books

For the Love of Ireland – It’s a Trilogy

Janet FisherLeave a comment

One of the most exciting things for a writer is when the ideas flood in. I’m thrilled to say that I’ve been having that kind of creative fever with one more story set in ancient Ireland. This one will make a trilogy.

I took the photo above when I had just stepped away from the heart of my trilogy, the Bohonagh Stone Circle in southern Ireland near the small town of Rosscarbery. It’s the sacred Golden Eagle Circle for my fictional clan. I glanced back to see it one more time before I left on my last visit, wondering if I would ever see it again. This image with the powerful clouds nearly took my breath away.

I’ve been living virtually in ancient Ireland for some time now as I set my stories in that enchanting place. Why do I love Ireland so much? Because it’s like home but with cool ancient stuff? I recently posted comparative pictures on Facebook, posing that question.

There’s this, below, one of Ireland’s back roads, a short walk from the wonderful Rosalithir B&B where I stay. The stone circle on the skyline isn’t quite visible in the shot.

And next, below, the hill above my house. Someone mentioned that I simply had to imagine the castles and ruins on my hill.

So maybe there’s some inspiration right outside my door.

I sent book two to my agent last week. She has book one already. Yesterday I wrote the first four pages of the third in the trilogy to see how my new thoughts looked on the page. I’ll stop now and follow my usual process. I’m an outliner, so I’ll outline. I already have the storyline, the list of scenes I use to track it, and I’ve organized my many notes in the order of that storyline. So from that I’ll do the outline, which for book two took three weeks. And from the outline I’ll write the first draft.

Things will shift. New ideas will come. That always happens. But it’s real now. I feel the distress of my protagonist, her hopes, her fears. I’m beginning to know the other players. It’ll be pure delight for me to step back into her world, that enchantment of Ireland. I call it Éire, an older name for Ireland, if not as old as my story, which begins in 713 B.C.

Then with the conclusion of the third in the trilogy I’ll turn my focus to the rest of the collection, which will be a saga of prequels about the ancestors of my characters in the trilogy.

In the photo below, it’s their sacred circle close-up, where they come to dance and bring the sky and earth together, or to find quiet and connection. And more.

And below, from the southern stone to the sea. Note how the slant of the stone’s top echoes the slant of the gap to the blue water.

And down to the sea below their village, where my new protagonist was shocked as a child by how cold the water was.

Introducing My New Agent

Janet Fisher6 Comments

I’m delighted to announce that I just signed with an agent to represent me on my newest historical novel set in ancient Ireland. Her name is Joëlle Delbourgo, her agency a boutique literary agency based in the greater New York City area.

Joëlle Delbourgo

Only three days after my return from the Seattle conference I got a surprise email from Joëlle, President and Founder of Joëlle Delbourgo Associates, who I had queried a couple of months before. I had sent her ten pages of my book as she requests for all submissions. Now she wanted a full manuscript.

She has a stellar background. She founded her agency in 1999. For more than twenty years before that she was a senior editorial executive at HarperCollins and Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, so she knows both sides of the publishing world. Her list of sales is impressive.

With considerable excitement I sent her my manuscript. In less than two weeks she wrote to tell me she loved my book. She wanted to talk.

We had a wonderful conversation by phone. She knew my characters. She knew my story so well she pinpointed several specific issues that can make it stronger. And she offered to represent me. I was thrilled.

It just so happened that she had traveled to Ireland last summer for the first time so she knows the land of my characters too. I’m convinced there’s a bit of magic in those green hills.

Friend Launches First Book

Janet Fisher

My friend Kristine Jensen from my writing group just launched her first novel. It’s a delightful story called Wednesday Club about a city girl whose life changes forever when her mother dumps her at her grandparents’ remote South Dakota farm against her wishes.

Kris with that incredible first box of her own books. There’s nothing quite like the thrill of opening a box full of the books you wrote.

Kris was inspired to write this novel when she discovered a box of old handwritten minutes from her own grandmother’s club, the Wednesday Club, a group of South Dakota farm women who kept written records of their meetings from 1927 to 1987, carefully following parliamentary procedure. Kris was born and raised in South Dakota herself, so she has a deep understanding of the land and the folks who have lived on it. Kris now resides in Eugene, Oregon.

With vivid description of place and people she takes the reader into the world of rural South Dakota from the summer of 1963 to 1964, seen not only through the eyes of the fictional seventeen-year-old Ivy, who does not want to be there, but also through the eyes of some of the farm women who have their own crises. These women of course have their Wednesday Club, patterned on the group Kris’s grandmother was a part of. As noted on the back cover of Kris’s book, Ivy’s “grandmother ropes her into the Wednesday Club, a group of six women who gather to swap gossip and try to make sense of the turbulent world of 1963.”

Kris skillfully weaves their stories together with humor that sometimes made me laugh out loud, and with touching moments that evoked tears, and gripping moments that kept me turning pages. Ivy’s experience affects her in ways she never dreamed.

And here in the photo below is our own group at my house at one of our regular meetings. We don’t have a Wednesday Club but we writers do meet on the occasional Saturday to share our progress and frustrations and hopes and plans for whatever writing project we’re working on.

Members left to right: Lynn Ash, Jennifer Newcomb-Marine, Kris, Carol Brownson, and Susan Wyatt. Elizabeth King wasn’t there that day, and I’m not in the picture because I took it.

We do chat a bit about the turbulent world today, but mostly we try to encourage and support each other in what can often be a lonely business–writing books.

Congratulations to Kris on getting her book out there. That’s a major accomplishment. Wishing her the best on her launch.

For more information you can check out Kris’s website at http://www.wednesday-club.com. There you can learn about the real Wednesday Club, the setting on that South Dakota prairie, about Kris herself, and more. The book is available at the usual places. Just look for Kristine Jensen, Wednesday Club. And enjoy!