Sorry for the delay in posting! We were having internet and email problems last night. Nothing is guaranteed to drive a strong woman to tears faster than having internet connection problems. Even Mr. Thrilling’s composure has been known to crack when I’m having internet connection problems.
Anyway, Ireland was AMAZING, lads.
(In Ireland the term “lads,” is used interchangeably for men and women — like we do here with “guys.”)
Some quick highlights: strolling in lush gardens in the summery Irish rain; visiting the Stokes House famine museum (where, as you read about the famine ships bound for the States and Canada, you realize that this time it really IS personal); prowling Charlie Byrnes bookshop in Galway City; looking out over the Cliffs of Moher; staggering home at 5:30 in the morning from an Island jam session — the mist rolling in over the green fields, the tide crashing in over the rocks…
So many images, so many memories. And, yes, so many notes for a future book or two.
Ireland — at least the west — looks exactly like the travel brochures — only better. The Guiness is creamy and cold — like drinking silk. There are castles and towers and graveyards with Celtic crosses almost everywhere you look. And the cows really do look contented.
So…that’s what I did on my summer vacation, and now real life looms. It’s my last week in the day job (at least for now). I’m going to go full blast writing for about six months, and…see what happens.
It’s scary but it’s exciting — and somehow Ireland settled any doubts I had.
So…tell me about your all-time best vacation or tell me about the biggest risk you ever took professionally — did it pay off?
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I don’t know if it was my all-time best vacation, but I went to Europe for three weeks with my middle-school age sons (a first for all of us) in June 1999, knowing that when I came home I’d have six-weeks to write a first draft of my first novel before I had ot go back to teaching. Like you, being in a different country, seeing different lives helped calm my fears about what was ahead.
I came home, I wrote it, then spent 5 subsequent summers revising it. And last summer it was released. Great trip, great summer.
As to biggest professional risk? Walking away from the classroom one year ago to write full-time. Also, the best thing I could have done.
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So glad you’re back, Diana!
Professional risks for me have always involved someone I’ve wanted to talk to but didn’t dare. Having dared now with editors, agents and other writers, I have yet to be disappointed with the results. People are people and, while some have been more receptive than others to a bit of small talk or a short pitch, none of them have yet shot flames in my direction as their eyes flung daggers.
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Best vacation is Hawaii. Been there 5 times and my best trip was the one with no itinerary on Maui and the Big Island.
Call me a wimp, but I don’t take risks professionally. Perhaps I’ll walk away from corporate life to write full time, but more likely I’ll retire a little early to write.
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Judy, it felt weirdly significant how many people I met on holiday who had stories about chucking their jobs and starting their lives over. It was so matter-of-fact that it was genuinely inspirational.
Congratulations on taking that leap of faith!
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Hey, Will, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with what works — especially if you happen to enjoy the day job. Mine was — literally — killing me.
I’d love to go to Hawaii one of these days!
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Reggie, courage comes in all sizes and shapes. Getting the nerve up to face rejection takes a lot of strength and discipline! But the only way to succeed is to risk failure, and see how it’s paying off for you!
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My day job IS killing me. The international travel is taking its toll. High stress, etc. But with two daughters in college, and another on the way, and three weddings in the future, I’m not in a position to start over. Of course, if A REASON FOR DYING sells a couple of million copies and the movie studios jump on the movie rights, I may take the leap.
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Yeah, Diana’s back! We missed you. Glad you had a great time. Loved my London/Cambridge trip, despite the rain.
by Sara
on July 30th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
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Welcome back, Diana! I dream of visiting Ireland one day. A lot of my family is still there, in County Clare and I’d love to see where my grandparents came from. When I write that best seller, I’ll go!
by Laura
on July 30th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
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I hear you, Will. I wouldn’t be quite so reckless and carefree if I had kidlings depending on me.
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It’s good to be home, Sara! I missed the GGs and all their adventures.
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Laura, I think you will find it as moving an experience as I did. County Clare is beautiful.
And who knows, maybe you need to take the trip in order to write the bestseller! 
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Out of curiosity, was there a pub there called Carmody’s????
by Laura
on July 30th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
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Well, I can’t say that I hit EVERY pub in the west of Ireland, but thank you for that vote of confidence.
I don’t specifically remember a Carmody’s, but that’s not to say it wasn’t there. No matter how small the town, there are always several pubs, each a few doors down from the next. And they all seem to pretty much thrive.
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Diana: That’s my kind of trip, knowing where the pubs are! When I took off for California for a spring break during my divorce year, I stopped into a nice little bar in Pismo Beach for a beer before I called it a day from sight seeing and headed back to my sister’s in Santa Maria.
When I told her about my day, she gently told me that the bar I had stopped it was a known biker bar and had a very bad reputation for fights and mysterious disappearances. (Ok, maybe I made that last bit up…) But leave it to me to find the one bar that trouble usually finds. It was during the time the serial killer was in the area, killing young blondes at college campus’s.
And the moral of the story is, if we happen to meet someday, don’t let me pick the bar.
Lynn
by Lynn
on July 31st, 2007 at 7:44 am
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Thanks for the head’s up, Lynn. I will definitely be the location scout on any of our outings — unless we’re doing research of course, in which case your talents may be useful.:P
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