At the Beach

At the Beach ©

By Michael Casey

Well I’m feeling very Summery right now, I stumbled over Spotify and the Eagle’s Long Road to Eden album, I’m thinking of the beach a spit away from where my mum was born, literally. I’ll add the photo of the stone building she was born in at the end of today’s piece. She lived there till she was 12 with her family of 9, we never knew it was a house as it was used as a cow shed when we visited, Uncle Danny told us one day.  He ended up in Boston Mass and his son is a cop there. But what about the beach, you can google it and you will see for yourselves it is one of the most beautiful places on God’s earth. So google Cromane County Kerry Republic of Ireland, it’s opposite Inch where Ryan’s Daughter was filmed, and down the road from Killorglin and Puck Fair, which takes place on 10^th 11^th and 12^th August every year. You can even walk down the road and spot my cousin David’s house, he owns the land now. He isn’t called Casey, so I’m respecting his privacy.

I’m getting home sick now, yes I was born in Birmingham a couple of miles from where I am sitting now, but my heart is in Cromane Lower, blame my mum for that. If only I could find a driver I’d go back, it’s over 20 years since I’ve been back. Last time my mum was sick 2 days before the holiday so she could not come. Then the next year me and my sister went back, parents included, it was the final grand tour, dad was determined to meet and greet all his brother’s 10  children. Some places were impossible to find, you start at the back of beyond and then go to the back of the back of beyond, like navigating a maze within a maze of  back roads.

We covered a lot of ground, the year before me and my sister did over 1000 miles in two weeks, with only a picture postcard with a map of Kerry on as a guide. You visit 2 or 3 relatives a day and eat at every house, with dad pressing money into every palm. He knew it was the last visit, he had a few Guinness in small bars, such as the bar in Ballyheigh with its great long beach, not forgetting finding bars in Scarthaglen.

The story about Scarth is that a young Policeman noticed blue smoke as illegal Poteen was been distilled in that house next door to the Police station.  He told the police sergeant, who promptly had him transferred to the back of beyond, he didn’t want to be deprived of his own supply. Who knows perhaps the young policeman emigrated and became chief of police in Boston or Chigago. This would be in the 1920s or 1930s.

The footnote to the story is that Scathaglen was one of the widest streets in the whole of Kerry, so the police sergeant used to walk up and down the middle of the road, and then retire to the police station, he’d just made sure that all the pubs had closed at closing time. He’d done his duty, and were all 20 pubs closed? Well let’s say when he retired he got a bottle of whisky from each and every bar in Scarth. Now if the details are wrong you’ll have to take it up with my dad.

The next year my mother died, and my father almost died, he was in fact given a week to live.  It’s all in Padre Pio and Me by Michael Casey which you should be able to find on the Internet. The tales my father told me over and over again are part of my soul, which is much much more than DNA. When I was writing my comic novel The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker the spirit of the policeman became the police sergeant in my book, the priest who made a boy organise a fete for the children’s home as a penance for getting his girl pregnant before marriage was maybe the Jesuit Fr Michael who married my parents. So you can see how the Love given to me became characters in my book.

 Percy the Undertaker was no doubt inspired by our local undertaker’s dignity and care, I have also been an altar server so I’ve been to many funerals. As for my mother she was like many pious mothers, so she sometimes was a sole mourner at a funeral for some unloved person, who was asked to come to the grave by the priest, to pray for their soul. Then mum would sit in the jump seat of the hearse and the undertaker would give her a lift home afterwards.

One of the main characters is Big Sid the Butcher, a larger than life Falstaff kind of person, full of joy, but much more.  When I finished writing the book it occurred to me that really Sid was my dad, somebody so full of love for his children. I did not want to put my dad in the book but he was there after all, what’s in the blood is in the blood. In Tears for a Butcher which is the follow up novel Big Sid has a huge part in the finale, all I need is a legal secretary then I’ll write it.

Back on the beach at Cromane Lower you can walk to the end past the Tank and to the spit as they call it, it is a peninsula after all. I always used to, its 30 mins or more from mom’s place to the end, while the dinner was on you could get some exercise. If you look over the water you can see Inch and the Dingle peninsula, there used to be a dolphin called Fungy too. Then there is the bar that’s also a book store, I bought Daniel Yergin’s The Prize there, all about the oil industry. Great read.

I’m going to finish now, it’ll be interesting to know how many of you go to Ireland for a holiday now, it really is the most beautiful place on God’s earth. You can send me a postcard, if you are clever you may even find mum’s old place, it is on Google Earth, I can find it in a couple of mins just by walking down the beach. You may even read my books on Kindle while sat on the beach at Cromane. If you pop into the church you could light a candle for  the Casey Clan. Good Luck.

Time to Burn Books

Time to Burn Books ©

By Michael Casey

As a child I read by the yard, I must have read most of the History books on the shelves by my desk in Class One at Primary school. I read all the Alistair Maclean thrillers too I spent many happy years as a reader. I even read the Bible in Mass on a Sunday. Though as a catholic a reader is just that a reader, not anybody with special training to preach. So reading has been part of my life. Nowadays I read the newspapers online, so I’m still a reader. When I write a new story I read it back out loud and the girls give me marks out of ten for each new story, yes it’s a form of punishment for them.

So with the reading bug inside me my girls have grown up as big readers too. We have 3 bookcases in the house, and now after years of reading there is no more room in the house for any more books. So it’s time to burn the books, you will all be horrified, am I a Right wing or Left wing dictator?  Or just a demigod of a dad? When I say burn books I would never burn books. Books are special and cost money. Hudson’s in Birmingham used to be a rabbit warren of a book shop and I have happy memories of it.

No book should be ever burned, maybe used a toilet paper as a last resort, but books should be treasured. You should give them to a Charity Shop, or to a jumble sale but never never burn them. So why did I use the title, time to burn books? To get you attention, also because books are “burnt” now, as in burnt to a disc or to a device. Kindle books are what I’m talking about. Technically the word burnt is wrong, but technicians can argue about that.

So Kindle will be coming to town, or to our house. My small daughter asked for one because she has no more space  on her bookshelves. The cheapest one is the same price as 10 books, that’s real books. So once you have paid that price you have a platform to read you books on. Can I recommend 10 great ebooks

https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1  yes my ten books which are on Amazon worldwide.

I’m told there are load of free books too, the Classics, so I’m happy about that. Then for a few quid you get loads of new books. If I read by the yard my girls read by the kilometre, my small daughter if she does not become a horror writer could become an editor as she reads so fast. The joke about editors is that if one was at the dentist and somebody drops a magazine, and it flutters to the floor, before it hits the ground the editor will have read it.

So I’m full on anticipation for the future and Kindle, to kindle means to set on fire, and kindling is used to start a fire. So it’s a good name for a reading product because it sets minds on fire, it fires the imagination, and sparks make all the difference in the world of learning. So I’ll get back to you all with news of the Kindle when it arrives next week. I will of course hide the charger and cable from Totoro our cat, for she loves to nibble cable. Totoro will no doubt hear many many tales, do you think Puss in Boots is available? 

August Approaches

August Approaches

As a new month approaches I’ve deleted older posts, and I’ll be writing new stuff soon

Quiet Moments

Quiet Moments ©

By Michael Casey

We all have quiet moments, even if we have to wait until the kids are in bed asleep. As I sit in front of the computer I can hear the sound of cars splashing or should I say surfing through the rain. The clock is gently ticking on the shelf beside me, as I type the sound of the keyboard overtakes the sound of the clock and I can no longer hear it, it’s an old clunky keyboard that suits my sausage fingers. I may put some music on in a minute but for now I’m going with the theme to see where it will lead me.

The street outside is empty, who wants to walk in the rain, maybe only Barry White and Love Unlimited, which picks the music I will play in a minute or so, funny how choices are made, a random thought leads to the music you will listen too. My small daughter loves Barry White too, because she’s heard me play him, so she has adopted Barry White, not literally, she is so small and Barry was so big, but you have a mental picture in your mind now, a cartoon of a tiny child and big Barry.

I look over to my plant corner and I’m happy to see that my orange plant has started to bud again, the geranium has lost its flowers but new buds have started to grow, then there is my limy/yellow plant which is doing just fine. Totoro has left them alone, for the moment so they should create a nice display. They say you should look away from your screen and give your eyes a rest for at least 5 minutes every hour. I did actually go “blind” for a day about 8 years ago as I was constantly on the computer at work controlling the high speed printers, you can find the story in one of my books no doubt.

If you just stop and listen it’s like being in a waiting room, the tick of the clock and the pendulum swing, very peaceful, until you think of Miley Cyrus and her wrecking ball. If you were in a waiting room and you started to laugh out loud as the image came to mind people would stare at you, but you are safe you are at home. While I think of it there is a comedy version of wrecking ball with a bearded guy on Utube.

You scratch an itch and  it is as if every sound is magnified,  like some Art House film, that nobody watches but wins awards, time seems to drag, it’s an illusion, time is constant ask Einstein, but if you are all alone waiting then time appears to drag. In my hotel days we mentioned Time on a course, with regards to guests feeling that we were taking too long to sort a problem. So 2 people were sent to walk to the far end of the hotel and back again. Then you had to say how long they had been. The answer varied so much, apart for me, I knew it exactly, because it was part of my daily security patrol, so I knew exactly how long that walk would be.

A quiet moment can work wonders, it gives you time to pull yourself together before you face the world. But, you do need to fill time too or it appears to drag, as some people thought on the course. If you fill time then people won’t realise they are waiting, and then when they get the answer to their question they are relaxed and less likely to complain.

Prayer is quiet time, it’s a moment to talk to God, though lots of people don’t do that nowadays. You can get out of the habit, or your pain is so unbearable that you lose your Faith, or you just stop going to Church. Personally I think any kind of conversation is a prayer no need to formalise it or to go to a building whatever you call it.

 Perhaps all you need to do is sit and listen to the ticking of a clock, look at the beauty of the flowers in the pots, look out the window and see the birds flying by, hear the chatter of the magpies. Listen to the falling rain, which literally is the water of life, live one moment at a time, for all life is divine. And then put that Barry White record on, for God loves us Just the Way We Are.

Using a Computer

Using a Computer ©

By Michael Casey

We all use computers now, but it wasn’t always like that. When my brother said try computers back in 1978, yes nearly 40 years ago, they were new, and if you told anybody you were using a computer they were impressed, very impressed. They always misunderstood what a computer operator was, they thought it involved programming though people call it coding nowadays.

A computer disc drive was as big as a washing machine and vibrated just as much, tape drives were as big as wardrobes and the rest of the computer was long enough to sleep on, but that’s another story. So if you compare then to now, a computer is as small as a text book with a dinky keyboard attached.

I use the family desktop to write my stories and load them up to Amazon  books when I have a collection of 100 or so, not forgetting my 3 websites. I share the computer with my girls and they use the printer at my feet, so very typical of most families the world over. Then we all had the gift of Windows 10 which is good in my opinion. So we all use computers in our daily lives.

So how do you use your computer? If you are rich and/or have worked hard then you may have an Apple Mac, these look very pretty, I’ve never been lucky enough to have a play on one. However I do note that the keyboard is very small, it’s very pretty in an artistic way, but with my sausage fingers way too small. Even the standard size keyboard it a bit fiddly.

I did have some luck though as I was allowed to take home an old Microsoft keyboard, it’s almost as big as a skateboard, it was going to be binned, but I was allowed to rescue it. Once home I gave it a big scrub and tried it in the family PC and to my delight it worked, it’s the perfect size for my sausage size fingers, it has lots of little buttons I never use, nor do I really know what they are for, but the keyboard is ergonomic as the call it. It means its curvy like a woman’s body if I’m allowed to use that word.

A computer desk is a nice thing, the keyboard can slide in and out, though I tend to have the keyboard on my lap as I talk to you all, I have a drink perched on the desk in front of the PC, for safety the drink is not above the PC itself but on the opposite side. It is above the printer, but that’s always switched off till the girls need it.  And that’s how I am as I talk to you, not forgetting the screaming in Mandarin from the room behind me, you try living with 3 girls and a bilingual cat called Totoro.

Now a computer used to be very boring, then speakers came along, so you can listen to radio online, or play your music while you are using the PC, of course there is Utube too, but I’m assuming you are using your eyes so it’s just your ears free. So for few quid, or the price of 5 pints in a pub you can get some decent speakers. Then you are never alone as you work on the computer, I tend to play the same albums over and over, though now with Magic Radio and its sister stations I have plenty of advert free music.

At work people have postit notes stuck to their computer, like Autumn leaves about to fall, with curled up edges. Some have photos of kids stuck all around the edges of their PC, though some of the people I used to work with may have had phone numbers of 3 pubs stuck to the frame of their PC. WE were market research into alcohol sales after all.

Others have pens and pencils and felt tips in the grooves of the keyboard, personally I need a clear keyboard, as it’s balanced on my lap anything on the keyboard would soon fall to the ground and Totoro would run away with it. I do keep a pen to hand in front of the screen and last year’s diary I recycle to scribble any notes on, like don’t forget to buy Fairy Liquid.

The screen does make a difference, I was one of the 1^st to have a flat screen, maybe 14 years ago, we knew somebody whose factory made them, so I got one, it was very expensive at the time, a new one today with a much bigger screen size is ¼ the price of what I paid back then. Dinky size screens are just irritating, so a nice large screen is good. Back in my computer operator days in 1978 they were cube shaped with just black and white letters on, no pictures at all. So today when we have HD and all singing and dancing screens it’s a revolution, and the work of the devil compared to 40 years ago when I first started in computers.

The bottom line though is what you produce on your computer. Otherwise it’s pretty but a waste of money. Me I write my stories and will reach 800 next month or in early September 2016, then maybe by Christmas 2018 I’ll get to my 1,000,000 WORD, and maybe 1000^th story. So if my chair is broken by then I’ll treat myself to a new chair, they do tend to only last a year as I’m 100kilos plus and 40 hours a week plus sat in it is a lot of weigh.

Before I forget, a word of warning, never trust a computer, not ever, assume it’s a Politician who’ll stab you in the back, topical reference thrown in for good measure. Always back off your files to at least 2 usb sticks, or any other removable media. Always back to the cloud too, and just to be extra safe email your important files to yourself, you should have at least 2 email addresses, or more, as they are free. Email stuff to your 90 year old maiden aunt too, so if anything happens, like Donald Trump’s Russian friends hacking you, at least you have safe copies in cyberspace.

On that note I’ll say goodnight, I have to watch to Politics on Sky and the BBC now, though I tend to watch it on the computer too, so freeing up the family tv for my 3 girls and our bilingual cat Totoro. Trust Nobody as Mulder says….

The Dead and The Living

The Dead and The Living ©

by

Michael Casey

I first saw a deceased when I was nine years old , my father said not

to worry as the dead are the same as the living , only the laughter

has left them , the sparkle has gone from their eyes , the worry has

been lifted from their shoulders , and their voice has vanished to

eternity .

In paradise the sparkle will return for it is the twinkle of the

stars , the laughter will return too for it is the morning breeze and

the turning tides are their sides shaking with laughter .

I treat the deceased with the same courtesy as I give to the living ,

though I find the deceased are always more polite . My father also

had a few words to say about the living .

He said that the living are only the caretakers of the soul , yet

they think their existence is everything , that they know everything

because they experience many things with their senses .

What the living don't acknowledge is that their time is short and

when I lay their bodies to rest then their souls continue without

them , without their strong , without their weak , without their

beautiful or even ugly temporary form , to where I cannot say , only

that it is a better place .

Percy the undertaker placed the lid on the coffin, the soul was free

THE BEGINNING

Let my Tears be my Words

Let There Be Light ©

By Michael Casey


Let my tears be my words

Let the candle light be my eyes

Let the flowers in bloom be my lips

Let their scent be my blood

Let the wind be my breath

Let clouds be my mood

Let children’s laughter be my hope

Let widows’ sighs be my conscience

Let a stranger’s prayers be my delight

Let the bees be my wisdom

Let the trees be my strength

Let my patience reach to the stars

Let me be always remembered in your prayers



***** I think the world everywhere needs prayers for Peace, now more than ever