Chapter Member
Spotlight Profile
May 1999
Chapter MemberSpotlight Profile
May 1999
Sheila Barrett,
Author
A perspective from the other side of the waters. Sheila Barrett is an American, a former Texan, and Vassar graduate, living in Ireland. And has done so for the past twenty-nine years. Is she American or Irish? Or a blend? And just what does being Irish mean? In fact, that's just one of the questions Sheila ponders in her first mystery, A View to Die For.Like many SinC-IC members, she juggled a busy schedule while writing her first two books; one that included children. In Sheila's case, six! She writes when she can, fitting it between the writing workshops she runs in crime fiction at the University College, Dublin. At the end of the interview, I asked Sheila what it was she wished I'd asked that I hadn't. Wait until you see her response. It's one close to many who post to the SinC-IC digest.
Sheila still holds dear a saying from her mom: Do something, even if it's wrong! And so she has. Here is a taste of something that Sheila did! In the following passage, Charlie, a young girl, is hiding from a pursuer.
Charlie burrowed close to the earth like a little animal, clutching at the trunk of the tree as if it could help her.
"Charlie?" It was so hard to tell with whispers but, no, if he were a good person, he'd call out.
"Charlie..." in a more normal voice. "I've found your shawl. Aren't you cold?" The soft steps moved away a little, and Charlie knew he hadn't seen her. He just guessed she was somewhere nearby. Suddenly she felt she'd be mortified if he found her and realised she hadn't trusted him, it would seem so rude, but she still couldn't move. If he found her, she could say she didn't realise it was him. Or that she was waiting for her dad.
IC You teach writing courses and give workshops at University College, Dublin for both matriculating as well as Adult Education students. Of the many courses you've taught, which is your favorite and why?
Sheila
They're all so different. Satisfying in entirely different ways. The undergraduates in the extra-curricular workshops just love writing, and they come together when they can in spite of heavy workloads. Crime fiction workshops are in some ways the easiest to operate because people can concentrate on genre-specific issues like plotting, engineering suspense, first page, etc.-- and the people who come--! Bright, bright people "do" crime fiction, as we all know, and it's good fun, too.The other workshops I ran were Autobiography workshops. I've stopped these for a bit, because I was going stale. The people who come never do, of course, they're writing about their lives. These lives are--well, they're very beautiful. Also, Ireland has changed so much so quickly that a lot of people would be describing and explaining to their own children and grandchildren a world that has vanished in three decades. There's important conservation work going on, among other things.
At the moment Crime Fiction's the easiest--but you never forget the stories and sheer kindness that come out of Autobiography.
IC
Your first published book, Walk in a Lost Landscape, is said to be magical. It is about a child adapting to a changing world, one in which two-headed squirrels exist and parents do odd things. Was this written as a children's book or is it for anyone open to fantasy and magic?
Sheila
I think the book's open to anyone who likes fantasy and magic (and adventure and romance)--Maura's mildly psychic, though she can only really understand her "dreams" when actuality overtakes them. (Most of the book's action takes place when she's twenty.) That being said, the publishers were a bit sorry they didn't push the book harder among young adults, though the editor was adamant that it is an adult book!
IC
What inspired this book?
Sheila
I once went to a self-counselling conference where people were invited to put up their hands if they were worried about nuclear war. Forest of hands. Proposed solution: therapeutic trembling. With six little kids at home and Sellafield in Cumbria pumping nuclear waste into the Irish Sea, I knew nothing less than a day in a cement mixer was going to do the trick for me. (This was well before Chernobyl, which mutated some of the plants in the neighbouring county!) Walk in a Lost Landscape was rooted in some of those concerns.
IC
A View to Die For, published by an Irish publisher, Poolbeg, is set in Dalkey, in County Dublin, and features mostly Irish characters. Speaking as one American reader, this was not at all distracting and actually adds to its attraction. There's been some discussion of how to handle writing for "foreign" markets (spelling differences, etc.) If you had wanted to be published by a U.S. publisher, would you have changed anything?
Sheila
Probably not. I hope that the characters and their problems would be recognisable on either side of the pond, and that my being American-born might-almost subliminally- accommodate some of the questions people in the Americas might have about things here in Ireland. When reading books, say, set in the UK, I've always liked that sense of difference, of a slightly strange-familiar culture. If A View to Die For ever does get to a US publisher, I'd hope readers there might feel the same about Ireland. (Don't computers "do" the spellings?)
IC
There is a line at the beginning of the book, about the sudden departure of a new mother from the hospital, that is wonderfulIn the words of one shocked nurse, "She was out almost before the afterbirth,...'"
Is that a Barrett original or a common Irish saying?
Sheila
I'm afraid that was me.
IC
Is there a large mystery/crime writing community in the Dublin area?
Sheila
Well, now there is, (she said proudly.) People who have survived my crime fiction workshops have gone on to form very sustaining groups. But though there are a number of good crime writers, we don't hang out. At least two of us are CWA members and we are talking about rooting out some others and forming a Dublin chapter, perhaps. Julie Parsons, Eugene McEldowney, and Vincent Banville live in the Dublin area, and Maggie Gibson, though she lives in Westport, Co Mayo, might be enticed over to the pub as well. There are lots of other Irish crime writers, of course, Gemma O'Connor who lives in Oxford, John Connolly (may be in the US), Jim Lusby, who I think is from Waterford, John Brady who's currently living in Canada, and Colin Bateman from the North of Ireland......
IC
Has the experience of the "troubles" in Ireland influenced crime fiction there in a discernible way?
Sheila
Eugene McEldowney's first two novels were set in the North of Ireland. His protagonist, Cecil Megarry, is an RUC officer. I blush to say I haven't read Colin Bateman's books, but the earlier ones at least are rooted in Northern issues. I believe they're blackly funny. Paramilitary matters are almost too much for most people, I think. You have to know your background and be able to put it all into the right context. Both Eugene McEldowney and Colin Bateman grew up in the North, so they come equipped with all that, it's authentic. Otherwise that material, you know, can easily get clichéd. The short answer is, it's influenced crime fiction here surprisingly little. I think the drug problem in Dublin crops up in it a lot more.
IC
What's "RUC" stand for?
Sheila
Royal Ulster Constabulary. When Ireland was all the one country, it was the RIC--Royal Irish Constabulary. I think the terms changed just after Partition. The (Southern) Irish police became the Garda Síochána, and the Northern Police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
IC
What types of bookstores are prevalent in Ireland, chains or independents, and how does that impact a book's shelf life?
Sheila
Chains are becoming much more prevalent, though there's a great family-owned shop, Kenny's in Galway, that also supplies loads of Irish-interest books on the Net. There are few big Irish book stores left. Fred Hanna's is one of those, and I assume Eason's--also a distributor--is Irish-owned. Waterstone's is doing well here...no Barnes and Noble as yet. And we've Murder, Ink, which has probably moved to Dawson Street by now, where Michael Gallagher gets US editions of new crime novels! And there's a book store in Cork that specialises in mysteries. We've also got Book Stop, a smaller chain. We aren't totally messed up yet, but I was told by Margrit Cruickshank, an excellent children's/young adult writer who works at Book Stop, that the shelf life of most books coming out is very short indeed. Could she have said three weeks? Six? Too stunned to remember. I see A View to Die For here and there, in single copies in the Irish fiction sections, and it was out in January 1997, so I guess I'm rather lucky.
IC
Tell us how you found your publisher.
Sheila
My agent sent both books to Poolbeg.
IC
Are you working on anything right now? If so, tell us a bit about it.
Sheila
I've got a "space novel" as Doris Lessing would call it, by the tail. It's a slithery little devil. I've done a lot of background reading for the next crime fiction book, which is sort of simmering. And I write the odd short story. The latest is between drafts.
IC
Has surrounding yourself with mystery/crime fiction, both teaching and writing, made you any more cautious in your daily life than you might otherwise be?
Sheila
Apparently. The children tell me I'm paranoid. But I'm also one of those souls who still totes a handbag, (a poor substitute for a boxcar or a wheelbarrow, given what I like to drag around), and I have managed to get my handbag stolen 3 times. Lady Bracknell would probably have something to say about that. But would most of us be alert to newspaper stories, things we hear or imagine? -- it's all material, and maybe it sinks in. I'd be interested in what other people have to say about it. It can be a bit of a liability.
IC
You mentioned six children earlier. You may have seen some of the recent SinC-IC digest postings about difficulties in finding time to write. Any comments on your experiences?
Sheila
I was both amazed and heartened by the comments and advice people posted. Wish I'd read some of it ten years ago! -- I used to crawl out in the morning and do a bit of writing before everyone else got up. It didn't take much to get the process gently underway and "open"--if I had little bits of time later on, it helped enormously to have at least warmed my hands on the work earlier. Although I had a very demanding part-time job for some years, I was in and out of the house, so I got these little dribs and drabs of time. It did take ages to complete the first book. Not quite so long to write the second. I don't know if anyone else finds this, but my concentration was better ten years ago. I wrote at the end of the dining room quite happily while people were playing snooker. Now, for the first time I've got my own room to work in with a shuttable door. Whew! But kids...you can always take out a book you've written twenty or fifty years on and it'll be just the same. Kids won't, and we don't have them long at all.
IC
So, what led you to crime fiction?
Sheila
Just loved reading it. Love stories with pace, plot, atmosphere.
IC
Is plotting the most difficult concept to teach? If not, what is?
Sheila
I was going to say, "plotting's a snip to teach and hell to do," but having thought, reckon it really is the hardest thing. People tend to put too much in, so I mustn't be getting the message across yet. You can't teach "voice" at all, of course, just compliment people and encourage them when they hit on their own particular way of telling the story.
IC
Any opinion on critique groups?
Sheila
I'm in a couple with women who offer really brilliant support. The criticism is tactful but direct. We've grown up together, and there's been a lot of success.Both are mixed groups -- poets, short story writers, novelists, playwrights, screenwriters. I find it's tricky coming with novels. Too easy to get confused or put off when you're in the throes but just feel it's kind of time you brought in something to read. That's just me. Some group members whose writing processes are less tentative than mine can successfully bounce the work off the group and benefit from that. I find bringing short stories the most helpful.
IC
You must get many idea nuggets, but, so far, you have chosen only two to blossom into books. What was it about these two that provided the motivating force for your books?
Sheila
Good question. I don't quite know! But I think place has something to do with it. Places, wonderful places, under pressure or threat. And everything changing for the people in them. Displacement, in time or space.
IC
A View To Die For seems to pick up a trend established in Walk in a Lost Landscape -- the fears of children and of adults, intertwining relationships, and the time is Halloween. Am I wrong?
Sheila
You're right!You've brought me to the question I wish you'd asked--and maybe you're about to ask it. "If we're to write about "what we know"--where does that leave the women, particularly those with children, relatives, etc. whose lives -- now more than ever -- are infinitely complex, subtle and populous? Can crime writing accommodate that?"
And I'd say, I hope so -- but what a task to do it well, to keep the story going and entertain the readers without confusing them or boring them with a huge canvas of characters. I'm still finding my way here, believing that such lives are fascinating, but suspecting that to keep the reader happy, writers of my ilk might have to work far harder at structure than those who have an interesting "alienated" character at their disposal. Not that it wouldn't be fascinating to come up with an alienated character in the midst of all life's plenty, but... As a neighbour was saying at a party last night (re "Neighbourhood Watch"), "The children see everything, everyone coming and going." So do many retired people (particularly gardeners), and that to me is the stuff of story. But am I alone in feeling that quite a few crime novels that begin promisingly can go on to disappoint when the writer and reader get bogged down in this "real" world of too-many people? (I do feel that Janet Evanovich conveys a sense of family and community brilliantly, with great economy. Undoubtedly, there are many more who achieve this.)
There may be something Irish as well as something personal going on here. The lone hero/ine type of alienation is rather new in Ireland and feels a bit "foreign" -- for instance, Maggie Gibson's Grace de Rossa is divorced, but her ex mother-in-law won't let go. Neither will her best friend, (who took up with Grace's husband). McEldowney's Megarry was thrown out by his wife but taken back again and put off drink and stays with his in-laws down in Howth. John Brady's Minogue is devoted to his tempestuous daughter. Vincent Banville's hero is separated but still loves his wife and meets her round the town (this is Dublin). And most murderers have families whom somebody knows or is related to in turn. Alienated Irish people go to England. I haven't read all of John Connolly's book Every Dead Thing yet, but I somehow feel his hero had to be in the US, he couldn't have existed in Ireland.
So I guess what I'm saying is, intertwining of some sort of another seems to be endemic here. Interestingly, Julie Parson's protagonist in Mary, Mary is a woman who has lived away for many years. Shortly after she returns to Ireland from New Zealand, her daughter is murdered. She's "alienated" with a capital "A", and this gives the book extraordinary intensity.
So is the answer to the question simply "More discipline; more skill?" Or is there a need to push this more populous world even farther into the perceived mainstream of crime fiction? -- If there is such a thing.
IC
If you were the old woman in the shoe, what would you feed the children and would there be a family pet?
Sheila
Well, I kind of was the old woman in the shoe, and we got a family pet when we reckoned it was safe to do so (when the pet would be safe, that is, and not on the menu). Well, literally, we ate well but rather filled up on potatoes and things that stretched the meat -- casseroles, that sort of thing. And the pet we got when our youngest was three was Stanhope the black cat, who died last year at the age of thirteen.
IC
Is there any vegetable you absolutely will not eat?
Sheila
You've been so kind up till now, Louise. But how could you remind me of...BEETS?
IC
Wrapping it up, any last thoughts?
Sheila
Now that I've found the other Spotlight interviews, I'm looking forward to reading them all! Thanks for taking such trouble to introduce us to one another.
Books by Sheila Barrett Walk in a Lost Landscape A View to Die For This interview was conducted during mid-April 1999 by Louise Guardino for SinC-IC.
Sheila Barrett Louise Guardino
Read an earlier Spotlight Profile.
