So who am I?

Welcome.

triomocks

I’m Frank Parker and I am a writer. I didn’t used to be. Like many people I always wanted to be. On several occasions during my career as an Engineer I produced stories that I submitted to publishers. I even had a writing job once. It involved talking to small and medium sized businesses and writing up profiles for a regional business magazine. To make any money you had to sell advertising to accompany the articles. Selling is not a skill that comes naturally to me so that job did not last long.

I returned to Engineering, working on chemical plants, refineries and power stations throughout the North and Midlands of England. In 1997 I joined a defence contractor as a project administrator, a job that saw me through until retirement in the autumn of 2006. I came to live in the Irish Midlands so as to be near my son and his family. And, now at last, I have the freedom to write.

Novels

So far I’ve self-published 4 novels and two collections of short stories. You can find out more about them here. My stories have also appeared in anthologies published independently in County Laois.

Politics

I have also pursued a lifelong interest in politics. Between 1985 and 1991 I served as a councilor in North East Lincolnshire. So you should not be surprised to find posts on my blog commenting on current affairs from a broadly Liberal point of view. The environment and the damage we are doing to it, from agri-chemicals and air and water pollution to climate change, has always been a matter of concern to me. As a councilor I argued the case for the local authority to purchase timber products only from sustainable sources.

History

Since 2013 I have been studying Irish history in an attempt to gain a fuller understanding of the turbulent relationship between that country and its near neighbour. It began when I discovered that among the leaders of the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century were a number of individuals with a prior connection to the county in which I was born and grew up, Herefordshire. That discovery lies behind my historical novel Strongbow’s Wife which describes the invasion and its aftermath from the point of the view of the woman who married one of the most powerful of those leaders. You will find articles about some of the people and places involved by clicking the Hereford and Ireland History tab above.

For the past few years I have been researching the background to the period in Irish history usually referred to as The Great Irish Famine. This work was prompted by a friend and together we published a book on the subject entitled A Purgatory of Misery. A novel set in the famine years in West County Clare and based on the period spent there by Arthur Kennedy will be published in the summer of 2020.

You can read more about me in this interview on Mercedes Fox’s blog, on Chris Graham’s website and on Denzil The Book Owl where he also reviews A Purgatory of Misery. And there’s this at Smashwords.

Finally, you can find out much more about my past from the series of posts entitled Monday Memories!

50 thoughts on “So who am I?”

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  2. Hello,

    I saw your ebook on Amazon. From the synopsis it looks like a high quality ebook. If you are looking for some real promotion and exposure for your book (including book reviews), I have a few offers for you. My book promotion packages are extremely affordable and can be customized to your book.

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    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      2. Thanks for that jina. Having books written and available via Amazon is all very well, but it needs an enormous marketing effort to bring them to the attention of potential readers. That’s something I’m not so good at. Good luck with your own endeavours.

        Liked by 3 people

      3. Persistence is the key here. Promotion of oneself is hard, and it takes time. I was advised to promote myself, my book, create a fuss around it before I even published – this, of course, was the advice of an agent at the time I was querying around. But then I realized that if I’m doing all the work alone, I might as well go indie.

        Liked by 3 people

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  11. Not sure how to contact you, Frank. I was in the middle of replying to your comment on WP, when they removed you and the comment! I would love you to read Nine Lives as you gave such a lot of help with Lazy Days, but Nine Lives is a thriller, so not sure if that is your cup of tea. If it is, how would you like it delivered? I am flexible with the deadline, so no worries there.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  14. Frank I probably disagree with you on everything, but very much looking forward to following your writings. Smiles and humor seem to be a way around nasty political disagreements!

    Given you’re an engineer with experience in refineries and power plants, maybe you can answer this question I’ve posed everywhere.

    It’s been doggone COLD here in the US for the past 2 weeks. I’m not so silly to say this disproves GLobal Warming or Climate Change though. Weather is weather.

    However, when it gets this cold, we human beings need heat to keep warm and ultimately stay alive.

    THus my question. How do we heat our homes on PV panels alone???

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. The same way we did before the discovery of mineral oil – vegetable oil, wood. In other words probably not solar PV. But, bear in mind that by the use of batteries, or other energy storage devices, you can collect the sun’s energy during the long summer days and then use it later.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. You said “The same way we did before the discovery of mineral oil…” man do I ever wish people on your side would be as honest when it comes to the idea of going off of fossil fuels. We’d have to go back to old ways of living.

        Whether that’s good or bad, is a value judgement. But the idea that we can live as we do today, with our high levels of consumption, and still be “green” is simply a fallacy.

        You simply can not consume say 25kWh/day, if one’s only source of electricity is PV, even with a decent battery bank. No more hair dryers, space heaters, even coffee pot. (which is why I use a French Press for my coffee by the way!) No more any kind of warming appliance. Not with PV, batteries or not.

        Which is why I shudder at the ignorance that’s out there about PV, in particularly.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Our children or grandchildren are going to have to, when we’ve used it all up – that’s if they survive global warming. Isn’t it time we thought about conserving the Earth for those who come after us?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Again, those who are truly concerned better not fly, take cruises, use warming appliances etc. There are truly few people, in my estimation, who live the concern they claim. By that I mean, going back to an 1800s lifestyle where we consume less than 1000kWh/yr. Which is actually STILL 30% MORE than an average Indian consumes today.

        Soooo easy to express fear and concern. So hard to live it in reality though, especially when one is accustomed to the comforts Western Civilization provides.

        No idea if this is you or not. Frankly, i don’t care. I just chuckle when I see a “concerned” citizen taking multiple overseas flights, and cruise vacations. Something’s gotta give.

        Liked by 3 people

  15. I absolutely agree. I do not take ‘multiple overseas flights’ or ‘cruise vacations’. And, for the record, I grew up in a stone built cottage without electricity, piped water supply or telephone. I think that experience has made me – and most of my post WWII generation – a lot more careful about our use of resources. A pity we failed to pass on those values to our children.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  16. Man, stone built cottage without electricity, piped water or telephone! Wowza! Yup, you can definitely talk to the talk because you walk the walk

    My parents were hippies and lived on an island off the coast of maine. The first house I grew up in I think had an outhouse. I was pretty young. This was the 70s. Also we didn’t have TV until I was probably 8 or something. They tried to make a go of it, ‘back to the land’ et al, but life happens.
    However, i’ve always had an appreciation for nature, the beauty of it all. Protect it. Don’t waste, Composting etc.

    Looking forward to following your blog. don’t feel a need to comment back.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  19. I can only dream of a date with my favorite writer. He was an Irish man in the 1600’s I’ve not yet been to Ireland though I have ancestors from there. However, the author I speak of did make a Modest Proposal…

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  21. Hello Frank. You commented on one of my comments so i wanted to get in touch. I’m retired too (architect) and I share your interest in energy, the environment, etc. but my focus is on the scam and delusion of religion and resurrection. The monotheists don’t give a damn about the earth or life on earth because they believe the world is going to end. And they pray that it will happen during their life time! Good luck with your retiring years and I hope the trip so far has been a good one. GROG

    Liked by 3 people

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  23. Hi Frank,

    My name is Isabel and I work for a start up called Buk.io. I recently had the pleasure of reading your Medium article “The Persecution of Strong Women”.

    I’m reaching out to you because I think the Medium integrated features on our platform would be a great fit for your style of writing and the subject matter you write about. We make it easy for writers like yourself to directly link parts of literature into your article.

    I’d love to talk with you about this further! Please let me know if you’re interested and in the meantime feel free to take a look at this Medium article demonstrating the capabilities (the quotes from the book as well as the wikipedia article are deeplinked to buk.io):

    View at Medium.com

    And feel free to browse our platform yourself: https://buk.io

    Again, it was a pleasure reading your piece and I hope to hear from you soon!

    Best,
    Isabel Chi

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  24. Hello,

    I am having issues checking out your site. I cannot find any information pertaining to your book. I hope you can offer me some help. Sorry to bother you.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Hi Adriana. If you click on the tab “Publications” you will see all my books listed. Clicking the thumbnail book cover image should take you to the appropriate Amazon sales page.

      Like

      Reply

  25. Hi—
    I came to thank you for your “like” of my comment on Gary’s “Shake My Head Hollow” blog. But I am most impressed with all the things you’re doing in your retirement, and I plan to read further. Thus, I shall follow you imminently.

    As you mentioned climate change, I have taken the liberty of providing the link to my newest post, which happens to be on this topic. I sense some commonality in world view here, Councilor.
    https://annieasksyou.com/2019/08/19/its-here-its-real-and-weve-got-to-talk-about-it-together-2/

    Cheers,
    Annie

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Just read your article which is excellent. I also like what you are attempting – a rational, fact based, approach to the many problems we face. I will follow your blog with interest. You may notice that lately I have restricted my blogging to a brief autobiography under the ‘Monday Memories’ collective title. My more political pieces I now contribute to Medium where I hope to reach a larger audience.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  27. It is a pleasure — and inspiring — to learn a little bit more about your personal history. I also love reading the comments. So many different streams of ideas! I particularly appreciated the one about how difficult it is to reduce our habits of consumption. I don’t have a car, and I walk or ride my bike or take public transportation to travel from point A to point B. And I almost never fly anywhere. Once or twice a year I use some accumulated credit card miles to travel by train to make music in NYC. However, I am using electricity (and all the resources that went into making my laptop computer) in order to respond to you! Deep sigh. The predicted — and un-predicted — consequences of our over-use of fossil fuels will continue to wreak more and more havoc around planet earth. The fires in Australia!!!!! Amazing how deeply in denial most of us are about the increasing chaos that lies ahead. Another deep sigh… I look forward to reading more of your thoughts — past, present, and future — on your blog. I also look forward to reading any blog post about “the environment and the damage we are doing to it, from agri-chemicals and air and water pollution to climate change, (which have) always been a matter of concern to (you). “

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  28. Thanks Will. Most of my political writing these days is posted over on Medium. You may have noticed also that I have begun reblogging a series of posts from a couple of USA based bloggers concerned to do what they can to ensure a more hopeful outcome to the Presidential election in November this year than the reinstatement of the incumbent.

    Like

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