Historical fiction author Ashley E. Sweeney chats with me today about her new book, The Irish Girl: A Novel.
Bio:
A native New Yorker, Ashley E. Sweeney is the Nancy Pearl Book Award winning author of four novels, The Irish Girl, Hardland, Answer Creek, and Eliza Waite, which have garnered more than 18 literary awards. She is a graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts and lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest and Tucson.
Welcome, Ashley. Please tell us about your current release.
The Irish Girl follows a young Irish girl forced from her home in rural western Ireland to forge a new life in America in the late 19th century.
What inspired you to write this book?
When I was eleven, my grandmother told me the story of how her mother, Mary Agnes Coyne, came to America from Ireland alone at age thirteen in the late 19th century. That story simmered in my overactive mind then and for decades since. I imagined Mary Agnes as a young girl, not much older than myself at the time I first heard the story. I wondered if she were scared or bold or a combination of both as she navigated the sea voyage and the streets of New York and the train trip to Chicago. I wondered if people accepted her or spat upon her as an immigrant. And so many more questions, questions of logistics and culture and matters of her faith and her heart. Because my great-grandmother died the year I was born, I never knew her, or could ask questions of her. But I had my grandmother and my father to help fill in some of the blanks. When I committed to the story two years ago, I then let my imagination take over to put flesh on the bones of the story. While my grandmother inspired the novel, it is a work of fiction.
Excerpt from The Irish Girl:
(This is the opening of the novel)
In the dim crease of dawn, Galway’s docks clatter with stevedores, sailors, pimps, dogs. The air, laced with coal dust and smoke, reeks of rotting fish. Mary Agnes Coyne clutches her granddad’s arm as they weave through crowds swarming the wharfside, the sky leaden, threatening rain. The hem of Mary Agnes’s brown skirt is damp, her worn brown boots crusted with mud. She wears the new green shawl her gram knit for her over an ivory cable-knit sweater, her auburn hair pulled back and covered with a brown wool hat pulled low. Beyond a tangle of masts and battered hulls, a constant rumble, as the black River Corrib barrels down the narrow seaway toward the ever-blacker Atlantic.
Am I really leaving Ireland? Going to America? Alone?
What exciting project are you working on next?
My fifth novel is under wraps for now, but it’s a departure from my earlier books, all set in the 19th century. This new novel is set in the under-represented 1930s in the American Southwest and features three protagonists.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I got my start early, when I wrote my first “novel” in 6th grade. From then, I’ve dedicated many hours to the world of words, first in junior and high school, where I worked on literary magazines and newspapers, through college, where I was editor of the college literary magazine, through a decade-long career in journalism followed by a decade-long career in education. Upon early retirement, I set to writing full-time and published my first novel, Eliza Waite, at age 59.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
Yes, I work M-F from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. (and often longer), taking evenings and weekends off. But don’t get the idea that authors ever take time off from thinking about a work in progress! I plot scenes as I walk and garden, jot down notes on a grocery line, write dialogue while folding laundry, and think about characters before I fall asleep at night. When an author dedicate to a project, she/he/they takes these characters into her/his/their psyche for up to two years, or however long it takes to write the novel. In addition to historical research, much time is spent reading everything we can get our hands on regarding the period we’re writing about: newspapers, magazines, menus, calendars, census reports, music, attire, transportation, sewage, hygiene, culture, politics, jargon, etc. And then, of course, are the countless conversations we have with and about our characters. They are, in essence, very real to us.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
To keep myself in the groove, I listen to meditative music as I write. This not only blocks out the tyranny of the urgent, i.e. phone calls, texts, delivery people, etc., it helps me write descriptively. I have a number of playlists that I go to again and again. Today, I’m listening to a playlist I put together thinking of a soundtrack for my second novel, Answer Creek, if it’s ever optioned for film. David Tolk, George Winston, David Grier, John Danley, moody acoustic piano and guitar, deep emotionally charged pieces that drive my creative spirit. As a hearing-impaired person, I am thankful for modern technology that allows me to continue to listen to music as I write.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Ha! This is always a funny answer. Other than wanting to be a Playboy bunny because my father worked as an ad man for the magazine, I later focused on being a Peace Corps volunteer before a career in publishing. I got my latter wishes, first accepting a year-long position straight out of college as a VISTA volunteer, the domestic arm of the Peace Corps, and much later as a published author.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
At this politically fraught time, be good to yourself. Practice self-care, take time in nature, and read. Always read.