I wasn’t going to answer. The first e-mail came last July. Promo opportunity. “Write a free novella for All Romance eBooks which will be sold to benefit fill-in-the-blank charity.” I didn’t get that far in the reading. I had just written another free story to raise money for another organization. I had “real” writing to do. Edits due, proposal in the can, and another book deadline, for which I would receive royalties. No thanks.
I went back to my career writing genie novels. You get paid for a career, right? But, as I was to learn, the reward is not always in dollars. By the time the final reminder e-mail came in October about this “promo opportunity,” I was in Ireland. My heart belonged in this land of my mother, where the women were strong and funny and brimming with stories of vibrant lives, lives that are volatile and passionate, indelibly imprinted by a civilization that is lush, mournful, and joyous.
So many relatives in one place. An Irish wedding. We celebrated each other. We laughed. The Irish are good at that. We mourned, remembering the eldest of my mother’s 11 siblings who had died just the past Christmas Eve. She would have been with us, tickling us all with that tittering, engaging laugh of hers. We raised a glass to Tina O’Malley. The funny one, the flighty one, mother of six and lover of family photographs, the one with a heart as big as all of Glasgow, where she lived…and then died of a heart attack just a month before her 70th birthday.
So like Granny, we mused. Bridget Agnes Kelly also had died of a heart attack, at 73 years old. She’d traipsed into town as she did daily, down the long hill from Father Angelus Park to pick up messages (groceries) for the day, but mostly to share the news with friends and merchants she met along the way. And she knew every one of them, and their children’s names, and their birthdays. She fell dead on the sidewalk outside O’Malley’s shop. My Granddad got the urgent phone call to come down the hill. They didn’t tell him why until he got there. The news was devastating to everyone who knew Bridgey Ag. But, I think, especially to my mother. Separated from Granny at 16, my Mom had come unwillingly to American shores. She had found a better life, a good man, a happily-ever-after. Just like the fairy tale. The story my Grandmother wanted for her. My Mom knew that, but it didn’t lessen the pain of the distance. Her heart broke the day we got the news about Granny. I heard it.
Filled with stories and history and pride to have been able to share this Ireland, my heartland, with my children and husband, I returned to the States. But the return was tempered by more of those curveballs life throws you. While I was gone, my friend–erstwhile accomplice through teenage shenanigans, adventuress, woman whose wedding I had witnessed as Maid of Honor, and whose child I held in my arms the day she was born just three years earlier–had suffered a heart attack. 45 years old. She survived, but the damage is lasting.
At this point, you might be saying, enough already. I know I was. But the signs that whisk by our ears everyday–symbols and omens of our tenuous but unmistakable links to one another–were coming in for a direct hit. Sloughing through bytes of e-mail, I came across the final call for submissions from All Romance eBooks. This time, I read through to see who or what would benefit from the “uncompensated” efforts of willing authors. The answer: The American Heart Association.
Two weeks to the deadline. I didn’t need any more signs. I may have needed three kicks in the heart, but I finally got it. I submitted Angels & Genies on the last day. I received notice a month later that my story had been selected for ARe’s 28 Days of Heart Campaign. It’s no Bridgey Ag’s Ashes and certainly not literary fiction. But it’s a rousing tale about a genie and a woman, and I think my Aunt Tina would really enjoy it.
Angels & Genies releases on February 24th. But you can donate to the American Heart Association whenever your heart desires. And wear red on February 5th. Celebrate the women who battle heart disease. Commemorate the women whose hearts no longer beat, but whose memories live on.
Yes, there are loads of wonderful romance books out there, and you want to hunt for the best … but you don’t have a lot of time to do it. And your horse is getting tired. Well, call off the dogs. All Romance eBooks has done it for you. This massive online outlet for today’s best romances has put together a list of 31 of today’s “hottest romance authors.”
Genre Fiction, Out & About with Writers | Kellyann | 
March 2, 2010 2:45 pm | 
Comments (0) 
Oatmeal Lace Cookie Recipe
Subscribe
