First off, thanks for having me on the blog! It’s always such a treat to meet new readers and introduce them to my characters.
Once is the first book in my Gypsy Fairy Tale series and it centers around a secretive group of Irish Travellers and a family of the Tuatha De Danann that hides among them. I always wanted to write something about fairies and while I was researching fairy lore, I discovered that the first rulers of Ireland were a magical tribe that gave birth to the fairy legends of today.
Wow! Now how was I supposed to put THAT in a book and have it make any sort of sense? I kept at my research, adding to my notes over the next year, but I never could really figure it out.
Finally, thanks to my daughter’s love of magic shows, an idea began to percolate. What if members of the Tuatha De Danann were working in a circus or carnival? Their magical powers would go unnoticed because they wouldn’t be hidden. Hmm…..Now how am I supposed to make THAT work? Oh, the problems of a writer!
The final breakthrough came one night as I was watching television. There I was, not writing, not even thinking about writing, when My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding came on. I was thrust right into the secretive world of Irish Travellers.
Here was a group of people with old world ideas regarding behavior and honor, a people that lived on the outskirts of society, and a people that could be seen as logically traveling with or as a circus. Hmm…Irish Travellers….What if they were hiding a really big secret….What if they were hiding the Tuatha De Danann?
Okay, so I had my premise. The rest was easy. Girl meets Irish Traveller boy, boy turns out to be part of the magical Tuatha De Danann tribe, girl falls for boy, and then the bad guys show up. At least that’s the very shortened version.
So, how about some Traveller Trivia?
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Irish Travellers often speak a mingled language known as “The Cant”, making it difficult for outsiders to understand them when they speak amongst themselves.
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Irish Travellers have very strict rules involving encounters between unmarried couples. Often a chaperone will accompany a young couple on all of their dates.
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Irish Traveller women rarely drink alcohol, if ever.
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Irish Travellers are in a constant battle for their rights. In the past few years, they have lost land battles in the UK, the most famous being Dale Farm.
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Gypsy is actually a derogatory term for both Irish Travellers and Romani.
It was difficult to research such a closed group, but I have come to admire the quiet determination that seems to exist in them and has made it possible for them to survive despite discrimination. I could easily see them as being the good guys like in my story.
About the Author:
Dana Michelle Burnett spent most of her life writing short stories and sharing them with family and friends. Over the years, her work was published in numerous commercial and literary magazines including Just Labs, Mindprints: A Literary Journal, Foliate Oak, and many more. Her short story John Lennon and the Chicken Holocaust was include in The Best of Foliate Oak 2006.
Dana Michelle’s Spiritus Series introduced the idea of a ghostly romance and became a Kindle bestselling series. She’s an avid reader of anything dark and romantic. Dana Michelle lives in Southern Indiana with her dancing diva daughter and an assortment of pets.
Book Summary for Once: Gypsy Fairy Tale #1
Beautiful. Secretive. Magical. You envy their freedom, but you are distrustful of their ways. A strange carnival has come to Corydon, Indiana and the Irish Travellers have captured the small town’s attention–but it’s Harmony who’s attracted theirs.
Harmony sees the Travellers everywhere and just like everyone else in town she’s curious. But once she meets the mysterious and captivating Kieran, Harmony’s life takes an exciting and chilling turn.
Up until now, Harmony never believed that fairy tales or myths were real, but Kieran and his family belong to an ancient tribe called the Tuatha de Dannan and someone else has discovered their secret.
An ancient battle is about to begin again, and now no one is safe, especially Harmony. Can Kieran resist the urge to be with her or will his feelings put her in the crossfire?