Blogging A to Z: “I” is for Irish

Official White House photograph by Pete Souza; Photo credit: Wikipedia

Official White House photograph by Pete Souza; Photo credit: Wikipedia

I is for Irish…as in there is some innately mischievous and clever about an Irishman. Perhaps it’s the accent, perhaps it’s the stereotypical inclination to drink and scrap and tell wry jokes. My father comes from Irish stock and he certainly fits the mold, minus the accent, being from Virginia bootlegger stock. His mother’s maiden name was Gillespie which is the root of my pen surname, Gillian. (Claire Gillespie dot com had already been nabbed.) Her ancestors came to America, as did many other Irish, during the potato famine.

I’ve always been fascinated by the Irish and Ireland, so much so that my urban fantasy novel in process, My Fair Vampire, features a multi-centuries old Irish vampire named Donovan, who is challenged with teaching his new prodigy from New Mexico all the ins and outs of vampirism. My other in process novel, Sins of Our Mothers, features a rather nasty bunch of IRA zealots from the eighties.

Sadly, I’ve yet to visit Ireland. It’s definitely on my bucket list though. From the lush green countrysides to the busy cities, from the quiet villages to the boisterous pubs–I wanna see it all. I want to hear the ancient language. Believe it or not, I once audited a class in Gaelic when in college. I guarantee you I was the only business major in attendance.  LOL

Look at all the famous Irish actors too:  Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Michael Fassbender, Gabriel Byrne, Ciaran Hinds, Richard Harris, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Stuart Townsend, Stephen Rea, Cillian Murphy, and that doesn’t even count the ones of Irish descent who aren’t from Ireland.

Musically, we have the Brennan family–Enya, Maire and siblings from Clannad.

I’ll leave you with this single from Maire:

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Oh, and only six (6) days until my debut novel, The P.U.R.E. releases!

Blogging A to Z: “H” is for Holloway Pack!

H is for Holloway, as in Holloway pack, as in the characters from J.A. Belfield’s series of urban fantasy / paranormal romance novels. Today is the worldwide cover reveal of the next in the series:

Blue Moon

Beautiful isn’t it?

And to give you a little more information about the novel:

A Holloway Pack Story #2
by J.A. Belfield
Release Date: December 1, 2012
Target Reader: Adult
Keywords: Urban Fantasy, Werewolf

Back of the Book

Someone is watching the Holloway pack, and this time, the female isn’t the target.

Life with a group of seven male werewolves worries Jem Stonehouse not one bit. She is engaged to the Alpha’s son Sean Holloway after all. So what has Jem’s territorial instincts on high alert?

The pack’s latest addition. Both of them.

None of the men think there’s a problem with the new girlfriends. Jem’s intuition tells her otherwise—that and a nagging suspicion the new females aren’t there to partake.

Jem believes they’ve joined in to take.

The question is … What?

As the eve of the blue moon draws ever closer, Jem’s running out of time to find the answer and outwit a thief of the worst possible kind.

A woman who believes she can’t lose.

Read more at J. Taylor Publishing: URL: http://www.jtaylorpublishing.com/books/18

Previous Books in this series include:
Darkness & Light (#1)
Instinct (#0)
Eternal (#0.5)

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Oh, and only seven (7) days until my debut novel, The P.U.R.E. releases!