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[sleigh]

 The countdown continues: 4 more days until AMID THE CROWD OF STARS is officially released.

Today, more background on the book for those interested. As I’ve said before, one of the ‘inspirations’ for AMID was my trip to Ireland in 2017, along with my sister Sharon and her husband Dave (unfortunately, Denise was ill at the time and remained home—I missed her very much while I was there!) In Ireland, for the first time, we visited the Dingle Peninsula. While I loved the Connemara region (and still do), I also fell in love with Dingle, which is flat-out gorgeous. We stayed at a B&B in the town of Dingle while we were there, using it as base for day trips.

And I borrowed heavily from Dingle for AMID. The town of Dulcia in AMID *is* essentially the town of Dingle, though more Dingle as it might have been in the early 20th century rather than as it is now. One of the pics attached to this post is a street map of Dulcia from AMID superimposed over a satellite photo of Dingle—I used that as a reference in writing the book.

And like Dingle, Dulcia has a fine sheltered harbor, as you can see in the screenshot of Google’s map of Dingle and in the photo I took from way up in Connor Pass looking back at Dingle. However, the entrance to the harbor is difficult to see if you’re coming in from Dingle Bay as it’s hidden by a finger of land. To deal with that, in 1847 Eask Tower was erected on the top of Carhoo Hill (across the harbor from the town) to guide ships and boats to the harbor. The round stone building had a long wooden ‘arm’ that pointed to the hidden harbor opening. In the photograph from Connor Pass, you can see Eask Tower (locally also called Burnham Tower) as the ‘pimple’ atop Carhoo Hill, and there’s a closer photograph of it also.

In AMID, I have “The Pale Woman” on Dulcia Head (the fictional analogue of Carhoo Hill)—basically Eask Tower painted white with a single ‘arm’ pointing to the opening of the harbor.

Should you ever get to Ireland, I heartily recommend a stay in Dingle. If it’s still open, we lodged at the Milestone B&B—a very nice establishment just outside Dingle town on Slea Head Drive—but there are also hotels in Dingle. Dingle has some fine pubs/restaurants and great places to hear Irish music, and the entire Dingle peninsula is a lovely place to explore.

As before, if you've already pre-ordered AMID THE CROWD OF STARS, thank you! If you haven't, I hope you'll pick up the book once it's released on February 9th.

The images can be seen here.