Brian Mahoney
AUTHOR & SONGWRITER
BOOKS AND SCRIBBLINGS
In my previous incarnation, I produced products for publishing companies like Houghton Mifflin Hartcort, software for companies like Electronic Arts, and websites for many US-based businesses. That gave me the platform to publish historical fiction stories, textbook content (mostly literature and history), and many educational software products.
( examples of my historical fiction stories below.)
These days, I'm back to writing whatever I like, and I've got an itch to write something illuminating about Woke mythology.
Woke Is A Joke is due out in spring/summer, 2023.
Please join the pre-order/mailing list below. Thank you!
In the oven:
SPRING 2023 RELEASE: PRE-ORDER NOW!
MUSIC & LYRICS
TERRY - BRIAN - JIM
Another passion of mine is writing original music and songs. If I were to rank it, I'd say I'm first a songwriter, second a reluctant singer, and third an OK guitar player with no plans to improve. For years I wrote my own songs and played solo or fronted rock bands in Chicago.
Many of my songs were written as "art for art's sake" and not for display or attention - I'd write them for fun and move on to the next inclination. Maybe with a little promotion...
If at all curious, check out my music site with my bandmates Terry and Jim - remember, these are DEMO's, not full productions. My group is called Written In Water and our commercial songwriting effort is called Written In Water Songworks. Terry (Left above) plays lead guitar and writes some great melodies. Jim plays percussion instruments and plays covers in Band X for fun.
(Again note: these are demos, not full studio productions.)
SELECTED HISTORICAL FICTION STORIES, by BRIAN MAHONEY
What was it like to experience Martin Luther King's historic "I Have A Dream" speech? This story places young readers in the crowd with National Park Service Officer Bob Flanigan, a man bored on the job, and Brenda Johnson, aka "The Polka-Dot Lady" a woman on a mission. When Brenda discovers that Bob isn't listening to MLK's vision of a colorblind America, she leaps into action...
Read more here.
In the War of Independence, the British army routinely defeated the under-supplied and overwhelmed Continental Army. In the fall of 1778, Washington's volunteers failed again to stop the Redcoats - this time from taking the city of Philadelphia. That winter, Washington was forced to drag his sick and starving troops to a barren place called Valley Forge. Once there, the haggard troops weathered disease, starvation, cold, injuries, and the like.
In my story, John Morris, a young doctor, leaves his comfortable Philadelphia home to join what's left of Washington's army at Valley Forge - a humbling and horrifying experience.
Read more here.
A 2021 study published in Nature Magazine confirmed that the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows (in Newfoundland, Canada) was founded about 1,000 years ago - centuries before Columbus arrived. They proved that this was the first European settlement in the Americas by using a 992 AD solar storm event. The storm left evidence in tree rings in Erik The Red's son Thorstein's settlement, proving that the Vikings arrived first in the Americas around 1021 AD.
This was GREAT news for me because I'd already written a story about the Vikings in Vinland (with the help of the 13th century Icelandic Sagas and other sources). I used scraps of information to create the most realistic version of what it may have been like there.
Read more here.
The Chrisholm Trail is a story about a famous cattle drive trail that ran from Texas up to the Kansas City railroad depot. In my story, we join an ex-slave turned gambler and gunfighter, his friend a "tenderfoot" cowpuncher, and a variety of hard men who drive longhorn cattle for two months up the trail. Our trusty narrator "rides drag" on the herd to earn his spurs, and young readers get to ride along.
Read more here.