Lorraine touches on mother and baby homes in new thriller

Be Careful What You Wish For is the new thriller from Lorraine Murphy, to be published by Inkubator Books on Amazon, on Sunday August 20.

It’s a year since her debut e-book, Into the Woods, came out and the mother-of-three who is involved in Inklings writing group and Mullingar Toastmasters, says she’s constantly scribbling away.

“I have a Twitter account and I take part in a daily writing challenge, Very Short Story 365 or #VSS365, so I would do that most mornings when I wake up and I’ve been doing that for over a year now,” she says. “I write little stories for my Facebook page, and I’ve just set up an Instagram account and I’m writing bits for that too, so it’s always coming out, always.”

Speaking of her latest work, Lorraine says: “This is another psychological thriller based in Ireland.

“It’s written for the e-book market really, so it’s coming in around 250 pages. It’s about two women, long lost sisters, one who lives in Mayo and the other who lives in a north Dublin seaside town. They find out through a DNA test that they’re related, and the adventure starts from there.

“When I was thinking about my next book, there was a lot of talk about the mother and baby homes and the property crisis in Ireland, so those two topics were strong influences in writing this story,” she says.

Her publishers, the Irish firm Inkubator Books based in Dublin, have writers across the globe and Lorraine is now one of their stable, having taken a chance during Covid to apply for an online writing forum.

“They publish for the e-book market. I applied to take part in a writers room contest online, which was hosted by Incubator Books. From there we got chatting via Zoom, and that’s how I landed the contract for Into the Woods. I pitched this new book, Be Careful What You Wish For, then, and got my contract for that, and I’ve just pitched my third book, so fingers crossed I’ll have a contract for my that book coming soon.”

How has she developed as a writer over the last 12 months?

“I don’t know if I’m improving or going backwards, sometimes the more you know, the less you know, but I just enjoy doing it. I mean, it’s terrifying to put your stuff out there, but I do it anyway. And I believe that if one or two people enjoy your stories, then it’s been worthwhile.”

Be Careful What You Wish For will be published on Amazon on August 20, and Lorraine is planning to do a reading in Mullingar Library (dates to be confirmed). She will also be running two Flash Fiction courses in September, at Mullingar Library (link here) and Women’s Community Projects.

“Flash Fiction is anything less than 1,000 words, but the fiction that I particularly like is around 100 words and there’s so much you can hone and craft in that small space. If you get your first 100 words right, the rest just flows, so for anyone interested, I’ll be hosting two courses starting on September 12, the first in Women’s Community Projects at the Congress Centre between 2 and 4pm, and Mullingar Library 6pm to 7pm. And for anybody interested in writing, join Inklings, that takes place on Tuesday mornings at 10.30am in the Annebrook Hotel,” she finishes.