Mark Regan

The story behind the story

In my schooldays there were no "dyslexics". If you could not be taught to read or spell you were thick. Teachers didn’t come out and say this to your face but all your classmates did.

I am not sure how literate my father was—we all wondered about that. He grew up on a mountain in the West of Ireland. I do know he left school at the age of seven and was promptly rewarded with his first pair of shoes. That was during the First World War, by the way.

I have many things to thank my father for: coming to England, meeting my mother, joining the Royal Engineers instead of returning to a neutral Ireland, siring my fabulous siblings before me and my early memories of aural story telling.

The story telling part I recalled over thirty years later when my daughter arrived. You know the routine: do I have to read this same damn—I mean lovely—book again? Apparently, yes I do; this one is the one she likes the most—not that the others are any more thrilling to read. It doesn’t feel right to be spooning other peoples words into her little bedtime ears—how hard can it be?

Well I’ll tell ya. Small children stories are the place to start. They are short so you don’t even need to write them down. Once you have one she/he likes you WILL be telling it again and again. So, there’s your chance to learn a bit of rewriting and editing. Don’t think you have to be word perfect every night. What makes this so much more than reading a bedtime story is you. This is your imagination, your words and your mind, communicating with your child just when they need it most.

But little people grow up so your stories do too. By the age of nine we had quite a sophisticated story about a couple of teenagers living where magic is just a normal part of their world. And the best part was, it became a collaboration, taking it in turns to drive the plot.

But that is not writing is it. My daughter told me I should write books but it took ten years and a massive life change to make me try.

"Make me" being the operative phrase. I started writing Starling’s Lifelines during Christmas 2018. The week before the previous Christmas I had moved onto my narroboat. So, I had a year’s experience on the water and made an amazing journey to Leicester and back all by myself. Now it was Christmas again and I had some experiences I thought might make interesting reading. I intended to start by writing our last bedtime story—I still remember most of it.

What stopped me was a certain little Swedish girl by the name of Greta Thunberg. I have always been fascinated by Green living ever since witnessing all the blackouts at home in the 70‘s due to the oil crisis. If I was going to write this book it should highlight this climate emergency—after all my daughter is almost the same age as Greta. I care about their futures and every living thing, who doesn’t? And you only have to look at J K Rowling’s creations to see how a story can grip the worlds imagination.

A strange thing happened: in just under a fortnight I had the main plot all worked out. Yes, lots got added as characters were born but the structure was there from the very start. Writer tip: your characters write half your book not you. Anyway, you’ve read the book or you’re going to aren’t you, so I won’t repeat it or spoil your fun.

My last words are, if you have dreamt of writing a book, you can if I can. Here is a little excerpt from Starling’s Lifelines that is the real key to writing and finishing a story—it applies to many things in life:

“It all looks a little daunting right now, over 200 miles and over 200 locks round trip.”

“You will find each day is a holiday in itself and by the evening you just happen to be perhaps 20 miles nearer your destination. It is very cathartic. Your life will have a different rhythm once you’ve done it. I don’t mean laziness though. Its greatest lesson is about taking big endeavours and swallow them one spoon at a time.”

Now where did I leave my spoon?

In fact, where are all the spoons!

Mark