Mary Teresa Flannery, aka Máire was born in Limerick, Ireland.
(actually that is me) I self-publish but am also a ghost-writer. I'm an avid reader of history, both fiction and non, and memoirs, cos I'm a nosey person I suppose. 

My research for writing historical fiction is often done from books that were contemporary when they were written as I can trust those to be true in speech and ways of living and inventions etc. Maria Edgeworth's books and Elizabeth Gaskell's are very descriptive and have taught me a lot. 

In 2019 I'm reading Victorian literature, with my interest in Dickens rekindled. The last time I remember reading a Dickens novel was 1973. After that, I got busy. It's a nice change to write Victorian after Regency; I can send my chars on trains and they have gaslight. 

I went through a Jane Austen phase while I was working in Health Care; a Regency drawing room was a restful place to go to in the evening. I must have seen every Austen adaptation ever made.  I read all the books. The Austenesque 'My Head Upon the £10 Note – Time Travel Jane' is a tribute to the great writer.

I also love the 50's, though I remember little about them! I only arrived for the last three years, but I remember our village church bells, the flowery flowing summer dresses of Mammy and my Aunties, and the song 'Tammy' which when I heard it decades later, rushed me back almost to my cradle.  I'm also interested in WW2, because Daddy, who was a teen during those years, amassed vast knowledge about it and our bookcase was filled with titles like 'The Longest Day' and 'Carve Her Name With Pride.' Melody in Tea begins just after the War. I also incorporate my love of the Indian subcontinent in this book, and how I missed it after I returned after two years, especially the weather and the colour! My heroine Frances is named for my baby sister who I never met and I also have given her the same birthday, March 23rd, though decades earlier. 
Melody in Tea began as a short story, but the characters got very cross with me when I wouldn't develop them, and they kept me awake at night until I gave in.
 
As Máire Flannery, I wrote ''What Stirs in Winter' a Pacific Northwest historical novel, set in 1846, in which Irish girl Katie sets off on a grand adventure for Oregon. The 2nd edition, with different cover, is published under my writing name Mary Teresa Flannery, 

I'm also a Ghostwriter of clean historical fiction for a UK Publisher. This is a new venture and I'm delighted with it!