The Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries Bling Alert

Do Vampires Feed On Decapitated Snakes?

2012-02-29T14:30:00.001-08:00

Okay, I was not present for a lecture here recently in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, during which, according to my husband, this photo was part of a Power Point presentation of life at the turn of the century (the last one) here in Mineral Point.
The lecturer explained that this circa. 1900 photo depicts a young girl standing on a decapitated snake with a dog (that looks like it's from another planet) watching her.
Is this girl a vampire and did the girl bite the head off this snake? I have read that if a vampire cannot find a nice warm mammal it will settle for cold blooded creatures. I have not read the Twilight vampire books but I think I remember (I saw the first movie en route on Aer Lingus from Dublin to Chicago a few years ago)that the non-people predator vampires in the movie were eating forest animals?
Of course, it is entirely possible that the little dog did the biting and decapitating.
But the discovery of this photo certainly adds fuel to the fire about my theory that there are vampires lurking about here in Mineral Point.
Irish Dancer-Girl Detective Liffey Rivers will get to the bottom of it eventually.

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

www.liffeyrivers.com

Dead Mouse and New Book Cover Art

2012-01-31T15:07:00.000-08:00

Living here in Mineral Point has been interesting what with The Red Rooster and Gray Dog cafes and people who actually write Haiku and/or Renku and tales of vampires jumping out of trees and up from under a boat dock on the only lake in the county.

But this picture says it all. From the middle or late 1800's I would think?

And can you find the mouse in the picture? Not a computer one. A dead, real one?

Maybe these are early vampires? Not too many of us like to dangle dead mice at the camera. Perhaps that mouse was breakfast?

Anyway, Liffey Rivers will figure Mineral Point out when she moves here after her latest adventures in The Alaskan Sun. (February)

Here is a sneak preview of the cover art by Cian Flynn,Sligo,Ireland.

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

Can Solo Dresses Cause Epileptic Siezures?

2012-01-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

I do not pretend to have anything close to what fashionable people might call "good taste." However, I do have a few internal alarm systems. One concern I have is:"How far can solo dresses go with geometrical designs and neon colors before the adjudicators, who must sit still and watch dresses like the above flash by hour after hour at Irish dance competitions--feiseanna, develop some serious Post Traumatic Bling Disorders? Or epileptic seizures?"

The following is research I lifted about the correlation between seizures and too many geometric-like shapes:

"Most patients experiencing subjective symptoms describe visual phenomena as the initial ictal manifestation. These are usually reported as bright, multicolored, or occasionally manifesting dark rings, spots, or simple geometric forms, which are continuous or flashing. These are usually, but not necessarily, in the periphery of the visual field, crossing to the opposite side while rotating or moving slowly. Ictal amaurosis, blindness or severe blurring of vision, limited to one hemifield, quadrant, or involving the entire visual field, may follow..."

So perhaps the Irish dancing community ought to think about the health risks the judges they employ at their competitions face? Maybe the adjudicators should be able to get some kind of insurance coverage along with their feis fees if they develop a seizure condition after a feis? Worker's Comp?

Brenna Briggs is the author of THE LIFFEY RIVERS IRISH DANCER MYSTERIES.

Are There Vampires In Mineral Point?

2012-01-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

I have now lived in Mineral Point since September 17th.
I have to admit that it never entered my mind that there might be vampires here. Haiku authors,yes. Vampires, no.

However, my daughter, Rebecca, who has returned to the States after 8 years from Ireland en route to either NYC or LA, has decided there is more going on here than meets the eye. In fact, she no longer sneaks outside at night for a cigarette because she is afraid of seeing a vampire. So in a way, I am glad that Mineral Point has this built-in 'NO SMOKING' warning due to possible confrontation with a vampire ambiance.

Anyway. Here is the scoop. Rebecca was researching 'ghosts in Wisconsin' for some reason and came across these link:

http://www.hecklerspray.com/awesome-or-off-putting-the-mineral-point-vampire/201158546.php

So I am seriously considering having my Irish Dancer-Girl Detective heroine, Liffey Rivers, meet up with one of the local creatures of the night here in a future mystery.

In the meantime, I am glad this has curbed Rebecca's bad habit.

To further validate the vampire connection here. My husband was told by an usher in the oldest local church this past Sunday that the beautiful, very old refurbished church organ was a result of a generous cash donation to honor the great-great grandfather of....are you ready for this: VINCENT PRICE,

who played the very same church organ many, many years ago.

So. I think that pretty much lends credibility to the vampire thing here. Just tie up the loose ends and there you have it: Vampires in Mineral Point!

I will report more evidence as I dig it up. Or dug ups surface.

Brenna Briggs
On location in Mineral Point, Wisconsin

p.s. The 5th Liffey Rivers book; THE ALASKAN SUN is coming very, very soon. I promise.

Doing The First Southwestern Wisconsin Author And Poet Festival

2011-11-21T18:52:00.000-08:00

Next week...no, THIS week! Show up this Saturday from 11-2 at THE FIRST SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN AUTHOR AND POET FESTIVAL in Mineral Point, WI, 203 High Street, and you will receive a free good luck spaghetti and meatball charm (from me)....possibly even more.

I am thinking that there will not be too much BLING at this festival thing. But you never know. Maybe all the other authors and some of the poets will have Swarovski crystals all over their otherwise colorless clothing. Maybe the pens they bring to sign their works will have feathers and glue-on sparkles.

I need to get some of those. I have been looking and have been quite disappointed that to date I have not yet seen even one pen or marker that looks like it/they have ever thought about being blingy. So I have been using the drab pens that my sister got in the doctor's office where she worked that the drug reps left behind. If anyone ever actually read my pens,I think that they would worry about me. Most of the drugs advertised on the pens have to do with serious mental conditions I had not heard of prior to asking my sister what the ads were selling. There was one cool pen that was shaped like a leg bone (at least I think it was a leg bone) but it ran out of ink long ago.

Anyway, if you can get to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, this Saturday, there are lots of art galleries and cafes and historical sites. It's worth a look. And we will talk.

Time to watch Castle. I am hoping the writers have finally picked up the romance pace.

RENKU-ING AROUND IN MINERAL POINT

2011-11-13T14:22:00.000-08:00

HERE IS MY RENKU WORKSHOP GROUP IN MINERAL POINT, WISCONSIN, AT THE FOUNDRY BOOKS.

Our Sabaki, Melissa Allen, facilitated this workshop and was very helpful and patient. Until this writing event, I have to admit that I had absolutely no idea what a renku was/is. I am still not sure. This was a group writing effort and I was without question, the weakest link. Part of my mental block was related to the formula used to compose a renku. It involves numbers so I immediately panicked. To be honest, I think it is much easier writing a 200 page Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mystery.
The Foundry Books is a wonderful place. Anyone within 100 square miles of Mineral Point needs to visit it. Gayle Bull has accumulated hundreds--probably thousands of used books on as many subjects.
To illustrate why perhaps I was not particularly helpful constructing our renku: I purchased one of those used books before leaving: Annette: Sierra Summer. A shiny pink book I had purchased in 1960 and then lost along life's literary highway.

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

The Road Most Traveled

2011-10-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have zealously devoted many recent blogs to educating the feiseanna public about the perils of Post Traumatic Bling Syndrome. I have been a voice crying in a wilderness of sparkling stressors. Now I am taking the fork in the road leading back to the road most traveled. Back in the fold if you will. The sheep returning to the flock, etc.

I have developed some Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer bling: A 2 1/2 inch pin which can also be altered into a decoration featuring Liffey in her solo dress.

ORDER PIN

Also, for the Pre-Feis ritualistic Spaghetti and Meatballs zealots, there is now a T-Shirt which cautions Irish dancers to eat their 'night before the feis' good luck pasta dinner:

ORDER T-Shirt

I will be presenting at IBAM CHICAGO on November 12th at 2:00 p.m. in the Literary Salon. More importantly, real authors (even famous ones)will be crawling all over the Irish Heritage Center on the 12th and 13th. Food is priced reasonably and there is literally something to do every second you are there. Check out the web site:

Visit IBAM

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

Threat of VIMS From Watching Irish Dancers

2011-08-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

You have probably all seen a spinning top. Many of you have never, however, seen a spinning Irish dancer in an overly decorated Solo Dress. Both can give you VIMS. Here is the definition from Answers.com:

Motion that is seen but not felt

"In these cases, motion is detected by the visual system and hence the motion is seen, but no motion or little motion is sensed by the vestibular system. Motion sickness arose in such situation has been referred to as Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS)."

I am positive this is what happens to me at feiseanna if I watch Irish dancers jumping around in their bling bedecked solo dresses. Now I know why. My visual system gets out of sync with my vestibular system. I should have thought of this explanation myself. Tops always bothered me when I was little if I stared at one too long.

The really BIG question here is how do the judges look at Irish dance competitions with their endless parade of overly decorated dancers all day long without running to the restroom? I honestly don't know! I turn away when the VIMS hits me.

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

Where do you go from here?

2011-07-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Blinging right along now. Excerpt from FOUR MINI MYSTERIES:

"Aunt Jean woke up from a terrible nightmare about placing fourth in her Reel at a feis in New York. This of course was impossible. She shook her head from side to side as she crawled out of bed, trying to cast off the feeling of dread a bad dream often leaves behind.

"Liffey?" Aunt Jean called out. "Liffey, darling, where are you? We need to get dressed and then get to our stages."
The absolute quiet in the room was perplexing. Had Liffey gone downstairs already without her?
She hurriedly changed into her Irish dance attire, carefully centering her diamond tiara on her blonde wig. Liffey was probably off finding some breakfast. 'I never eat breakfast before I dance,' she thought proudly. 'The only nourishment I need before I dance is the air I breathe.'
The idea occurred to her that if she had some time to spare before she danced, she would buy a rhinestone applicator from one of the vendors. She just might brighten up her dress a bit with some Swarovski crystals and rhinestones. Lots of them. 'One can never have too much sparkle,' she thought. 'Never.'

TO ORDER BUNNY BLING SHIRT

If you enjoy Liffey Rivers' Aunt Jean, you can read about her 'Toadaphobia' in FOUR MINI MYSTERIES and experience an African safari in the 4th book of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries: IN THE SHADOW OF THE SERPENT

EXCERPT:
"Before Liffey could ask Mr. Powers if they should put on their rain gear, he stopped and said: “Let’s suit up in our water repellant clothing ladies before we get soaked. We have three miles to walk yet.”
“I beg your pardon, Mr. Powers,” Aunt Jean said impatiently, searching for her rain gear, “three miles to walk where?”
“To the camp, Ms. Rivers,” Mr. Powers replied.
“Why are we not driving in your little jeep to our camp?”
“Because there is no road left to drive on, Miss Rivers.”
“Why ever not, Mr. Powers?”
“Well I suppose the resident wildlife just never got around to building one.”
“You expect us to walk three miles through the bush? We might be eaten Mr. Powers!”
‘Oh no,’ thought Liffey. ‘It has begun. I should have told Aunt Jean she booked the wrong camp. It is going to be a long four days.'

Brenna Briggs is the author of THE LIFFEY RIVERS IRISH DANCER MYSTERIES www.liffeyrivers.com

AND THE BLING GOES ON

2011-07-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Bling Dress of the Day:

Excerpt from FOUR MINI MYSTERIES:
"Just then, Liffey saw her Aunt Jean passing by with an armload of merchandise and two tiaras perched high on her wig which she had sprayed with red highlights.
“Oh no!” Liffey blurted out.
“Please excuse me. Really, really, really nice meeting you!” She nodded a polite good-bye to the raven-haired crone.
Aunt Jean was obviously completely out of control again. She was pulling a light-up, shocking pink, black polka dot suitcase. Her face was orange from another application of fake tan cream and her green sparkly eye shadow made her look like she was a contestant in an eye-glitter pageant. Each of her ears had six red ‘gem tac’ earrings and her lipstick was an ugly peach tone.
‘I knew I should have never left her alone,’ Liffey thought guiltily, knowing full well she was going to ditch her aunt again as soon as she could get her back up to their hotel room and settled in.
‘I did not follow the doctor’s orders about how to treat Aunt Jean’s Post Traumatic Bling Syndrome. I know I should be watching Aunt Jean, but I have to see this Murphy Trophy competition if I am ever going to figure out what is going on with the Derrynaflan Chalice. If Aunt Jean sits down next to me, it will attract unwanted attention.’
Liffey went up to the stage monitor and was told the competition would start in exactly fifteen minutes. ‘Just enough time to get Aunt Jean upstairs and myself back down here again. I will try to think of a good reason why I have to leave the room again. I cannot miss this competition.’
“Aunt Jean!” Liffey called out. Her aunt stopped in the aisle and smiled. “Liffey, darling, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Liffey answered untruthfully: “I’ve been looking everywhere for you too, Aunt Jean. Let’s get back to the room and have a look at all the cool stuff you bought.”
***
When Aunt Jean displayed her purchases, Liffey was delighted to see that her aunt had bought an electric rhinestone applicator. ‘This will keep Aunt Jean busy for hours!’ She helped her aunt set up what looked like a mass production assembly line for applying rhinestones and crystals and raced out of the room. ‘I’ll deal with her bling disorder tomorrow on the way to Africa,’ Liffey decided.
‘I wonder how long it will take Aunt Jean to ruin the dress?’"

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

FOUR MINI MYSTERIES

Irish Dancing Nationals= Big Bling and Orange Dancers

2011-07-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

This lovely little girl looks great! She is not orange and has little girl eyes as well. Most of the champion Irish dancers at this year's Nationals looked great. But some... WHY do dancers' moms (or teachers) think they have to change their daughters (students)into orange people when they dance at competitions? I cannot believe that the judges give a rip. Why would they? Besides, the judges must be so dazzled by all the crystals on dresses and ornamentation strewn throughout many dancers' wigs that I would think they would welcome good old plain human skin. I don't think that the stage lighting the dancers are under is particularly harsh. The lighting would not wash away their regular skin coloring and certainly not their facial features. Finally, why do so many dancers look like they have been cast in a touring production of the Broadway musical CATS? What is with all the elaborate cat-eyes--often matching their solo dresses?
I realize I have never been trendy. I went to an all girls high school. We had to wear uniforms but now and then, there was a no-uniform requirement day. I had very few non-uniform clothes so I always used to pretend that I forgot. I did not own a Villager ensemble and certainly no circle pins to bling up an outfit with. In short, I did not have 'in' clothes. But to be honest, it never bothered me. I held my own socially without them. I think talented Irish dancers would do well to pretend they 'forgot' their latest, ridiculously expensive solo dress and try dancing in last year's rags. Except of course for the dancers who are growing like weeds....

You can read about Post Traumatic Bling Disorder in FOUR MINI MYSTERIES at www.liffeyrivers.com

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.
www.liffeyrivers.com

Louisville Feis Report: Low Level Bling

2011-06-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that the Louisville Feis contained their Bling Level. There were of course many sparkling stressors but in comparison with some of the Chicago and Milwaukee feiseanna I have been to, it was easy on the eyes. Every now and then a few crystal-cluttered dresses flashed by but I was ready for them and simply looked away like one is instructed to do during a solar eclipse. I very much enjoyed meeting up with many Liffey Rivers readers and particularly with one who had read the first book: Liffey Rivers and the Mystery of the Sparkling Solo Dress Crown, when it was first published in 2006.

This lovely young lady told me she had never given her Liffey Rivers books away. Like Wendy from Peter Pan, she was all grown up now.

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

Liffey Rivers: Post Traumatic Bling Syndrome

2011-05-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from the latest Liffey Rivers book:

LIFFEY RIVERS: FOUR MINI MYSTERIES (May 2011):

'The Mystery of the Temporary Trophy '

The photos are not in the book.

Aunt Jean was suffering from Post Traumatic Bling Syndrome.

The doctor on duty at the Liberty Torch Feis in New York told Liffey that he had been seeing more and more of this syndrome lately. Possibly because there were so many feiseanna these days.

Many Irish dancers were competing several times a month and some of these dancers would inevitably become overwhelmed by all the glitter and sparkle and would not be able to cope.

While Liffey’s Aunt Jean only competed at feiseanna occasionally, after Liffey told the doctor that her aunt had begun to talk endlessly about rhinestone poodle socks and solo dresses decorated with hundreds of Swarovski crystals, the doctor was fairly certain that at some point Aunt Jean’s brain had become dazzled.

Even though she had colored her dyed blonde hair coal black for the role of the bad girl in Lord of the Dance, Aunt Jean had apparently forgotten all about auditioning for the show and was now determined to become a famous Irish dance dress designer instead.

Ever since she had joined the local clown alley in Wisconsin and had become ‘Clown Tootles,’ Aunt Jean had been completely out of control. Liffey tried to be patient but it was difficult listening to her aunt going on and on about things like designing disposable paper solo dresses that could be thrown away after you danced at a feis.

Aunt Jean had a ‘vision’ of her solo dress designs morphing into skirted clown costumes covered with geometric shapes like triangles and squares and circles and diamonds. “My solo dresses will include color-coordinated clown noses which will match the dancer’s dress. And there will only be rainbow colored clown wigs, Liffey. Enough of those long, boring curls. Enough of them! One can never have too much color, Liffey. Never!”

ORDER FOUR MINI MYSTERIES

'THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPORARY TROPHY'

"This New York feis was huge. There were over 1,700 dancers moving around in dresses smothered with twinkling bling. Liffey thought many of them looked like comets flashing through the sky when they danced.
     It had all been too much for Aunt Jean to handle and she collapsed on stage right after she placed fourth in her Reel. When the EMT stretcher deposited her aunt at the feis doctor's station, Aunt Jean rallied and started talking about her design visions again.
    The doctor listened carefully and diagnosed Aunt Jean‘s anxiety disorder. The doctor explained that with early intervention the psychological trauma Aunt Jean had experienced in the presence of so many sparkling stressors could eventually be brought under control.
       He told Liffey to take her Aunt Jean back to their hotel room for absolute bed rest and not allow her to watch shows like Dancing With the Stars because that might worsen her condition."

Excerpts From New Book: Four Mini Mysteries

2011-05-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

LIFFEY RIVERS AND THE WEREWOLVES OF OSSORY

Liffey sighed with relief. At least her friend was not yet on an expensive, all meat diet. ‘Aunt Jean is bound to notice I have already ordered enough meat to feed a football team.’

She poured a large bowl of cereal and placed it in front of Kathleen who was waiting politely, paws folded on the table, tongue dangling from her white and grey mouth. Then Liffey returned to the small kitchenette to get her own cereal. When she went back to the table, Kathleen was nowhere to be seen.

Liffey heard loud, satisfied slurping at the end of the hall by the door. When she investigated, she saw a large tail wagging back and forth and Kathleen on all fours, face pressed down into the bowl of Cheerios.

‘So much for normal behavior.’ Apparently Kathleen had walked down the hall like a human and then put the bowl down on the floor to dine.

‘How is Kathleen going to behave tomorrow afternoon at the feis? What if she walks around on all fours instead of standing up erect? What if she snarls at the judges or tries to bite the other dancers?’

THE CASE OF THE CLUMSY CLOWNS

Liffey put her hand deep down into the tote bag and felt Max’s little jaw chewing on his sock. He was awake if she needed him.

When the clown with the big blue nose and grotesque blue jester hat reached their pew and extended his blue gloved hand, Liffey feared she might be his next victim. She put the tote bag on the floor sideways and tossed the clown toy she had hidden under her parka towards the blue nosed clown’s feet.

Next, in a quiet but firm command voice, Liffey gave the order: “Max Attack!”

Max tore out of the tote bag towards the indestructible clown toy but got confused and attached his little jaws around the real clown’s ankle instead. The real clown screamed. “Get your vicious dog off me or I’ll see you in court!” Max held on, growling and snarling, showing off for Liffey.

Aunt Jean slumped down in the shiny wooden pew and collapsed. Liffey was not quite sure what to do. Should she try to revive Aunt Drama Queen, who would probably then just go limp again, or risk approaching the blue nosed clown to pull Max off him?

Liffey knew the clown was faking the pain because Max’s little jaws had very little clenching power. His tiny teeth were dull from years of chewing on socks. He never sharpened them on dog bones. Liffey decided she had better disengage Max from the wailing clown’s ankle.

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING NOVICE

‘She must have gone up only one flight of steps,’ Liffey decided, when out of nowhere she felt icy cold, bony fingers clamping down on her neck and a hoarse voice asking: “Are you following me young lady?”

Liffey could hardly catch her breath. It was obvious that this lady knew she was following her. Liffey resisted the impulse to yank the thin, icy fingers off her neck and flee as she lied: “Following you? Of course not! Why would I be following you?”

“That’s what I would like to know. Now you listen to me, I may look old and feeble, but I am much more resourceful than you could ever imagine and I am warning you right now that if you slam into me or follow me one more time, you will deeply regret it.” Little pricking pins and needles began to run up and down Liffey’s back.

Liffey was speechless as the old woman released her finger claws and walked away slowly, pulling her crippled left leg up each step by using the stretchy fabric of her baggy slacks. She did not look like a formidable adversary. Dyed brown hair and overly tanned skin masked her true age.

“She’s probably over a hundred,” Liffey thought, feeling somewhat foolish as she watched the feeble woman struggling up the stairs with her bad leg. Still, Liffey had the strong feeling that this seemingly harmless old lady was a danger to someone. Liffey hoped it was not herself and quickly left the stairwell before the unpleasant woman had time to turn around to begin another verbal assault.

THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPORARY TROPHY

She was not prepared for Mrs. Sherlock’s uncontrolled, violent reaction. Mrs. Sherlock grabbed Liffey by her short, blonde wig and yanked it right off her head.

“What in the world do you think you are talking about, Liffey Rivers?” she shrieked.

‘How does that witch know my name?’ Liffey felt like she might throw up.

There was a loud, disapproving outcry among the spectators surrounding the Murphy Family Perpetual Trophy stage.

The musician, who had already begun to play the intro bars to the Hornpipe for the first two dancers, stopped cold. Everyone was looking at the shocked girl in the black ribbed sweater dress whose wig had just been ripped off her head by the old lady sitting next to her. Heads were tilted to get a better look, and the audience surrounding the stage was whispering among themselves.

These are excerpts from the new book, Liffey Rivers: Four Mini Mysteries.

http://liffeyrivers.com/ORDERBOOKS.html

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries: www.liffeyrivers.com

LIFFEY RIVERS: FOUR MINI MYSTERIES

2011-05-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

LIFFEY RIVERS: FOUR MINI MYSTERIES is available immediately on Amazon.com at ORDER

Available through bookstores: ISBN: 9781461103011 ($12.99) soon.

Going to sign books at the Louisville Feis on June 18th. Bring your Liffey Rivers books for signing or buy one/some and receive a pre-feis good luck spaghetti and meatballs charm.

Now on to finishing up THE ALASKAN SUN. An August deadline for this book is certainly looming as it is apparently May now.

THE ALASKAN SUN will tie up all the loose ends and answer all the questions books, 1, 2, 3 and 4 have introduced. After this Book #5 in the LIFFEY RIVERS IRISH DANCER mystery series, Liffey will move on to one book adventures....and there will be many!

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.
www.liffeyrivers.com

Liffey Rivers Preview: Four Mini Mysteries

2011-04-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

COMING IN MAY:

This is the first collection of short stories in the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mystery series. Four intriguing mini mysteries allow 13-year-old Liffey Rivers to prove she has sleuthing skills far beyond her years.

In “The Werewolves of Ossory,” Liffey rescues a dancer from Ireland who has traveled alone to the Seattle Halloween Feis burdened by a centuries old family curse. Read some background material I wrote a few years ago on this Irish werewolf subject.

In “The Mystery of the Missing Novice,” Liffey notices that there are two unrelated young dancers at an Irish dance competition, a feis, who look like identical twins. When one of them goes missing, Liffey’s intuition and attention to details provide a logical, happy ending explanation for the little girl’s disappearance.

In “The Case of the Clumsy Clowns,” Liffey suspects that a group of unfunny, clumsy clowns might be up to something more than entertaining their audience.

“The Mystery of the Temporary Trophy,” finds Liffey at a feis in New York with her Aunt Jean who is suffering from Post-Traumatic Bling Syndrome. Liffey observes that one of the perpetual trophies to be awarded at this feis looks suspiciously like the ancient Derrynaflan Chalice Liffey had seen in a Dublin museum. If you get a photo with this chalice and send to me, you will be entered in a 10 book giveaway for the new short story collection.brennabriggs@liffeyrivers.com

All four of these convoluted mini mysteries were originally published in six parts in Irish Dancing and Culture Magazine from 2008-2011.

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

Taking Care Of Buisness

2011-04-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

"Kathleen, listen up here! Look at your feet. What do you see? Do you see anything unusual down there?”

“Not really,” replied Kathleen.

“O.K. Kathleen, drop the towel!”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said drop the towel Kathleen. You have already turned into an Ossory Werewolf.”

Kathleen let the towel fall to the floor, walked over to the full length mirror on the bathroom door and let out a heartbroken whimper.

“See what I mean, Kathleen?” Liffey said gently.

From Liffey Rivers and the Werewolves of Ossory

1) Coming in a few weeks: 'Liffey Rivers: Four Mini Mysteries.' These stories originally appeared in Irish Dancing and Culture magazine from 2008 to 2011, each in six parts. They have been heavily edited for this book and I am satisfied with the results. I guess. I am never really satisfied. Anyway, the book is coming soon. You can order this collection of short stories in bookstores or online. And I am hoping to turn up at a few fesieanna this summer with all of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.
2) The first Liffey Rivers mystery, The Mystery of the Sparkling Solo Dress Crown is now on Kindle --USA Amazon and UK Amazon.
4) Contest: If you will be in Dublin for the World Championships, go to the National Museum and take a picture next to the Derrynaflan Chalice. It is the subject of one of the short stories: The Mystery of the Temporary Trophy, in the upcoming collection of short stories. The photo (your name) will be entered into a contest to win a free, signed copy of the Liffey Rivers: Four Mini Mysteries book. Send to: brennabriggs@liffeyrivers.com Ten books will be given away.
5) I will be at the Louisville Feis on June 18th.
6) The fifth book of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries, Liffey Rivers: The Alaskan Sun, will be available in August.

To bed. It's late. Bad day today with the Alzheimer's Disease which has erased any trace of my real mother.

Brenna Briggs
www.liffeyrivers.com

NO PARKING !!

2011-04-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

O.K. Here I am in Sharon, Wisconsin, taking care of my Alzheimered mother. I think there are maybe 1,500 people who live here. Not sure. And many of the people living here fall under the federal guidelines for "poverty." So we are not talking snooty Beverly Hills rich people here dictating snooty parking laws. It is Smallville to be sure. They (the Police) write tickets for all kinds of things. Possibly their favorite theme is the No Parking "Gottcha" citation.
From the beginning: First ticket was for parking on the street because we did not know there was a Nov-April "NO PARKING" law. No warning citation, just a $25.00 ticket and a sign stating this regulation located nowhere near us. The car had been parked possibly 20 minutes prior to the ticket. Then my husband got a $25.00 parking ticket for parking in front of his own office unloading a filing cabinet. He had BACKED IN so he could carry the heavy metal cabinet into his little office.The 'business block' where he rents a tiny hole in the wall has almost no traffic. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. But backing into a parking space is just WRONG!
Now. As I said, there is almost ZERO traffic in lovely Sharon. ZERO. No traffic and probably 200 cars a week passing through the Village. This afternoon, I was visited by a cop at home while feeding my mom who informed me that we are NEVER allowed to park on the street in front of our house. He explained that the street signs really needed to be replaced to reflect this as they only say 'NO PARKING FROM NOV-APRIL." The word Hicksville come to mind. The street in front of our house is probably wider than a dual carriageway in Ireland.

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

Robin Heud And Maid Marian

2011-03-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

'An Pipl Kauld Im Robin Heud'

Words from a 1247 manuscript

This little introductory scene looks like it might be from an early Nancy Drew book with Nancy disguised as Maid Marian sleuthing around Sherwood Forest looking for clues.
The legend of Robin Hood, according to scholars, is probably a combination of several people and...shockingly, the real one was probably a bandit! A bad one. Not one who stole from the bad and gave to the good, or whatever.

A great take on the Robin Hood theme is a lovely little book by Nancy Springer called Rowan Hood. Rowan is the Outlaw Girl of Sherwood Forest.

Why am I fixating on Robin Hood today? No idea. You know how one thing leads to another and then another online. It just happened.

But I have read this Rowan Hood book and would recommend to Liffey Rivers readers.

You can also watch old black & white episodes of Robin Hood from the 1950's starring Richard Greene online. Just get lost like I did and enjoy.

My very favorite Maid Marian. Impishly crisp and witty.

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

www.liffeyrivers.com

BOOK OF KELLS FOR KIDS

2011-02-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

In the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries, I have tried to sneakily impart some Irish history to kids, who, like myself some time ago, are resistant to storing historical facts unless an exam is looming. Even in college I routinely put off studying for tests and quizzes until the very last minute. Then I would cram as much as I could into my panicked brain. Looking back, I wonder now if I was an AD kid. Focusing was difficult although not impossible. I could study when I had to.
The Nancy Drew-like heroine of the Irish Dancer Mysteries, 13-year-old Liffey Rivers, hates her father's Irish history lectures and will do almost anything to escape if he begins one. "He was a spider sitting in his web waiting for Liffey, the fly, to get stuck. Liffey knew he was waiting for her to ask him what the tower was, but she was not going to fall into that trap. She had been caught in her history nut father's web too many times."
(From Liffey Rivers and the Mystery of the Winking Judge.)
By the time she escapes her father's lecture traps, some historical facts are 'out there' and hopefully stored in young readers' minds.
The Book of Kells is something that is normally not of great interest to younger students. I have tried to lighten it up: "Liffey informed her aunt that these valuable manuscripts were kept under glass in a long case at Trinity College in Dublin, like Snow White sleeping after she ate the poisoned apple."
Last year a wonderful cartoon version of the Kells story came out in cinemas and DVD: THE SECRET OF KELLS.
If you visit my KID KELLS page, you can click on the link. It is almost half price now and would be a great way to impart a bit of Irish history this Saint Patrick's Day in a kid-friendly format.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.
www.liffeyrivers.com

This Short Film Captures Agony and Ecstasy Of Irish Dancing

2011-02-11T08:25:00.000-08:00

There are lots of videos online now about Irish dancing. Most are entertaining school performances. This movie link was posted by my friend Maggie and I love it! It captures the agony and ecstasy of what may one day become the human subspecies called : Irish Dancer.

Great Irish Dancer Documentary

Enjoy!

Brenna Briggs is the author of The Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries
www.liffeyrivers.com

The Ozark Mountain Feis

2011-02-05T15:15:00.000-08:00

Arrived in Branson, Missouri, to find King Kong tearing apart a building just a block away from our hotel.

Very surprised to find the Titanic beached just a bit past the ape as I thought it was at the bottom of the Atlantic. Eventually, realizing that these were merely amusements or 'attractions,' I set off to find the Irish dance competition in town.

The Ozark Mountain Feis was great. Small, with less than 200 dancers, but a nice change from 'epic' feiseanna with casts of thousands. Saw everybody there off and on all day. It was a lovely feis.

The bling was not excessive either. No headaches. It was a nice day.
Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.

Clucking

2011-01-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

My children visiting their grandmother at Christmas.

Watching Lawrence Welk last Saturday.

My mother has not known who I am for over five years now. I have been caring for her with my sister since May 2009 when I came over from Sligo, Ireland. She is in the end stages of Alzheimer's Disease. She can no longer stand without being totally propped up under her elbows. Speech is often like a clucking hen. If words do leave her mouth, they are normally gibberish--except once in a great while, a complete sentence finds its way out and this is always shocking. She can still read. Not for entertainment, she just reads 'Speed Limit' on the sign outside her window and sometimes words off the TV. She can no longer pick up her food with her hands and find her mouth. Except once in a great while, she finds a banana slice and gets it to the right place. Once in a very great while. We feed her, change her and try to keep her stimulated. She loves Lawrence Welk which is very odd because I have no memory of her watching it when she was younger. But now it is THE event of the week. She claps for joy and does a kind of voodoo thing with her hands at the television screen.
Some months ago she was failing rapidly. I fed her noodles one at a time. She threw them up. She went in and out of comas. Not now. Now she eats almost regular sized meals and is being dismissed by Hospice as she is no longer 'declining.' I agree with their diagnosis. For some reason she has stabilized.
It is like the Twilight Zone around here. Living normally is just out of reach.
She ran for the U.S. Congress in 1974. She lost. I think that now, in her limited mental capacity, she would fit right in to that Congress thing. Many of those representatives sound like clucking chickens to me.
Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.
www.liffeyrivers.com

New Brenna Briggs Interview In Irish American Post

2011-01-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

Last summer, Andrew Gregg, a reporter from THE IRISH AMERICAN POST, did an interview with me which now appears in Featured Articles in the Post's online winter magazine. If you would like to read it, scroll down on the Featured Articles page. I think it accurately reflects some of the concerns I have about competitive Irish dance and the tsunami effect it creates for many of the younger dancers.

One of the reasons I began writing the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries was to create an outlet for dancers who find themselves overwhelmed by the 'must win-place-show' atmosphere at feiseanna. Liffey Rivers cares deeply about winning but is usually so busy solving a mystery at a feis that she often misses her stages.

When I went to the Madison Feis in 2009 I had absolutely no idea whatsoever what to expect. I had been living in Ireland for 5 years and had never turned up at a feis in the USA with my Liffey Rivers books. It was like a pleasant dream. One of the first dancers who strolled by my table stopped to ask if the fourth Liffey book was available. I told her I was really sorry but that it was not yet done. My assistant, Donna Drake, told her that I was Brenna Briggs and she literally shrieked and jumped up and down. It was surrealistic. Then she hauled the first three books out of her back pack which she informed me she always brought to fesieanna to kill time and asked if I would sign them. I sold out fast (89 books in four hours) and went home. I had not known if I would sell one book let alone all of them--and I did not even have book three, The Secret of the Mountain of the Moon, with me.

The point I am trying to make is that I was thrilled Liffey Rivers seemed to provide some comfort at a feis. Instead of hanging around like bookies at a horse race waiting for the results of each dance, dancers were reading mysteries which related to their world.

I actually do have an idea how to restructure feiseanna.

More about that later.

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

http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

Once You Start, It's Hard To Stop

2010-12-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

It is very hard for me not to use every decent animated free graphic available online. Once I start pasting them on to my web site, it is very difficult for me to know when to stop. In the past, my daughters have restrained me. Now I am going to place the worst Christmas graphics I could find right here. No one can stop me. Here goes:

So.

Probably there are worse ones out there but I am satisfied with these.

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

http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

Liffey Rivers Books For Christmas

2010-12-09T10:05:00.000-08:00

If your mystery-loving daughter or son likes to read Nancy Drew or other mystery series, they will probably like the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries. If they are Irish dancers, I can almost guarantee they will enjoy reading the Liffey Rivers books.

Books can be ordered from the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer web site. They are signed and include a Good Luck Spaghetti and Meatballs charm. This is probably the cheapest place to purchase Liffey books unless Amazon does its Abracadabra. At the moment, Amazon.com has actually raised book 4's price back up to $12.00. The others are still at $9.00 which is $1.00 cheaper than the web site. It gets confusing.

Liffey Rivers books can also be ordered on Amazon.ca and .uk. Barnes and Noble will order them as will any independent book store in the U.S. But the distributor that these bookstores use probably will not guarantee delivery for Christmas at this point to bookstores. There are lots of e-stores as well.

Sooo. I am thinking the best place to purchase books and get them signed and get the charm is on Liffey's web site: http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

Finally, there is a Liffey shop: http://www.cafepress.com/liffeyrivers

Priced at $9.49

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

http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

Geese Are On The Wing Today

2010-12-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

It's Saint Nicholas Eve and the geese are on the wing like they are every year at this time.
Flying high from what I can see and hear today. They sound like yapping dogs but filtered.
A few minutes ago, six groups of V formations flew high over the house. So high that when I looked out the window and up, all I could really see were thin, silver threads traveling southeast. The geese are moving fast today. Maybe because it is so cold.
In other years, here in southern Wisconsin, I have watched thousands of geese at a time landing and then picking at the leftovers in farmers' fields like they were making a scheduled pit stop. But today, house-bound, all I can do is listen for them as they fly over. It makes things a bit more exciting around here. A cheap little thrill of noise and motion.

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

Getting Lost In Translation

2010-11-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

CICERO

who is probably turning in his grave despite my best effort to write in Latin.

ut bones sanctus es tutis quod captus ad mare drumlin haud magis ossory werewolves

The above are not Latin words penned by Cicero. These are not really even my words any more. I took a little poem I wrote for Part Six of Liffey Rivers and the Werewolves of Ossory for Irish Dancing and Culture Magazine:

When the bones of Patrick under lock and key

Are moved to the drumlin by the sea

No more will the Werewolves of Ossory be

and went to work online with a free computer translator. I wanted this epic poem to be in Latin so I wisely selected the 'English to Latin' translation option. I could have burdened my stepdaughter, Nicole, who has a Latin Major from the University of Virginia and who came in very handy when we brought her to the UK with us several years ago. Nicole effortlessly translated all of the boring inscriptions in Latin which decorated almost every monument we came upon. I have never been with anyone who could do that before. I took two years of Latin in high school because it was mandatory and can now, centuries later, decline the endings of nouns in the Nominative Case only. Forget about all the other cases. Especially the Ablative or whatever it was called one. Anyway, I did not want to bother Nicole as she is very busy and in New Zealand at the moment. Besides, I thought, this is the time of the online computer translators. How hard could it be to translate my little poem?

Well. I will only say that I spent a great deal of time with the online free translator trying to get the 'feel' of this little poem in Latin. Forget about the rhyme. Forget about the tenses. I got so desperate, I finally settled for the above words which, if Nicole ever reads, will most definitely make her laugh. Still, I would have given anything for such an online convenience a long time ago when I had to translate Latin phrases in Sister Magdalita's Latin class at Saint Mary's Academy in South Bend, Indiana. For my fourth Liffey Rivers book, In the Shadow of the Serpent, my friend Francesca Roberts, who lives in South Africa, translated my English into Afrikaans in several places for which I am eternally grateful. I tried doing it online like with the Latin and quickly discovered it was completely impossible. Hopeless.

I have renewed respect for book translators. I met one at an Eoin McNamee book launch in Dublin a few years ago. I think he had translated Eoin's book The Blue Tango into Czech. Remarkable.

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

Amazon Is Mad Hatteringly Discounting Liffey Rivers Books

2010-11-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

Amazon seems to operate like a Willie Wonka or the Mad Hatter. It discounts your books whenever it pleases and you only find out about it accidentally. Not that I'm complaining. I still get the same royalty whether they price my books (all listed at $12.00) and knock off 29% or, like now, price it $2.00 lower than listed and then still take off 29%.

Just in case you or anyone you know has been thinking about buying a Liffey Rivers mystery, I cannot imagine them ever being listed for less. Certainly bookstore orders will remain at $12.00 each. The 4th and latest book, In the Shadow of the Serpent, is actually listed for only $8.55 on Amazon.

I got Eoin McNamee's The Blue Tango from the Book Depository Ltd for only $9.53 from the UK with Free Shipping. And it came via Royal Mail--not from a US shipper.

Go figure out pricing.

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

Eoin McNamee's New Book: Orchid Blue

2010-11-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

When I lived in County Sligo, tucked in between the Ox Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, the landscape always seemed epic to me. Like Middle Earth. I never met up with anyone from Middle Earth there but I did meet an author of epic dimensions--Eoin McNamee. He and his amazing family were our neighbors.

I am ashamed to admit that prior to moving to Ireland I had never read any of McNamee's books. Even worse, I had never heard of him. The first time I met him I was having morning coffee with his wife and other neighbors at the McNamee house. He walked in smiling wearing a white T-shirt to pour some coffee and I remember thinking he looked like a friendly mechanic and that there was probably some kind of garage on the premises. Months later at a book club meeting someone asked when Eoin's new book was coming out. I then learned that McNamee had written many books and my husband I quickly ran around Sligo buying them at bookshops and getting others from the library. Eoin donated quite a few as well and I went on a reading frenzy.

I cannot begin to describe this man's way with words. In his book, The Ultras, he describes bumpers reflecting night lights in a parking lot like they are stars in the heavens. Who can make a parking lot seem like the Milky Way? Here is the link to a review in The Irish Times of his latest book, Orchid Blue, which is coming out in the UK next week. McNamee's The Blue Tango would be a good book to read before Orchid Blue. There are a few connections although Orchid Blue is not a continutaion of Tango. I ordered it last week because I left mine in Sligo and want to re-read it before I manage to get hold of Orchid Blue here in the States.

Other books: The Last of Deeds and Love in History, his first huge success, Resurrection Man, a novel about the brutality in Belfast in the 1990's from which a Hollywood movie was made in 1998, 12:23 Paris August 31 1997, a Princess Diana conspiracy novel, The Navigator Trilogy for children, The Ring of Five Trilogy-- only first book is released at the moment, and three books under the name John Creed which I absolutely love: The Sirius Crossing, The Day of the Dead and Black Cat, Black Dog. I love all his books, actually, (his trilogies are wonderful) but the John Creed books are exciting mysteries that I have read several times each.

There is a book launch for Orchid Blue in Dublin at the Gutter Bookshop on November 9.

Wish I could go!

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

Werewolves: Some Background

2010-10-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

After St. Patrick, saints in Ireland had extraordinary powers. Especially if they got mad.

Once upon a century, (the 6th), an important abbot called Saint Natalis became very annoyed with Clan Allta in Meath. Very ticked off. So he put a curse on them. The entire clan. Two members of this unfortunate family had to take the form of a wolf for 7 years. In shifts. After seven years, if they survived in the wild, they could return to the clan and another two clan members would take their place. And so on.

It is entirely possible that this clan is STILL under this curse. There is a documented story written in the 12th century, 600 years after the ill-tempered abbot that describes a priest traveling at night, running into one of these Clan Allta werewolves. Pick up a copy of Giraldus Cambrensis’s Topographica Hibernica next time you go to the library and you can read the story yourself.

Naturally the priest was a bit frightened. But since the wolf was chatting him up and speaking human and appeared to be distressed, this nice priest, possibly embarrassed by his predecessor Abbot Natalis’s bad temper, took the time to listen to an unusual request from the werewolf.

The priest was asked to accompany the werewolf deep into the forest where his wolf-wife (a wolfen) was resting, close to death. The priest agreed and gave the wolfen the last rites. Then the situation got sticky. Even long ago, the maxim “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” was in place. The wolf asked the priest to give the wolfen Holy Communion. The man-wolf pointed out that obviously Divine Providence had sent the priest. The priest had to agree but was a bit reluctant as the seminary had never taught seminarians what to do if a werewolf requests Holy Communion. But when the man wolf peeled the fur off the wolfen and revealed the body of an old woman, the priest decided to give her Communion.

“No good deed goes unpunished” is a fact of life. The whole issue turned theological when this holy priest told his confessor what he had done. After synods of bishops and abbots failed to resolve the important theological significance of a werewolf receiving the sacraments, it went to the Vatican itself for the last word on the matter.

The big issues were: Was this creature man or beast? And,if you killed a werewolf, would you be a murderer or a hunter? The whole thing was eventually declared a miracle, with no practical advice on future werewolf sacramental issues.

Finally, there are possibly other werewolves in Ireland who are just the regular kind. Like Lon Chaney, they turn into a wolf at night and the next morning, they are back to normal. In Ireland, it is thought that werewolves tend to run in families. Much valuable information is available about what to do and how to discover if your own family has one or more of these regular, undercover werewolves.

The following important information will help you. How do you spot a werewolf? It’s not too difficult if you know what to look for. A werewolf is exhausted during the day from creeping around all night looking for things to eat. So if someone you know just won’t get up easily in the morning, do not buy the “I’m just not a morning person” excuse. That person could be a werewolf. Another thing to look for is a wound of some sort on this sleepy head. If he/she/it had attacked an animal or human the night before that put up a good fight and wounded this werewolf, those same wounds will appear on its human body the next day. So look for scratches and do not buy “the cat clawed me” excuse. Be vigilant. But whatever you do, do not pray to Saint Natalis for assistance. He might take it the wrong way.
Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.

Post Traumatic Bling Syndrome: Scientific Research

2010-10-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Okay. It is totally official now. There is definitely such a phenomenon as Post Traumatic Bling Syndrome. I always thought there had to be based on the short stories I write for Irish Dancing and Culture Magazine so I decided to prove it by doing in-the-field research at a feis (Irish dance competition) in Chicago last Saturday.
The arena was so big that you could hardly see the people (from where I was sitting with my Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries) on the other side of the convention center floor. This was good because I was able to to do both up close and personal research as well as the long distance observation kind of research.
I like to think that perhaps I will save thousands of innocents from future nausea, headaches and panic attacks with what I discovered at this feis. I remembered Sister Andrew, my sixth grade science teacher, said that in order to prove a scientific theory or hypothesis, you need to do tests. You have to test your theory and see if your hypothesis is correct.

Up until Saturday all I had ever done in the scientific world was...actually nothing. I had never set out to test and prove anything before.

But I knew I was on to something because Liffey's Aunt Jean has a bad case of Post Traumatic Bling Disorder. It was brought on due to her having been over exposed to glitter and stressors like Swarovski rhinestones and crystals at feiseanna. Apparently, some people are not bothered by these flashing jewels and remain symptom-free. Others, however, like myself, are susceptible and can suffer from headaches and nausea.

The most startling fact that I discovered while watching hundreds of twirling bodies during a very long day which seemed like one big laser show was that: If you wear sunglasses while watching the Glitterati go leaping by you to dim the light show, IT MAKES IT WAY WORSE!!!! This was totally unexpected and I felt like a true scientist when I put on sunglasses and made this discovery! You CANNOT wear sunglasses while you watch solo dresses decorated with rhinestones and flashy jewels flash by because it will literally make you sick to your stomach. I felt acute motion sickness. Like on a boat.

So. Do NOT wear sunglasses watching Irish dancers dipped in glitter unless you bring along your Dramamine. Post Traumatic Bling Disorder is really real.

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

Win Free Liffey Rivers Books: Online Diddlyi Contest

2010-10-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Check out this photo on Diddlyi.com. Think of a witty caption and win free, signed Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries. (Christmas? Birthdays?)

Link: http://www.diddlyi.com/profiles/blogs/photo-caption-contest-now

Good Luck!
Brenna Briggs

Hospice Respite and a Weiner Mobile Thrill

2010-10-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

My mother is not yet dead. I have been here from Sligo, Ireland, since May 9, 2009, to help care for her. My daughters are in Ireland. I have seen them only once since I have been here in Wisconsin. I get chest pains thinking about them.
I never thought my poor mother would last so long. She has not known who I am for at least six years now and was completely clueless when I turned up. She still is. Only now she looks like a concentration camp victim and mostly sleeps until I wake her up to eat. She rarely smiles. Never talks. Once in a great while, she will string words together into an actual sentence and it is truly shocking to hear these words coming out of her mouth.
She eats like a fussy infant. Little bites of noodles and other soft food.
She loves the smoothies I make that keep her alive.
I was able to take my Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries to the Pittsburgh Halloween Feis last weekend because the local Hospice gave me a respite break. It was very kind of them and lots of people helped to keep her warm and fed. When I returned on Monday, she was great.
I drove to Pennsylvania on the Indiana and Ohio Turnpikes.
In Ohio, I had a wonderful cheap thrill: the Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile was traveling to Pittsburgh too! I passed by it of course but later met up with it at a rest stop and took the above photo.
Cheap thrills are rare these days and I reacted like I was seeing a UFO. This happens to you in Alzheimer 's land.
I hope the Weiner Mobile and I meet up again sometime.
Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.

The Emperor's New Irish Dance Solo Dress

2010-09-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article this morning in the Irish Emigrant that made me think of one of my favorite fairy tales, 'The Emperor's New Clothes' and how he walked around naked because two weavers told him that the clothes they made for him were made from invisible cloth and that only the 'hopelessly stupid' or those 'unworthy of their station' would not be able to see the clothes.

The emperor himself could not see the clothing but did not let on so as not to point to himslef as being unworthy of his station or stupid. So he paraded around naked and only when a small child finally yelled out: "He's not wearing anything at all!" did the adult subjects of the emperor take up the cry.

Sometimes when I sign books at feiseanna and see a lovely little girl wearing something that looks like a joke, I feel like a subject of the emperor who is afraid to cry out. Of course I would never in a million years hurt a dancer or her mother's feelings by asking why the dancer's solo dress looks like a circus clownsuit. But I wonder. If everyone said what they really thought about many of the new styles, maybe we all would be like the honest little child in the fairy tale.

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

www.liffeyrivers.com

Closing Down Central London

2010-09-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

This is how you do it:

You arrive in Wales at Holyhead on the ferry from Ireland. You rent a car. You travel up to London and right outside of what is labeled a 'Congested Area,' you notice you are almost out of gas. So you find a station and fill-er-up since you are to return the car at Marble Arch the next morning.

Then, you crawl along in what I would definitely describe as a 'congested' traffic area into central London. We were looking for St. Paul's Cathedral because we were staying right across the street from it in a hostel that used to house the choirboys from the cathedral. Before we reached the church, however, an alarming thing started happening. Our rental car began to lurch along like someone who was learning how to drive had taken over the wheel. This got progressively worse and the car showed signs of dying altogether just as we saw St. Paul's Cathedral and the 'No Parking Anytime' signs which lined the road. The car died and we coasted off the road, right in front of St. Paul's. Well. My husband went off to call Hertz. I sat with the kids and told the police officer who stopped to tell me to move the car what had happened. He called his precinct to tell them a car was illegally parked in front of St. Paul's but that the Americans were moving it asap. My husband returned in a very bad mood. After I told him I had reported it to the police he said:"Let's go check in then." I said we should leave a note where we could be found in case there were any questions. He disagreed as a police report had already been filed. I wrote the note anyway with the information where we would be staying. The hostel was only a block away so we had totally lucked out with not having to carry our luggage far. I complained about Hertz's giving us such an unreliable car and so on. We checked in. We went out for groceries to eat in our room and a long walk. We came back. We all climbed into our bunkbeds and fell asleep.

There was a loud banging on the door. "POLICE! Open the door," etc. Our young daughter ran to the door and opened it just as my husband yelled from the bathroom: "Wait! I'm in my underwear!" She slammed the door shut in their faces. My husband screamed: "What are you doing? You can't slam the door like that on the police!" He threw a towel on and opened the door apologetically. The police, who had begun to knock demandingly again, came in (I think there were two of them) along with the hostel's night desk clerk.

"Do you realize, sir, that you have parked your car on a protected site of her majesty?" We acknowledged that we did realize this. "We had already called the bomb squad and were minutes away from closing down central London when we found your note. We came here to confirm your note's authenticity. If you had not been here in your room, we were going ahead with the dismantling of your car as a possible terrorist threat."

Whew....good thing I had left that note!

Epilogue: My husband had put regular gasoline into a diesel fuel car. Hence the ugly mood because he knew he had screwed up. Hertz towed the car. The police did not charge us for 'attempted closing down of Central London.' But, and this still raises my blood pressure: Hertz never told us about having to pay to drive into London's congested area even though they knew we were to return our car at Marble Arch. So we did not pay whatever the fee is/was before we entered the city and my Visa card showed a $160.00 penalty fee after the sterling was converted to U.S. dollars.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries. http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

Muscle Car Day

2010-09-12T07:04:00.000-07:00

It is Muscle Car Day here in Sharon, Wisconsin, from 9 to 3. No parade. Cars just roar into town all day and park downtown. There will be Bubble Gum Bubble Blowing and Hula Hoop contests. A zillion other small town events are going on today as well. Corn eating and a milk chugging contest at the Darien Corn Fest is only a few miles down the road. Hard choices to make--cars and gum or corn and amusement rides. Last weekend, the very expensive Walworth County Fair ended. And I mean very expensive. A high gate charge, totally unaffordable carnival games and rides and enough food to feed the homeless and hungry in Southern Wisconsin for weeks. I used to not mention the fair to my children, futilely hoping that they somehow would not hear about it at school and we could skip it. That, of course, never happened because so many kids were raising animals to sell by the pound for slaughter and they talked about their animal barns. The fair is the big agricultural and entertainment event of the year around here. Some people get 5 day passes and eat cream puffs and funnel cakes and elephant ears and brats and fries until they need gastric bypass surgery.

And the carnival gold fish always die.

Time to finish part four of Liffey Rivers and the Werewolves of Ossory for IDM.

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

www.liffeyrivers.com

Time for The Blood Moon

2010-09-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

I never saw one quite this amazing in Ireland. But close. Sometimes the moon behind Knocknarea (the Mountain of the Moon) in Sligo where my heroine, Liffey Rivers, has many of her most unusual adventures, is so stunning you want to freeze the earth's orbit and spend eternity just looking at it. Lunacy.
My third book: The Secret of the Mountain of the Moon allowed me to do a lot of research about Celtic moon cycles.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries.
http://www.liffeyrivers.com/

A Time to Gripe. A Time to Moan.

2010-08-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-08-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

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

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

2010-07-30T13:31:00.001-07:00

BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH

"Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too

For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove

At recess, in the ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

Or rather he passed us;

The dews grew quivering and chill,

for only gossamer my gown

My tippet only tulle.

We passed before a house

that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries,

And yet each

feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses'

heads

Were toward eternity.

BY EMILY DICKINSON

We are getting ready in this house for Death to come calling at our door very soon now. Any day actually.

My mother's Alzheimer's Disease has suddenly accelerated its pace and given Death its calling card.

I am almost ready now. She throws up almost all the food I manage to get into her--no matter how hard I try. Her body is telling me it is shutting down completely now.

My mother loved/loves this Emily Dickinson poem. Like the pile of boxes in the photo above waiting for her to unwrap (she did not have the strength to open them herself), the days she has left now are like another pile of unopened packages. I hope I find the strength to untie them.

Congratulations to "I Love Liffey Because..." Author

2010-07-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Congratulations EVA DOMSCHOT for your excellent winning essay in Irish Dancing and Culture Magazine's Liffey Rivers contest!

Beware of elephants crossing the road, Eva, and especially black mamba snakes.

Eva will write a book review for IDM when she is able to think clearly again after the narrow escapes she will endure with Liffey and her aunt on safari in South Africa and at the Johannesburg Feis where all is not as it seems.

Thanks for the kind words about Liffey Rivers too, Eva. Liffey seems so real to me now it is like receiving compliments about my own daughter. Scary.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries.

www.liffeyrivers.com

Mrs. Pooh and Sammie RIP

2010-07-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

Before I left Ireland a little over a year ago to care for my dying mother, my friend, Sally Crofton of Longford House, was very worried about two of her dogs: Mrs. Pooh, the little short haired brown and white dog in the photo, and Sam, or Sammie, the long haired black and white border collie sheep dog. Mrs. Pooh was tipping over a lot and Sammie was always exhausted. Both dogs needed bladder transplants. Finally, both dogs stopped eating and Sally knew the drill. It was time. She called me here in Wisconsin and cried and cried. I am a bit worried about Sally. She often teared up about a cat she could not afford to transport back to England from South Africa that her sister put down without giving Sally a chance to raise the funds to get the cat back to the UK. To listen to the story, it seemed like the event had been recent. Not so. It had been 25 years.

They were delightful dogs. Mrs. Pooh fell in love with a man (human-not dog) from Poland who did not speak English. He was doing some landscaping and refurbishing the ancient smoke house on the property. Everyday, Mrs. Pooh would leap over a garden wall (she first had to climb up on a pile of rocks to get to the top) and run to the smoke house to spend the whole day with her love. He would walk her home at night because she slept at the foot of Sally's bed--a habit even true love could not change. Sammie slept on the bed too and the two dogs would jockey for the most comfortable spot. Pooh usually won because she was much faster than Sammie.

I have finally begun to work regularly on my book about Sydney Owenson, a contemporary of Jane Austen and the author of The Wild Irish Girl. She lived at Longford House as a governess to a long ago generation of Crofton children.

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

Happy 4th of July Firetruck Sirens Day

2010-07-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

You will note my poor mother is not enjoying this 4th of July parade in Sharon, Wisconsin, with 35 plus screaming firetruck sirens in spite of my covering her ears with my hands. Here we are during the first wave of noise. I took her back in the house where a loud window air conditioning unit pretty much blocked the sound.

The parade was very long. It took an hour from beginning to end. Lots of huge green John Deere tractors and even bigger red ones. One band--the local grade school. No Stars and Stripes at this function!

Now most of the town is under a beer tent somewhere in a local park. Tonight fireworks. Tomorrow, blessed relief from the festivities.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries www.liffeyrivers.com

TAKING THINGS ONE NOODLE AT A TIME

2010-07-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

Life now is pretty much one noodle at a time. And not long spaghetti noodles. I am talking about short, stubby pasta noodles. Each noodle is carefully inserted by hand through tightly closed lips. It's kind of like threading a needle. Sometimes, the noodle gets sucked into the mouth. Sometimes it does not. If a noodle makes it into the mouth, it has a good chance of being chewed.

I am told the next step will be no more swallowing and I am dreading it. I am not sure what I will do for my mother then.

So I am grateful for the noodle game for the time being. Alzheimer's sucks.

On a lighter note, my 4th book, 'In the Shadow of the Serpent,' is FINALLY available online with Amazon, Powell's and Barnes and Noble. Can be ordered at any bookstore. I noticed Barnes and Noble online was almost $4.00 cheaper than the other sites...go figure. Don't know how long that will last!

Big 4th of July parade coming up here in Sharon, Wisconsin, on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Lots and lots of annoying fire engines with their eardrum shattering sirens and obnoxious horn blasts. Get to watch from front porch. Oh boy! Something to look forward to between noodles!!!

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

www.liffeyrivers.com

A Time To Die

2010-06-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

My mother, Virginia Rose Morrow Black, has not known who I am for the past 6 years. She plays with the stuffed animals she is holding in the above photo and I believe she no longer knows the difference between a living being and an inanimate object.

Alzheimer's disease has been applying itself like nail polish to her brain cells for at least 10 years. Her brain has been shrinking for a long time now.

I have been in Wisconsin over from Ireland for the past year, helping my sister care for our mother.

The worst year.

It is now my mother's time to die.

It takes me at least an hour to feed her at each meal. Sometimes longer. She often forgets how to chew her food --sucking on it instead of using her teeth. In the mornings for some wonderful reason, she is often able to feed herself and eats well. So I sit with her and watch as she slowly picks up a grape and aims it towards her mouth. It's like watching a golf ball heading for the hole. It's like a touch down when she can actually pick up a spoon, get it into the bowl of cereal and successfully connect it with her mouth.

After a big breakfast, the rest of the day is spent sleeping in her lift chair except when I wake her up for lunch and dinner. We play opera arias. She likes Puccini and Verdi. And Lawrence Welk. That is the only television show that sometimes holds her sporadic attention.

At bed time, since she can no longer stand up, my sister lifts her from her wheelchair while I pull her diaper and pants down and aim her bottom towards the portable toilet.

One day, almost a year ago now, when I was sitting with her on her bed, she looked at me and said: "Am I dead?"

I lied and said, "No."

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer mysteries.

Liffey Rivers Essay Contest

2010-05-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Aspiring young authors:

Irish Dancing and Culture Magazine is having an "I love Liffey Rivers because..." essay contest.

Win a free In the Shadow of the Serpent signed book and......write a published review for IDM.

Details.

Feiseanna In Wisconsin Are Multiplying Like Rabbits

2010-05-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

When my daughter started Irish dance lessons in 1999 in Milwaukee, there were approximately five feiseanna within easy driving range: The Chicago Feis, the Maryville Feis (the day after the Chicago Feis-now extinct), the Milwaukee Feis in August, the Winter Feis in Milwaukee in January and the Iowa Feis in Dubuque which I think started up in 2001. We went to other feiseanna as well (Minnesota, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Indianapolis) but the driving and hotel costs made these events few and far between.

Now there are so many feiseanna held in the Milwaukee area (I think approximately 10) that a dancer could eventually make it all the way to Open Championship without ever having to leave Southern Wisconsin.

If Wisconsinites include the 'within driving range' feiseanna in the Chicago area, they would spend a LOT of time at feiseanna all year long. A lot of time.

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

www.liffeyrivers.com

THE COUNTDOWN AT LAST

2010-05-03T06:10:00.001-07:00

Waiting for In the Shadow of the Serpent to be published has been a very long ordeal. It does seem, however, that the end, or rather the beginning, is finally in sight. The book cover has been the most recent glitch. The others were due to my malfunctioning brain. The book will be available in a week or so.

I am hoping that the book is as exciting to read as it was to write. I became so fixated on black mambas researching and writing this 4th Liffey Rivers mystery that I have to admit that I look for mambas around the house. Even though they live in Africa. One never knows. You can sneak around and buy these lethal snakes and there are many crazy wannabe herpetologists who would be thrilled to face 'The Shadow of Death' (nickname)regularly when they clean their mamba cages. I have Google alert me every day about black mambas so I know if someone has been bitten somewhere and if any new videos about 'Slender Death' (another nickname) are out there. I like to keep ahead of these snakes!

The creepiest mamba story I read told the story of a woman who knew a black mamba was in her small house in Africa. She could smell it. Mamba scat apparently smells like curry powder. So she found someone to investigate for her when she failed to find the creature.

IT WAS LIVING IN THE HEADBOARD OF HER BED!!!!!! The stuff of a complete nervous breakdown for anyone!! Imagine looking for this snake day after day and then discovering it was living six inches from your face!!!!! Every night for weeks!!! Making your own bed its lair.

Anyway, along with bog butter, I may be able to state that I am now an un-degreed black mamba expert.

In this 4th book, Liffey Rivers uses a difficult, but common Irish dance step to literally save her life when she is racing through the tall savanna grasses in South Africa (on safari enroute to an Irish dance competition (feis) in Johannesburg). You can probably guess what she is fleeing from!

Next short story for Irish Dance and Culture Magazine concerns LiffeyRivers' concern that a champion Irish dancer she meets might be a werewolf. A member of a clan in Kilkenny cursed by Abbot St. Natalis long ago...

In case you might be concerned about my mental health, ponder no more. I don't have any left!

Read more about the Black Mamba on my serpent page at http://www.liffeyrivers.com/.

Big Apple Feis and Other Things

2010-03-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

Almost St. Patrick's Day! I have been 'out there' with Liffey Rivers books: The Lake Geneva Feis in Wisconsin, Paddy's On the Square in Long Grove, IL, and next weekend, the Big Apple Feis http://www.bigapplefeis.com/ in NYC. Way more than a feis- I have never seen so many planned Irish culture-themed events!

Have not written here for some time. Living with an Alzheimer's mom takes away a good deal of my not-s0-efficient brain function and minimal organizational skills.

Excuses! Excuses!

Did a great signing yesterday in Long Grove, Illinois, at Paddy's On the Square. It was an unexpectedly huge Irish gift store (2 floors) run by extremely efficient and pleasant people. I cannot find a website for them. I think they do it the old-fashioned way. People come in and browse. It is well worth anyone's time.

There were adorable younger Irish dancers from the McNulty School dancing in the courtyard because the weather was perfect for March. Even smells of spring.

Am still trying to figure out why someone would steal the Derrynaflan Chalice from the Dublin Museum. Have two more segments of my THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPORARY TROPHY short story running in IDM to figure that one out. Probably will spend most of today at it.

Liffey Rivers' Aunt Jean is still suffering from Post-Traumatic Bling Syndrome after all the exposure to Swarovski crystals at feiseanna. Have not figured out the cure/therapy for that illness yet.

Leaving for Big Apple Feis on Friday, March 12. Will be doing a reading and meeting up with a whole new crowd of dancers. Cannot wait. Check out the Big Apple Feis website/weekend. I repeat. I have never seen so much stuff packed into a weekend!

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

www.liffeyrivers.com

Wee Willie Winkie

2010-01-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

AtAt the Wisconsin Winter Feis eight days ago, I was a bit dismayed and I think even a bit disturbed that so many young dancers not only did not know this classic rhyme by heart but had never even heard of it. Nor did they seem to care. This old nursery rhyme (Scotland 1841 by William Miller) plays a big part in the second Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer book, The Mystery of the Winking Judge. It is certainly not a bad reflection on parents or teachers not to have ingrained this classic rhyme into little heads. I am just surprised. I remember pounding it out rhythmically over and over again on my kids' high chair trays along with Mother Goose rhymes. After they had memorized a nursery rhyme, they would beat it out and recite it themselves...

It just seemed odd that so many of the pounding feet at the feis had never tapped out, "Rapping at the window, Calling through the lock, Are the children in their beds? It is now eight o'clock."

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

Re-enacting In Wisconsin

2009-12-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

Before I talk about the Liffey Rivers Irish dancer mysteries and why the next book is delayed until February 15, I must re-cap last night's Victorian Christmas parade here in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin.

The 'Victorian' lighted carriage parade last night was very disappointing. I had imagined hundreds of battery-operated fake candles shining from covered horse-drawn carriage windows. Probably unrealistic but that is what I expected. Instead, there were mostly open carriages outlined with little white Christmas lights. Like cheap window displays. And there were around 10 horses mounted by mostly Confederate Civil War re-enactors. My sister dressed up like a Victorian wench and went out to the three local bars to collect money. Hopefully legally. I stayed home to care for my Alzheimered mother and watched the parade from a front window. It turned about a block away from where I was watching so it was difficult to see much in the dark.

According to my sister who watched the parade from a good place, the Civil War re-enactors went a bit out on the limb. They kept parading. They did the route and then re-did the route three more times, sometimes in the wrong direction, heading into on-coming carriages. It got a bit exciting. The local police who had set up barriers and directed the crowds who braved the 26 degree temperature before the parade started had vanished. They were simply gone as the re-enactors kept parading and people scattered as the horses and their riders kind of 'took the streets' like they were invading. Most likely the cops were holed up somewhere trying to get warm as the horses and people clashed.

Also, there were five bad ponies. The ponies were hitched to small carts and raced along, almost colliding with the cart in front of them. Was it the ponies or their drivers? One will never know.

Liffey Rivers. The 'for sure' date is February 15. For sure. Here is a link to book four: Chapter Nine of In the Shadow of the Serpent. http://http://liffeyrivers.com/Chapternineshadowserpent.html

Victorian Parade In Wisconsin Cornfields

2009-12-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

Queen Victoria.

Whoopee!!

The Victorian Age...

1837-1901

Tonight in a very small town in Wisconsin (1,500 humans) there is going to be a VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS with a lighted carriage parade and locals dressed up like 'Victorians' followed by eating and drinking and buying crafts. 95% of the village businesses left years ago. There are two small restaurants (the local farmers who get up at dawn, drive to the village for some good coffee socializing and breakfast are the main eaters), a pizza carryout (which is leaving soon according to gossip) and three taverns-bars. Also a few odds and ends places-a photography studio, bank, a medical clinic open 2 days a week, a rarely open antique store and a funeral home waiting for 1,500 bodies. Three churches-Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic. One law office with no clients. Why anyone here thinks the 64 year reign of Queen Victoria, the 'Victorian Age' is a re-enactment event is beyond me. I would place a major money bet that 95% of the population here never even heard of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Somehow, the years Victoria reigned (1837-1901) have become romanticized by people who know nothing about the British Empire.

Back to writing my Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries...I will watch the parade tonight with my Alzheimered mother from a window facing the parade route. Humbug?

Artificial Constraints Of Specific Publication Years

2009-11-05T05:17:00.000-08:00

Flush your money down the toilet today!!

Send $50.00 per book entry.

Zillions of categories. Gala ceremony.

Send your money to a Hollywood address.

Authors must have passion for telling a good story.

Anything goes.

No refunds.

DETAILS:

"Q: Are books from any publication date eligible?
A: Yes. We feel that the overcrowded publishing marketplace overlooks many fine works. Thus, our goal is to spotlight works that deserve another look without the artificial constraint of a specific year of publication.

The 2009 London Book Festival will consider entries in general non-fiction, fiction, biography/autobiography, children’s books, cookbooks, compilations/anthologies; e-books; genre-based, how-to, photography/art, spiritual, music, teenage/young adult, unpublished stories and the wild card (anything goes!) categories published on or after Jan. 1, 2005.
All entries must be in English and can be published, self-published or issued by an independent publishing house.
Our grand prize for the 2009 London Book Festival is $1500 cash and a flight to London for our gala awards ceremony.
Submitted works will be judged by a panel of publishing industry experts using the following criteria:
General excellence and the author's passion for telling a good story.
The potential of the work to gain a wider audience in the worldwide market. "

2009-11-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

IBAM Chicago-

with Derek Landy.

Dublin author of the wonderful Skulduggery Pleasant series. http://www.skulduggerypleasant.com/us/

The weekend was good. Very few attendees but nice to be hanging around! I have never been in a ballroom literally packed with authors. The Chicago Irish American Heritage Center on Knox is worth a visit even if nothing is going on. Four floors! A library. Two theatres. Gift shop....

IBAM Chicago Is This Weekend

2009-10-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

I will be signing books and gawking at some very well known Irish authors this Saturday and Sunday from 11-5 at the Chicago Irish American Heritage Center. There is so much to see and do at this event that I am thinking it might be more interesting to attend this event instead of being part of it! I hate to think about the lectures I will not be able to attend. On Saturday I am on a panel called Murder,Mayhem and Mystery at 5:00 p.m. with Derek Landy and Elizabeth Miller. At least I will get to hear what they have to say....

Here is the link to get the weekend events --upper left-hand corner. www.ibamchicago.com

Solo Dress Bling-Clown Costume Connection?

2009-10-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

This photo was borrowed from an online Clown Costume catalogue.

Take off the hat and wig and replace with curly wig and tiara.

Painted face. O.K. as is.

Close neck line and extend the pink corset look all the way up dress.

Remove polka dotted bow and add to striped cape.

Add white stripes to sleeves.

Remove green tights and shoes.

Add poodle socks or black tights.

Replace shoes with ghillies or hard shoes.

Voila! You have an Irish Dancer in a fashionable ballerina Solo Dress!! Oh I forgot-shorten it two feet.

It is getting seriously scary out there in solo dress land!! I had not been to feiseanna for some 5 years prior to coming back to the Midwest this summer. So far I have been to 4. Honestly,I do not know quite how to react. I like lots of colors and interesting designs. Especially the satin materials with intricate woven in patterns. I also liked all the crystals and rhinestones. But watching dancers wearing tutu netting and puffball skirts and what looked like chandeliers under dresses that were so busy with stripes they looked like zebra crosswalks in Ireland and all the polka dots and geometric designs of every shape and kind.......I felt like I was at the circus much of the time. If these dresses are any indication of future Irish dancers' dresses, adjudicators are going to have to wear special glasses to cut down on the glare so they can see the dancers' feet.

Sligo's Got Talent--My Daughters!!http://http://sligotv.ie/2009/10/sligo’s-got-talent-–-the-contestants/

2009-10-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

http://sligotv.ie/2009/10/sligo’s-got-talent-–-the-contestants/

A long, long time ago, in a far away galaxy.....

Maura and Rebecca Williams (the Williams Sisters) are in a talent show in Sligo Town, Ireland. They won't win because they cannot produce a voting crowd of cousins and aquaintances at the bar where the contest is taking place. They are pretty much all alone. I am so proud of them! They are playing an original song which was drastically edited in the attached link. Maura on the left is now 20 years old. Becca is 18. This photo was taken sitting on banks of rocks designed to keep Lake Michigan out of Milwauke Irish Fest grounds approx. 11 years ago.

Go to the link. Maura and Rebecca are at 2:20 on the video.

IBAM CHICAGO PARTY ON HALLOWEEEN

2009-09-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Irish Books, Art and Music= IBAM CHICAGO!

October 31 (Halloween) and November 1st

at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago.

www.ibamchicago.com/

I am on poster (top row at extreme right end) wearing sun glasses...I do need to wear them in sunlight as I have approximately 6-8 years (I hope) of decent sight left before my macula completely disintegrates into dust particles and I become a pitiful sight without sight! Then I will need a white cane as well!!

This year, I can see just fine though and I am dressing up like an author at the IBAM celebration in Chicago. Maybe I will go as Louisa May Alcott or Agatha Christie or possibly Brenna Briggs.

I am very grateful to have been included in this lineup and can't wait for IBAM to come! You can go to the link above and check out all the authors, artists and musicians who will be there. I am bringing a trick-or-treat candy supply to hand out to any kids or adults who are enterprising enough to demand it!

A Picture Is Worth More Than A Thousand Words.

2009-09-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

This little dancer in Sligo is wearing her mother's old irish dance costume.

She was part of a magic night of Irish dancing that my daughter choreographed two years ago with 21 little girls and 1 little boy in a community center in rural Ireland.

It was as good as Lord of the Dance. Maybe better.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries. www.liffeyrivers.com

A Very Personal Autobiography

2009-09-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My mother was so disgusted with Dr. Friday, the man who delivered me, that she wrote and published a magazine article about how doctors ought to treat their pregnant patients. After the article, we moved to Indiana and I grew up under the shadow of the golden dome at the University of Notre Dame(where my father taught history for over 40 years at St. Mary's College across the road). Notre Dame in the 1950's was a great place to grow up, especially in the summers when the male students were all gone and millions of nuns from all over the world turned up to do their summer school courses. My daily routine was to get on my hard-to-peddle Schwinn Bicycle and ride to the ND campus snack shop, the Huddle, to get an orange sherbet ice cream cone. Then I would leisurely downsize it while I rode my Schwinn all over campus dodging sprinklers (the old kind that hurled long streams of water at you)and studying the wardrobes of the visiting nuns in their white robes and brown robes and black robes and paper plate headwear and sandled feet and huge rosaries wrapped around their waists. There were painted turtles in both of the campus lakes and unsubstantiated rumors of huge snapping turtles. Lighting candles at the Notre Dame Grotto was probably the most fun thing to do. I can still smell the dripping wax and feel it in my fingers as I rolled it into little balls. I have been an Equity actress and lived in Chicago, N.Y.C. and L.A. Also, a documentary film producer and legal assistant in a Wisconsin law firm. Now I am writing the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries because I live in Ireland and there are very few interruptions. It's wonderful.

2009-08-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

The ‘Debs,’ also called the ‘Grad’ here in Ireland is a really, really big deal.
They do not make a big deal here about graduating from high school because the senior students do 3 weeks of Leaving Certificate exams in June and then have to wait until the middle of August while the exams are graded in another part of the country to find out if they even graduated. So no “Send me Money” graduation notices are sent out. No senior pictures, no big graduation parties that seem to almost be obligatory in the States. Just the ‘Grad’ and they are for the students, not their families. The ‘Grad’ is like prom in the U.S. but more important socially and less date oriented. Sligo has one huge all male secondary school with 800 boys. There are 2 all girl secondary schools and 2 smaller co-ed schools. The Grad for each school is a last hurrah for 6th year students, or seniors. An opportunity to party together one more time before most of their paths part forever. It’s a coming of age party for everybody. Secondary school is over and the first day of the rest of everybody’s lives begins the day after. Like in the States, way too much money goes into planning the Grads. Girls spend a fortune on their dresses unless they take extreme measures. And many get fake tans. My daughter, Maura, took the train all the way to Dublin and spent an entire day looking for her dress. She did well. She found a beautiful dress on sale for 70 euro while most of her friends spent in excess of 225 euro. The drinking age in Ireland is 18. So most, if not all, of the grad-goers take cabs or get a ride home from a parent. Actually, most sleep at a house party they attend after a two-tiered evening at a hotel for first, dinner, and then a Sligo nightclub (Envy) which caters mainly to over-18-year-olds but under 22-year-olds. They eat breakfast in their formal attire at a local cafe. Then it’s all over and their university and/or working selves emerge like butterflies.

2009-08-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Irish Dance Solo Dresses

In the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries there is an intense 'quest for the dress' in the first book of the series. Liffey's first solo dress. An Irish dancer's first solo dress is more important than a future prom or grad dress and much more important than a future wedding gown.

There are many Irish dance dress designers and solo dress fads, and like those in the fashion world, they come and go. In this year. Out next year. Considering the fact that sometimes a dancer has to wait almost an entire year to get her dress from an over-booked designer, it can be a risky venture. A dancer's possible growth and weight loss/gain has to be factored in by these dress designers so they leave room to expand and contract in their dresses.

Recently, I have been amazed at some of the new designs. Irish dance solo dresses have, in some cases, begun to look more like figure skating costumes. They are very short and in most cases, I think unflattering. Often the dress material looks like it belongs in a roller skating arena. Or circus.

The photo above of Silverlode Needlecraft dresses is inspiring. These dresses seem to have the magic and fairy tale appeal that many Irish dance dress designers have apparently abandoned.

Garden Gate To Haunted Door

2009-08-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

It all seems so ordinary when the supernatural crashes into your daily routine. It is hard to stand back and look at the intrusion with a proper perspective. How could it seem so unspectacular? A ghost knocking furiously at your lovely Irish cottage door every few days?

This beautiful path leads to the front door of my first home in Ireland in 2004. Charming. Quaint. Etc. This path is haunted by a spirit who wants to be admitted into the cottage. It knocks at any hour--mostly at night but sometimes during the day.

The spirit knocked around 7 times before we moved. It would pound on the front door like an anxious child escaping from a bully who wanted someone to open the door immediately. There was urgency in the knocking. Each time it happened I would open the door expecting to see a human form. I never did. No one was ever there.

Thunderbirds

2009-08-19T06:36:00.001-07:00

In the mid-1950's I often toured the University of Notre Dame campus in my Thunderbird Junior. It was a battery-operated, light green fiber glass car for children. It went 6 mph. My mother won it in a Minute Maid Orange Juice jingle contest. It made me very popular in Vetville, the married student housing where my parents lived for 4 years. Kids would line up to drive my sports car and my mother would serve popcorn and kool aid. Notre Dame in the 1950's was a great place to grow up, especially in the summers when the male students were gone and hundreds of nuns from all over the world would arrive to do summer school courses. The Thunderbird Junior was my first and last sportscar. I would still be riding around in it if I could fit.

2009-08-17T14:24:00.001-07:00

Bog Butter found in Donegal

Apparently, the Celtic gods liked their bodies buttered....

My New Year’s Resolution for 2009 was to become an expert on ‘bog butter.’

For starters (no pun intended), I have already heard of bog butter. This is very important if you are going to become an expert on any subject. And even more importantly, I think the bog butter topic is actually interesting. There are miles and miles of brown bog land on top of the Ox Mountains behind my house, so I already know what bog looks like, which is essential if you are going to become a bog butter expert. I will develop interesting theories and ideas about butter found in the bog as I work my way up the expert ladder. There’s no big rush. Some of it has been buried in the bog for thousands of years already.

If the truth were to be told though, I am not sure I would ever want to actually taste bog butter. It’s not that it looks particularly unappealing. In photos, it could be white cheddar cheese and sometimes it resembles paraffin wax. The information I have seen posted at museum bog butter displays, says that bog butter is often found packed in wood such as wicker, or animal skin containers, which are sometimes dug up when turf or peat is being harvested for fuel. The school of thought is that when this butter was made, it was put into a hole down in the bog to preserve it and maybe even flavor it.

The first time I saw bog butter was in the tiny County Sligo Museum. I observed what appeared to be a big butter churn in a glass case. Upon inspection, I discovered that it was actually petrified bog butter that weighed 123 lbs.! It is thought that the ancient Celts used to offer big butter balls to their gods by burying them in the bogs as sacrificial offerings, often on borderlands between rival clans. Sometimes they offered human sacrifices too, and well-preserved bog bodies do turn up near bog butter from time to time. Apparently, the Celtic gods liked their bodies buttered!

Institutions such as The Royal Society of Chemistry in Scotland and the University of Bristol in the UK interpreted the bog body experiments that a Professor Evershed conducted several years ago. Apparently, this professor buried modern fatty foods to find out how long the bog butter stuff takes to form. The obvious problem I see with this kind of experiment is that the results will not be available for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years from now. In my opinion, this seems pointless. Who wants to perform experiments if you don’t get to find out how they turn out because you would already be long dead?

A local farmer here in County Sligo dug up bog butter in 2007 when he was cutting turf on his property. He took it to a Connacht Gold creamery, which is where a brand of butter is made locally, and they later determined that that his bog butter was only 52% fat content compared with an 82% fat content in today’s standard butter. 30% less fat! Why is that? Were cows skinnier a long time ago? This is a serious question for a future bog butter expert like me to contemplate.

Like bottled water, perhaps bog butter could become the butter of choice in 2009 for the discerning, health-conscious individual? It would certainly, unlike some of the pork here in Ireland lately, be dioxin-free. And as far as entrepreneurship goes, if you think about it, this stuff is a gold mine. First, like spring water, it is already there. And, like spring water, it just has to be dug up. Of course it is a totally hit-or-miss kind of thing because there is no way of telling where bog butter is buried without actually bumping into it. Also, you cannot just go around digging in bogs looking for bog butter because bogs are protected by the Irish government. Maybe bog-butter sniffing dogs could be trained to smell it hundreds of feet under the turf? And then there are all the spin-off industries this ancient bog butter could create. I cannot think of any at this time, but I am sure someone will eventually.

Bog butter marketing would be tricky. Selling the idea of eating something that is at least hundreds, and possibly thousands of years old, would require some really sophisticated advertising. Certainly no taste tests, as the oldest bog butter goes back to the Bronze Age, 3,000 years ago. Taking into account the fact that milk products were the main source of food for the Irish until the flight of the Earls and the collapse of the Gaelic order around 1700, butter was quite likely buried all over the bogs up until the end of the 17th century.

Just to let you know, I will be available for lectures and conferences as soon as my research is completed and I have been declared a bog butter expert by somebody somewhere. After that, you can contact me any time to schedule a bog butter talk. Please give me a few weeks notice though, because I have to read a few more articles about bog butter first.

Brenna Briggs is the author of the Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mystery Series. She lives in Sligo, Ireland, with her family.

Mini Irish Literary Festival

2009-07-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

BOOKS AND BREW

Authors:

Brenna Briggs:
The Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer-Girl Detective series

Cindy Thomson:
Celtic Wisdom
Brigid of Ireland
Three Finger:
The Mordecai Brown Story

Rod Vick:
The Kaylee O'Shay Irish dancer series

What: Book Event

Where:
Books and Brew
Milton, Wisconsin

When: August 12th, 7:00 p.m.

Milton,Wisconsin, is not a very big place but it has more history and culture than many places ten times its size. Like most of the farming towns in southern Wisconsin, it rises out of the cornfields which surround it. It is located next to Lake Koshkonong. Historically, Milton was a stop on the the Underground Railroad network which helped slaves escape to freedom. There is a great museum: The Milton House, which is on every primary school's 'field trip' list within a 100 mile radius.

A really nice summer day outing would be a trip to the Milton House Museum with its original underground tunnel where slaves were once hidden. Then find the Old Junction Mill complex at 613 W. Madison Ave. and have some quiche or a panini at Books and Brew, the bookshop-coffee house where Irish-themed authors Brenna Briggs, Rod Vick and Cindy Thomson (her book Celtic Wisdom was just released in the U.S.) are scheduled to speak at 7:00. They will not talk too long! Two of them write books for 8-12 year-olds so bring your kids. And, if you have an Irish dancer in the family, this event is mandatory!

Visit the authors' websites:
Brenna Briggs: www.liffeyrivers.com
Rod Vick: www.kayleeoshay.com
Cindy Thomson: www.brigidofireland.com