Saturday, March 16, 2013

The Second "Rose" Is Out

Serial publishing is big these days, and many ebook authors are publishing their work in installments. It harks back to the Victorian era, when thousands of people would read installments in the newspaper of the latest novels written by Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and others.

Well, I've joined the trend, and I'm publishing my latest ebook, "Rose Of Skibbereen" in weekly installments. The second installment is online now, and you can find it at Smashwords and Amazon. It's available at a special price of 99 cents a copy for a limited time, so I recommend downloading it right away!

"Rose Of Skibbereen" is a family saga that spans the late 19th century all the way up to the present. It's about a girl named Rose Sullivan who emigrates to America from Ireland, in search of a better life. She arrives in America at a time of great change, and her life transforms in ways she never could have imagined back in her little town of Skibbereen, Ireland. It's got romance, heartache, action, twists and turns, and a cast of unforgettable characters. A crackling good read, if I do say so myself!

Monday, March 11, 2013

"Rose Of Skibbereen" Is Out

I like to write many types of fiction, and my latest project is a romance/family saga about a girl named Rose Sullivan who comes to America in 1880 from a small town in Ireland, and the many twists and turns her life takes after that. It's called "Rose Of Skibbereen". Skibbereen is the name of the town in Ireland that Rose comes from, and it just happens to be the town where some of my Irish relatives came from, back in the 19th century. It's a town that is famous for being hard hit by the Great Famine of the 1840s, and in fact contemporary reports say that conditions were worse there than in any other place in Ireland. There's even a song, "Dear Old Skibbereen", which tells the story of an Irish farmer who is forced to leave his home because of the terrible tragedy of the Famine.

So, you might ask, is this book I've written based on my family history? I've done a fair bit of family research, as well as reading up on the Irish immigration of the 19th century, so there are some similarities. Like most writers, though, I've found that once you get the characters on the page, they take on a life of their own, and they go off in directions you never dreamed of. Rose, her friend Mary, and the handsome but mysterious boy named Sean all had their own ideas about where this story should go, and I just sat back and let them have their way. The result is an entertaining multi-generational story of love, betrayal, joy, tragedy, and a lot of other emotions during a very tumultuous time in the history of Ireland and America. I'm offering the first installment for free at the moment, so I hope you'll download it and enjoy the ride! Here's the link: Rose Of Skibbereen