Excerpts Archives | Orna Ross: Histories & Mysteries

Creative Writing: Behind the books, Excerpts, Ireland & Irish Writing

Help me develop my new novel: IN THE HOUR

September 23, 2020

Do you love fiction? Would you like to help shape my next novel, In the Hour? I now post short…

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Iseult Gonne and WB Yeats in Wartime London

Creative Writing: Excerpts

Friday Fiction: Iseult Gonne and Lucien Millevoye Take Tea

February 28, 2020

Maud and Iseult Gonne are living in Normandy, taking refuge from the war in Paris, when they hear that John MacBride, Maud’s husband, has been executed. This leaves Maud frantic to get back to Ireland. She dispatches Iseult to London, to fetch their friend, the poet Willie Yeats.

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Creative Writing: Excerpts, Friday Fiction

Maud Gonne hears of John MacBride’s Execution

January 10, 2020

The story has shifted to 1916. Maud and Iseult are living in Normandy, as the first world war wages and in Dublin, Irish freedom fighters have organized a botched insurrection. Many of their Irish friends and acquaintances were involved. This extract describes what happens when Maud Gonne hears of John MacBride’s Execution for his part.

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Creative Writing: Excerpts, Friday Fiction

The execution of John MacBride: Ireland’s Easter Rebellion 1916

November 22, 2019

This is a scene reimagining the execution of John MacBride, Maud Gonne’s husband, for his part in the 1916 Rising. His death was to change life for Maud and Iseult forever.

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Creative Writing: Excerpts, Friday Fiction

If you read this speech at the start of a novel, would you read on?

November 15, 2019

It’s Friday Fiction here on the blog, so I’ll be blogging Dancing in the Wind, Book Two in the Yeats-Gonne Trilogy here with weekly extracts in the Friday Fiction slot.

I’m thinking of opening Dancing With The Wind with one of Maud Gonne’s fiery political speeches.

Question: Would you read on if this was what you found in the first pages of a book?

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