MacCorp News March 2023
The Moonstone Brooch update:
Well, as usual, what I plan to write doesn’t always appear on the page. My muse believes she’s in charge and maybe she is. I start with a general idea and write it in the form of a story synopsis, complete with characters who I think will be in the story. But the story rarely ends up that way.
I write (without an outline) one page at a time until I have a chapter. The process is like building a house. The studs go up first. The second pass through the chapter adds the drywall. The third pass adds painting, and the fourth/fifth/sixth add the furniture and decorations.
I’m a linear writer. I begin at the beginning and end at the end. I have only written out of order once and that was when Tavis took Eric home for burial. I had to write that scene immediately and then inserted it later.
I think The Moonstone is going to be a shorter book, but I say that with each one I write. And I’m not sure who the soul mates are. Honestly, I miss Sten. He was a great character who always added tension to the story. But this one is softer, and without Remy tagging along, so is the language.
I’ll know more about the story by the end of April and will give you an update. Until then, enjoy spring!
Blessings, Katherine
Character Profile: Patrick Wilson Mallory
First appearance: Patrick first appeared on the scene as a street urchin in The Diamond Brooch.
Birth Family: His parents were William and Mary Agnes Wilson who were both deceased by the time we met him in The Diamond Brooch.
Relationship to the family: Patrick’s ancestors were Vikings who settled in Scotland, one of whom married Arlene MacKlenna. He is distantly related to Jack Mallory through Jack’s ancestor Michael Mallory, who married Lorna MacKlenna, Arlene MacKlenna’s sister. He was adopted by Jack and Amy and took his birth surname as a middle name. He has two younger siblings.
Description: Patrick has dark blond, wavy hair with big blue eyes, high cheekbones, a strong jaw, and a full bottom lip. He has a slender but muscular frame, is approximately six foot two, and weighs around 180 pounds. He wears black-rimmed glasses and speaks with a mix of Scottish/Irish/Tidewater Virginia accents. He used to have panic attacks.
Current occupation/location: He attended the University of Virginia for undergraduate studies (where he met Clay) and recently graduated top of his class from Georgetown Law School. He plans to join the Marines and become an aviator.
Hobbies: Patrick plays piano and created a Ragtime repertoire with Remy. He is also a baseball fanatic and a boxer.
Last Appearance: The Bloodstone Brooch
Next Month: An interview with a surprise guest
Unedited Work-in-Progress Snippet
This scene takes place in Chapter 2 in Charlotte’s sitting room.
Patrick threw a couple of logs on the fire before sitting in Elliott’s chair and putting his feet on the ottoman. “Looks like a serious game. How much is on the line?”
Elliott moved a chess piece. “Every chess game is serious, lad, and reputations are on the line.”
“I can already see how this is going to turn out. Eric will beat you, Cullen will beat Eric, and Braham will beat Cullen, and then I get to take on Uncle Braham.”
Braham chuckled. “Ye’re an upstart, Patrick, and I can checkmate you in four moves.”
“Uncle Braham! You know how to hurt a guy. Everything I know about chess I learned from you.”
“But ye play like yer father. Jack doesn’t have the patience, neither do ye, so ye both make bad decisions.”
“Maybe in chess, but never in boxing.”
“Patrick,” Eric said without glancing at him. “Boxing is the sport that most closely resembles chess. In boxing, the brutality is transparent. It’s sublimated in chess but no less real. The pain it inflicts is comparable but takes a different form. When you reach Braham’s level of expertise, players enjoy the moment when they can feel the ego of their opponent crumbling. It is no coincidence that boxing and chess use the same ferocious language. Chess players talk of crushing and destroying their opponents.”
Patrick’s jaw dropped. “How come nobody explained that to me years ago.”
Now Braham laughed. “Go back and reread yer notes. I recommended that ye learn to box and play chess because it would teach ye to be a strategic thinker and not a one-dimensional player.”
“No, you didn’t!” Patrick said, raising his voice. “I would have remembered that.”
Now Braham looked over the top of his glasses. “Go back and look at yer notes. If ye don’t have them, I have copies.”
Patrick threw up his hands. “You can’t argue with the man who has the evidence. If I get an extension, I promise to spend the time learning to be a better player.”
Now Cullen grinned. “I recommend you give chess boxing a chance. It’s a mix of a chess match and a boxing fight. Ye take on an opponent of both disciplines. They split the chess match into rounds of four minutes and boxing into rounds of three minutes. Ye carry on with rounds of chess, then boxing until you either knock out your opponent or checkmate him on the chess board.”
Patrick shook his head in disbelief. “Seriously? That’s a thing?”
“It’s a thing,” Cullen said. “Matt and I discussed this several weeks ago. We were looking for ways to bring strategic thinking into the classroom. Trainer Ted heard us and mentioned that he’d recently read an article about chess boxing. Matt thinks it’s a great idea and plans to implement it this spring.”
Patrick struggled to stay connected to the conversation but couldn’t stop worrying about Clay. If he was this worried about his best friend, what would Patrick do when he fell in love? And he would, but not until he finished his service to the Marines.
Elliott turned away from the chessboard and grimaced at Patrick. “Ye didn’t come in here to talk about chess or boxing. What’s on yer mind?”
“How do you know I have something on my mind?”
Eric stroked his chin before moving a rook. “You are sitting over there instead of next to the table to watch our game. You might as well tell Elliott your concern.”
Elliott moved his piece and rolled his unlit cigar between his finger and thumb. “Is it the Marines? Did you hear about the extension?”
“I just called yesterday. It might take a few days to give me an answer. I’m not worried about reporting to the Marines, but I am concerned about a friend who drove to Buffalo and got caught in the storm of the century. He isn’t answering his phone.”
Eric moved his piece and captured Elliott’s knight. “Maybe the power is out, and his phone is dead.”
“That’s possible, but Clay would use his car battery to charge his phone.”
“Isn’t Clay yer roommate from UVA?” Cullen asked.
“Yes, you’ve met him before.”
“Didn’t he know a storm was coming?” Elliott asked, studying the board before capturing Eric’s knight with his bishop.
“He thought he could get there before it started. His uncle died and left everything to him. Now a family wants to lease the Buffalo mansion, and he wanted to get his uncle’s papers and books out so it wouldn’t delay the new tenants.”
“Why doesn’t he sell it?” Braham asked. “He lives in the city, doesn’t he?”
“He would, but he can’t. His uncle put restrictions on the real estate. It’s left in perpetuity to his heirs.”
“I remember Clay,” Braham said. “He wrote that series of articles on the Russian oligarchs and became the youngest investigative journalist to win a Pulitzer.”
“That is very impressive,” Eric said. “What is the young man’s name, and what newspaper does he work for? I want to read his articles.”
“Clay MacIntrye, and he works for The New York Times. I think he eats and sleeps there. He never stops working. He’s the energizer bunny on steroids.”
“MacIntrye? What is his full name?” Eric asked.
“He never uses it, but it’s Barclay Archibald MacIntrye.”
Elliott left the table and nodded to Braham to take his place.
Braham moved into Elliott’s chair. “Eric has already beaten ye, and ye want me to take the loss?”
“If ye don’t win, we’ll put an asterisk next to the game.” Elliott sat on the sofa, still rolling his cigar. “Clay is not the type of man who would let a snowstorm stand in his way if he had an important task to do. Nor is he the type to disappear. If I remember correctly, he’s climbed several mountains, including Mount Kilimanjaro, and was going to climb Mt. Everest.”
“He climbed Kilimanjaro but only went to the South Base Camp in Nepal for a story on moving the camp on Khumbu glacier because it’s melting and unsafe for trekkers. He put Everest on his bucket list after that.”
“How long has it been since ye heard from him?” Cullen asked.
“I talked to him yesterday. He told me that if I hadn’t heard from him in twenty-four hours, I needed to call him. It’s been over twenty-four hours.”
“What do ye think has happened to him?” Elliott asked.
“He could have flipped his Jeep while plowing the driveway, got injured, and froze to death?”
“That’s rather grim for such a capable person,” Elliott said.
“Tragic accidents happen to capable people all the time,” Patrick said.
Eric moved another chess piece and announced, “Checkmate.”
Braham sat back and crossed his arms, glaring at Elliott. “No more cigars for ye.”
Elliott chuckled. “Ye saw the board and the odds of losing but took the challenge anyway. Ye believed yer skill could win the game.”
Braham shrugged. “I still want the asterisk.”
Eric left the table and joined Elliott on the sofa. “I suspect your friend found one of his uncle’s brooches and traveled back in time.”
They all stared at Eric.
“Brooches?” Elliott asked in a tone that made Patrick slink back in his chair. “Are ye implying that Archibald MacIntrye was a Guardian? Ye said ye didn’t know who they were.”
“I do not know them, but I suspected Young Clay’s grandfather Barclay MacIntrye might be. He was a law partner of Sophia’s grandfather—”
“Solicitor Seamus Digby?” Braham asked.
“Yes, but I could not prove it. I met Solicitor MacIntrye in Scotland the summer I met Samantha there.”
Please do not copy and paste this copyrighted excerpt and post it elsewhere or use it without my express permission. The information in this newsletter appears on my blog and you can share the link to that webpage instead. Thank you.
Family News
- Spring Cleaning: If you’ve been stashing period-specific clothing or weapons at home (Jack/Robbie/Henry, we’re looking at you!) please return it to the closest family clothing stockroom or armory so it can be checked, mended, cleaned, serviced, or replaced depending on what’s needed.
- Reminder! Make sure you are keeping up with your healthcare visits; no skipping out! With the health improvements Elliott (cancer remission) and Emily (“improvement” in her diabetes), we need to monitor everyone to determine how brooch travel is impacting our health and your telomeres.
Survey says…
The February giveaway winner is Charleen Gandy and I’ve already reached out to her about her prize!
SURPRISE, by the slimmest of margins, Braham beat out David on who readers would like to go on a road trip with. Kenzie and Kit tied for third, with votes also cast for: Elliott, Meredith, Paul, Eric, Ensley, Jack, Clay, Remy, and one vote for me!
Popular reasons for your votes: safe and capable of dealing with anything; stories to share about both the past and the present; fun in telling jokes and singing along with or without the radio.
Giveaway!
Here’s a chance to win a special bookish gift related to the series. Your choice of a Celtic Brooch book from my collection or a box of bookish goodies like a MacKlenna Farm coffee mug/bookmarks/etc). Tell me…
- If you could interview one of the Moonstone characters we’ve heard about so far, including the ones in the snippet, what would you want to ask them?
Submit up to three questions here.
Buy Your Copy Today
The Celtic Brooch ebooks, print editions, and audiobooks are available at AMAZON.
I always look forward to your books coming out but really looking forward to this one after reading the unedited bit! Thank you for writing these. They keep me going. I have chronic pain and illness and the audiobooks are a real life saver! You are appreciated x
Thank you, Bev!
I can’t wait for the new book to come out by the end of this year. I am so excited.
I wish I could write faster!
What a great teaser for an upcoming book. Love, love, love it!
What a great teaser . . . the guy gets the brooch??? How is he gonna fit in the brooch ladies meetings???? LOL