While researching my current WIP, I've discovered many things about the Irish Traveller culture.  I then went on to research circus life and the traditions that live on under the big top.

One of the interesting things I discovered, was the number of superstitions surrounding circus life.  For instance:

If a bird flies into the big top, it portends death to someone in the circus.

It is considered bad luck to use peacock feathers in costumes or set pieces as the eye shape at the tip of the feather is considered evil.

A hair plucked from the trunk/tail of an elephant is a good luck harm for those in the circus.

It is bad luck to look behind you while participating in a circus parade because it invites misfortune to follow you.  It is also bad luck to look back while traveling on the road for the same reason.

When entering the ring, always step in with your right foot first.

Much like in the theater, whistling is considered bad luck in the circus.  Should you be caught whistling, even in the dressing room, you would be sent out and made to turn around three times before being allowed to return.

So, what about you?  What superstitions do you still practic

As everyone knows, I am always adding to my list of books to read and this is my latest addition (although it has moved to the top of the list).  I've been following the author on Facebook and feel like I already know her, but for those of you that don't know Melissa Andrea, take a moment to learn more about her and her YA novel Flutter!

Amazon Author Bio:
Melissa Andrea
I find it hard to sum up my life in a paragraph, but I'll try.
Reading has always been a passion for me, and writing as instinctive as breathing. Every inhale is an idea; every exhale a creation. Flutter will be my debut release, and I couldn't be more excited about it! The only thing I do better than writing you ask? Making beautiful girls. My daughter's will always be my greatest accomplishment.
I was born in Denver, Colorado -but I will always think of sunny Arizona as my home. I don't have a big family, but I'm close with my sister, brother & my mom. My mom is my hero, my inspiration, and I couldn't have asked for a more amazing person to be raised by.
4 things you should know about me: I'm very girly, but I can get down and dirty with the best of them. I adore the color pink, I love things that sparkle (including vampires) and I like even numbers (hence 4 things about me, not 5).

Amazon Product Description
Sara
Sara's life is forever changed -
Waking up, buried & hidden deeply in the last place anyone would want to be, will do that. She is determined to find out how she ended up there & why, but when the only person who can help her, continuously lies to her, she finds herself forced to suffer alone. She can't ignore the strange things that begin to happen to her nor can she hide from the nightmares that haunt her sleep. And when her world collides with Adan - the mysterious boy whom she can't seem to stay away from, literally - she is consumed by the flutter that sparks whenever he is around and she is desperate to discover the reason why.

Adan
Adan’s mission to find Sara has finally begun -
It seemed simple: bring her back to the enchanted world that lives, breathes and survives because of her, but he quickly finds himself faced with an entirely new challenge. Immediately, Adan realizes that staying unknown to Sara is a task he will fail before he even begins; the pull to her is far too strong to refuse, but being with her will defy the very reason he existed. He is the key to her survival and being with her is not part of the path that he was born to follow. Can he find it in himself too resist the urge to be with or will he destroy everything that had been left to Sara to protect and defend.

Flutter
As Sara and Adan struggle to overcome their own separate battles -
There is a far more determined evil that is stalking the shadows and waiting to annihilate them both.

Together they will fight to change the rules and rewrite their fate.

Have you read Flutter yet?  What do you think about Melissa Andrea's work?

In researching my next book, I've read everything I could about Irish Traveller culture and circus life.  I won't take up my daughter's PETA soapbox (even though in this case I agree completely).  I did however wonder about one thing: Why were circuses rarely seen in the traditional big top outdoor arenas anymore?  The answer, it turns out, is actually quite tragic.....

It was a sunny July afternoon and thousands in the town of Hartford Connecticut turned out to see Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus.  The afternoon turned tragic when a fire broke out, every available person ran to help, including performers, but somewhere between 167-169 people died and over 700 were injured.  The photograph at the left featuring tramp clown Emmet Kelly holding a water bucket ran in papers across the country and it came to be known as "The day the clowns cried".

The fire began at the southwest side of the tent about fifteen minutes into the show.  The band immediately began to play "Stars and Stripes Forever" which was the tune used to signal distress to all circus personnel.  The ringmaster and ushers tried to maintain order, but panic soon took over the crowd. 

Because the big top tent had been weather proofed with paraffin and gasoline as was the standard at the time, the fiery tent collapsed within eight minutes leaving little chance for escape.

While it is believed that many people died by being consumed by the blaze, many others died in the confusion and chaos. Witnesses said some people simply ran around in circles trying to find their loved ones, rather than trying to escape the burning tent. Some escaped but ran back inside to find family members.

To complicate matters further, two of the exits were blocked by the chutes used to move the big cats, that had just finished performing prior to the fire, to and from the tent.  Most of the dead were found in piles, at times three bodies deep, near the exits.  A few survivors were found, having lived because they were trapped under other bodies and protected when the tent collapsed. 

One of the greatest mysteries about the fire is the Identity of victim 1565 or "Little Miss 1565" as she came to be known.  While there were some victims that were burnt beyond recognition, Little Miss was not.  She was a blond little girl in a white dress that was never identified or claimed.  Some believe that she could be Sarah Graham and she was eventually exhumed and buried under the name of Eleanor Cook.  As of 2005, according to Wikipedia, the Connecticut State Police are reviewing the case.

Today, where the big top stood, stands a memorial to the victims.  And because of this tragedy, most circuses are performed indoors without the use of the big top.

So, as many of you have guessed, my next project involves a group of Irish Travellers and let me warn anyone who shares this bright idea, researching the Irish Traveller culture is a nightmare!

I guess I was spoiled, with Spiritus my research was pretty straight forward.  I had to read up on the American Civil War and Voodoo.  Luckily, there is hundred of thousands of articles, photos, and books on these subjects.  But Irish Travellers?  Next to nothing.

I did learn that it is spelled Traveller and not Traveler.  That they are distrustful of outsiders and that about half are Settled Irish Travellers.

Something else I have been able to learn is that Irish Travellers came to the UK and American in the 1850's after the potato famine in Ireland and then again after World War II.  Thanks in part to the secrecy surrounding the group, there are no official population count for the Irish Travellers living in America and they are not listed as an ethic group on the U.S. census.  Wikipedia suggests that their population is somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000.

I also learned that Irish Travellers speak English, but often use what is referred to as the Irish Traveller Cant (Yep, I have to work that in to the story somehow) which is a combination of English and Shelta.  There are a few things that mention their strict rules of cleanliness and mention a Travellers Code, but nothing very detailed.  Not a lot, but at least it's something.

Then, of course, there is My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.  What did I learn?  Their weddings and first communions are AWESOME!  But I didn't really learn that much about their culture other than how hated they are by outsiders.

That brings me to what was easy to discover:  People HATE Irish Travellers. 

In researching Irish Travellers, the first thing that you come across is the evictions last year of Irish Travellers from Dale Farm in Crays Hill, Essex, UK.The story goes like this:  The Irish Travellers own a section of Green Belt land (open land used to separate urban and rural areas) called Dale Farm.  Part of the farm was approved for building and setting up caravans, and part of it wasn't.  After a ten year court battle which brought up why part would be approved for building and why the other part wouldn't, how can you throw people off land they in fact own, and if cultural differences were an underlying cause to all the trouble, the Irish Travellers were evicted from the illegally built upon Dale Farm sites.

Now, you want to learn something about human nature?  Read the comments attached to articles about Dale Farm.  I was a little shocked by the slant of the articles.  It was one extreme or another until you got to the comments where people talked about not wishing "them" on anyone, seizing vehicles on those leaving, and so on.  If you look up "Irish Traveller" on the internet, you will no doubt come across articles with titles like Irish Traveller Scams from places like eHow.  To make matters worse, there was the "outing" of Madelyne Gorman Toogood.  She was caught on tape thrashing her daughter.  Her arrest drew attention to this secretive culture.

So, what have I really learned about the Irish Traveller culture?  Not a lot, but I do think that where you have a reclusive group of people it is the trouble makers that get noticed and unfortunately become the face of their entire ethnic group.  But, reading the hate filled comments about them, I can understand why they remain so secretive.

 

So, thanks to my daughter's broken toe, I missed Light Up Corydon this year.  I was really looking forward to seeing the actual places described in my Spiritus novels lit up for the holidays.  How many authors can do that?

It was hard to get into the holiday mood anyway with this crazy weather, so I dug around until I came across a picture from a few years ago to share with you.

This is the famous bandstand/gazebo where Becca stop and cried after her fight with Ashley in the first Spiritus novel.  Of course that was in the fall, but here it is all lit up for the Christmas season.  I love how beautiful it looks in the snow!

I'm a sucker for a free book and today when I was trolling the free bestsellers over at Amazon.com, I came across this little gem and I can't wait to read it!

Give Me-A Tale of Wyrd and Fae (Amazon Product Description)

All she wanted was a vacation - but Dumnos offered a new life. 

When Lilith Evergreen receives an antique ring, she dreams of a castle by the sea, a magnificent tree at cliff's edge, and a mysterious woman who bids Lilith to come to Dumnos, a land of mist and rain.

Cade Bausiney is the future Earl of Dumnos, but at present he just wants to bolster tourism to help the local economy. When Cade and Lilith meet, they're overwhelmed by desire for each other - so intense it must be magically induced.

Long ago a wyrding woman's spell ended in disaster that left two souls to haunt Dumnos to this day. Lilith and Cade must find a way to make things right - or be forever possessed by the spirits who've waited a millennium to consummate their love.

If you like the new show Once Upon A Time, you may enjoy Give Me - A Tale of Wyrd and Fae.

Author Bio (Amazon Author Page)

L. K. Rigel lives in California with her television-watching cat, Coleridge. L.K. has been a newspaper reporter, a singing waitress, a public school teacher, and a court reporter.

Her work has appeared in Literary Mama and Tattoo Highway. Her short story "Slurp" about an author with muse problems is included in DEADLY TREATS, Anne Frasier's Halloween anthology published by Nodin Press.

Rigel writes historical romance and speculative fiction. In her postapocapunk "Apocalypto" series, human reproduction is threatened and fertile women rent their wombs to the highest bidding kings. Her "Tethers" series is about the fae and wyrd of Dumnos, an alternative Cornwall.

Her latest book is BRIDE OF FAE, of the Tethers series. Coming soon ... KISS ME HELLO, a romantic suspense ghost story.

I've finished my research for my next book and I have to say that I am in love with my new characters and the legend that they are based on!  There is something so romantic about an ancient story that has survived for generations.

I don't want to give too much away, but my next project is steeped in the legends of Ireland and involves the mystique of the Irish Traveller community.  But my research got me to thinking, what is it about old legends that hold our interest?

Anyone who follows this blog at all knows that I am a huge Robin of Sherwood fan.  Looking past the delicious Michael Praed, how can anyone refuse a story that has survived over the centuries and captures the imagination enough to inspire countless movies, television series, cartoons, books, drawings, and songs?  Is there anything better than a handsome outlaw that robs the rich to give to the poor?  That is a story that has it all:  Romance, action, social issues, and rebellion!  Suddenly I'm in the mood for a Robin of Sherwood video night......

I think one of the first legends that I ever fell in love with was the legend of King Aurthur and that was thanks to the amazing 1981 film Excalibur.  Again, it was a legend that had everything and has survived through the centuries.  Even Buggs Bunny had a go at the legend!

So, that leaves me with the question, what is it exactly about legends that captures our imagination and survives the test of time?