Notes on the Past Imperfect.

Not easy to define – literary fiction, a kind of memoir, somewhat autobiographical… Alternative title: Phone Calls, Recalls and Spilt Milk. Chapters/Books/Sections… A mosaic of sorts. My favourite format? Radio Drama. By far. At its very best the listener is a fly-on-the-wall: eavesdropping, over-hearing, listening in, privy to the most intimate, soul-searching monologue, revealing dialogue… I worked in RTE’s Drama Department for some 16 years in the ’70’s, ’80’s – directing, producing, scripting, editing. During that period I wrote and produced some of my own plays – well received and reviewed for the most part, they were subsequently broadcast by the BBC and, in translation, on European networks. Later… some years into my (early) retirement… it began to occur to me: six of my scripts were inter-related, in the same mould/vein, out of the same stable, so to speak… The same voice/voices… similar, complementary story-lines… So, Sean, re-work them as chapters/sections/ in print format and hey, you have yourself a book! If my work shows a heavy influence dating back to that time, well, I make no apologies for that… Writing “within myself” – for sure… ‘Will make you forget you are reading a book..?” Again, for sure. I write, speak, hear Hiberno-English. (English as it is spoken in Ireland, in my city, Dublin.) I avoid the traditional narrative format for the most part; I prefer direct speech – monologue, dialogue. (I’ve left out the bits the readers would skip, anyway!) Six parts in all. Set in Ireland in the early 80’s – important. (Before Civil Divorce became law, etc.) Each chapter is self-contained, just about; yet each complements the others… Moves forward and backwards – sometimes sideways! Disjointed narrative – rather than neatly joined together… Sometimes I knew where I was going – or so I thought. Sometimes I was drawing a chain out of muddy water – a link at a time. Kept putting it aside, it kept re-surfacing, demanding to be written… Six Chapters in Search of a readership!.. Warning! If your need is to be spoon-fed. If you have little desire to be challenged, mentally stimulated, if you wish to be left untouched in your comfort zone, if you have no stomach for the fray… then NOTES ON THE PAST IMPERFECT is not the book for you!