This is a very special event and I am anxious to meet the author. Marion "Abigail" Davis wrote her first book at age sixteen. It was published in 2006. Abi is in her early twenties and I can't wait to hear her talk about the inspiration for her book and writing/publishing at such a young age. She is an inspiration.
In her own words: "Coming from a home-schooling family, my eight siblings and I have always focused heavily on self-education. I began reading historical fiction in order to better remember certain events and dates in time. However, I found that I greatly enjoyed the genre and began writing my own short stories. Several of my siblings and I started college at a young age, and this allowed me to incorporate literary learnings in my gradually-improving writing skills. I finished my first book--Tis Agony to Part--at age 16. At age 19, I received my Bachelor's Degree in English Literature, and at age 20, I finished my Master's Degree in Linguistics. I am currently completing the last stages of my second novel, a sci-fi mystery that takes place within a small 1800s town in rural Georgia."
Her story behind the book:
In her own words: "Coming from a home-schooling family, my eight siblings and I have always focused heavily on self-education. I began reading historical fiction in order to better remember certain events and dates in time. However, I found that I greatly enjoyed the genre and began writing my own short stories. Several of my siblings and I started college at a young age, and this allowed me to incorporate literary learnings in my gradually-improving writing skills. I finished my first book--Tis Agony to Part--at age 16. At age 19, I received my Bachelor's Degree in English Literature, and at age 20, I finished my Master's Degree in Linguistics. I am currently completing the last stages of my second novel, a sci-fi mystery that takes place within a small 1800s town in rural Georgia."
Her story behind the book:
The story began when I was 15. In the living room, my family had an old nautical painting that was picked up somewhere along the way. Nothing was known about the piece; it simply depicted a ship struggling through a roiling ocean with various structural dimensions and elements noted in the margins. Wanting to solve this mystery, I decided to research the ship's history, eventually finding the manifest on an online database.
There was an interesting story here. The British Queen was on its way to New York, carrying 228 passengers, mostly Irish emigrants. After a two-month wintry voyage, the British Queen finally neared the northeast coast of America--only for the weather to push the ship off-course, about twelve miles away from Nantucket Island. On Nantucket Island, an area that had nearly become a ghost town, the alarm was sounded after a watchman spotted something amiss in the distance. The islanders came together and created a rescue plan: two brothers, skilled sailors, took their schooners out into the choppy December seas. In an amazing maneuver, they were able to guide their crafts up against the sinking ship and pull the passengers to safety. Back on Nantucket Island, the islanders took the emigrants into their homes over Christmas.
Many of the emigrants later continued on to New York. Some stayed in Massachusetts. However, a few families listed on the ship's manifest had no descendants claiming this voyage as part of an incredible ancestry. The names of these survivors had simply vanished from history. In response to these disappearances, I decided to create my own story: a beginning and an end to the tale of an Irish family in search of better days. The tale of the Clarke family now lives on in its entirety in my book Tis Agony to Part.
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