Happy St. Patrick's Day!
This is the day, as we in New York say, when everyone is Irish.
Wonderful! What grand company to be in.
Think of all the great Irish poets and novelists:
James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Moore, William Butler Yeats (my man!) Lawrence Sterne, Edna O'Brien, and so many others, including the inventor of the Gothik Romance beloved of Regency females, herself: Maria Edgeworth.
Do I hear music? Irish Music? Of course.
Tenors!
Rockers par excellence.
Bagpipers.
And dancers, from Riverdance to step dancers everywhere.
Fantastic beers and ales, and whiskeys.
Men in Kilts. (Every man on earth would look better in a kilt, imho.)
And I'm not even Irish... except here in New York today.
Ireland's history is full and tragic and beautiful
They have castles, and had (and have) aristocrats.
So riddle me this: Why are there not more Historical Romances set in Ireland?
Nora Roberts writes loverly romances with Irish backgrounds, but they are contemporary.
The only two historicals I know are: Sara Healy's THE GREEN MAN.
(I read it long ago, but not since. Still I remember it fondly.)
And R. A. Macavoy's whiz bang "THE WHITE HORSE" is a wonderfully heartwarming love story with paranormal elements too. It's a book that endures, I often re-read it.
Movies, we got:
THE QUIET MAN is one of the best screen romances ever.
There are others, too numerous to list.
Actors? Be still my fantasies. Le pant pant: Peter O'Toole, Aidan Quinn, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Rhys Meyeres,, Cillian Murphy and many many others.
(We shall skip actors of the female persuasion, because although they are as numerous and gorgeous, I do not daydream or nightdream about them.)
But Historical Novels about Ireland? A paucity.
Scarlet O'Hara was Irish, and she lived at Tara, but GONE WITH THE WIND was set in America.
There are tons of Scottish Historicals. I love them too.
And many fine "straight" Historicals novels set in Ireland.
Why not more Historical Romances?
I haven't written any romances set there either, true. But remember I'm only Irish on St. Patricks' day, and also, the lilting idiom of the language eludes my writing ear.
I wrote a book with some Welsh characters, partially set in Wales. I've been there - up and down and across that lovely land, and found the idiom easier to reflect in English. (Think Yoda: backwards she writes.) That book had a wonderful love story. But there were also beheadings and various awful executions galore.
It was a "straight" Historical called QUEEN OF SHADOWS: A Novel of Isabella, Wife of Edward ll by Edith Felber. (And by the way - this very week, the Czechs bought QUEEN OF SHADOWS for translation!)
And by the by, why not more Historical Romances set in Wales?
But that's for another day.
On this St. Patrick's Day I must ask:no Historical Irish Romances? Why is no one writing them?
Or have I missed them? I know I must have done. I hate to be red-faced on this green day, so tell me if I forgot a good 'un. And can you recommend some? Or else, explain their paucity?
HELP! And even if you can't -- a Grand St. Pat's Day to you!
