Today, I would like to welcome Patrick Taylor to Books and Movies. Patrick is the author of An Irish Country Doctor and the sequels.
Dea duit. Cead mile fáilte. Hello and welcome to this blog. I’m Patrick Taylor, but my friends usually call me Pat. Being a dinosaur in the electronic universe, although I have a website at www.patricktaylor.ca, I’ve never blogged before. On the keyboard my best strokes are “backspace” and “delete.” Until the Canadian Authors’ Association recently asked me to give an address entitled, “One Traditional Author’s Experience with the Electronic World” I thought Face Book was a family photo album and a tweeter was, like a woofer, a kind of amplifier or a birdie with a sweet voice. But here goes. My first blog.
When I give readings the most common question is, “How did you get started as a writer?” I’d love to have a pat answer (no pun intended), but the best I can do is to tell you I’m like Topsy, “I ’spec’ I jest growed.”
An English teacher aunt instilled in me a love of books. When I was a boy our schools insisted on correct English usage in everything. A chemistry assignment with incorrect spelling or syntax was marked down even if the science was 100% accurate. Thus were the foundations laid. Then there was the building of the structure that came about after years of practice because I have always written.
And paramount over all was the question. There still is the question, and as long as I can write I hope there always will be the question which is, What if?
What—if ?
I first realised I was asking it in 1969. Belfast where I was working was in flames; sectarian warfare raged. What if, I wondered, an unemployed Catholic lad joins the British Army, his regiment is sent back to Belfast as peace-keepers and he must chose between his family and his oath of allegiance? The result was a short story called Gerry. It went on to become the first of 16 in a book of short fiction, Only Wounded: Ulster Stories, published by Key Porter Books of Toronto in 1997 almost 30 years later.
In those 28 years the question did not go away, but led me in a different direction. What if? is also the foundation of all research, in my case medical research, the logical outcome of which is an outpouring of papers. More writing. My colleagues soon were under the impression that my chosen genre was not science, but science fiction. Many laughed at my efforts. Take Infertility Treatment in the Lowland Gorilla, [Gorilla G. Gorilla] or The Positive Effects of a Fertility god in an Infertility Laboratory as examples. I have actually, on a bet, had my laundry list published in a reputable scientific journal. In 1989 I was invited to turn my pen to writing humour columns for medical and sailing magazines.
At the same time, because of my early schooling, although I could not split the atom, I could re-unite split infinitives, stabilise dangling participles, and had a passing acquaintance with gerunds I found I’d been appointed editor of a Canadian medical journal. Those ten years of strict adherence to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Chicago Manual of Style, and The Elements of Style taught me a great deal.
Finally after the publication of the short stories my friend the novelist, Jack Whyte encouraged me to try my hand at long fiction. What if an IRA bomb maker teamed up with a British Army bomb disposal expert working undercover? That produced two techno-thrillers, Pray for Us Sinners, and the sequel Now and in the Hour of Our Death.
By now I was feeling like Dumbo. “I can fly.” So I asked, what if I took the character I had developed over 10 years in monthly columns, the irascible, Irish, 1960s Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, and gave him a young assistant, fresh from medical school, who was unsure of where his professional life was going? The first book, An Irish Country Doctor appeared in 2007. When Country Doctor made NY Times best-seller in both hard back and trade paper, teams of mental health workers were needed to help me deal with the shock, a symptom of which is that in 2007 I returned to Ireland for a three year sabbatical.
Since Doctor three more Irish Country books have appeared, one is being typeset as I write this, and I am working on number 6. The most recently published, (Jan 05 2010) An Irish Country Girl, is the back-story of Mrs. Maureen Kincaid and is set in County Cork in the 1920s. Mrs Kincaid is fey, possessed of the second sight, and so in Girl she has a series of close encounters with the Irish spirit world because when she first appeared in Country Doctor as the doctors’ housekeeper, she was a widow and a superb cook, but she needed some more defining character trait. The question was—you’ve got it, What if…?”
Slán leat. Bye for now.
Patrick Taylor. (Pat to his friends).
Thank you so much, Pat, for guest posting here at Books and Movies! I am looking forward to reading about Kinky’s encounters with the faerie world.
And, readers, don’t forget to enter to win a copy of An Irish Country Doctor and find out the details of the Ireland Reading Challenge.
How exciting that you got his first blog post! I’m wondering if he writes his books by hand or on the computer.
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says:
Kathy – I wonder, too! I know there are still authors who write long hand – Neil Gaiman is one.
I love the Irish Country Doctor series and it was great to read about how the author got into writing and developed the characters in the series. Thanks for hosting this guest post!
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says:
Colleen – you’re welcome – I enjoyed reading about his journey as a writer, too.
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says:
How cool is it that you snagged this guest post! I’ve read the first two Irish books and I really loved them. I have the other two here waiting to be read this spring. Can’t wait.
.-= Beth F´s last blog ..From Biologist to Author: A Visit with Sneed B. Collard III =-.
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Beth – don’t know if you have room for another challenge – but the lowest commitment level for the Ireland reading challenge is two books. Just saying.
I enjoyed reading this guest post. My husband is part Irish. I should look into this series — thanks for sharing!
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Valerie – it really is a great series!
What a GRAND COLLECTION OF STORIES. As my grandaughter said to me once , Nana I just wuv them. Sheila Davey
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says:
Sheila – well said.
My best friend Eva Busse and I have enjoyed your Irish Country series so very much. We thank you also for your expanding “Kinky”‘s role n the story. We look forward with batteed breathe for “Himself” to find his true love with his litty nurse. Thanks for expanding his love life. We look forward to more storys from Ballybucklebo.
Can these books be purchased on CD’s
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Thanks for all the replies. For those who asked I used to write longhand and my secretary transcribed but I taught myself to word process about 20 years ago.
If you google http://www.patricktaylor.ca you will find a link to Patrick Taylor on line
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says:
Pat – thanks for writing this post for my blog!
I now own all of the books in the Country Doctor series so far. First I read the books and then I purchase the C.D`s.
What is planned next?
Have just discovered you via “An Irish Country Doctor” and do not intend to lose you!
Congratulations on a marvellous book I loved it and felt quite bereft when I came to the end. I shall now be chasing up all your other writings
Thank you for a lovely book.
It’s cool to interview such a great person, I want also to make a section like this where I interview people for my blog, but I don’t have the resources right now.
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Which is the first book in the Irish Country series? Thanks.
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says:
Alice – this is the series order:
1. Irish Country Doctor
2. Irish Country Village
3. Irish Country Christmas
4. Irish Country Girl
5. Irish Country Courtship
I love these books — I am now reading An Irish Country Courtship — and look forward to the sixth in the series — they are a comfort to me — my mother is from Mullaghbawn, County Armagh and I love the Irish countryside — thank you for the series
Just finished An Irish Country Courtship and really enjoyed…..hubby an Internist and myself an RN who came from Nova Scotia to states many years ago and naturally Irish decent……..can relate to novels as have many such happenings with my husbands pracice in upstate new york……waiting for the new books.congratulations on a great and hum…orus read….keep them comin….enjoyable
finally, a good read for the heart and soul.
i first picked up this book,” An Irish Doctor” while buying groceries. i was tired of reading who done it books, not into the slippery type books.
so here i was, reading the book for the first time and loving every minute of it. i am a new fan.
thanks to Patrick Taylor and his wonderful heart and talent, bless you forever.
I want to add my voice to many others who love Mr. Taylor’s Irish Country book series! I discovered the first book when on a sad trip back to my home state of Michigan after my father passed away. I loved that book and bought the rest on amazon. Just finished the Courtship and look forward to further books with great anticipation. My ancestor David O’Killea/O’Kelly came over to the US from Ireland as an indentured servant in 1635, and I hope someday to visit cousins on the Emerald Isle.
Will Mr. Taylor’s books become movies or a TV series? He’d already have a built in audience for such an endeavor!
I have read the first two books in the Irish Doctor series and I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. The colourful expressions and language of the characters are priceless. The familiarty of the descriptions brought me back home to more than 30 years ago. I graduated as a registered nurse from the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1969 and emigrated to Canada in 1970.
Thank you Patrick Taylor for these memories.
I have just finished A Dublin Student Doctor and I really enjoyed it as I have all of the Mr.Taylor’s books . How soon now for a new one ?!?! Every time I Finnish one I want to read the next one. Thank you so much for this set of story’s I really enjoy them
I am a new fan. I read and Irish Country Doctor first and then An Irish Country Christmas. I have sang my praises to my sister. We both enjoy reading. Thankyou Pat Taylor!