The Irish Girl By Ashley E. Sweeney
Genre: Coming of Age/ Fiction/ Historical Fiction
Guest Post:
A DAY IN MY WRITING LIFE
It’s 8:30 a.m. and coffee’s on. I’ve scanned world news headlines, texted my kids, and answered any pressing emails. Coffee mug in hand, I cross the scuffed fir floors of our seaside cottage, my feet in socks (even in July) and plop down in my upright wooden chair at my ancient writing desk.
The desk, filled with clutter necessary to every writer—headphones, pens, pencils, index cards, Post-it notes, composition notebooks, dictionary, thesaurus, stacks of research books, scraps of paper, bric-a-brac from travels—is set in a small alcove, facing Northwest Washington’s Skagit Bay to the west. Today’s a glorious summer day with a hint of wind, so the rusted wind catcher outside the window spins. A 100-year-old cedar looms large out the north window, and, out the east window, my copious English garden that will get tended . . . later.
It is in this space that I take a deep dive every morning and don’t resurface until four, five, or six hours later, inhabiting the fictitious characters and plots and worlds I’m creating: a young, lonely widow in an abandoned cabin on remote Cypress Island, Washington (Eliza Waite, 2016); a dirt-encrusted and bone-weary traveler on the Oregon-California trail as a member of the ill-fated Donner Party in 1846 (Answer Creek, 2020); a whip-smart, quick-witted sharp shooter who kills her abusive husband to save her boys in 1899 Arizona Territory (Hardland, 2022); my great-grandmother’s story of coming alone from Ireland to the United States at age 13 in 1886 (The Irish Girl, 2024); and now, the story of three teen girls at an elite prep school for girls in the mid-1930s in the Desert Southwest (The Desert School for Girls).
I’ve often said there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at my writing desk, although traveling for research is a close second. If it’s a desk day, I am disciplined: no phone calls, texts, emails, or distractions for the entirety of the writing day. I listen to music as I write, stand briefly to stretch, nibble a granola bar. But nothing to break my concentration, even if I’m researching. You might say I live in the periods I’m writing about as authentically as I can in my imagination.
And then, the “rabbit holes,” a writer-coined term for endless research to bring authenticity to the page. What can you buy for five cents in 1899? (Five pieces of penny candy, five stamps, a Coca-Cola, for instance). When were matchbooks invented? (Not until 1826!) Who is the President of the United States in 1846? (James K. Polk, #11 in the hit parade of presidents). How to say hello in Norwegian? (Hallo!)
Besides factual research, I delve into seemingly unlimited aspects of the time period represented: literature, music, books, and newspapers, as well as dress, shoes, hats, accessories, lingo, songs, transportation means, hygiene, medicine, scandals, wars, and more.
And then, of course, the writing. Like anything one does with passion, time flies. Sometimes I’ll finish a scene or a conversation, or work out a complex character or plot point, and I’ll glance at my watch (yes, it’s analog), and two hours have flown by. Or three. Or more.
It’s a life I love, and am privileged to lead. When I close down the computer for the day and re-enter the 21st century, well, that’s another story. There’s a day full of news and texts and emails to answer, oh, and that garden to tend to . . .
Ashley E. Sweeney
Author, The Irish Girl, Hardland, Answer Creek, Eliza Waite, and the forthcoming The Desert School for Girls
Winner, 2023 Independent Press Award for Western Fiction, 2023 NYC Big Book Award for Western Fiction, 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, 2021 Independent Publisher Book Award, 2021 Next Generation Indies Book Award, 2020 Arizona Authors Association Literary Award, 2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award
Finalist, 2025 IBPA Award for Historical Fiction, 2025 Independent Press Award for Historical Fiction, 2023 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction, 2023 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award, 2023 Next Generation Indies Book Award, 2022 Arizona Authors Association Book Award, 2021 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction, 2021 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award, 2017 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction, 2016 Sarton Women’s Book Award, 2016 International Book Award, 2016 US Best Book Award
ashleysweeneyauthor.com
Book Blurb:
From multi-award-winning historical fiction author Ashley E. Sweeney comes a family saga about the Irish immigrant experience spanning New York, Chicago, and Colorado so compelling that, USA Today best-selling author Kelli Estes says, “I read this story in one sitting.”
Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish.
After moving west to Colorado, Mary Agnes again faces hardships and grapples with heritage, religion, and matters of the heart. Will she ever find a home to call her own? Where?
About the Author
A native New Yorker, Ashley E. Sweeney is the multi-award-winning author of four novels, The Irish Girl, Hardland, Answer Creek: A Novel of The Donner Party, and Eliza Waite. She graduated from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. with a degree in American Literature and American History and spent her career as a journalist and educator before turning to writing full-time. When she is not chained to her writing desk, Sweeney is an avid gardener, art quilter, and mosaic artist. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and Tucson.
Links To The Irish Girl
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