DONEGAL-born author Gemma Hill is delighted to announce a very special ‘Meet the Author’ event, which will be hosted by Bookmark in Letterkenny Shopping Centre tomorrow.
Speaking ahead of the event, Gemma shared how it is hard to put into words the “thrill and pleasure” it gives her to see her book, ‘Orphans and Strangers’, stacked on the bookshelves of Bookmark ready for readers to read.
“It’s a good read. Readers won’t be disappointed,” she said.
The new book, which is set in Fermanagh between the 1940s and 1960s, tells the story of William, a farmer’s son. His father believes “he’s not one for the woman,” while his mother, who knows her son is different, plans to marry him off to a farmer’s daughter to save the land.
William’s obsessive love affair with Margaret, a nurse, leads him into the trauma of war, a mixed marriage and a fight over a farm of land. All of which force him to flee to London and then return, right into the heart of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
An accomplished author and blogger of short stories, poetry, and storytelling, Gemma has been published in newspapers, women’s magazines, and poetry anthologies.
But her lifelong dream was to write a novel – a dream she pursued after retiring from teaching Health and Social Care in Third Level Education.
Gemma says that when she was attending St Patrick’s National School in Murlog, Lifford, the idea of becoming a writer or a teacher – let alone having a London publishing company publish her novels – was the furthest thing from her mind.
“I couldn’t wait to leave school behind me, but life has a funny way of fulfilling the dreams we don’t even know we have.”
“Later, I returned to study and found myself at University of Ulster where I graduated with an Honours Degree and found myself back in the classroom where I taught for most of my adult life.”
Her husband Fran served with the Defence Forces for the best part of 30 years and was always very supportive of her writing, even when Gemma would “leap out of bed in the middle of the night to write down an idea or a character” that came to her.
After they both retired, she began working on Orphans and Strangers. However, the project was soon shelved after Fran was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
“Later, I went on to write my debut novel, ‘The Twins Twins’, set at the foot of the Muckish Mountain in Donegal.
“But the story of Orphans and Strangers was still there in the back of my head, nudging me to tell their story.
“And now it’s out there,” Gemma said.
The ‘Meet the Author’ event will take place tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon in Bookmark, Letterkenny Shopping Centre, from 1pm to 3pm.
