Cork author: 'I must confess, I never expected to write a second book'

EVEN though Eleanor O’Kelly Lynch’s first book, The Girl With Special Knees, was hailed as a “triumph... a sad and beautiful novel” by Cork author Billy O’Callaghan, she never expected to write another.

“I must confess, I never expected to write a second book,” admits Eleanor, who has three adult children, one of whom, Lauren, has a rare syndrome, Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS).

When I eventually finished The Girl With The Special Knees during lockdown, I thought I’d feel relieved. I could relax.

But Eleanor missed the Redmond family in the book, their family relationships, the hope, the courage, and the renewal. And she missed the idea of the power of dreams to heal the human heart.

Her readers missed the Redmond family too.

Like Doll, the character based on Eleanor’s own daughter, Lauren, we sometimes think of escaping to another world with another dimension, getting away from worries and responsibilities, the effort of trying to be the best version of ourselves.

“My own daughter has a rare condition that makes her life a tough battle,” says Eleanor, who grew up in Dungarvan and lives in Glanmire.

“Writing about Doll’s wonderful journey really resonated with me. I loved the idea that, maybe, in another dimension, in some parallel universe, she too could be a different version of herself. That would indeed be magic.

I took Doll away in my imagination to a new world full of joy.

We all need some magic in our lives. Eleanor made it happen.

“And so, in the middle of lockdown, I took up my pen and started to write again,” says Eleanor.

“This time it didn’t take as long, the make-believe worlds of Glengarvan and Almazova were already drawn. I enjoyed stitching together new stories and challenges and seeing how characters reacted.

“I wanted to write about a quest, a journey.”

Where was Doll taking the reader?

“I made it up as I went along!” says Eleanor laughing.

“It was a journey for me too. The second book was easier,” says Eleanor.

“I knew the family well.”

Eleanor found a new character who is introduced in The Girl With Stars In Her Eyes.

“One day in Lismore I came across a monument that mentioned Lord Carbery. It reminded me of the stories we’d heard of our long dead grandfather, Tim O’Herlihy, who worked as a baker in Thompsons. He was, by all accounts, an amazing and hilarious character who wore a top hat and swung a cane, and who was fondly known as Lord Carbery. I knew I had to write him into the story.

His character came very easily to me, and I like to think he was there, in his top hat, peering over my shoulder as I wrote - nodding in approval.

We get to know Lord Carbery and we get to know Doll, the ‘girl with stars in her eyes’, very well.

“The book is about an ordinary family - he Redmonds - and at the heart of that family, a child who has had enough.

“On another level, it’s about the invisible and unknowable magic that surrounds us - and a reminder that all kinds of wild adventures ae possible if we can just follow our hearts.”

We catch up with Doll on her First Communion Day and the 11-year-old has one special wish - to escape her joyless life. What she doesn’t realise is that her wish is about to come true.

First Communion Day should be happy day for every girl and boy. Doll doesn’t feel very happy.

“Last night I cut my face till it bled. I swear to God, I hadn’t done it for ages, but now that I’ve started, I’m not going to lie - it’s hard to stop. I can feel the crust sore on my cheeks, and I’m itching it to make it bleed again. Just one more time.

“There’s an envelope in my head marked SHAME. I mean, come on, today of all days? Saturday, the third of May, my First Holy Communion Day. I want to get a grip. Today I should be smiling, my soul spotless, making my parents proud, instead of crawling back to that shapeless, Play-Doh place where nothing matters.”

Her mother, Sally, feels her pain and wants to erase it by transporting her to another world.

Eleanor speaks about the throw-away comment that prompted the idea for Doll and her family, the Redmonds.

“A few years ago, I was watching television at home on my sofa. My daughter, Lauren, lay next to me, curled up, self-injuring her face. Lauren was born with a rare debilitating condition. 

Her life was a battle. She couldn’t talk, she had frequent chest infections, recurring reflux, anxiety.

“As many readers will know, it is heart-breaking to watch someone suffer, especially when it’s your child.

“Later that evening, when Lauren had gone to bed and I voiced my despair, my sister said, ‘Maybe inside her head or in some far off place across the universe, she’s living another life, a wonderful life - in another dimension. Maybe there’s a parallel world where she’s having a ball?’ The thought lifted me.”

And it gave Eleanor food for thought.

“I’d read about parallel universes, where time can fork off into different realities - the universe. Other worlds where we live different versions of ourselves. Imagine if Lauren could escape her half-life, slip through a portal, take flight, live her dreams. And so Doll was born.”

What does Eleanor give Doll, the main character in her book?

“Through the book I give her wings. She would ride a horse, eat sweets, experience friendship, anger, adventure…. And I could help free her spirit - the smart, funny courageous girl who was there all the time, just buried under a rubble of despair.”

Escaping with Doll on her life-changing adventures captivates the reader as they still wonder about Doll’s mother, Sally, who knows her husband, Dan, is harbouring a secret. Doll’s sister, Andi, is madly in love with Steve who is about to rock her entire world.

“As teenagers, we all had a Steve in our lives,” says Eleanor.

“We’d have his name scrawled across our copy books. 

He was the bad boy who our parent’s thought was a gutter-snipe, but who we loved! Writing about Steve brought back great memories!

In writing the sequel to The Girl with Special Knees, Eleanor brings the reader to many wonderful places.

This is a life-affirming story about the fragility of family relationships, about love, hope and uncertainty and about how, when the heart dreams deeply, magic happens.

“When life is grim, to temporarily disappear to another life and see what happens would be lovely,” says Eleanor.

The Girl With Stars In Her Eyes, by Eleanor O’Kelly-Lynch, published by Orla Kelly publishing, is in all good bookshops. €15.