Blog Tour: Dancing to an Irish Reel by Claire Fullerton (Author Interview + Giveaway)

Title: Dancing to an Irish Reel
Author: Claire Fullerton
Publisher: Vinspire Publishing
Publication Date: March 6, 2015

Synopsis: On sabbatical from her job in the LA record business, twenty five year old Hailey Crossan takes a trip to Ireland for the vacation of a lifetime. What she finds is a job offer too good to turn down.

But her new life in Ireland comes with one major complication—Liam Hennessey. He’s a famous Irish musician whose entire live has revolved around performing. And Hailey falls in love with him. Because Liam’s not so sure love can fit into his life, he’s afraid to come closer, but neither can he bring himself to go away.

And so begins Hailey’s journey to a colorful land that changes her life, unites her with friends more colorful than the Irish landscape, and teaches her more about love than she’s ever known before.

About the Author: Claire Fullerton is the author of Paranormal Mystery, “A Portal in Time,” set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California (Vinspire Publishing) and “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” Fiction, set in Connemara, Ireland, (Vinspire Publishing.) She is a three time award winning essayist, a former newspaper columnist, a contributor to magazines, and a four time contributor to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series. Claire hails from Memphis,TN and now lives in Malibu, CA. Currently, Claire is writing her third novel, which is based on her award winning essay in the 2013 San Francisco Writer’s Conference.

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Author Interview:

First off, I'd like to thank you for joining me on the blog today!

I am thrilled to be here at Cozy Corner!

1. Describe Dancing to an Irish Reel as a tweet (140 characters or less)! 

A love song to the culture, people and landscape of Ireland.

2. What made you decide to base your book in Ireland and have you ever been?

I once spent a year living on the west coast of Ireland, in a rural village called Inverin, in the region of Connemara. The area is thirteen miles up the coast road from Galway City, and is set amongst panoramic landscape that includes sweeping fields peppered by gray-stone walls down the shores of the Atlantic. There is something ancient and haunting about the area, and the people are unaffected, down to earth, and amazingly happy and friendly. I worked in Galway, which is a young, vibrant college town with cobblestone streets and music venues everywhere you turn. The west of Ireland is its own culture, and I wanted to comment and share its nuances from an America perspective because I found everything about it so fascinating and worth telling.

3. What inspired you to start writing?

A deep-seated desire to explain and share. From a young age, I kept a journal wherein I’d document the daily events of my life so that I could not only keep a record, but be able to look back and see the cumulative events that were giving shape to the direction of my life. The process of keeping a journal explains the writer to themselves; it helps one keep current with their feelings, and for some inexplicable reason, I felt compelled to put pen to paper. In my opinion, one doesn’t aspire to be a writer, one gets in touch with the fact that they are.

4. What kind of research, if any, did you do for Dancing to an Irish Reel? 

My research was all about paying attention, REALLY paying attention; watching people, listening attentively, trying to see the myriad connections of cause and effect in the interplay of human relations. And I cultivated a sensitivity to and appreciation of the setting in western Ireland. People are connected to the land in such a way that it influences everything. And the area is historically preserved in a way that keeps a reverence for the past in the forefront of daily affairs. Ireland is an old culture, very unlike America, so living there is a very specific experience wherein one feels as if they are melding with the past.

5. Do you have a specific place where you write? 

Years ago, I turned a bedroom in my house into a writing room. I exchanged a queen-size bed for a twin, cherry wood sleigh bed, put a large screen monitor on a desk with a swivel chair and outfitted a bookcase with my favorite books. I painted the walls a soft yellow and hung Irish prints, an antique mirror, a sketch of my mother in her early teens, and a portrait of the house in which I grew up in the Deep South. This is everything in the room, and it has a sliding glass door that faces the Pacific Ocean in Malibu. It is a perfect arrangement for me because I tend to pace every so often when I write, which helps me grasp illusive word choices, if that makes sense. When in pacing mode, I step outside!

6. What are you reading right now? 

Anne Rivers Siddon’s “Peachtree Road.” It’s an unusually verbose book set in Atlanta during WWII. Its language is prosaic and in first person. It’s like reading a monologue culled from the interior chambers of the narrator’s confessional insights.

This or That... 

Ebook or Real book? 

Real book

Twitter or Facebook? 

Facebook

Chocolate or Vanilla? 

Always chocolate, except for ice cream.

Past or Future? 

Past

And just for fun- What is the strangest thing on your desk right now?

I don’t think it’s strange, but I have a copy Susan Haywards book, “A Guide for the Advanced Soul.”
 
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! 

You are more than welcome; thank you!

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-Kristen ♥