Damian McNicholl, who hails from Northern Ireland and now lives in Pennsylvania, is a natural-born storyteller. His debut novel garnered numerous awards, including an American Booksellers Association “Booksense Pick” designation, and resulted in invitations to speak about his work on radio and TV across the country. The books he has followed it with continue to offer readers of all stripes unexpected plotlines and characters that seem to live and breathe on the page. We recently had the pleasure of catching up with Damian.
Hi, Damian and congratulations on your career to date. How did you get into writing?
As a kid, I entertained my siblings by telling them funny stories about our neighbors, aunts, and uncles. Of course, I realized later these stories all skewered and mocked them. I’d never thought about writing stories, never mind getting published. Thomas Hardy was a favorite author, and reading his work assured me that writing a novel was a complicated thing to do. Besides, my English teachers never gave me A+ grades in composition. Ironically, I think in my case at least, writing school essays may have suppressed the creative spark because I was so preoccupied with making sure I got a good grade in exams rather than writing from instinct or emotion. When I came to live in the U.S., I decided to give writing a try and wrote on my journeys back and forth from work in New York City on the bus. I started by doing writing exercises and then began a novel that remains unpublished. I moved on to my write what became my first published novel, A Son Called Gabriel and was told it was decently written by some friends in the business. That’s how it all came to pass.
A Son Called Gabriel garnered a sizable audience and won multiple awards. What do you think it is about that story that appealed to so many people?
I think it appealed to a lot of people for a variety of reasons. I decided to have Gabriel narrate his story, and his voice is very honest, immediate and raw. He’s also very sympathetic as he progresses from child to adulthood. The reader relates to him from the get-go and is willing and interested to follow his journey.
The story also deals with universal themes—family, growing up different to your friends, trying to fit in, lying and deceiving yourself as well as the people you love and want to love, the effects and pain of growing up in a conservative culture and religion.
And finally, the outer conflict mirrors and buttresses the protagonist’s inner conflict. The story is set during the period known as The Troubles in Ireland, a time when the Catholic population rose up against the Protestant majority and took to the streets to demand their civil rights and end unjust discrimination in work, housing, and society in general. As the novel progresses, the conflict and escalating violence within the society in which he lives intensifies at the same rate as the war Gabriel is fighting within himself. I think that helps create a lot of tension and suspense that readers enjoy and can relate to.
Obviously, your Irish background had a great impact on the writing of A Son Called Gabriel. Does it still impact your work?
That’s a great question and something I’ve been thinking about recently. We’re often told in writing circles that we should write what we know. I used to scorn such thinking. Now, I think it’s smart to do this.
Until working on my latest novel, I wasn’t conscious that my background influenced my writing, but it does. I’ve published three novels and there has always been something of Ireland in all of them. Twisted Agendas, my second novel, is a fish-out-of-water story involving a young man who leaves Ireland to live in London, where he meets some eccentric and dangerous characters. The Moment of Truth, while set in Texas and Mexico, revolves around a young Irish American woman who sets out to break the glass ceiling in the 1950s. And the novel I’m currently working on explores a young Irish woman who is cast out of an aristocrat’s estate in Ireland and comes to live in North Carolina just before the Civil War.
How did you decide to come to the U.S.? And while you can’t see how things would have turned out had you stayed in Ireland, take a guess at the ways in which your life would differ.
I was living in London, got an opportunity to live here and was young enough that I wasn’t afraid to start my life over again. I came to America knowing only three people. The first night I spent on Roosevelt Island, New York City. I remember looking across the East River at the skyscrapers and twinkling lights and thinking, This is exactly where I’m meant to be. When I look back now, it scares me to think that I did such a thing. But I’ve always enjoyed living abroad and, as a kid, had always been fascinated by American culture. Also, my paternal grandfather was American. He was taken back to live in Ireland as a boy, so it’s sort of making a full circle that someone of his blood would return.
If I’d remained in the UK, I’m not sure I’d have become an author. I’m trained as a lawyer, indeed worked as an attorney in NYC, and I’d likely be doing that in London today if I hadn’t moved. American culture encourages people to try different things and reinvent careers. Not so in Ireland or England.
You’ve got several books under your belt. Do you have a favorite among them? And is there one that provided a more compelling experience for you as a writer than the others?
My favorite is always the book I’m working on currently. I get fully immersed in the lives of the new characters, which makes it interesting and satisfying. I’d say writing Gabriel’s character was a most compelling experience. It sure provided a lot of pain and laughter during the writing. Sometimes I’d read what I’d written and sob at my desk. There’s a part of me in his arc and character. He’s not me completely. But I experienced growing up in a conservative milieu and experienced some of his personal struggles. I got a chance to rewrite part of his story when my current publisher, Pegasus Books, decided to reissue the novel. I wanted to do that as I felt the first published version had too much of me in the pages and did not do full justice to Gabriel’s story.
Your novel The Moment of Truth is written from a female point of view. Why was that necessary and how difficult was it?
Kathleen Boyd is the protagonist. I wanted to explore the prejudice and bigotry an ambitious young woman experiences while trying to work and rise professionally in a man’s world in the 1950s. She is a bullfighter, and her character is based loosely on Patricia McCormick, an attractive Irish American woman who fought bulls in Mexico but was never fully accepted by her male peers because she was a woman. They refused to sponsor her to become a full-fledged matador. In the 1950s, many young women wanted to do more than stay at home as housewives or work as secretaries and nurses. They’d been employed in aircraft and bomb factories doing the workmen had done but were summarily fired and told to return to their kitchens after the Second World War ended and the men returned home. Can you imagine their frustration? I wanted to show some of their plights.
It wasn’t difficult to write a female character. I think women are more interesting to write, frankly. Writing female characters comes easy to me as I’ve lived with two very strong sisters and have lots of women friends.
Which of your books would make the best film or TV series and why?
A Son Called Gabriel would make an excellent independent film because of the juxtaposition of the inner and outer conflicts and its universal themes. I’ve also been told it’s damned funny.
The Moment of Truth would be extremely cinematic as it’s set in 1950’s Mexico and tells the riveting story of a different kind of strong woman struggling to overcome male chauvinism. I do realize the bullfighting aspect might cause some producers and directors to shy away from Kathleen’s story. In the right hands, however, the thrust of the novel—the deepening conflict Kathleen has with her trainer and her struggle to win acceptance—would overcome this issue. And I think the very visual ending would satisfy animal rights advocates, of which I am one.
What are you working on now?
My next novel’s about a young Irish servant and whiskey maker who, in 1859, comes to live at an older relative’s farm in the North Carolina hills, a relative who owns slaves and whom she’s never met. She must also deal with a townswoman who’s rabidly anti-alcohol.
What advice would you give budding young writers hoping for success in book business?
Observe minutely. Read widely, including trade publications. Write often.
Where can we keep up to date with your activities? And where can we find your books?
My novels can be found at all brick-and-mortar bookstores as well as at Amazon, Independent Bookstores and Barnes and Noble online.
A Son Called Gabriel
The Moment of Truth
Website: https:damianmcnicholl.com
Facebook: damianmcnicholl
Twitter @damianmcn
About Author
