Today I just have to say I really love something about myself. For the last couple of days I have been as I said submersed in my writing and research. This thing about myself that I love....I'm a huge fan of travel journals and make one for each and every trip I take.
Coincidence: The story takes place in Boston and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland was a given when I wanted to write about a woman raised in the Irish Republican Army but I hemmed and hawed about the U.S. location she would be sent too, to locate a mole to the CIA for gun running and arms shipments to Northern Ireland. New York, Boston, Chicago were the places I was pondering. I finally settled on Boston it just seemed right.
While researching ideas and locations. I print pages of notes from the web. I have pages of these notes on Boston that I printed out three years ago when I first started the actual writing and visualization of this book. I have pages of printed Irish and Gaelic names, IRA history. Irish History. I purchase books all the time that intrigue me for reference and assistance in writing projects.
I have been to Boston and I have been to Ireland three times and each time I have kept a writing photo journal of the trip. Inside these journals sits a wealth of knowledge that you cannot get from searching the web. Pictures that I took at that moment in time, that mean more than a snapshot of scenery you glance at from a book. Pamphlets I picked up of places I have been to and explored. Business Cards. Receipts. Flora and Fauna. It's in there, in these journals.
On Halloween the eve of Nanowrimo I gathered all my books on Ireland and two of my travel journals. My Irish road atlas dated coincidentally 1998 & 2000 (I always buy a map whilst on my trips and keep them). Placed them on my writing desk for easy access and reference.
As I started writing I had a scene set in Sligo County Ireland. On my second trip to Ireland we visited Sligo and I took pictures of this Castle called Mountbatten and then we drove out to Mullaghmore Head. Where I learned with a chill and goosebumps that ran up my arms, that the IRA had assassinated Lord Mountbatten by placing a bomb on his boat here in 1979. So yes.. I have stuff from that day, that location tucked away neatly in a journal. From there we went into Northern Ireland. At this time in my life I had no inkling that I would want to write novels.
I was struggling with Boston in 1997 on the internet. Suddenly it occurs to me that I have a journal on Boston sitting in the other room on a bookshelf from my trip I took there with my sister. I open it up and it is like a time capsule and coincidentally enough from the year 1998. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to have maps of Boston, photos and notes from 1998. Priceless.
Coincidence. Fate. Yes.. I pretty much think I'm the shit today and I'm wearing a shit eating grin.
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