Please help me welcome Jim O’Flannery to my Fun Fridays series. He is featured in Kathryn Scarborough’s The Wild Mountain Thyme. Take it away, Jim!
Hello Betty, my name is Jim O’Flannery, and I’m the main man, (Seamus, eat your heart out!) in Kathy’s new book, The Wild Mountain Thyme. Kathy told me you’d like to know what I do for fun. I am a big Patriots fan, the Patriots and Tom Brady. I play at least one game of touch football a week, unless the snow or the mud is up to my ‘nether regions,’ (ladies present). I really get into listening to the oldies, music from the 70s and 80s, like Eric Clapton, Cream, The Righteous Brothers, and hiking, especially around the Adirondack Mountains.
I’m a Boston Globe investigative reporter and even though that might sound ‘wicked good’, hey, I’m from Boston!, it’s no glamor job. I have to put up with my editor, a total intimidating grouch, but he did send me on this trip to Ireland and I met the love of my life, Megan Kennedy. She is a rare woman, beautiful, and a damn fine journalist. We’re running around the old Emerald Isle tracking down a serial killer who’s only after Americans, Irish-Americans. Great! And then, you’re not going to believe this, a pesky leprechaun nagging me to marry Megan. He says he’s my guardian angel, not sure I believe that one! Who ever heard of an angel drinking beer, interrupting my passionate kisses to Megan, and quoting poetry at every turn.
That’s it in a nutshell, I’m just a simple guy writing the best story he can, and kissing Megan whenever Seamus lets up on the “there’ll be no paddy fingers if you please!” Thanks for letting Kathy get her 2 cents in on your blog.
There’s a serial killer murdering Irish-American tourists all over Ireland. Jim O’Flannery of the Boston Globe and Megan Kennedy of the Irish Times, are teamed up to report on the killings. They want to work together, but stay clear of each other emotionally; there was A LOT of trouble with the opposite sex in the past. But, Jim’s guardian angel appears, as a leprechaun, to pester and cajole Jim into getting involved with Megan. Jim can see Seamus, Megan can’t.
Jim and Megan trail the murderer to the west coast of Ireland, piecing together his motivation and where he may strike next.
An attempt is made on their lives, and only Jim’s quick wits saves the two. Megan disappears. Has the killer kidnapped her? Can Jim, with Seamus’s help, save her from mortal danger?
The Wild Mountain Thyme is the title of an Irish folk song (the Scots will say it’s theirs, but I suppose they all came from the same place). Seamus sings the song in the book along with some other pieces. Seamus can whip an Irish harp out of the air to accompany himself. My high school heart throbs, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem sing it on this YouTube rendition. Check it out. “T’will make ‘ya teary-eyed,’ as Seamus would say.
Liam Clancy – Wild Mountain Thyme – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM7_rHdLZEk
Drop me a line!
Kathryn
www.facebook.com/Kathrynscarboroughauthor
Twitter: @kathy60snc
Betty Bolte's Musings 