One year ago as of this month, my friend and I were having a conversation about why a certain Irish boy was so good-looking.

The answer was, of course, "because he's Irish."

And thus, Because I'm Irish was born.

As of December 20th, it is one year old.

I feel incredibly sappy about this. I suppose it's a little weird to be writing a blog post commemorating the birthday of ... my novel. But my dad said, "They all become your children, eventually."

It's so true. This book is my baby. More or less.

Time to celebrate. And just try your best to ignore the sap.

- I never intended this to be a novel. Seriously. It was an inside joke that I intended to write a mere short story about. And then it turned out that one of the members of the boyband was evil. And involved in illegal activity. And he didn't want anyone to know about it, so he blackmailed people into joining the band...

It all went downhill from there.

- Fiona Bartulli is my main character, and her name happened by complete accident. I was typing, looked over at my dad and said, "I need a last name." He said, without missing a beat, "Bartulli."

It stuck.

- Fiona plays violin.

- The book is set partially in NYC. Other notable locations include Tennessee and Ireland.

- My favorite scene in the book takes place in Ireland, atop some gorgeous cliffs. I read over it a week ago, and I had tears in my eyes.

- On my characters' trip to Ireland, their car runs out of gas and they walk a few miles to a gas station, which caused me to have to ask my international friends about Irish gas stations. Never again, I hope.

- One of my characters surfs.

- I still don't know how it actually ends. I ended it with a devastating cliffhanger, and when I reread it last week, even I agree it's a rubbish ending. So it will be getting a happier one. I just don't know what it is yet.

- This is the second book I've finished and it's the one I'd like to pursue publication with.

- After finishing it in July, I started in on a round of edits, adding and beefing up scenes. Unfortunately, I didn't finish the edits before putting it back in the shadows for a bit. This is due to me not feeling competent at all to edit a first draft, and not wanting to mess anything up.

Because I stopped editing, this means I have tons of half-finished scenes. Such as a scene where my main guy character takes Fiona to meet his family, and his mom opens the door and says hello. End scene. I'm serious. I really need to fix that, which is my first step before sending it out to be beta-read, I suppose.

- This book is entirely filled up with guys. It's about a boyband, what do you expect? Aside from Fiona and the band's tour manager, there are no girls in the story. I had one character, Lark, who was a cellist in the band and sister to one of the members. She lasted about 500 words before being thrust into oblivion since I forgot all about her (and she was starting to annoy me... and Fiona). Oops.

- My friends and I are currently writing an alternate universe where our characters meet each other. Fiona's best friends with my friend Caroline's character, Beck. Their relationship is pure sass and she's nicknamed him Agent 007.

- Because I'm Irish fulfills my long time fascination for adventure and suspense.

- The reason I think I finished this book so quickly and with minimal effort was because of two reasons. 1, I really did not research before starting. Instead of getting hung up on what kind of guns my villains should use and what Ireland looks like in the summer, I just dove headfirst in. This is one of the most beneficial things in writing I have ever done. Now that the first draft is finished, I can spend time researching. In fact, I visited Ireland on Google Maps last night. It was lovely.

The second reason is that I took the advice of a famous writer: When in doubt, kill someone. Unfortunately, I can't remember who that famous writer is, or what the exact quote was. All I know is, it stuck with me.

Now, I didn't kill a character every time I got stuck, but what I did do was up the stakes. I'd do something drastic. Like introduce the possibility of death. Have my villain whip out a gun. That kept the pace moving so dang fast. I remember being bored only a few times while writing this book. And that was so wonderful. I wish all my novels could be like that.

Because I'm Irish, thank you for coming into my life when I needed you most. Thank you, God, for giving me a novel that would bring me through many rough times. Thank you for the smiles. Thank you for the laughs.

Thank you for the memories.

Now, let's go change the world.


hold on, we're gonna make it if it takes all night
hearts racing like a rocket at the speed of light
don't fight it, we've been running for far too long
we're going back where we belong
so hold on we got our wings and we're chasing the wind
farewell to all the places that we have been
and if it takes us all night long
we're going back where we belong 
- thriving ivory
(check out Because I'm Irish's Pinterest board for even more awesomeness.)