Hi guys! It’s been a while!
I had a glorious three weeks away in Ireland, wandering footpaths, ducking into cafes when the sky opened up and bucketed rain without warning, and seeing as many castles, passage tombs, and faerie rings as I could (thanks for pointing those out during the bus tour, Bud!!).
As you know, I’ve mentioned my TV pilot Otherworld a few times, and it takes place in Ireland. I’ve always loved, or thought I would love, the place where fairytales seemed to live. I grew up reading fairytales, anything I could get my hands on - Hans Christian Andersen, The Grimm Brothers, Charles Perrault… anyone who wrote something I was vaguely familiar with, I read. Which then turned in to “give me anything with magic or creatures or ANYTHING” in it.
And then I found O.R. Mellings, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman… the fantasy genre, for me, was my world as I grew up. And then I started writing.
Now, the initial attempts weren’t good - they never are. But I kept at them, determined to be an author despite my parents’ well-meaning warnings and cautions against not finding a paying day job. Writing led me to my Minor in university, nudged me into the Writing A One-Act Play university course which shoved open a doorway to the entirely new world (for me) of scriptwriting. And here I am, in Vancouver, pursuing that dream still.
Ireland had been a dream for at least a decade now. And, as a minor character in Anne Bishop’s “Dark Jewels Trilogy” said once… “I wasn’t ready for a long time. Then, one day, I started wondering if I would ever be ready. So I came anyway.”
(I love dialogue. It's an entirely separate post, but oh man, some of the things I've read that have helped me make decisions or that have bolstered me right when I needed them...)
Now, I didn’t go through anything quite as dramatic as that character did, but I do have a tendency to wait until “things are ready” and everything is in place. Thanks to a few conversations with good friends, I booked the tickets and away I went. And, at a time where other things began happening for me and my career started to gain some momentum, it turned out to be the absolute best time for me to go.
Not to say everything was perfect - I nearly got lost a few times, and going by yourself does mean a few moments of feeling lonely - but oh man am I so glad I went on this trip! The amazing sights and experiences aside, it really affirmed my decisions with how I approach storytelling, the aspects of characters I enjoy exploring. Everyone there was so kind to me, with an edge to his or her humour that had me instantly relaxing. Interactions felt genuine, and even when I hesitantly asked after any faerie stories or myths, they answered without teasing - though a few times, I was advised to have a few glasses of whiskey and then I’d be seeing Leprechauns in no time!
And, as I wasn’t driving and therefore got to experience the countryside via bus, I had plenty of time to write and take photos and videos. I’ve found amazing forest paths, crumbled ruins ignored by all but the cows grazing around the stones, and write snippets here and there from my characters’ perspectives as I took in everything that was Ireland. I roamed from Dublin to Cork to Sligo and back again, and I can’t wait to find a way to put all that I felt during those three weeks into my stories and my characters - my people.
Since I’ve had about a week to work off the jet lag, it’s back to work now! Hopefully I’ll have some news for you soon about some things I’m working on, and if not, I’m going to peruse some of my smaller works and post some excerpts - and in November, I’m going to use this place as one of my accountability spots for National Novel Writing Month - more snippets will pop up here and there to help keep me going with the challenge.
We’ll talk soon!