23:34.495
Really? Yes.
And during that time of writing I —
00:23:34.520 --> 00:23:41.520
again, eccentric or crazy — but I could
hear her voice telling the story.
00:23:41.600 --> 00:23:43.280
I could hear her voice in my ear.
00:23:43.600 --> 00:23:48.695
Ostensibly, what I started out to do was
write this story about the Irish uprising
00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:52.975
and when Southern Ireland gained its
independence, but Northern
00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:54.800
Ireland remained part of Britain.
00:23:55.200 --> 00:24:00.375
And part of it was that I would get so
many questions about, well, "All the Irish
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.455
people in the south of
Ireland seemed to get along.
00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:04.440
What's wrong with you
people up in the north?"
00:24:04.465 --> 00:24:06.615
You know, this is when
the Troubles were raging.
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:09.680
And I said, well, the history
is very, very different.
00:24:09.760 --> 00:24:13.040
And mostly it's because of something
called the plantation
00:24:13.520 --> 00:24:18.240
where Southern Ireland,
the land was taken, but it was taken by
00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:23.855
dukes and aristocrats and people who had,
you know, fought for the
00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:24.975
king and all of that.
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:26.480
And they would get land grants.
00:24:26.800 --> 00:24:30.720
So there were always the ones with the
big manor houses and so on and so forth.
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:35.600
But the plantation in the north of Ireland
was when British government sent
00:24:36.280 --> 00:24:42.280
farmers and steel workers
and, you know, people of the working class
00:24:43.160 --> 00:24:50.280
and gave them land to pursue
whatever their talent was.
00:24:50.920 --> 00:24:57.175
And so they became part of that fabric,
down with the working-class people, as
00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:00.200
opposed to just these sort
of absentee landlords.
00:25:00.360 --> 00:25:03.960
And they did that because the British
government was having a lot of trouble
00:25:04.040 --> 00:25:08.720
suppressing the uprisings that
were happening in the North.
00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:14.415
A lot of them were Scottish Protestants,
Presbyterians, and they grew
00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:16.080
and multiplied and so on.
00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:18.080
That's why they became the majority.
00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:21.775
And it was very, very hard, I think, for
the Catholics to then
00:25:21.800 --> 00:25:23.575
end up dealing with that.
00:25:23.600 --> 00:25:28.320
I explained an awful lot of it in the
book, but that was the reason I did it.
00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:31.200
My grandmother, she was
in the thing called,
00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:37.120
well, I forget now the name of it, but the
Irish Women's group sort of equivalent.
00:25:37.280 --> 00:25:40.400
And my grandfather fought
with Michael Collins.
00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:43.575
My grandmother used to
tell stories about him.
00:25:43.600 --> 00:25:47.255
She would say things like, "He would come
home in the middle of the night, and I'd
00:25:47.280 --> 00:25:50.975
hear the knock on the back door, and I'd
open it up, and there he was,
00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:52.400
running from the bastards."
00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:53.680
Excuse my French.
00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:57.975
And she said, "And I'd have to pull the
thorns out of his feet
00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:59.495
because he had no shoes on.
00:25:59.520 --> 00:26:00.720
And dah, dah, dah, dah."
00:26:00.800 --> 00:26:05.055
So all these great stories, I wove a lot
of that into the first
00:26:05.080 --> 00:26:06.040
book, "The Yellow House."
00:26:06.065 --> 00:26:09.680
And that is the book, I think,
that is truly from my heart.
00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:11.655
And it's still selling.
00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:15.920
Even though it came out in 2010,
it's still selling.
00:26:16.080 --> 00:26:20.640
So that was followed by "The Linen
Queen." The first book, "The Yellow House,"
00:26:20.800 --> 00:26:25.535
the heroine in the book, Eileen O'Neill,
aka my grandmother, she
00:26:25.560 --> 00:26:26.655
worked in a linen mill.
00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:31.040
A lot of the Catholic women,
the only jobs they could get,
00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:35.535
because there was a great deal of job
discrimination anyway, but the only jobs
00:26:35.560 --> 00:26:40.160
they could get were in spinning
factories and weaving factories.
00:26:40.320 --> 00:26:46.640
Turned out that my mother
worked briefly in a linen mill.
00:26:46.800 --> 00:26:48.935
My grandmother worked in a linen mill.
00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:51.280
My great-grandmother
worked in a linen mill.
00:26:51.520 --> 00:26:56.495
And so I became fascinated by the linen
mills, and they were mostly owned by
00:26:56.520 --> 00:26:58.640
Quakers, which I thought
was rather interesting.
00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:05.415
And so I was back in Ireland and talking
to somebody, and I changed the names of
00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:09.375
the mill and so on, but everybody
recognized where it was, and everybody had
00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:12.560
a story of somebody in their family
who worked in the mill.
00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:18.175
And so then I ended up
just talking to somebody, I think, when I
00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:20.480
did a launch of "The
Yellow House" in Ireland.
00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:24.640
And I think the nice thing was that while
I was there,
00:27:25.360 --> 00:27:29.415
I finally was able to find the grave
where my grandmother had been
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:31.520
buried because nobody really knew.
00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:37.120
And we found it and we erected a
headstone, and I felt like I had
00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:39.040
done the full circle at that point.
00:27:39.360 --> 00:27:42.960
But anyway, so somebody was talking about
it, and they said, "You know, they used to
00:27:42.985 --> 00:27:46.960
have beauty competitions in the
linen mills all across the North.
00:27:47.120 --> 00:27:51.760
And whoever won it was known as the
Linen Queen for that period of time."
Kate:
00:27:51.840 --> 00:27:53.160
And they were beauty competitions?
Patricia:
00:27:53.185 --> 00:27:57.735
Yeah, well, beauty and grace
and good behavior, like Miss America's
00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:00.360
supposed to be. I thought, you know, that would make a great title.
00:28:00.840 --> 00:28:08.920
And so then I set the book in 1942,
because I knew a lot of stories of young
00:28:09.080 --> 00:28:15.375
American soldiers who camped out around
Northern Ireland during World War II.
00:28:15.400 --> 00:28:20.680
And many of them who had been there
were part of the D-Day landing.
00:28:21.320 --> 00:28:24.840
And so that's really the story
of how a small
00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:30.760
town in the north of Ireland was
changed by these soldiers coming there.
00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:32.575
They all got to know them.
00:28:32.600 --> 00:28:38.120
And many of the American soldiers would go
to dinner every Sunday with some family.
00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:44.120
So when D-Day happened, it just shook
that part of the country to
00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:50.560
its knees because they knew all these
kids and they were all very upset.
00:28:50.800 --> 00:28:53.735
They could quote you the names of all the
beaches, you know, like
00:28:53.760 --> 00:28:55.600
Juno Beach and so on.
00:28:55.920 --> 00:28:58.295
And it was a very interesting time.
00:28:58.320 --> 00:29:00.800
And I just thought, well,
that might make a good story.
00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:06.480
But what I usually do, the reason it's
historical fiction as well, is that I take
00:29:07.280 --> 00:29:13.895
real events and then I take ordinary
characters and I tell the story of what it
00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:18.880
was like for these ordinary characters
living through these major events.
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:22.720
And that's really the theme that
goes through all of my books.
00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:24.575
The third one is "The Girls.
00:29:24.600 --> 00:29:27.615
of Ennismore."
That story was the first one
00:29:27.640 --> 00:29:33.095
I set in the west of Ireland, in County
Mayo, where my father's family came from.
00:29:33.120 --> 00:29:34.880
My mother's family is from the North.
00:29:35.040 --> 00:29:37.600
It's been called like
an Irish "Downton Abbey."
00:29:37.760 --> 00:29:43.775
It's set in a manor house, but against the
backdrop of World War I and the Easter
00:29:43.800 --> 00:29:47.680
Uprising, which was 1916 in Dublin.
00:29:47.840 --> 00:29:53.855
And I have Rosie, who is the tenant
farmer's daughter, who was brought to take
00:29:53.880 --> 00:29:59.455
lessons to be a companion for the young
girl, Victoria, who is from
00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:00.880
the aristocratic family.
00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:02.320
So they grow up together.
00:30:03.040 --> 00:30:07.575
But then, of course, when it's time for
Victoria's coming out and she goes off to
00:30:07.600 --> 00:30:12.480
London or wherever, and then Rosie is
like, well, you get back to the farm.
00:30:13.560 --> 00:30:15.935
And so Rosie ended up going to Dublin.
00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:19.080
And the girls do meet up at some point,
but it's like the different
00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:20.920
paths that they take.
00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:25.960
And then hopefully there's some
reasonably nice ending for it.
00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:30.935
In that one, I referenced the Titanic
because a lot of young people had
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:33.735
sailed on the Titanic out of Ireland.
00:30:33.760 --> 00:30:39.000
There's one little village which was right
down the street from where I set this book
00:30:39.520 --> 00:30:44.960
and from where I had spent summer
childhoods at my father's family's farm.
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:48.240
And it's a little
village called Lahardane.
00:30:48.800 --> 00:30:56.320
And 17 young people died on the Titanic
in that one little tiny village.
00:30:57.040 --> 00:31:00.480
Some part of that is in
"The Girls of Ennismore."
00:31:00.800 --> 00:31:05.600
And interestingly enough, my next
book was called "The Titanic Sisters."
00:31:06.280 --> 00:31:10.095
So that was the first time I tell people
that I let my heroines off
00:31:10.120 --> 00:31:11.880
of the island of Ireland.
00:31:12.280 --> 00:31:13.640
They got to leave Ireland.
00:31:13.720 --> 00:31:19.960
And in this case, "The Titanic Sisters" are
two sisters from County Donegal, which is
00:31:20.200 --> 00:31:24.975
Southern Ireland, but it's geographically
in the north, if you can imagine.
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:30.735
It's all very complex,
but one sister, the mother loves her and
00:31:30.760 --> 00:31:36.215
she can do wrong, and the other sister
has a hard time of it, but they both end
00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:40.920
up going to America and headed to New York
on the Titanic because
00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:43.535
a wealthy cousin has sent some money.
00:31:43.560 --> 00:31:45.560
He needs a nanny for his daughter.
00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:47.320
So they get there.
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:52.255
Neither sister knows whether the other one
survived, and one takes
00:31:52.280 --> 00:31:53.560
the place of the other one.
00:31:53.960 --> 00:31:58.335
But then I move it to Texas, and I'd been
in Texas so long, and I thought, you know,
00:31:58.360 --> 00:32:01.720
I really know a lot about
what went on in Texas history.
00:32:02.320 --> 00:32:04.160
Might be kind of fun to do that.
00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:11.015
So I had these two Irish girls end up just
as the oil rush was
00:32:11.040 --> 00:32:13.440
starting to happen in Texas.
00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:18.560
And so I had some fun bringing
in some real Texas characters.
00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:22.495
And one woman in particular named
Mayflower, who has all
00:32:22.520 --> 00:32:24.240
these great Texas sayings.
Kate:
00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:25.840
I loved her character.
Patricia:
00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:27.920
Yeah, wasn't she lovely?
Right?
00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:28.880
Yeah.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:34.695
I love what she'd say: her mother was "so
full with pride that she carried her nose
00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:38.015
so high that she might have
drowned in a rainstorm."
00:32:38.040 --> 00:32:42.575
I mean, just some real great things
that I was able to do with that.
00:32:42.600 --> 00:32:45.680
I just enjoyed that.
And that book was pretty popular
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:48.415
Oh, yeah.
among local Texan people.
00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:51.375
And, you know, I'm always waiting for that
one person who says,
00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:52.480
"You've got that wrong."
00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:55.120
And that's the problem
with historical fiction.
00:32:55.360 --> 00:33:00.560
I was asked the other day at my Suffolk
University reunion event,
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:03.415
why is it called historical fiction?
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:06.560
And I said, well, in a way,
it's kind of an oxymoron.
00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:08.895
How can it be historical and fiction?
00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:10.800
And I said it's kind of like fake news.
00:33:11.040 --> 00:33:14.080
But first of all, people have
to realize it is fiction.
00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:16.000
Some part of it is fictionalized.
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:19.760
But I always try to keep the actual events
and places,
00:33:20.560 --> 00:33:26.960
whatever details I can, I try to keep
those as genuine and accurate as I can.
00:33:27.600 --> 00:33:34.320
In "The Famine Orphans," my latest book,
which was really a marathon of research
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:41.840
because it's set in the 1840s, early
1850s, and that's going back a long way.
00:33:43.360 --> 00:33:47.560
And my girls had to
go on this three- to four-months
00:33:48.040 --> 00:33:53.560
ship ride on a very small sailing
ship from England down to Australia.
00:33:54.120 --> 00:33:58.840
So I had to research all this stuff about
what those ships were like and something
00:33:58.920 --> 00:34:02.575
about how they run and the
wind and how well this works.
00:34:02.600 --> 00:34:05.295
And my geography had to be improved.
00:34:05.320 --> 00:34:08.840
I kind of followed the route
that they went and so on.
00:34:08.920 --> 00:34:10.255
So there was an awful lot.
00:34:10.280 --> 00:34:13.695
And I'm still waiting for somebody from
Australia now to say,
00:34:13.720 --> 00:34:15.260
"Well, you've got this wrong."
00:34:15.560 --> 00:34:16.760
It doesn't happen too often.
00:34:16.785 --> 00:34:21.880
"The Linen Queen" was really interesting
because I got challenged a couple of times
00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:28.280
on the fact that there were actually
little Jewish orphans from the war
00:34:29.080 --> 00:34:32.120
in Northern Ireland in this
place called Millisle.
00:34:32.680 --> 00:34:37.320
And they went to school with the kids
there, and they actually had like a little
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:41.640
kibbutz, you know, a little farm,
and they had a synagogue.
00:34:42.120 --> 00:34:47.720
And I remember one Jewish book club,
some lady saying, "Well, that's not true."
00:34:48.120 --> 00:34:49.975
And I said, yes, I've been there.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:52.095
I've talked to people who know about it.
00:34:52.120 --> 00:34:56.895
And she said, "Well, how come
an Irish woman knows more
00:34:56.920 --> 00:34:58.255
about our history than we do?"
00:34:58.280 --> 00:34:59.935
And so she was quite put out.
00:34:59.960 --> 00:35:04.655
But then the better thing was I was at a
book club signing in Greenwich,
00:35:04.680 --> 00:35:09.135
Connecticut, and I got the same thing from
a lady who said, "Oh,
00:35:09.160 --> 00:35:10.535
you made that up, right?"
00:35:10.560 --> 00:35:12.120
And I said, no, it's true.
00:35:12.520 --> 00:35:17.695
And another lady who happened to be there
in the audience said, "Oh, yes, it's true,
00:35:17.720 --> 00:35:21.880
because my great, great-grandfather
was one of the four
00:35:22.680 --> 00:35:28.735
gentlemen from Belfast who bought that
property in Millisle where they set
00:35:28.760 --> 00:35:30.600
it up for all these kids to come to."
00:35:31.400 --> 00:35:32.735
I felt good after that.
00:35:32.760 --> 00:35:34.895
But, you know, it does happen.
00:35:34.920 --> 00:35:37.640
I mean, you can't get
everything right, but you try.
00:35:37.800 --> 00:35:43.935
And with this book in particular, I think,
because it's a true story, which is kind
00:35:43.960 --> 00:35:47.200
of interesting because everything else
I've written about, yeah, they're
00:35:47.225 --> 00:35:49.520
all true stories, but they're known.
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:53.520
And this story, very few
people actually know it.
00:35:54.320 --> 00:36:00.255
And it's about 4,000
or so young Irish female orphans between
00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:06.880
the ages of 14 and 19 who were persuaded
by the English government
00:36:07.520 --> 00:36:11.895
and then the governors of the workhouses —
they were all in workhouses
00:36:11.920 --> 00:36:12.960
because of the famine.
00:36:13.040 --> 00:36:18.480
And this was like 1846-47
and on from there.
00:36:18.640 --> 00:36:22.335
And it was because
of the famine, they had lost their parents
00:36:22.360 --> 00:36:25.775
and so on, and all the
workhouses were very overcrowded.
00:36:25.800 --> 00:36:31.655
So the Australian colonists, the people in
charge there, and the English, and
00:36:31.680 --> 00:36:34.720
Australia was a colony, obviously,
of England at that time.
00:36:35.320 --> 00:36:38.760
And so they said, "Well,
we've got a deal for you.
00:36:38.840 --> 00:36:43.880
Why don't we pay
to take all these girls of a certain age
00:36:44.520 --> 00:36:48.855
out of the workhouses and we'll put them
on a boat and we'll pay for the trip and
00:36:48.880 --> 00:36:54.415
we'll buy them some clothes
and we'll guarantee them jobs as domestic
00:36:54.440 --> 00:36:59.295
servants in Australia,"
because Australia had lots of big houses.
00:36:59.320 --> 00:37:03.575
There were a lot of aristocracy living
there, but they didn't have a lot of
00:37:03.600 --> 00:37:07.600
servants, and they thought, "Well,
this would be a way to do it."
00:37:07.680 --> 00:37:09.520
And the girls were given a choice.
00:37:10.080 --> 00:37:14.615
They said, "You can stay here and starve
or you can take this."
00:37:14.640 --> 00:37:17.655
And so most of them accepted it.
00:37:17.680 --> 00:37:22.695
What they didn't say, what was kind of a
hidden agenda, was that there were all
00:37:22.720 --> 00:37:29.000
these male prisoners in Australia,
because Australia had been England's
00:37:29.560 --> 00:37:31.240
outdoor prison, basically.
00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:35.935
And a lot of those prisoners had
been there more than 10 years.
00:37:35.960 --> 00:37:39.880
And they had sort of earned their ticket
of leave, they'd served their sentence,
00:37:40.120 --> 00:37:41.655
but they were rough and ready.
00:37:41.680 --> 00:37:44.655
And the Australians wanted
to build settlements.
00:37:44.680 --> 00:37:48.215
And to build settlements, they had to get
these guys to settle down and
00:37:48.240 --> 00:37:50.440
be civilized, quote, unquote.
00:37:50.600 --> 00:37:54.440
And so they thought, all these girls will
come and they'll all marry,
00:37:54.520 --> 00:37:55.720
and this will be great.
00:37:56.280 --> 00:38:01.055
So a win win, you know, and
it's not totally what happens.
00:38:01.080 --> 00:38:05.415
So, anyway, I tell this story,
and part of the reason I wanted
00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:07.535
to write it is because two things.
00:38:07.560 --> 00:38:11.615
One, I was born in a town called Newry in
the north of Ireland, and
00:38:11.640 --> 00:38:13.095
there were workhouses there.
00:38:13.120 --> 00:38:18.455
And I found out that there were
around 25 girls from the Newry
00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:21.040
workhouse who had gone to Australia.
00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:27.415
And I thought that could have been
me in a different time, that could
00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:29.120
have been one of my relatives.
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:33.040
So I had a kinship already, knowing
that some of them were from Newry.
00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:36.080
And then also the fact
that I'm an immigrant.
00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:42.560
And I thought I could
at least give some idea to the reader of
00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:46.975
how it would feel for these young girls,
many of whom had never been off their
00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:54.055
farm, whatever, coming to this really
strange place that they had no idea even
00:38:54.080 --> 00:38:56.520
existed, and to try to make their way.
00:38:57.240 --> 00:39:01.000
And so I felt I could,
in many ways, speak for them.
00:39:01.480 --> 00:39:06.255
And I think that's why this book
has meant a lot to me to do.
00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:08.280
It's kind of like up there
with "The Yellow House."
00:39:08.360 --> 00:39:11.000
I've tried to give voice to these girls.
00:39:11.160 --> 00:39:15.455
And what's been interesting
in the last few years, the Australians
00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:17.760
have started to focus on this story.
00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:24.215
And they've got a memorial museum in
Sydney, and they've had lots of
00:39:24.240 --> 00:39:28.240
genealogists come, and lots of people are
tracing their relatives
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:30.240
back through to these girls.
00:39:30.640 --> 00:39:34.560
And they've become known colloquially as
the Mothers of Australia,
00:39:35.600 --> 00:39:37.040
which I think is kind of cool.
Kate:
00:39:37.200 --> 00:39:38.880
That touches your heart, doesn't it?
00:39:39.040 --> 00:39:40.200
Because they went through a lot.
Patricia:
00:39:40.225 --> 00:39:44.800
What I haven't said was more than 20 ships
sailed with these girls.
00:39:45.280 --> 00:39:50.800
And the first couple
had a prevalence of people from Belfast.
00:39:51.200 --> 00:39:52.975
You gotta know the Belfast people.
00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:55.815
They'll speak out and so on.
00:39:55.840 --> 00:40:00.495
And so anyway, there was a ship's doctor
who was in charge of the first set of
00:40:00.520 --> 00:40:03.440
girls who went on this
boat called the Earl Grey.
00:40:03.520 --> 00:40:10.520
And it turned out that he had a hard
time with disciplining them and so on.
00:40:10.600 --> 00:40:16.855
So when they got to Sydney, he just put up
such a ruckus about how terrible they were
00:40:16.880 --> 00:40:20.815
and how low class and low lifes they were.
00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:24.135
And how they would make terrible
servants, things like that.
00:40:24.160 --> 00:40:25.640
And it was picked up by the press.
00:40:26.280 --> 00:40:31.135
And then when it was picked up by the
Sydney Herald, then it became a story in
00:40:31.160 --> 00:40:35.280
Melbourne and Adelaide and some
of the other areas around there.
00:40:36.080 --> 00:40:40.215
So people began to be
very wary of these girls.
00:40:40.240 --> 00:40:44.935
And the ones who came subsequently
kind of paid the price for that because
00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:47.120
they found a great deal of discrimination.
00:40:47.200 --> 00:40:50.480
It was anti-Irish, it was anti-Catholic.
00:40:50.880 --> 00:40:55.840
Those who didn't get hired right
away had a very hard time making it.
00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:57.920
A lot of them turned to prostitution.
00:40:58.400 --> 00:40:59.920
That's how it worked.
00:41:00.080 --> 00:41:03.200
But a lot of them did, over time, succeed.
00:41:03.600 --> 00:41:07.120
And so in this story, I follow six girls.
00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:12.135
Kate, my main character, is
the narrator, but I follow six.
00:41:12.160 --> 00:41:15.040
And they all have somewhat
different experiences.
00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:20.560
And again, it was interesting that just
the timing was kind of cool because
00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:26.935
the outback of Australia, where people
in and around Sydney and elsewhere were
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:32.560
wanting to put down roots and
have farms and so on and so forth,
00:41:32.840 --> 00:41:36.335
and they had no idea, really,
how bad the outback could be.
00:41:36.360 --> 00:41:41.680
And Kate is one of the ones who
ends up out there with her husband
00:41:41.880 --> 00:41:43.575
trying to get a farm going.
00:41:43.600 --> 00:41:46.975
And then he has to take off
because they're not making it.
00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:51.175
And she's left with the isolation,
which was worse than anything.
00:41:51.200 --> 00:41:55.080
I mean, there was nobody around
for miles, no other human being.
00:41:55.400 --> 00:42:01.000
So I use her to sort of illustrate how
that would have been for the people.
00:42:01.080 --> 00:42:05.600
And then right on top of that,
the Australian gold rush started.
00:42:06.640 --> 00:42:11.400
So I led some of my characters up
through the experience of the gold rush.
00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:13.535
And that was coincidental.
00:42:13.560 --> 00:42:18.520
Kind of like the oil boom here in Texas,
just coincided with what I was writing.
00:42:18.640 --> 00:42:22.855
So I did take a ride through the gold
fields and discovered
00:42:22.880 --> 00:42:24.120
how a lot of that worked.
00:42:24.280 --> 00:42:27.320
But I make sure that I
follow all of the orphans.
Kate:
00:42:28.080 --> 00:42:29.280
Did you go to Australia?
Patricia:
00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:31.920
No, I meant to go.
00:42:32.160 --> 00:42:35.000
And that's the one thing that I'm
really a little nervous about.
00:42:35.025 --> 00:42:39.680
But I don't think, it certainly can't look
today the way it looked in 1850.
00:42:39.920 --> 00:42:42.775
So I know I have that going for me.
00:42:42.800 --> 00:42:45.920
But I just made up for
what I could with research.
00:42:46.240 --> 00:42:50.560
The reason I couldn't go, because I was
planning to and then
00:42:51.200 --> 00:42:57.935
I was running a little behind on my time
for the book deadline, but on top of that,
00:42:57.960 --> 00:43:04.615
I had an odd accident with an Uber driver
who backed up over my foot and
00:43:04.640 --> 00:43:07.400
broke my foot in several places.
00:43:07.480 --> 00:43:10.695
And therefore I wasn't able to travel.
00:43:10.720 --> 00:43:12.840
I was in pain, I wasn't able to write.
00:43:13.560 --> 00:43:17.960
And so there was no way I was going to get to
go to Australia and finish the book
00:43:18.200 --> 00:43:20.055
on time, it just didn't happen.
00:43:20.080 --> 00:43:22.760
But I'm still hopeful then I'll get to go.
00:43:23.080 --> 00:43:27.480
Maybe they'll invite me over
once they know that I've written this.
00:43:27.640 --> 00:43:28.920
It's very interesting.
00:43:29.160 --> 00:43:34.895
My publisher is probably one of the few
independent publishers in New York,
00:43:34.920 --> 00:43:38.455
Kensington Books, and they've been very
good and very open to
00:43:38.480 --> 00:43:39.720
whatever I wanted to do.
00:43:39.960 --> 00:43:42.655
But with "The Titanic Sisters,"
I had two publishers.
00:43:42.680 --> 00:43:47.120
I had a publisher in England and
a publisher here, Kensington.
00:43:47.720 --> 00:43:51.480
And so I went back to that same
publisher in England with this book.
00:43:52.120 --> 00:43:57.255
And I should have known there was going to
be an issue because when I went to them
00:43:57.280 --> 00:44:02.135
with "The Girls of Ennismore," I had a
character in there who was a doctor
00:44:02.160 --> 00:44:04.200
and he was a morphine addict.
00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:10.135
And so I describe a scene where the main
character goes to his room and, you know,
00:44:10.160 --> 00:44:13.720
it's a mess because the guy's been locked
in there and she's trying to
00:44:14.240 --> 00:44:15.040
coax him out.
00:44:15.520 --> 00:44:21.360
And so this editor, who sounded like she
was about 12 years old to me on the phone,
00:44:21.440 --> 00:44:26.655
very British accent, said, "Well, we quite
like that scene, but we were rather
00:44:26.680 --> 00:44:29.440
hoping you would take out the smelly bits."
00:44:30.160 --> 00:44:33.280
And I go, excuse me, smelly bits?
00:44:35.120 --> 00:44:37.920
You don't smell in England?
I don't know.
00:44:39.040 --> 00:44:42.320
But anyway, moving on to "The Famine
Orphans." Of course,
00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:47.615
you know, you can't write a book like that
about that time and not mention
00:44:47.640 --> 00:44:49.360
the Aboriginal population.
00:44:49.760 --> 00:44:52.560
I mean, it just is part of the history.
00:44:53.200 --> 00:44:59.495
And Kate does have encounters with them
and she reflects on the people she sees
00:44:59.520 --> 00:45:05.495
and, in many ways, finds parallels with
Ireland because she says their land was
00:45:05.520 --> 00:45:11.335
taken from them and so was ours, you
know. And it was the same publisher who
00:45:11.360 --> 00:45:14.520
said, "We can't have you talking
about the native population.
00:45:14.680 --> 00:45:16.760
It's a very sensitive subject."
00:45:17.480 --> 00:45:21.720
And I said, well, then we won't bother
because I have to put it in there.
Kate:
00:45:21.800 --> 00:45:26.520
It's integral, actually, to Kate's story
because somebody
00:45:27.880 --> 00:45:29.400
prevented something awful.
Patricia:
00:45:29.720 --> 00:45:32.440
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yeah.
Kate:
00:45:32.680 --> 00:45:33.960
I don't want to say too much.
Patricia:
00:45:34.600 --> 00:45:34.975
No.
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:38.215
But that was the part that just kind of
came to me and I already
00:45:38.240 --> 00:45:39.720
put that character in there.
Kate:
00:45:40.680 --> 00:45:45.640
It was a huge relief when it happened,
because I really like Kate's character.
00:45:45.960 --> 00:45:48.040
She went through a lot of tough stuff.
00:45:48.360 --> 00:45:53.295
And this is one thing that I do want to
say about "The Famine Orphans" is
00:45:53.320 --> 00:45:55.055
that there's a lot of grimness.
00:45:55.080 --> 00:45:59.720
Of course, from the title on, you know,
you're going to get tough stuff in there.
00:45:59.800 --> 00:46:06.440
However, you have a really good balance
between the darkness and the light.
00:46:06.800 --> 00:46:09.200
There's hope.
I appreciate that.
00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:11.760
Because even in the worst
of it, there's hope.
Patricia:
00:46:12.320 --> 00:46:16.775
Well, I think one of the things I wanted
to emphasize, too, with these
00:46:16.800 --> 00:46:19.200
girls was the idea of resilience.
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:21.440
And we all have that.
00:46:21.840 --> 00:46:24.000
We just have to dig deep to find it.
00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:28.775
But they were put in enough situations
where they had to be resilient.
00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:34.400
And there's a joy in the ones that really
make it and have good,
00:46:34.640 --> 00:46:36.720
prosperous times and so on.
00:46:36.800 --> 00:46:41.375
Even the ones who've had it the
hardest, you know, may well rise up.
00:46:41.400 --> 00:46:45.120
And I think that was part of it, too, that
I really wanted to show
00:46:45.520 --> 00:46:49.680
that, yeah, they were victims in
a way, but they fought against it.
00:46:50.320 --> 00:46:54.640
And to the extent that they had
whatever it took to do it
00:46:55.040 --> 00:46:59.360
in different ways, they had different
talents, different expertise, different
00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:03.840
whatever, but
it was still resilience that got them
00:47:04.080 --> 00:47:07.360
to a place where they were thriving
00:47:07.600 --> 00:47:10.655
ultimately. I worried
about the title of it.
00:47:10.680 --> 00:47:17.520
I'm thinking, ugh, "Famine," "Orphan" doesn't
sound like a real happy summer read.
00:47:17.680 --> 00:47:21.735
But I tried to inject just some
fun parts and fun characters.
00:47:21.760 --> 00:47:25.520
I love the two characters that
I came up with in the Outback.
00:47:26.160 --> 00:47:28.160
Yes. Malachy and Phineas.
00:47:28.240 --> 00:47:30.120
And I thought they were great fun.
00:47:30.600 --> 00:47:34.695
And even Kate says that it might not
be that dull with these two here.
00:47:34.720 --> 00:47:38.655
And Bridie, I think, is somebody who comes
through and, you know,
00:47:38.680 --> 00:47:39.800
tells it like it is.
00:47:40.200 --> 00:47:44.680
And the music, there's always
music and singing throughout.
00:47:45.080 --> 00:47:49.855
In fact, I came across just
since I went to Boston last week
00:47:49.880 --> 00:47:51.335
at the Irish Cultural Center.
00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:55.160
There was a lady who came up to me and she
said, "Have you heard the song
00:47:55.600 --> 00:47:56.535
the "Orphan Girls"?
00:47:56.560 --> 00:47:59.255
And I said, no, I didn't
know there was one.
00:47:59.280 --> 00:48:03.280
It's done by the Choral Society of
the University College Dublin.
00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:09.440
And I found it on YouTube and
it is just absolutely beautiful.
00:48:09.840 --> 00:48:15.015
It's a video of these girls all walking to
the shore and they're
00:48:15.040 --> 00:48:16.080
sailing to Australia.
00:48:17.120 --> 00:48:19.015
And it's like, spine chilling.
00:48:19.040 --> 00:48:20.135
It's so good.
00:48:20.160 --> 00:48:25.455
And I'm hoping to try to figure out a way
to get permission to use it in some
00:48:25.480 --> 00:48:27.255
way with the presentation of the book.
00:48:27.280 --> 00:48:28.615
But we shall see.
00:48:28.640 --> 00:48:30.975
Yeah, yeah, definitely. We shall see.
00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:33.015
But it is uplifting. By the way,
00:48:33.040 --> 00:48:37.215
there's over a hundred
reviews on Goodreads for "The Famine
00:48:37.240 --> 00:48:47.160
Orphans," and it has 4 points,
4.3 stars, and Amazon so far is 4.6 stars.
00:48:47.560 --> 00:48:49.575
And those are pretty good reviews.
00:48:49.600 --> 00:48:53.335
And many of these, the women,
mostly women who read it, they
00:48:53.360 --> 00:48:55.295
really cheered on the orphans.
00:48:55.320 --> 00:48:59.775
And they said they thought it might be
a bit, you know, of a downer at first.
00:48:59.800 --> 00:49:01.800
But it wasn't that.
00:49:02.120 --> 00:49:04.680
They were there with the
girls every step of the way.
Kate:
00:49:04.760 --> 00:49:07.240
These girls, they were so young.
00:49:07.640 --> 00:49:08.760
Kate was 16."
Patricia:
00:49:09.400 --> 00:49:10.120
She was 16.
00:49:10.200 --> 00:49:15.080
And the youngest one in her group was 14,
Mary, who was the one...
Kate:
00:49:15.560 --> 00:49:16.535
Oh, Mary.
00:49:16.560 --> 00:49:18.000
And she was in love.
Patricia:
00:49:19.760 --> 00:49:23.255
It's like, there's nothing
wrong with having a good cry.
00:49:23.280 --> 00:49:28.215
A friend of mine, a guy actually
wrote to me the other day and said, "I just
00:49:28.240 --> 00:49:34.175
finished that book in tears,"
but it was like, not happy tears, but it
00:49:34.200 --> 00:49:38.080
just feels good to be so
emotionally connected to something.
Kate:
00:49:39.120 --> 00:49:39.920
Absolutely.
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:46.640
There are moments of grace
when people are kind to these girls.
00:49:46.880 --> 00:49:51.655
And even the one person who was the
head cook or whatever she was at the big
00:49:51.680 --> 00:49:56.960
house, and she started out awful and
then she actually did something nice.
00:49:57.520 --> 00:50:01.840
Yeah, those little kindnesses
are so very important.
Patricia:
00:50:02.240 --> 00:50:04.080
They make you feel that there's still,
00:50:04.640 --> 00:50:06.480
there's still goodness in the world.
00:50:06.560 --> 00:50:12.000
That came up when I was speaking at
Suffolk University group on Friday,
00:50:12.720 --> 00:50:16.960
and they asked the question, what have you
taken away from all of your
00:50:17.360 --> 00:50:20.615
experiences 50 years ago at Suffolk?
00:50:20.640 --> 00:50:25.775
I'll be overstating it to say Suffolk
saved my life, but they started my life.
00:50:25.800 --> 00:50:27.040
They gave me my start.
00:50:27.680 --> 00:50:33.680
And I said the lesson that I take from it
is that no matter how difficult things
00:50:33.760 --> 00:50:40.440
seem, if you have the faith and the
persistence, there is always somebody or
00:50:40.520 --> 00:50:43.800
something, somewhere that is
going to give you a hand up.
00:50:44.280 --> 00:50:47.480
And I said I try to
do that in my own life.
00:50:47.640 --> 00:50:49.240
It's kind of like pay it forward.
00:50:49.960 --> 00:50:55.135
Because I feel like I was helped greatly,
not just by Suffolk, actually, but by
00:50:55.160 --> 00:50:59.000
other people who came into my life
along the way that have helped me.
00:50:59.160 --> 00:51:02.520
And, you know, I feel that
obligation to pay it forward.
00:51:02.600 --> 00:51:05.735
And I think more than ever
now, we need to be doing that.
Kate:
00:51:05.760 --> 00:51:06.720
Absolutely.
00:51:07.120 --> 00:51:11.735
And it may not seem that way, but we
are all in this together, connected.
00:51:11.760 --> 00:51:13.600
And what we do matters.
Patricia:
00:51:14.080 --> 00:51:15.735
It affects everybody.
00:51:15.760 --> 00:51:16.895
And you don't,
00:51:16.920 --> 00:51:22.080
we don't even realize how much power we
actually have to help spread good
00:51:22.160 --> 00:51:24.575
and love and peace in the world.
00:51:24.600 --> 00:51:29.720
I mean, we just think we're helpless and
we're not, you know.
Kate:
We are not.
Patricia:
00:51:29.760 --> 00:51:35.735
Speaking of that, I did want to ask
whoever if they like the book or if they
00:51:35.760 --> 00:51:37.440
have something that they want to comment.
00:51:37.465 --> 00:51:43.575
I really appreciate all comments coming in
from anyone because my goal is to have as
00:51:43.600 --> 00:51:48.080
many people read the story of these girls
so that they're not lost to history.
00:51:49.200 --> 00:51:54.695
And the way books sell, as we know,
is by how many comments and stars.
00:51:54.720 --> 00:51:57.920
People don't think to do it
unless you ask, you know.
Kate:
00:51:58.280 --> 00:52:03.960
So people can review it on
Amazon, they can review it on Goodreads.
00:52:04.440 --> 00:52:08.360
And is there a way to
comment on your website?
Patricia:
00:52:08.680 --> 00:52:12.840
Yes, there's a way to contact me
that is up there on my website.
00:52:13.240 --> 00:52:17.135
And I do put some of the reviews up.
00:52:17.160 --> 00:52:18.975
Well, I mean I like them.
00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:21.960
Except for the, the one stars.
Yeah.
Kate:
00:52:22.040 --> 00:52:26.255
Sometimes I get comments on YouTube,
you know, and some of them are
00:52:26.280 --> 00:52:29.000
not very, shall we say, nice.
00:52:31.160 --> 00:52:31.560
Kind.
00:52:31.640 --> 00:52:35.240
But, but so what, you know, because
there are other ones that are.
00:52:35.720 --> 00:52:37.640
And I always say thank you.
Patricia:
00:52:38.360 --> 00:52:40.680
I do too.
I've been liking all of them.
00:52:40.920 --> 00:52:43.480
Yeah.
Because if they took the time to do it.
00:52:43.640 --> 00:52:44.280
Exactly.
00:52:44.920 --> 00:52:45.615
Yeah.
00:52:45.640 --> 00:52:50.295
Once in a while there is something in
there that maybe they thought this section
00:52:50.320 --> 00:52:54.015
was slow or something about a character.
00:52:54.040 --> 00:52:57.320
The male characters weren't as
good as the female characters.
00:52:57.480 --> 00:53:01.400
Yeah, there's things like that
that I actually do take note of.
00:53:01.800 --> 00:53:05.240
But it's when they say, you know, this was
a total waste of time
00:53:05.640 --> 00:53:07.615
just so they can say it, I think.
00:53:07.640 --> 00:53:11.080
But most authors that I
know, it takes a while
00:53:11.560 --> 00:53:15.480
but particularly in the beginning,
you get a one star, a two star.
00:53:15.720 --> 00:53:19.000
I mean you can't sleep.
and it's like...
00:53:19.480 --> 00:53:21.055
Because you are very vulnerable.
00:53:21.080 --> 00:53:27.160
You're putting yourself out there like any
artist, like a musician or poet or
00:53:28.280 --> 00:53:30.440
painter, maybe stand-up comedians.
00:53:30.520 --> 00:53:36.055
I mean you're, you're taking a chance and
putting what is you out there and having
00:53:36.080 --> 00:53:41.640
people judge and you know, that takes a
lot of doing and we're, I think,
00:53:41.800 --> 00:53:44.640
primed to, to look on the bad side.
00:53:44.800 --> 00:53:50.415
You know that I'll read some five-star
reviews and be elated, but the one that
00:53:50.440 --> 00:53:52.375
will stick with me will be the one star.
00:53:52.400 --> 00:53:56.080
But that's not happening anywhere
near as much as it used to.
00:53:56.480 --> 00:54:01.855
When I've been around authors and we've
shared experiences, everybody goes through
00:54:01.880 --> 00:54:06.855
that, you know, five-star grade, one
star, oh God, you know, type of thing.
00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:09.520
But you get used to it because there's always
going to be some
00:54:10.440 --> 00:54:12.695
and it balances out in the long run.
00:54:12.720 --> 00:54:14.920
Hopefully there's more
good ones than bad ones.
00:54:15.240 --> 00:54:18.360
So we like that.
Kate:
This is Kate Jones with Everyday Creation.
00:54:18.600 --> 00:54:22.655
For updates on Patricia's books and
appearances, go to her
00:54:22.680 --> 00:54:24.455
website patriciafalveybooks.
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:25.640
com.
00:54:26.360 --> 00:54:28.280
Thank you for joining us today.
