Featured Interview With John M. Cahill
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the history-rich Berkshire Hills. I earned a B.A. degree in journalism and political science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After graduation I moved to New York’s Capital District where, for 34 years, I enjoyed a successful and rewarding career in public relations and social marketing with New York State government. While living in New York’s Mohawk Valley, I took an interest in the Dutch and English fur traders and their relations with their Iroquois neighbors and their French adversaries. I now live in Vienna, Austria.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
It seems that I have always been fascinated with books. During my childhood and youth, I spent many exciting hours in the stacks of the local library searching for hidden “treasures”. Although I was a writer throughout my professional career, having published numerous scientific journal articles and book chapters, I just never seemed to have the time to write fiction. Now that I am retired, I have the opportunity to share what I have learned about New York in the 17th-century, what I consider to be a thrilling period of history. I hope that my readers are as excited to read my stories about the early American frontier as I am to tell them. Having published my first novel at age 68, I have achieved a lifelong dream.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Historical fiction/adventure is my favorite genre to read so, of course, many of my favorite authors write in that genre. My favorite living historical novelists are Bernard Cornwell and Jeff Shaara, but I have been influenced and inspired by, James Fenimore Cooper, Kenneth Roberts, Walter D. Edmonds and Mackinlay Kantor. Of course, being an unrepentant bookworm, I enjoy other genres as well. I really enjoy a good mystery (John Grisham, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly) as well historical nonfiction (Barbara W. Tuchman).
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Descartes observed that there are only six primitive passions: wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy, and sadness. All six could be found in abundance in 17th-century New York. Dutch and Canadian fur traders competed to control access to the Indians; their English and French masters used diplomacy, subterfuge and force to suppress the Indians; and, the Indians employed any and all means at their disposal to protect their lifestyle and even their very lives.
“Primitive Passions” tells the story of a young Irishman, Sean O’Cathail who decides to seek his fortune in the wilds of America. After deserting the Royal Navy by jumping ship in New York Harbor in 1681, Sean finds his way to Albany where he becomes one of the boschlopers (runners-in-the-woods). As a fledgeling fur trader, Sean learns the languages and cultures of the natives and the value of diplomacy. It is this art that earns Sean an appointment as the colonial governor’s special envoy to the Iroquois. He faces adversity, danger and intrigue while securing the English-Iroquois alliance and thwarting the efforts of the French to divide and conquer the Five Iroquois Nations. Even the women who love him – his Mohawk lover, Kai, and the Dutch bond servant, Laurentje van Reuyter – are eventually swept up in the primitive passions of the savage frontier. “Primitive Passions” is the first book in a series, entitled “The Boschloper Saga”.
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