Your page is lovely, and Grainne is an absolute heartbreaker. I don't know how you can ever sell ANY of them!
The link to me is terrific too, and I am grateful. I would ask you to make one very large change, however. I don't write Celtic fantasies. I primarily write mainstream historical novels about Irish and Celtic culture. Only two of them are based on Irish folkloric history, which can also be considered myth - those two being RED BRANCH and FINN MAC COOL. But those two are a seminal part of Irish culture and personality, and without them a broad spectrum picture of Ireland would have some large holes missing.
Funnily enough, my very first book, THE WIND FROM HASTINGS, had no mention of the druids in it because they did not figure in the Battle of Hastings. But then when I published LION with its druids, some loony bookseller saw the reference to 'druids' and decided it must be a fantasy, since American fantasy writers were (and still are) pillaging druidry to stoke their own extravagant concoctions. Most of the stuff they are churning out bears no resemblance to the true druids or their culture and beliefs. But it serves to convince people that druids were merely figments of imagination, another variant of 'fantasy and science fiction'.
As a result my books have often wound up on fantasy or even science fiction shelves - even such hard-edged serious histories as THE LAST PRINCE OF IRELAND (taken as a selection by the History Book Club), GRANIA, and now my non-fiction history for young readers, VIKINGS IN IRELAND. It's enough to make the author scream.
Pardon me if I sound angry, but this is an old irritation.
The druids were the professional, intellectual class of the Celtic race. They were not magicians. They were not a fantasy any more than modern Catholics or Baptists or college professors are fantasy.
The Celtic races credited their druids with certain mystical attributes, such as shapechanging, which I write about from the point of view of magical realism because that is how the Celts themselves perceived them. To them it was real. To pretend otherwise would not be giving an accurate picture of Celtic culture.
Modern religions accord their various founders with attributes even more fantastic, one might observe. (Walking on water, resurrection from the dead, etc, etc.) I could write about the Buddhists or the Mohammedans or the Christians without being accused of writing fantasies. But I write about the druids because they are part of what we are. Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Manx, Breton, Cornish ... Celts.
Anyway, I would appreciate it a LOT if you would change the term 'fantasy,' to mainstream historical novels. I would hate for people to think the Irish war for independence, which is 1916, was 'fantasy'!
(Come to think about it, you could put all this irked diatribe of mine on the link if you want to; it could certainly cause some excitement!)
Thanks so much!
Your friend,
Morgan Llywelyn
TOR/Forge is bringing Morgan Llywelyn to America for a month-long book tour to promote 1916! Ms. Llywelyn will arrive in time for Saint Patrick's Day and return home after Easter.
A complete 1998 Tour Schedule of public appearance dates and events is now posted so that you will know when and where you can meet Morgan Llywelyn, buy a copy of 1916, and have it signed.
'Due to the sheer volume of mail she is receiving, Miss Llywelyn deeply regrets that she will no longer be able to respond to her fans individually. Please be assured of her gratitude for your interest, however...and keep reading!
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