MABOU HARBOUR: A highly-regarded bagpiper who has taken centre stage with some of Cape Breton’s top performers, at home and around the world, is playing a new tune.
Paul K. MacNeil is a first-time novelist, having recently released Maggie Nora Liza Mhór.
“It felt pretty darn good,” the acclaimed entertainer told The Reporter, when asked about holding a copy of his book for the first time.
Noting the amount of work he, and others, put forth to complete the multi-year project, MacNeil added, “It is a symbol of hard work rewarded.”
Maggie Nora Liza Mhór focuses on Maggie, a 25-year-old who believes that she is a “miracle baby,” one conceived “inexplicably and possibly through some sort of ancient magic.” Raised by her grandmother, she decides to search for “proof of the mystical tales related to the conception of life,” explains an outline of the novel.
While searching for “her family identity, her sense of person, place and belonging,” Maggie ends up in rural Cape Breton, where she meets Patrick. As the pair explores her past, a romance blossoms. Their adventures with local personalities help the couple “understand the meaning of life, love, faith and friendship.”
Despite her effort to dig deeply for answers, the final ones may be found “in another world altogether.”
Maggie Nora Liza Mhór reflects greatly on MacNeil being engulfed by Gaelic culture, characters and tradition growing up in central Cape Breton.
“It is a long story,” he said, with a laugh, when asked the roots of the novel, which dates back more than a decade.
Having penned music, poetry and songs for most of his life, a tune he and his daughter wrote “The Forest,” served as the inspiration for Maggie Nora Liza Mhór. MacNeil explained that the song explores conception, with the spectrum including everything from people conceiving as soon as they “look at each other,” while others are unsuccessful, no matter how hard they try.
He said that he has always been “affected” by life and death, noting he has played for hundreds of funerals, with some of the people serving as inspiration, of sorts, for tunes he has written.
And, he added, there has always been an interest in fairies and the spirit world.
Those aspects of his life became key ingredients in what would become Maggie Nora Liza Mhór.
Over the following years, there were plenty of stops and starts in the writing process, as the story kept “sort of spinning in my head,” according to MacNeil.
While on a two-week bagpiping gig in 2016, one that took him to Scotland, he took advantage of the free time between performances; a couple of chapters were written by the time he returned to Cape Breton.
MacNeil also mentioned his increased love for reading, one that began even before the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“I was doing it quite a lot,” he said of that voraciousness.
Amidst fuelling that passion, MacNeil decided – rather than reading more books, he would turn his attention to his writing.
“It is a life, not a COVID book,” he stressed of its roots.
By the time he completed his first draft last June, MacNeil started asking family and friends to read the novel.
“I needed to get that feedback,” he recalled.
He also asked people who served as the inspiration for characters in the novel to read it.
“I wanted them to be comfortable,” MacNeil said of their portrayals.
When it comes to that sought-after feedback, he described it as “overwhelmingly supportive.”
That level of appreciation became increasingly important as MacNeil tackled the challenging process of getting his novel published. Eventually, on the advice of several in the industry, he decided to self-publish and then signing on with FriesenPress.
While securing that key component, he also continued the editing process. Estimating that he read his novel more than 50 times as part of it, MacNeil offered that the time-consuming and, sometimes, arduous process helped develop the book.
“I think everyone knew a similar person,” he said of the characters he was able to develop.
In an ever-changing world, MacNeil offered that the “characters” found in Cape Breton communities, like the ones when he was growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s are fewer or, at least, less recognized.
He hopes the novel reminds readers to be “proud of who we are and where we came from.”
Although he had never penned a novel, the 58-year-old brought writing experience to the table as a musician, including 30 to 40 tunes, along with 10 to 20 songs that have been published.
Coupling those passions, each chapter of Maggie Nora Liza Mhór includes an accompanying song, both music and lyrics, from his extensive catalogue.
“Some are obvious, while others are more subtle,” MacNeil noted.
The novelist praised his family and friends for their support in helping him fulfill this dream.
“They have been so supportive on this journey. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”
Available as an e-book or hard copy, Maggie Nora Liza Mhór can be purchased on MacNeil’s website: www.paulkmacneil.com, or at the following locations across the province: Freshmart, Mabou; Four Mermaids Gift Shop, Port Hood; Freeman’s Pharmacy, Inverness; Quincy Market, Inverness; Inverness County Centre for the Arts, Inverness; Gaelic College, St. Ann’s; Highland Village, Iona; The Little Dipper, Iona Heights Inn, Iona; Flying Kite Artisan, Baddeck; The Cape Breton Curiosity Shop, Charlotte St., Sydney; On Paper Books, Charlotte St., Sydney; Brook Village Grocery, Brook Village; Indigo, Mayflower Mall, Sydney; Chapters, Bayers Lake, Halifax; and The Curious Cat Tea Room, Antigonish.
As for what he hopes readers take from the novel, he began by describing it as a “love story.”
“I also think it is a good news story, something that we don’t have enough of anymore.”