Why I Wrote Threads of Passage

I come from a long line of storytellers. The kind who didn’t just pass down family history, but embroidered it with wit, wonder, and the occasional tall tale for dramatic effect.

My grandfather, Henry O’Toole, was one of them. The youngest son of the infamous James Aloysious O’Toole, Henry was a history teacher at Clinton High School, a playwright, and in the 1930s, the host of a beloved children’s radio show. He read stories aloud, his voice spinning worlds for little ones gathered around the radio. He also wrote a play called Danny Boy—yes, tied to the haunting song—but centered around a kind boy whose gentle nature stayed with me long after the curtain fell.

His wife, Ruth, my grandmother, was a storyteller in her own right. An English teacher at Clinton High, she was the steady heartbeat of our family. She had her finger on the pulse of every soul in town, and I remember sitting in her living room as a child, drinking in the stories she shared. Tales of Clinton, Massachusetts, the people, the triumphs, the heartbreaks, and the magic tucked between the ordinary.

They had three sons. David, the eldest, became a doctor. My father, Kevin, went to the U.S. Naval Academy. And then there was Brennie—my beloved uncle—who became a pharmacist and the most gifted storyteller of his generation. The kind of man who could make you laugh so hard your ribs ached and then, with a single line, move you to tears.

You’ll meet all of them in Threads of Passage. Not by name, perhaps, but in spirit. In the rhythms of the dialogue, the warmth of the characters, the way the town remembers its people.

So why did I write Threads of Passage?

Because I couldn’t bear to lose the stories, as the generation before me passed on, I felt an urgency to gather the threads they’d left behind and to weave them into something lasting. A story that honored where we came from. A tale that remembered the grit of our ancestors, the tenderness, the mischief, the music, and above all, the pride of being Irish.

Is Threads of Passage a memoir? Yes and no.

Yes, because it carries the truth of who I am. The stories in it are the ones that shaped me, rooted in memory, stitched with the voices of those I loved. And no, because it’s fiction. It’s a novel. A coastal Irish village sprung from imagination but infused with lived experience. For those who know my family, the echoes will be unmistakable. But more than that, I hope it will feel true to anyone who remembers what it was like to grow up in a time when family was everything.

Because whether you were raised Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican, Polish, or anything else under the sun, if you were raised on hand-me-down stories and Sunday dinners, if you were taught that love is shown in service and that laughter can heal, Threads of Passage was written for you, too.

The publication date has been set. Threads of Passage will be available for purchase from Amazon on August 18, 2025. Until then, please enjoy more blog post to get to know the characters and their stories.