Jeanette BakerThere is no greater pleasure for me than to wake before dawn, turn on my computer, reenter a world I've created and watch a story grow before my eyes.
From as early on as I can remember, I've always appreciated a good story. I'm of Irish descent, rom a small island off the coast of western Ireland, and I hail from a long line of famous storytellers, among them Liam and Robert O'Flaherty. The Irish have a unique relationship with the literature, oral and written. Our single greatest claim to fame is found in the immortality of the words written by our writers: Synge, Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Shaw, O'Casey, Swift and Heaney, Behan and many, many others. More than any other race on earth, the Irish appreciate a story well told. My fondest childhood memories are of when my father would come home, gather his children around him, and create a story as rousing and complicated and touching as only he could tell it.
I have always been a writer, a journalist of both feature and news articles, but it wasn't until 1992 that I penned my first romance novel. I had visited Scotland and become fascinated with the hauntingly brutal events of the massacre at Glencoe. I wove a story around the historical event, creating characters and motivations. The book truly seemsd to write itself and unbelievably, it sold. After that I wrote two more Scottish novels, paranormals, before I attempted my first Irish novel. Ireland's history is a fascinating and complicated one. After my venture into Scottish history, I felt I was ready to tackle Irish politics and Irish Lady as born, followed by Nell and Irish Fire.
Inishmore is home for me. It is a place where newborns are christened in traditional celtic tradition, with tiny tastes of soil to cement their relationship with the land, an ancient Druid custom. It is a place where the journey is more important than the destination, where mists blur the line between heaven and earth, where it is easy to fall back into the easy comfort of the pace, the language and customs of a world where legend abounds, where the tales of Cuchulain, King Conor, Queen Maeve and the Warriors of the Red Branch take on new meaning and where every castle beckons with the promise of a story behind the crumbling walls.
My books are filled with the rich detail I find in the Irish landscape, in the conversations of her people, in the pain and pride of her history. Each time another book is published, I feel the same thrill I felt the first time. I marvel at how incredibly privileged I am to be able to write the kinds of stories I love to write, to have my work edited and enhanced by a wonderful editor who feels honor bound to maintain the integrity and essence of my words, to have my work reproduced, bound with a beautiful cover and offered to readers on booksellers' shelves.
The most rewarding part of writing for me is the respnse of my readers. Romance readers are intelligent, sensitive and especially insightful. It is validating to know that my books appeal to such an audience.
More information on my individual titles appears on my website: www.jeanettebaker.com
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