A Time to Gripe. A Time to Moan.

Here I am reading a magazine at one of my favorite places in Sligo--St. Patrick's holy well in Dromard. I used to go there alone to cry and vent and did quite a bit of both. You can see how green and quiet and lovely this spot is. Now that I am in Sharon, Wisconsin, I have no such luxury. I am sure I would be arrested if I went over to the local Catholic church parking lot and started screaming and moaning. No one ever caught me sobbing at this well where St. Patrick stands guard with his staff. I left lots of despair and desperate thoughts there with him and the murky well water.

Since I no longer have my private holy well, I will vent a bit right here. Many trivial, borderline petty things are bothering me today:

Like an old friend who recently stopped by for a visit after ten years and corrected me five times when I used the word 'hotel' instead of 'pensione' when we talked about one of her trips to Medjugorie. "I stayed in a in a 'pensione,' Brenna, not a hotel." I did not correct her.

Like how someone I dare not name corrects me pompously when I leave out a syllable in 'acetaminophen.' I can't seem to remember all of them. Yet this person has no idea how to use many common words in the English language, such as 'mortify.' I never correct her barbaric use of words. Why would I? It would hurt her feelings. She might be mortified if I did.

Enough pettiness. This holy well is unbelievably scenic. Sheep all over the hills surrounding it. The tour busses in Sligo drop their passengers off at another, way, way less impressive holy well that is all built up with Stations of the Cross and benches and video cameras hidden in the trees to catch petty thieves. St. Patrick's holy well in Dromard has been there long, long before he turned up in Ireland. I am sure this well has heard everything by now. Petty things and tragic things.

Brenna Briggs writes the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries.

www.liffeyrivers.com

The Buffalo Thorn Tree

I received a lovely e-mail yesterday from a Liffey Rivers reader in Illinois. She told me that reading the 4th Liffey Rivers mystery, In the Shadow of the Serpent, made her want to go to Africa. She asked me if I had ever been there or did I do a lot of research. I told her I did my homework and a lovely woman (an Irish Dance mom) in South Africa answered any questions I had.
I miss thinking about Africa now that Liffey's time in Africa is over--at least for the time being.

One of the most interesting things I read about is the Buffalo Thorn Tree. They pretty much grow alone which gives them a kind of haunted look from a distance on the savanna plains. At one time, these trees were planted on the graves of Zulu chiefs like a tombstone to mark the spot where the chiefs were buried. Buffalo Thorn branches were used to transport the spirit of the dead to their final resting place if the death took place away from the burial site.

The tree, though scrawny and pretty unimpressive visually, is amazing as to its medicinal and cultural roles. The Buffalo Thorn tree often grows on top of an abandoned termite hill. One of my black mamba snake scenes describes a savanna mamba positioned on top of a termite mound eating the birds which are eating the bugs which are eating the flowers and ripening fruit on the tree.

The flowers can be used to make a kind of honey. The berries are edible but not very tasty, although warthogs and baboons gorge on them. Giraffes love the leaves. The seeds from the tree can be dried and used to make a kind of weak coffee. The branches are very thorny and are used to make fences for cattle pens to keep lions and other predators out. And the branches have mystical uses other than transporting spirits. If you stand under a Buffalo Thorn tree during a lightning storm, you are protected.

Brenna Briggs writes the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries.

http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

What To Do With The Werewolf?

I am beginning to be seriously worried about my brain and how it works. I have been wrestling far too long today with a few important decisions for Part Four of Liffey Rivers and the Werewolves of Ossory.

Things are beginning to get complicated for 11-year-old Liffey in Seattle the night before the Halloween Feis. (I am now writing about a younger Liffey--she is eleven in this story and thirteen in all 4 books.) As usual, it seems that no good deed goes unpunished when Liffey takes in a mysterious Irish dancer who turns up at the feis alone. Something 'unexpected' had come over her mother and she arrived in Seattle only to be told by the hotel clerk that she could not check into the hotel without an adult. Enter Liffey's invitation to stay with eccentric Aunt Jean and herself.

Anyway, things are moving right along except I cannot decide at this point whether Liffey goes out to buy dog food or flees with her aunt when things get rough. I am leaning towards the dog food. Not all werewolves are bad. And I write for a young audience....

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries

http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

Facebook Daughter

My daughter, Rebecca Williams, (center) just returned to Ireland from Italy where she performed with the Sligo Youth Theatre at an international theatre workshop somewhere outside of Rome. Thanks to Facebook, and 300 photos, I have been able to kind of be there with her. She is the face model for the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries.

I so remember the days before Facebook. All the gaps in relationships because distance does take its toll eventually. Waiting for letters or phone calls that stopped coming regularly.... and then not at all.

Facebook has changed all that. You can find out just about anything you want about someone if you are patient enough to keep at it, plowing through the friends of friends of friends. You never feel completely out of the loop.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries