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| Warmhearted Irish novel |
Behind the Scenes...
Becoming Emma follows Dublin girl Emma Carey's search for love and home and family in the most unlikely of places. One of the story events is actually is a big St. Patrick’s Day party...so I thought I'd share a brief look at how the story came about.
Although
much of this novel takes place in a new locale near Seattle, Washington,
another big part of Becoming Emma takes place in the village of Ballydara, my
fiction series set in County Galway, Ireland.
My Irish stories are set in a rural area that’s been inspired by a few other places, real and imaginary. As a country-dweller who lives in a somewhat remote area, several miles from a tiny town nestled in fir-covered foothills, I incorporated my favorite elements of my true-life, local village into my fictional Galway setting—for example, the beautiful scenery where I live and the fact that there’s no mobile signal or high-speed internet.
I also invented an Irish version of
our village: both have a small shop, a church, and of course, a pub, where, as
they say, “everybody knows your name.”
In
creating Ballydara, I also drew a bit of inspiration from two beloved BBC
series: Ballykissangel, set in a
little Irish community, and Doc Martin, which
takes place in another picturesque locale in the British Isles, on the coast of
Cornwall. Hopefully, the residents of Ballydara are as endearing as the television
characters, but not quite so daffy!
It’s
funny, how one’s fictional characters and story worlds evolve. I began a novel
about my Emma character and her love interest Declan O’Donoghue years ago, with a different
title. But the story just didn’t come together the way I wanted it to and I put
it aside.
As a few
years passed, Declan’s family became so clear in my mind I wrote two “novelette-length”
short stories about them--the first from his dad Frank’s point of view, The Secret
Well. The second story, The Christmas Visitor, is from his mother Maeve’s point of
view. But it was Hazel, Emma’s mysterious sister, who changed Maeve and her family.
Both
stories were deeply entwined with the bigger story about Declan and Emma, still
waiting to be written.
I was still scribbling little bits and bobs
about Declan and Emma, even a chapter here and there, but I still wasn’t ready
to get going on their story. I went on to write two other Ballydara books, The Hopeful Romantic and The Galway Girls.
Then the time came when Emma and Declan insisted that I tell their story—and Hazel’s too. As I finished a huge, rambling draft of a novel, titled Becoming Emma, I had an epiphany: this very long book was actually two novels—at around 800 pages, it was just too much story for one book.
Then for a fun, summertime project, I
wrote a prequel about Emma, before she met Declan, The Little Irish Gift Shop—and
all three novels became The Fairy Cottage Mini-series. I went on to publish Becoming Emma, then...
I ended up releasing a Special Edition of Becoming Emma, which includes the two connected short stories The Secret Well and The Christmas Visitor in the correct reading order. The second part of this big story, The Fairy Cottage of Ballydara is the sequel to Becoming Emma, and will be out this spring!
If you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I hope you’re enjoying your Irish festivities... Just for fun, here's a couple of pics from our trip to Ireland a few years ago. You can find more about my Irish novels and my homesteading too, at www.susancolleenbrowne.com!
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| John and I at St. Patrick's Mountain, County Mayo |
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| A wee traveling cart in Dingle, County Kerry |
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