Where is A.B. Carolan?
The US is a huge country, and that tends to make Americans a bit insular and more concerned about what’s happening in their own country. This spinning orb in space that’s our home is much bigger, of course, so others’ successes and problems are really ours too. As all avid readers know, those who travel hither and yon in their reading, the world’s more connected every day.
That connection isn’t necessarily physical—the internet extends it to the far corners of the globe—but my auspicious meetup with Alsandair Breandan Carolan at Blarney Castle was (see the pic on my website’s bio page). While my wife was busy kissing that famous stone there, A.B. and I had a chin wag about literature for young adults, often simply called YA (he hastened to point out that it’s also for adults who are young at heart!). We found we shared a common motivation: To write stories young adults can relate to, tales with smart, young women and men who have exciting adventures that help them enter the strange world of adults.
I convinced A.B. that there’s also a need to focus on young women. I’d too often heard, “Young girls can’t do math and science,” or worse, “Young girls should only aspire to find a husband and have children.” I’m sorry, but for me both sound like something a Taliban fanatic might say. Men put down women all the time here and elsewhere, of course, not just in Afghanistan, but such an attitude isn’t helpful when there are so many scientific and technical—and yes, cultural—problems that need solving. Or maybe such statements (made by women as well as men, mind you) come from people who ignore the world’s problems?
That’s segue to another topic of discussion A.B. and I had. We want to write YA stories that treat serious themes. Most of my books do that, and A.B. agreed that paying attention to them could only make the tale more meaningful. As little Greta Thunberg is showing (she’s considered an enemy by Mr. Trump), idealistic, young adults can make a huge difference! If we can make more activists like her (boys should sign up too!), our stories can help the world. So Shashibala Garcia (The Secret Lab), Asako Kobayashi (The Secret of the Urns), and Della Dos Toros (Mind Games) aren’t only smart, young women, they battle against tremendous odds to do extraordinary things. Kayla Jones in the “Denisovan Trilogy” is cut from the same cloth. (The first book Origins is finished—Lord knows when A.B. will get it published—and the second is a work-in-progress.)
So…where is A.B. now? He was already a bit of a shy recluse like many authors, but, like me, has become even more reclusive with the pandemic going on, spending a lot of time reading and writing there across the pond in Donegal, Ireland. Eire isn’t immune to COVID, of course, and Europe is experiencing a surge just like the US is as I write this article. Now people in Donegal have even more reason to think A.B. is a leprechaun, believing he’s just hiding somewhere and guarding a pot of gold he doesn’t have. But, as he’s listening to the music of that famous Irish bard and harpist, Turlough O’Carolan (A.B. thinks they might be related), he’s churning out new manuscripts containing stories for young adult and those adults who are young at heart.
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Comments are always welcome.
Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she begins to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles between hominins bent on conquest of their world. Coming as soon as possible from A.B. Carolan!
And to tide you over until this new novel is published, please try A.B.’s other three YA novels, now on sale at 50% off through December 31, 2020 at Smashwords. These three YA sci-fi mysteries, Secret Lab, The Secret of the Urns, and Mind Games will take you from the near to the far future, all set in my sci-fi universe mapped out in “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” and other stories. They will provide many hours of reading pleasure for young adult readers and those adult readers who are young at heart.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
