Featured New Story: Celtic Knot by Gail Oare

More from my friends in the Lucky Charms anthology! Today, it’s Gail Oare, who is a super lady you all need to know.

Her story, Celtic Knot, has what must be the funniest song I’ve come across in all the years I’ve been doing this Featured New Book Spotlight. Ready?

My story in Lucky Charms: 12 Crime Tales is “Celtic Knot.” When I wrote it, I was concentrating on the symbolism of Celtic knot variations and what one(s) would be chosen as a charm bracelet keepsake associated with a family secret. I had no music in mind at all when I wrote this story. This is odd for me since I love Celtic music, having done my thesis on Welsh mythology, taught myself to play the English concertina and am now learning the bagpipes. So when asked by West of Mars for the song that inspired the story, I went on a search for one, a Google search.

And failed. There doesn’t seem to be any tune titled Celtic Knot despite the many possibilities it holds!

What to do? Back to my mental blackboard. I reflected on the underlying sadness of the “Celtic Knot” family tragedy that hung over the family for years until the final resolution. The heavy sound a hammer pounding a piece of metal on an anvil came to mind. Bomp bomp bomp. Regular, relentless pounding. Oddly enough, this sound and rhythm brought to mind an episode of the sitcom “Cheers.” It was almost St. Patrick’s Day and Sam and his competitor Gary were both vying for the most revelers for the holiday at their respective taverns. Sam found out that Gary was planning to hire an Irish band at his bar, so Sam sought one out as well. St. Patrick’s Day arrives. Gary’s bar is packed with patrons reveling to the lively jigs and drinking songs. Then the camera moves to Sam’s empty bar, where a solemn Irish band was singing a slow dirge of “And everywhere I looked was death, death, death.” Like the labored sound of metal on the anvil, like the tragedy that haunted the family in “Celtic Knot.”
So the music I will claim for my story is this heavy, heavy “death, death, death” from Sam’s Irish band. I’m not sure that is even a real song, just a musical prop for a sitcom, but regardless, I’m commandeering it as the soundtrack for my crime story. Who knew?

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