[stylist] Irish novel

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Andi,

Wow, sounds like you have a good grasp on where you want your story to
go. There is a lot of political and social issues you plan to
incorporate, which can be tough, but your best bet will be to focus on
character development, providing great, compelling characters readers
will want to spend pages with.

Ancient Irish culture, Ireland in the 1800's and Ireland in the early
1900's seems to be the eras I have the most knowledge of both
historically and in terms of literature. It's a fascinating, sad and
powerful history. I think your story ideas sounds interesting and
potentially moving.

You are so right in most people not being aware of the conditions many
Irish faced during the famine and the subsequent following years. To
this day, Ireland is still dealing with the social, political and
economical issues stemming from the famine. In fact, before the famine,
Ireland's population was much larger, but it has never recuperated that
population since, from both deaths and immigration. At least half its
population was lost and never recovered.

The workhouses and segregation of the Anglo-Irish (English implants who
had settled in Ireland) native Irish and British are never fully
explored in many stories, and many people are unaware of the horrible
conditions the Irish faced on so many levels because of British
colonization and domination of this beautiful country.

So good luck, and I look forward to this in the future.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:12:33 -0400
From: "Andi" <adrianne.dempsey at gmail.com>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Anotating books
Message-ID: <4f8f203e.c506320a.41cd.ffffc1c6 at mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Bridgit
Thanks.
I love history and it is part of my double major, but I never get enough
of it.  I am one of those odd balls that actually got excited when a
research paper was assigned especially if it was a new topic or one I
didn't know much about.  I love pretty much all historical knowledge
from all cultures and places but I to have had a fondness for Irish...
Well Irish everything. My next book will follow three people a sister
and brother and another boy. It will start when they are children and
follow them through their lives. It will start with the brother and
sister losing their father to a house fire started by an angry landlord.
The brother and sister will stick together while trying to survive on
the cold damp streets of Ireland. Eventually they are fortunate to be
taken in by a pub owner.  They are so relieved to have food in their
stomach's and a warm place to sleep that they work like slaves for the
man who rescued them not out of kindness  but out of greed for almost
free labor.  The owner turns out to be interested in the maturing sister
and when the brother who is now older and no longer the scrawny boy he
was defends his sister, he is arrested.  He is sent as a teenager to
work on a British naval ship this time a true slave.  The sister is
stuck with the vile pub owner until by accident she meets a boy her age,
befriends him  and gains the courage to leave.  The book will follow his
life from childhood as well up to this point however their stories do
not intertwine until this point.  His story is one not often told when
looking at the history of Ireland, for he and his family live and work
in the workhouses implemented and growing in population and shrinking in
space because of the Famine.  Eventually they will take the dangerous
journey to North America.  At some point their story will rejoin with
her brothers in their new "home."  America will present a hole knew set
of struggles for the some what uneasy trio.  The book will show the
perspectives of each of the three main characters back and forth as the
book goes.
     Sorry for the description but it is going to be a long book and
span many years so this description sounds jumbled.  My main goal with
this book besides making an interesting story is to explore some of the
things that is often overlooked when we learn about this time in Irish
history.  Some of the familiar components are their, but generally you
don't hear about the work houses or the ship slaves or even much about
the upper class such as people who would be able to afford a nights
lodging at a pub/hotel of sorts. There is more to this book and I don't
know how to explain it all in a short message.  I am sorry for the
length of this message.  This book is on the back burner at the moment
for the book I am riding now, which takes place much much much much
earlier in history and in a different part of the world. What do you
think from the little detail I have shared about this Irish historical
novel?  Does it sound at all interesting or worth writing?  I hope to
also include details about the secret schools and other things that will
ring true of Irish culture.

Andi