I really do.
Anyway, The Witch's Eye is still on submission. When I have news I can share I will definitely do so, until then you can just suffer along with me. Seriously.
Meanwhile I'm so damn excited about The Devil's Strain, my tentatively titled sequel to the above mentioned novel on submission. I had an awesome breakthrough idea last week and the pieces are really falling into place. But I refuse, repeat, refuse to start working on it. Not until I have some idea of what will be happening with The Witch's Eye. My logical brain trumps my creative brain every friggin' time.
Also meanwhile (ooo, grammar police?) I'm a little stalled out on Banish. It's a great idea. I think it's a strong outline and some fun characters. But my mind is still prancing around with Shay and Jamie on the verdant fields and rocky windswept coasts of northwest Ireland. I'm having a hard time reigning it back to a catholic high school in San Francisco. But I have no plans to abandon it. It'll come. I need to be patient with myself.Speaking of this photo, does anyone else keep a file of location photos while they are writing? I have a HUGE one for The Witch's Eye. Wanna see some?
This first is Jimmy G's in Ballinacarrow, Sligo which was a physical inspiration for The Witch's Eye pub in fictional Ballinagrae.
Then there's the interior of Monk's in Ballyvaughan, Clare. I love this pub SO MUCH.
Ballinagrae itself was inspired by Doolin, Co. Clare (my family is from nearby Ennistymon).
I used the rocky shoreline of Dromore West for a very important scene.
And just three of the many real life locations I used are Tawnatruffaun -
- Bull Rock -
- and Dubh Cathair, the Black Fort of Inishmore.
Great. Now I want to hop a flight to Shannon. DAMMIT!
I am jealous! One of these days I will get to Ireland. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteSince you read the ms., I'd love to know how you think the images held up to the actual locations...
ReplyDeleteLove the pics. I can't even imagine what it's like to be on sub. Is it like querying only you obsess more? If that's the case, I'm not sure how I'll find the time to refresh my inbox every 1-5 seconds instead of the once a minute routine I so enjoyed when we were sending out queries.
ReplyDeleteI didn't collect photos until I started my current WIP, but now I can't write without them. I need the visuals to imagine the setting and the mood.
ReplyDelete*swoons over beautiful Ireland* Can't wait to read The Witch's Eye!
BTW, this is Red.Ink.Rain over at Absolute Write. :)
Pretty similar actually, at least for the landscapes. I think I had more of a small French-like town in my head for Ballingrae (just 'cause I've been to those), but those photos are perfect for it. Can totally see it now.
ReplyDeleteReminds me that I really wanted to take pics around my in-laws' area of CT last fall during leaf-peeping season, since that's where/when 'Twixt is set. There's this adorable old town along the CT River that was the inspiration for the setting. Maybe this year. 'Cause then if I'm ever cool enough to land an agent, I can post them. :-p
Oh boy, those are absolutely beautiful. The stones take me back to archaeology class (although it was their Pacific equivalents, but still...). :)
ReplyDeleteI suppose this will also have to go on the "places I need to go when I have monies" list.
I'm drooling. And jonesing. That pub, I can smell the Guiness, hear the fiddles, seem me drunkenly dancing on tables. Well, I am Irish, I kind of have to, right? I'll be there by the end of the year. I mean, it's only a two hour flight.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I have photos of places and characters, hand-drawn maps. Books on Ireland, Dublin, forests ;o) Anything visual that helps.
so beautiful! i wish i could visit china...one day...
ReplyDeleteHello Gretchen, my name is Sean Fahey. I'm originally from Ballinacarrow, and lived next door to Jimmy G's pub which was then Hunt's pub. My best friend lived there and we were always exploring around the house which was very different then, thirty five years ago. This house is jam packed with history and when I came across your picture and found you to be a horror story writer I had to give you some insight into the house and a small incident that happened that may interest you.
ReplyDeleteTo the left of the pub, as you see it in the picture, was a building of equivalent size to the pub. This was whole structure, it is believed, dates back to the 17th century, and that section of the building was the inn house. Upstairs were the Inn's rooms and below were the stables. From the back of the structure you could see the windows and the archway where the coaches would have come in and out and I often imagined the hustle and bustle with the arrival of travellers and goods to the Inn. The sense of history there,to me, was almost tangible. The inside floors had collapsed but you could still see the stalls for the horses and on one, a beautifully made saddle rest. It was too dangerous to go inside but I would have loved to have been there when they unfortunately demolished this section of the building.
At the rear of the building were the ruins of a few sheds and it is here that the first church had been set up in the village, possibly during the penal times. There is a tunnel said to run from the Inn to a house outside the village, for easy escape. As yet, the entrance has not been found, but the exit is to be seen in a field about half a mile away.
When I was about thirteen, I was rooting about in an area beside the small stream to the right of the pub. I was, and still am, an amateur archaeologist at heart and I found many old bottles, copper barrel taps and pottery in what is called a midden or rubbish tip in this area. One day I found what I thought at first to be a large jar in the mud. On further examination I found it was a black candle. Even at that age I was fully aware of the connotations associated with black candles and I certainly knew it was not a modern object. Being a good catholic boy back then I remember being a bit frightened by it and I cannot remember showing it to anyone else but I do know I scribed a crucifix into the wax and threw it into the field, never to find it again.
My vivid imagination still conjures up scenes of devil worship and black masses in my rural little village in times past and it saddens me to see nothing left of those ruins and the possibility of learning more about the lives of the people who passed through the doors of that Inn. The pub is closed, and is now a small hairdressers, and when I returned back home from abroad, to the village, more than ten years ago, I had many a great night around the fire, played a couple of gigs there, and was there on the last night. I now live in Drumcliff, next door to W. B. Yeats' grave, and these lines seem apt from "The Lake Isle of Inishfree" and remind me of the loud banter and jovial laughter, sounds that have, for a couple of hundred years been heard from the inside of that pub.
"While I stand on the roadway
Or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.”
Good Luck with your books and as an avid reader of horror books in times past, I am looking forward to reading "The Witches Eye". Maybe you felt a presence at Jimmy G's, from times past..... anything is possible. SLAINTE