MORE Preview and the Final Book Trailer - for now!

The final Book Trailer has been released, and the finishing touches are going into the final story.  What a wild, insightful journey 2015 has turned out to be.  Look for the release of A TRIO OF IRISH TALES II very soon! When teamed with the first set of tales, they'll make a terrific gift for the Celtic-hearted (or just the story lover) on your holiday list.

And now: more from Liam Killough . . .

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The Fairy Tree (Selection #3)

By Judith Cullen

© 2015

 He soon found himself at a fork on the road he had taken out of town.  One road was bristling with signs and newer pavement.  The other seemed to disappear into the undergrowth as it ascended up a hill.  He tried to peek up it in case it was someone’s drive, for it did not seem to be marked as “private.”  Suddenly the words of a poem came unbidden into his head.

They’d been studying poetry at school, mostly Irish poets.  There’d been a lot of time spent on W.B. Yeats and George William Russell and other late 19^th, early 20^th century poets.  Liam didn’t always understand the politics laced through the poems, but he was working on understanding the struggles behind the words.  The teacher had spent one day focusing on contemporary poets of the period from around the world, and had read several poems by an American, Robert Frost.  The words just popped up from nowhere in his mind and he spoke them out loud, startling himself, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

PREVIEW: More from "The Fairy Tree"

The Fairy Tree (Selection #2)

By Judith Cullen

(C) 2015

Once outside, Liam looked around the farm for something to engage his interest.  This was all known territory, nothing here that he had not already explored to the point of painful familiarity.  With hardly a moment’s thought he started down the short path to the road and did not stop to consider which direction to turn when he reached it.  He just turned any old way, his hands stuffed deep in his jeans pockets, his shoulders sagging and his head lolling forward like a ragdoll.

After ten minutes of crankily tramping down the lane he came to a crossroads and his head came up.  He looked at all the possible directions he could go, and considered what might be the best path.  He took a deep breath.

“Okay,” he admitted to himself, “they were right about going outside.”  The fresh, sweet air felt good inhaling and exhaling.  It smelled of things coming to life and Liam’s spirits began to rise as the energy of the land awakening began to fill him.  He decided to head towards town.  Liam would have been surprised if there had been a mirror to hand and he had seen himself as he started on his way.  His feet were springing on the ground as he stepped, his shoulders were back, his head was up, and he was smiling.

PREVIEW: Liam Is Back!

Welcome to a preview of the next story in A trio of Irish Tales II.  Enjoy the newest book trailer, and then the first selection from "The Fairy Tree" where we meet young Liam Killough once more.

The Fairy Tree

By Judith Cullen

(C) 2015

“What did I say about “foostering” on the internet?”

Liam started, practically falling from his chair.  Rose McLane, was standing over him in the cool spring air that wafted through the office of his grandmother’s farm in County Wicklow.  Rose managed the farm, and Liam often used a spare desk in the office to do his homework. 

There was precious little space for him to do this in the farmhouse.  His dad’s office, where there was wireless internet in the house, was a “by invitation only” room. Grans and his Mom always seemed to have one project or another in progress, or about to be, on the kitchen table.  The dining room table was completely out of the question, and when he tried to work from his small bedroom he could not get a reliable signal.  He’d tried using his iPhone like a router, but something wasn’t working right. Liam got frustrated in a hurry, and he stayed that way.

So the farm office was really the only place where Liam could get any work done.  The first year they had lived in Ireland, Liam had gone to an online school, so this was a familiar drill for him.  Thankfully, he was attending a local academy now!  He couldn’t imagine spending all day in the office with Rose the way he had back then.

“I’m not foostering!” he said defensively, “Is that even a real word?”