MacCorp News July 2023

July 29, 2023 | 1 comment

What’s New?

In my life...

I’m spending the summer on Long Island, New York, with grandchildren and Maddie, my Goldendoodle. Every morning we go to the beach so she can play with her dog buddies and I can do a “walk and talk” with their owners. Noon is pool time and she chases her tennis balls in and out of the water. After drying off, a short walk, and lunch it’s nap time. That’s followed by another walk, maybe a dip in the pool, then a walk, dinner, another walk, and bedtime. I’m not getting as many pages writen as I’d like, but I’m getting in over 10,000 steps a day, and that’s a good thing. .

With my writing…

The tone of The Moonstone Brooch is quite a step back from the last three books. But the Illuminati is out there and while the organization isn’t evil like Sten, it does want to financially destroy the Clan.

While Clay hangs out in the Adirondacks with Teddy Roosevelt, Patrick and Sarah, and JC and Emily dodge bullets in Buffalo. There are several undercurrents moving through the story and I’m not sure what’s going to happen, or even how this story will end when the family has all the brooches needed to open the cave door. If I can’t figure it out, I’ll have the Illuminati steal Patrick’s brooch. Nah! I won’t do that…

The challenge question this month is: What do you think is behind the cave door? Tell me HERE and we’ll pick a winner for a free Celtic Brooch audiobook or ebook. Good luck!

Character Interview: Patrick Wilson Mallory

Q: If you decided to take up Chess/Boxing, whom would you like to have your first match with and why?
A: JC! I could beat everyone else in the family, except Remy but he doesn’t play cheess. So for chess and boxing it has to be JC.

Q: If you were to go back in time to the 1800’s and stay, what would you miss from the future the most?
A: Famiy, education, and opportunity.

Q: What’s your favorite food in the 21st-century
A: A good cheeseburger.

Q: Where would you like to travel just for fun?
A: I’d go back to Ireland when my birth dad and his brother were young man.

Q: What time in history is your favorite and why.
A: Easy question. My favorite time is right now!

Q: Is it difficult having so many standards to live up to?
A: It was difficult a few years ago when I came home with Jack, but now I only have to live up to my own standards, which are pretty high.

Q: What is a significant milestone you would wish to achieve in the next 5 years?
A: To be an honorable Marine with courage and commitment.

Q:Who would be most likely to stay in the time era they traveled back to?
A: Kit and Cullen.

Q: Have you ever been afraid of using the brooches? Why?
A: Never.

Next Month’s Profile AND Interview: Elliott Fraser

What would YOU want to ask Elliott during his interview next month? Tell me HERE!

Excerpt from Unedited Chapter 3 with Clay in Buffalo

The morning sun filtered through the foggy veil, and the humid, heavy air soaked up the chill on Clay’s skin. He didn’t know where he was, but at least it was warmer than Buffalo. The nervous excitement and anticipation of a new adventure tickled his investigative gene. It was like walking out of an airport in a city he’d never visited. He was wide-eyed and ready for anything.

But was he ready for this, whatever this was? When his surroundings came into full view, he didn’t have a clue. But there was something vaguely familiar about the wide boulevard, the open land, and the lack of big trees forming a shady canopy along the road.

There were plenty of people around to ask, though—women dressed in long skirts, men wearing straw boaters, and children in sailor suits. Just like the people in his vision.

He turned in a full circle, and then he knew where he was—the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. He almost burst with excitement.

Hard to do with his heart racing and his urge to jump up and down as bad as any four-year-old waiting to see Santa at the mall. This was too much, even for him. But what was today’s date? And who could he ask?

It could only be May through November. It was warm and the trees were already turning. So probably early September.

The anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot President McKinley on September 6, and the president died eight days later. Had the shooting occurred yet? He didn’t think so. Buffalo didn’t resemble a grieving city. The people around him were laughing.

Up ahead, a beer wagon had plowed into a horse vegetable cart, and beer trickled from an overturned keg onto a pile of apples while the stomping horses turned the beer and apples into mush. Clay could stop and ask the drivers if they needed help and ask them the date. But the angry men looked ready to start a fistfight, so Clay kept walking.

Both sides of the boulevard accommodated a steady stream of horse-drawn hansom cabs, men on horseback, and a few four-passenger roadsters with backward-facing rear seats. Man! What would he give to drive one of those? He had a small fortune in his pocket. Why not splurge and buy one? Because that would be out of character, even living in the early twentieth century.

He followed pedestrians across the bridge over The Lake and North Bay until he reached the manicured flower beds at the main entrance to the Expo grounds. Children laughed and pulled their parents along as fast as their little legs could move through the crowd.

The smoky aroma of grilling bratwurst made his stomach growl. He didn’t have money for bratwurst, and he didn’t have fifty cents to buy a ticket to enter the Expo, either. And even if he had coins in his pocket, they’d be dated a hundred or more years in the future.

He stepped out of the thoroughfare so the crowd wouldn’t run him over, and he strolled through the trees until he had a good view of the Triumphal Bridge over Mirror Lake, the Esplanade, the Temple of Music, the Court of the Fountains, and the signature structure of the Expo—the 389-foot-high Electric Tower, lit with power generated by Niagara Falls.

It was impressive, even for someone who had seen many of the world’s greatest wonders. Clay had to get inside the park grounds, but he wasn’t a gate-crasher. If he could trade a gold nugget for cash, he could get in, buy a bratwurst, scope out the grounds, and figure out why he was here.

The logical place to trade a nugget for cash was at a bank. For that, he’d probably have to go downtown.
When he turned around, he almost ran into a sign advertising President McKinley’s appearance at four this afternoon at the Temple of Music.

He almost groaned. The assassination was today. That meant he had a chance to reverse history. Would he dare? Hell, no. If he stopped the shooting, what would happen to Teddy Roosevelt? He wouldn’t become president.

No. It wasn’t right, and Clay would never deny Teddy Roosevelt his enduring legacy or Nobel Peace Prize.

Clay’s best guess was that it was ten-thirty or eleven. There wasn’t a line yet at the Temple of Music, so he had a few hours to find a bank and devise a plan to meet the president.

The only bank he knew about was his uncle’s—the Buffalo Savings Bank—about a four-mile walk from here. That distance was nothing more than a warm-up for him. He’d run the Buffalo Marathon, which included an up-and-back on Delaware Avenue. But this time, he took his time to gawk at the twentieth-century city through twenty-first-century eyes. Most of the buildings were gone by his time, and while he’d seen pictures of several mansions on Millionaire’s Row between Bryant and North Streets, the old black-and-white photographs didn’t show the colorful flowers, greenery, and trim around the windows.

When he reached the bank at the corner of Main and Huron—a doomed Beaux-Arts building and one of the city’s most famous landmarks—he realized how impressed he was that the bank was still operating in the twenty-first century.

He ran his hands down the sides of his damp flannel shirt. A perfect shirt for freezing temperatures, but not fit for Buffalo in early September.

He entered the bank, asked to speak to a bank officer, and waited about ten minutes before a round-faced, overweight man with a thin comb-over approached him.

“Mr. MacIntyre, I’m Thomas Hanna, assistant vice president. How may I help you?”

“I’d like to convert some gold nuggets and precious stones into cash and open an account. Can you help me?”

“Nuggets? Let’s take a look at what you have. Follow me.”

Clay followed him into a nondescript window office and accepted the chair Mr. Hanna offered. “What brings you to Buffalo, Mr. MacIntrye? The Exposition?”

He’d answered the question—what brings you here—so often he didn’t have to think of an answer. “I’m a journalist, and I’m looking for a story.”

“Who do you work for? A newspaper? Magazine?”

“Currently, I’m freelancing, but I’ve worked for both,” Clay said.

Mr. Hanna sat in a squeaky swivel banker’s chair and leaned back. “Anything I’ve read?”

If Clay was good at anything, it was thinking creatively on his feet. “Probably not. I’m hoping to write an article that will interest one of the major newspapers like The New York Herald and The Chicago Tribune. If I write an interesting story, the publisher might cable it to its affiliated newspapers, opening opportunities for a new correspondent.”

“The publisher of the Buffalo Evening News is a customer. It doesn’t compare to the two you mentioned, but it has a wide circulation in the region. After we do business, I’d be happy to send Mr. Butler, the publisher, a letter of introduction.
Whether or not he’s interested in one of your articles would depend on your writing skill.”

“An introduction is all I need. Thank you.”

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

Because members of the Clan bounce around time so often, and some of them were born in the past, here’s a handy document to reference for each adventures and impact on Clan members ages as well as a document tracking anniversaries.

Also, here’s a handy guide of how the Clan group together by age.

Yesterday, I asked members of the Celtic Brooch Facebook Group if they had any questions they wanted me to answer and I got three questions. What is Lori Wallace up to? What is Lincoln doing? And what happens in James Cullen’s life?

I don’t know what Lori Wallace and Lincoln are doing but for JC, we’ll find out a lot about him in The Moonstone. His full character arc will take several books to complete. But he’ll be happy and start to take his place in the family hierachy by the end of The Moonstone.

If you’re following along, here are the clan members who are also authors:

Jack: New York Times bestselling author He writes nonfiction books and historical thrillers
David: Wrote the Knights in Black series and also a romantic adventure/fantasy type book based on his trip to save Jack Mallory from being hung,
Braham: Wrote a mystery/suspense/historical novel set in late 19th century Arizona loosely based on Cullen. The book has remained on the list of Top 100 Paid in the Kindle Store since it’s release (and higher than either Jack’s or David’s books)
Rick: Writes under the pen name Pat O’Grady. His books feature the all-conquering hero who strides through the Old West righting wrongs, defeating villains, and rescuing the helpless
Austin: Wrote a book How to Play Basketball and Win. Pops called in a favor to get his manuscript in front of Ensley because he knew she’d see the real man and not the tragic basketball player who blew his career.
Matt: Wrote a play with Jack about their meeting with Alexander Hamilton. Dinner on Maiden Lane opened at Hayes Theater on 44th Street in New York City. He’s still writing the real story about the Royal Gorge War.

Characters you would like to see published:

Tavis: a book about his Viking history
Meredith: a book about wine
JL: a female police thriller

New Giveaway

Congratulations to Bonnie Goldstein on winning the June giveaway!

For a chance to win an ebook or audiobook of your choice from the series, what would YOU want to ask Elliott during his interview next month? Tell me HERE!