Dear Reader,
I have been following the news lately, like you, sickened by the profusion of dictatorial mandates from the White House, but encouraged by the courageous writing and videos produced by Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, Heather Cox Richardson, Anne Applebaum, “Open Letters by Mersault,” and other independent voices. Many of these voices spread their word now through Substack, unchecked by the corporate cowardice of many of our former trusted media outlets.
I have taken a semi-breather these last few weeks to complete a screenplay, The Runners, based on my novel, On the Run. In their own way, both novel and screenplay deal with the issue of the powerful abusing the weak, and the weak fighting back to assert their freedom and dignity. Below is a review and a personal interview.
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BookView Review
Interview With Author William Shaw
Welcome to “BookView Interview,” a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.
Recently, we had an interesting conversation with William Shaw, author of On the Run, a coming of age story which follows the trials and tribulations of an Irish family as they navigate personal challenges and political issues. (Read the review here). Read the post below to know what William has to say about his book and the process of writing.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, William Shaw, PhD, taught English and Irish literature for many years at Le Moyne College and North Carolina State University.
Shaw spent many summers in Ireland, traveling with American students while teaching courses in Irish literature. He also taught one term at University College Cork as a Visiting Professor.
In 2005, Shaw published Fellowship of Dust: Retracing the World War II Journey of Sergeant Frank Shaw, a memoir of his uncle’s experiences in WWII combat and POW camps. He currently writes opinion columns for his local newspaper, The Pilot, while also producing his own digital newsletter for Substack — Wormwood: Reflections on an Endangered Nation. [williampshaw.substack.com]
“On the Run,” published in 2023, tells the story of how the Troubles in Northern Ireland affect and transform each member of a rural Irish family and their communities.
He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife, Connie Kretchmar.
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“Writing transports me from the physical and emotional restraints of everyday life into an imaginary world where those restraints are less intrusive. The restraints do not dissolve completely, though, because the raw material of my stories comes primarily from personal experience, observation, or reading.
Once my writing begins, however, new characters and places intrude, and my ego recedes. These characters demand their own voices, and the new places expand the original landscape. Both, then, shape and alter the plot, giving my imagination a chance to play.
When I get started on a story. I do not want to stop. I will write six to eight hours without noticing the time passing. I am eager every morning to return to my keyboard.
I favor family stories, stories that show individual family members struggling against the chains placed on them by other individuals, religions, and/or socio-political forces. My earliest favorite book was Huckleberry Flynn, followed by Catcher in the Rye, Oliver Twist, Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A River Runs Through it, Prince of Tides, and many others in that vein.
On the Run is such a family story. It emerged from a version of my personal experience as a Catholic high school student and track athlete, then later as a teacher who spent years traveling and working in Ireland. I became immersed in the literature and history of Ireland, especially its long struggle to free itself from the oppressively brutal rule of Great Britain.
Hence the bullying premise of my story: After the Earl Mountbatten is assassinated by IRA bombers off the coast of Sligo in 1979, Margaret Thatcher instituted a harsh regime against captured IRA prisoners and exacerbated the worsening Troubles. In this tense climate, Terence Connolly, a rural Irish farmer is wrongly arrested as a terrorist at the Northern Irish border. His arrest sets in motion a series of painful events that profoundly affect not only him and his family, but also individuals and communities that interact with Terence, his wife, Bridget, and his teenage son, Tim.
I break the novel into mirroring, intersecting plots.
Once Terence is imprisoned in Maze prison, he becomes severely depressed, even joining the hunger strikers.
Bridget falls into loneliness and depression, when Terence is arrested and even more after sending her son, Tim to stay with her sister and brother-in-law in Queens, NY., because she feared he might join the local IRA and get caught up in the violence.
Tim, however, is not safe in his new environment. He is bullied and beaten in school and becomes depressed and homesick.
The arc of the plot shows how each family member struggles to emerge from their darkness, conquering their fears and depression. I decided on the book’s title to insinuate the idea of running as a motif and metaphor:
Tim channels his fear and anger into track and gains confidence as an elite runner. He feels strong and untouchable, comfortable in the isolation of running, though his growing confidence infuriates his enemies, even to the extreme of plotting violence against him.
Terence gives up the hunger strike and joins a group of prisoners planning and executing an escape. Once out of prison, he is on the run.
Bridget is recruited into a women’s political action group and successfully protests the brutal treatment of the H-Block prisoners. Her success makes her a target of violent Unionist paramilitary. She is on the run from their threats and attacks.
Additionally, all the secondary characters who interact with the Connolly family are “on the run” from some painful secret in their lives: debilitating alcoholism, sexual abuse, issues with rage, self-conscious loneliness, moral cowardice.
The interweaving stories of Tim, Terence, and Bridget, episode by episode, lead them to their climactic reunion.
I hated to end the book. I grew to love my characters and especially enjoyed that I gave birth to them.
I hope my readers are inspired by the decency, strength, and resilience of my main characters in facing down cruel and violent people and systems.”