Faith and Begorra

That is a favorite saying of my friend, Cindy Sterling. It's something that I forgot to include in John Dunham's Diary when I was writing it back in November during Nano. Now that I am preparing to re-write it I will keep the phrase in my.

Also, to that end, I have a couple of books of Irish Fairy Tales and Sayings which I can utilize to make my Irish characters more authentic. It has also been suggestedt that I include more of the Bible into my work, since John has been relying on his faith to find the answers to the types of monsters that are plaguing him.

So, how much research does an author of fiction need to do? I can tell you that though I skipped some things during my fast paced writing schedule in November, I still did research. Research helped make the story more authentic. Though supernatural fiction people still expect some degree of reality when dealing with history. Perhaps not so necessary if I had been writing about the future, but if my reader should be schooled in 1889 Ireland then I should make an attempt to be accurate when writing about that time period.

I didn't deal with many Irish prases or sayings in the diary and fortunately my MC who is writing in his diary is American. Still I had to contend with keeping contractions out of his vocabulary and using words that I would never think to use. Somehow John Dunham's voice came through my fingers when I was typing the diary.

It always amazes me that God has given me this gift. It is a gift to channel stories and the voices of characters to bring them alive on paper. So faith and begorra to ye, my Irish and non-Irish friends alike!