Hollywood actor, writer, and professional Irishman launches another flight of phantasmagorical fairy - fantasy whackypaddery!
Thomas Lennon’s second children’s comic fantasy novel, Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death, the penultimate in the Ronan Boyle series, is set for release appropriately in March just in time for St. Patricks day!
Expect more shillelagh wielding, badly behaved Leprechauns, cannibalistic elves, Unicorns and of course a Scottish Werewolf called Gary with a penchant for Irn Bru; a Scottish soft drink reputedly made from girders.
Home Athlone
Thomas Patrick Lennon is a proud Irish-American. The West-side Chicago native traces his ancestry to Athlone, Roscommon, and Mayo through his Father and to Limerick through his Mc Sheehy Mother. The Lennon family are frequent visitors to Ireland and it was on one of their visits to Ireland that Lennon was inspired to become a Children’s Author.
He is probably best known as an Actor and Comedian; playing Lieutenant Jim Dangle in Reno 911! Or more recently as Leo Getz in TV’s Lethal Weapon. But Lennon is no stranger to the written word having penned several successful small-screen productions with his writing partner Robert Ben Garant with whom he also co-authored the hugely successful movie Night at the Museum and the sequel Night at the Museum - Battle of the Smithsonian.
Lennon’s first novel, New York Times bestseller Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles is a rich comic fantasy beautifully illustrated by John Hendrix, replete with; Leprechauns with attitude, Shillelagh shenanigans, diverse fairy folk, and a talking Wolfhound, written; I am amazed but reliably informed without the aid of hallucinogenic stimulants and was in fact enkindled by a family holiday in a medieval Castle in County Mayo where the mystical ambiance of the ancient stone fortress encouraged him to tap into his Irish heritage and his love of Irish folklore:
Keep talking...
“I was staying at Turin Castle, in County Mayo, and a friend showed me what a real Irish shillelagh looks like. It was huge cudgel — a real weapon,”. “It looked like you could swing it and stop a train. I come from a big Irish family, and I’ve always loved the idea of leprechauns and their mischief, especially when it comes to tricking humans, swapping babies for logs.… I really love the not-cute version of leprechauns: hard-drinking, pipe-smoking swindlers who will steal your nose right off of your face if they could.”
Creativity runs in the family; Lennon’s father Timothy is a retired art restorer and famously worked on the restoration of arguably the most iconic of American paintings, Grant Woods’ American Gothic at the Art Institute of Chicago. He still keeps himself busy and recently completed a beautifully detailed model of Lisnacullia castle in Limerick, the ancestral home of the McSheehy clan.
He also modeled Turin Castle in County Mayo for his two Grandsons and presented them with two mini-Turin’s as Christmas presents and mementos of their stay.
Thomas Lennon also attributes his remarkable creativity to a very unusual source;
“My muse is a tiny, fairy-like creature from Gnardgnanesh: a country the only exists if you wish it to. He is about 4 inches tall, greenish, and resembles a little twig.
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