This sequel continues the saga of Nora McCabe and her family now dwelling in New York City where they encounter poverty and racism as Irish Catholics and immigrants. Injustice and violence are a matter of course in this mysterious and alluring city filled with strange languages. Desperately homesick, Nora vows to save money and return to her homeland of Ireland. Meanwhile, she becomes a newsboy, meets Walt Whitman, visits Barnum's Museum, meets new friends, and experiences an adventure. After purchasing a ticket to return to Ireland, the Astor Opera House Riot of 1849 occurs and her father disappears. Will Nora return to Ireland? Or can she stay and maintain her spirit while finding the true meaning of home?
I grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York state where I climbed trees and sat on their wide welcoming branches to read. I dreamed of word making in a magical and lush landscape. The many waterfalls throughout the area sang stories of the original natives. The Chilean poet, Gabriela Mistral wrote, "No, I don't believe that I will be lost after death. Why should You have made me fruitful, if I must be emptied and left like the crushed sugar canes? Why should You spill the light across my forehead and my heart every morning if You will not come to pick me, as one picks the dark grapes that sweeten in the sun, in the middle of autumn?"
Our ancestors cheer us on...the Celtic mind believes there is a thin line between life and death. I want to cheer on our ancestors through my writing. We are the sum of our ancestors and we heal and become empowered with compassion when we tell stories.
We can't sanitize and remake history, nor should we become stuck in the rage of the past, but remembrance through stories that are threaded with truth is redemptive and inspirational.
I have two published historical novels about the Irish Famine and immigration. My third novel, 'Norah,The Making of an Irish-American Woman in 19th Century New York' is an adult historical fiction work that breaks the lock on the vault of history's stereotypical agitprop about Irish women. It is historical fiction that is a vivid sketch of one woman in the 1850s becoming liberated from impossible circumstances. It will be published by Lucky Press LLC on March 1, 2011. I am also involved in research for a new novel about a Native American woman who lived in the 1700s in New York State when the Sullivan Campaign wiped out the villages of the Iroquois Nation.
I have also written a play/musical (not produced) based on a scene in my book, 'Hope in New York City,' a screenplay, 'The Blue Vega' (not produced), and many short stories, a few that have been published.
I speak at festivals, bookstores, schools, libraries, shelters, organizations. I write in the cover of my books, "Hope dances in the darkness and believes in the Lover who casts light at our feet."
