On To My Next Endeavor...

Today's post is a progress report of sorts. I am happy to announce that I have written the first two chapters of my new novel. If you are following me on Facebook, you will know this already. So please join me, if you haven't already. I still need fourteen more people before I get my own URL.

Back to the new novel. I have tentatively entitled it Rebellion since it takes place during the Irish Revolution of 1798. It is an interesting and often over looked time period because the French Revolution was going on as well. But it was the revolutions in both America and France that spurred the Irish to rise against their British overlords. The group of rebels was called The United Irishmen, but sadly their attempts failed, and it was another hundred plus years before another rebellion was attempted.

I'm looking forward to writing more this weekend. The novel centers on Sophia Granger, the youngest daughter of a minor aristocrat living in Ireland. When her family falls on hard times, she marries a wealthy lord. Sophia is unaccustomed to the glittering society of Dublin, retires to her husband's estate after she discovers that her husband has no intention of keeping his wedding vows. Rambling about her palatial new home, she soon meets a poltical revolutionary. And naturally she falls in love and is then confronted with a moral dilemma she knows not how to solve. And as rebellion erupts across Ireland, what ensues is not pretty. But do not fret--there is a happy ending, just not the one you would expect.

Some of my inspiration came from the story of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the leaders of the United Irishmen. Fitzgerald was the son of the Duchess of Leinster, nee Lady Emily Lennox (one of the famous Lennox sisters chronicled in Stella Tilyard's The Aristocrats). Lord Edward did not meet a happy fate--he died in prison of wounds sustained while trying to evade his captors. It's a shame--he was quite a handsome lad, don't you think? But like all good heroes, he was memorialized all over Ireland and continued to be an example through later Irish uprisings.

So how about you all? Working on anything new? Or just trying to get through the week?