Interview with Pat Tierney from Safe Harbor
How do you feel about being the
main character of a book?
When Rosemary decided to make
me the central character of Safe Harbor, I was puzzled. I'm just an
ordinary, fortysomething woman. Widow, mother of two girls, business
woman. Nothing special. But Rosemary thought people would be interested
in my story.
It all started that afternoon in late December. I
was finishing up some paperwork in my Toronto office when a woman barged
in and asked me to look after her son. I was gobsmacked. “I'm a financial
advisor,” I told her, “not a daycare worker.”
“I didn't think you'd turn Tommy down.”
“Whatever made you think that?” I asked.
And then she told me that Tommy was my late husband's
son.
Who is the most interesting side character in Safe Harbor and why?
Who is the most interesting side character in Safe Harbor and why?
I met Jude
Seaton only once, on the day before her death. The day she barged into
my office and turned my world upside-down. When I refused to take her
kid, she simply walked out of my office. Left me with a seven-year-old
boy and a backpack filled with his clothes.
The next
day, Jude was found murdered in her home, and the police said little
Tommy might be the next target. They said the killer might want him
out of the way too. Tommy had nowhere else to go. He was in danger.
I couldn't let anything bad happen to him, could I?
How do I
feel about Jude now that some time has passed? Well, it's pretty difficult
to hold a grudge against somebody who's dead. And somebody who died
so horribly…and long before her time.
The more
I've learned about Jude, the more I've come to like her. She was a strong,
independent woman, passionate about what she cared for. We had a lot
in common. And at some point it hit me that she had been terrified that
her son was in danger or else she never would have approached me. She
had no one else to turn to, so she came to me.
I'm a mother,
too. I know how it feels to be willing to give up your own life in a
heartbeat to save a precious little life. And when I started seeing
Jude as another mother, a mother who was trying to save her child, well
I couldn't hate her anymore.
Do you think anyone in your world
is crazy? How do you deal with this?
I sometimes think my housekeeper
Farah Alwan is crazy - or at least seriously off-kilter. She's a romantic
young woman, filled with thoughts of finding a rich husband, having
a beautiful home and lovely clothes. The kind of woman I am trying to
raise my daughters not to be.
But I have to remind myself
that Farah comes from a different world. She arrived in Canada a few
years as a refugee from Iraq. If her family hadn't had flee their country,
they would have arranged a good marriage for her. She was brought up
with the expectation of being a wife and mother, and running a fine
home. And that's not going to happen now that she is in Canada. The
Iraqis her family knows in Toronto work in factories and as shop clerks.
I've tried to talk to Farah about going to school, finding a career.
But, so far, she's not listening.
Why did you choose your current profession?
I taught high school English for a few years until
my older daughter was born. My late husband, Michael, was a financial
advisor with a large investment firm, and his enthusiasm for his work
was contagious. After Tracy was born, I took courses, got my accreditation
and then joined Michael at the branch he ran.
And I've never regretted changing my career. I love
my work. I enjoy helping my clients get their financial houses in order.
It's important work that I do and I take it very seriously.
If you could change one thing that the author wrote about your life, what would it be?
I don't know why Rosemary had
to put all that stuff in about Devon, the new guy in my life. I was
pretty embarrassed to read it. Those sex scenes…not that they were
graphic, but she could have left them out. After all, it's not like
Devon is Mr. Right. He's just Mr. Right Now.
What's one thing you're glad that
you had the guts, courage or strength to follow through with?
I had my capacity for love and
acceptance tested in Safe Harbor, and I think I passed the test.
I didn't turn my back on Tommy, and that may have saved his life. And
now he's a big part of my life.
What's your greatest strength?
What's your greatest strength?
I try to
give people the benefit of the doubt. That's something I learned from
the events of Safe Harbor. I wasn't
going to take Tommy because I didn't believe Jude when she told me that
he was in danger. And he was.
My daughter
Laura calls me “the world's biggest pushover,” and she's probably
right. But I think you have to err on the side of generosity.
What's your greatest failing?
What's your greatest failing?
I'm a worrier.
I worry about everything, which makes bad situations twice as bad. I
worry about them beforehand, and then I have to live through them.
Can we look forward to reading about you again anytime soon?
Can we look forward to reading about you again anytime soon?
Rosemary
has just completed the first draft of Safe Harbor's sequel,
and she's now doing a rewrite of it. She's sent me off to rural Ontario
where I supervise the opening of a new branch of my investment firm.
Another murder takes place up there, there's an outlaw biker gang and
couple of women who run a grow-up. I hope Rosemary keeps her nose to
the grindstone and gets the book out sometime in 2013. But she hasn't
even come up with a title yet.
Where can
readers find your book?
Safe Harbor is available as an ebook and
a paperback on Amazon.com; also
as a paperback on Amazon.ca and Barnes & Noble.
About the Author~
* * *
Rosemary McCracken is a freelance journalist and
fiction writer who lives in Toronto, Canada. Safe Harbor, her first mystery novel, was
shortlisted for Britain's Debut Dagger in 2010 and was published by Imajin Books this
spring.
Michael, thank you for your interview with Pat. She didn' realize she was being so frank in some of her answers, but on the whole she's pretty pleased by how it turned out!
ReplyDeleteIt was my pleasure, Rosemary. Pat was quite the character to interview. Perhaps I can get another interview when she returns in the next book as well. :-)
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