Welcome to the glittering, glimmering, mischievous world of Pat McDermott. Her YA novels about ancient Ireland are part contemporary, part historical, and part magical, and she's not telling how much of each is in the mix!
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Storytelling
for Actors and Monsters
Aspiring actress Janet Gleason, the teenage heroine of my
young adult books, Glancing Through the Glimmer and Autumn Glimmer,
has lived in Dublin since her grandfather became the U.S. Ambassador to
Ireland. At first, she hated Dublin. (She really hated being kidnapped
by the King of the Fairies, but that’s the first book.) In Autumn Glimmer,
Janet has settled into her new Irish school. She loves the Drama Club, and
she’s learned a lot about acting. She’ll soon pick up some fabulous new
techniques.
To celebrate Halloween, Janet and her grandparents visit
Ireland’s royal family (hint - she likes Prince Liam). Cousin Fintan, an elderly
shanachie, is also visiting to entertain everyone.
A shanachie (from the Irish seanchaí) is a
traditional Irish storyteller. The ancient Celts wrote nothing down. They
entrusted their laws and legends to the minds of brehons, poets, and
shanachies. The shanachies told hundreds of tales from memory. And, as Janet is
going to learn, some of those tales were inspired by real events.
Janet’s theatrical eye noted the
arrangement of chairs before the hearth. The rough half-circle they formed gave
everyone an unobstructed view of Cousin Fintan, perched on a stool beside the
fireplace. His right hand held his blackthorn stick like a pole in a subway
train.
He laid the blackthorn across his
knees. Like a safecracker coaxing a bank vault open, he ran the tips of his
long white fingers over the knobby wood. Twisting the stick toward him, he
deftly reeled his audience into the story world he summoned.
“I’ll tell ye a story to shorten
the night. Ye’ll scarcely believe a word I say, for I’m going back on old
times, to the days when the Good People made the rounds more than they do now.”
Fintan had no idea that the Good People were making the
rounds that night. In fact, two were outside the open window, listening. Janet
listened too, fascinated by Fintan’s tales. He painted pictures in her head no
stage set could ever match.
“Long before the great ice came,
giant creatures lived in Ireland. They foraged and fought and ate each other,
and no man ever saw them. The ice killed all but the swimmers among them,
monsters who slumbered in caves beneath the lakes until the glaciers
disappeared.
“New animals came to Ireland. Men
came too, and the hungry monsters leapt from the lakes and devoured them all.
The heroes among the men fought back.”
Fintan told the story of Gann of the Glen, a hero who helped
the fairies in the lake get rid of a hungry monster.
“Gann drew his weapons. The battle
fury rose in him.” The blackthorn whooshed through the air as Fintan, shouting
now, mimicked Gann’s swordsmanship. “With a mighty cry, he raised his sword and
cut off the Crogall’s head. This he hurled away, spattering the shore
with its blood. To this day, the rocks on the shores of the pond are red, and
the Crogall’s bones became the jagged stones on the northern bank.”
The fairies outside the window recalled a different version.
The correct version. One that Janet is going to find out all about…
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The Webrid Chronicles is packed full of a wacky combination of species who squabble and tease each other, but will also lay down their lives for each other. A primary inspiration for this as I write is Star Wars. Specifically, in terms of the flavor of interspecies humor and creature design, I often have the Cantina scene in mind.
It's Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien," a fantasy about aliens circling Earth and watching us, baffled, as they take "home movies for the folks back home." 
Welcome to the BLUE DIAMOND DELIVERY countdown to launch!
#7. Let's start classy. You know things will devolve into silliness eventually, but we'll put on a high-toned front for now.
