âBad Bloodâ by Lorne Patterson to be launched this Wednesday, Â December 4th
Next Wednesday December 4th sees the launch of âBad Bloodâ, a new book written by one of County Longfordâs most talented writers, Lorne Patterson, who last year published âWitchâ. This week he is excited and proud â as he should be â about the birth of his new book as he takes time out to talk to longfordlocal.com about his new writing career.
âI grew up in a family of readers and I remain a devourer of books. Also, my father was a professional writer. Iâve always enjoyed creative writing, and had the encouragement of a number of good friends to keep at it. However, it wasnât really until I came to County Longford and availed of the many local supports â writers groups, workshops, readings, festivals, a writer-in-residence- that my writing took off.â
Lorneâs first work âWitchâ remains very special to him and he looks back on it with pride. âThe book is a story of two Scottish witch hunts, separated by some four hundred years, that collide in contemporary Scotland. Even though it was published as a horror story â and received favourable reviews as a horror story - I still see it as a dark romance.â
However next week the venue will be The Green in Edgeworthstown which will play host to the launch of his second achievement â the launch of âBad Bloodâ. He enthusiastically takes up the intriguing story. âBad Bloodâ is the story of a man who has been a patient in a psychiatric high-security unit for a long time. When we meet Lenny, the unit is in a state of transition as it moves from the stewardship of one Consultant and an innovative but controversial therapeutic regime, to the control of a new Medical Officer and a contain-and control approach to care. Already disturbed by many aspects of the care he and his fellow patients have been subjected too, Lenny comes into increasing conflict with that regime. Matters come to a head when Lennyâs meddlesome behaviour is deemed by the new Consultant to be evidence of mental illness, requiring more of the shock treatment he fears and loathes. The confrontation becomes physical and the response of those in charge is overwhelming. But Lenny â nicknamed âthe Professorâ - is a veteran of psychiatric institutions, not easily cowed.
During his period of medicated seclusion, Lenny broods. 'Thoughts leaping hot-footed from the grid in my cranium as the swamp juice wears off. Smoky thoughts. Incendiary thoughts.' He concludes that the new regime no longer deserves to control the lives of himself and his incarcerated peers and decides to end that dominance. To achieve that, the Professor secures the assistance of some of his fellow patients
Even as the clock ticks down to his planned shock treatments, the more authoritarian of the staff take steps to isolate and break their most meddlesome patient. That includes using other patients against the Prof, especially Wilson, a rage-filled sociopath. Lenny is already a focus of Wilsonâs malevolence and now Wilson targets Lennyâs friends on the unit.
As the struggle moves towards its climax both Lenny and his opponents find it difficult to cope. Lenny is forced to confront his own history and the reason that compels him to be so stubborn on behalf of other mental patients. He continues to be tormented too by his fear over his 'bad blood', the madness and rage that he believes has been passed to him. The final clash is explosive and unforgiving; the consequences, unexpected.
âBad Bloodâ also explores mental illness itself: what it is, who gets to say so, and the types of intervention that can be â that too often have been - imposed on disturbed men and women in the name of âcareâ.
The book took a staggering ten years to write so Lorne has shown real dedication in keeping at it. âI donât know how many times I reworked the manuscript. My first book and new story have been more reasonable, about two years each.â
Who does he hope âBad Bloodâ will appeal to?
This, he says is a âtrickyâ question. âI write for myself. I know my style appeals to some but not to others, but the book might also appeal to people who are interested in the subject matter - mental illness.â
Lorne was a psychiatric nurse for many many years â I ask if his vast experience in this field was useful in his research for the manuscript?
He readily agrees. âA lot of the story is based on my thirty yearsâ experience as a psychiatric nurse in State institutions, private medicine, and in the community but the issues involved in psychiatric care are often complex as well as controversial, and I tried hard to be balanced as well as accurate.â
Where will the book be available?
The book will be available at the launch for a special price of âŹ9.99. Otherwise, it is available from the Wordsonthestreet Publishers online bookstore, and shortly, in both print and kindle editions, from Amazon. Also, in certain Easons bookshops around the Midlands.
âIt will take place in my home town of Edgeworthstown. Sheila Reilly of the Longford Leader will be launching the book. Part of the money raised on the night will be going to the Edgeworthstown Tidy Town group, a group of local volunteers that strive to make Edgeworthstown a more pleasant place to live in.â
So what's next in the pipeline for Lorne?
âThe sequel to Witch. Itâs still centred around two main characters from Witch, Detective Sergeant Jamie McFadden of Strathclyde Police, ex-Army, a divorced, isolated burn-out, and his lover, the Red Witch, his murderous, but oh so wonderful, Maggie. But Hour of the Witch has a much wider scope, as the menace of the past, only partially revealed in Witch, becomes frighteningly present.
Hour of the Witch has a simple premise: the witch hunts failed - now itâs their turn.â
Lorne Patterson is an Edgeworthstown writer and member of the Ballymahon Writers Group. He is a psychiatric nurse and a community educator who has worked in a number of countries, including Britain, the United States and Russia. A past runner-up in the Sean Ă FaolĂĄin short-story competition, he published his first book, Witch, in 2012 to critical acclaim.
Samples of Lorneâs writing can be found on his website, www.lornepatterson.com.
âBad Bloodâ will be launched at The Green, Edgeworthstown on Wednesday 4th December 2013 at 7.30p.m.