Brian pens new novel
SUMMER of ‘ 63 is the latest novel from acclaimed writer Brian Leyden which has hit the shelves. This is the Ballyconnell author’s second novel and it’s set in familiar territory, Arigna’s coaling mountains, where Brian grew up.
“It’s set in ‘ 63 for a number of reasons, the visit to Ireland of JFK that summer, that was the time Ireland became of age, this too is a coming of age story. The novel follows a young boy, Leo Rossiter, who moves to the community and soon hears that a black panther is possibly on the loose.”
A traumatic soldier returning from service in the Congo is then sent to investigate and whether he’s on an animal hunt or a manhunt raises questions.
“It’s complete fiction but I pulled some threads of the social history of Ireland together when writing it. I tested it out on people and they had good fun reading it. I find women are the most reliable client base from book clubs and all of that. There’s a romantic element too, Leo is smitten with a girl working on the telephone exchange, while it’s part thriller too.
“It was interesting to hear how regular readers really enjoyed the book and said their husbands also picked it up and read it too.” Brian self published Summer of ‘ 63 with his new publishing company, Lepus Press.
“It’s a small artisan press I’ve set up. Lepus is the Latin for hare. I’ve found lately it’s getting more difficult for writers to get published, there were 184,000 new titles in the UK and Ireland last year, that’s mainly celebrity cookbooks, crime, war memoirs. It’s getting harder and harder for those with a literary slant to get published.
“This is an experimental project with Lepus Press, there are a few other titles being looked at in terms of publishing. It’s a toe in the water. I see in both music and writing the market is widening. When you’re trying to produce work, it’s getting harder how you get it out there,” Brian added. “With social media, it generally produces a lot of content, but people are not looking for stories, they’re looking for relationships, connections.
“As someone said half the world is not writing but raving, it’s a massive challenge and art has always been one step behind technology I find.”
Brian is busy working on a number of various projects and included in that is a television series which follows on from the movie Black Ice.
“I’ve teamed up with Johnny Gogan again, we both worked on Black Ice together. “We were saying we’d try and develop a television series and have made some significant progress.
“The scripts are written and we’ve 55% of the funding in place but as anyone involved in this business knows there are many stages from development to production, it can be very fraught.
“It’s a crime thriller with an environmental aspect, it takes up the story from later on when Alice goes to college.
“It’s still set in the same Border area and we’re hoping to get it across the line with a company here in Ireland.” There has been interest from Germany and other places too. So watch this space.
Summer of ‘ 63 is available in Liber bookshop and also on Amazon.