Our winner is Tanya Atkinson! Congrats!

Hi dear friends,

I am overjoyed to welcome Amy Harmon on the blog today!

Amy is the author of many books that I all loved and one of them is my “best of the bests”! She is one of the first authors who has agreed to be interviewed when I was new as a blogger. She is someone radiating warmth and kindness. She has a grace in her writing and reading her books is always a unique and beautiful experience.

I have been lucky to meet her and I can say nothing is fake, every bout of kindness and love about her is true!

Her last book What the Wind Knows is already on my bests of 2019. That story is happening in Ireland and Amy wants to share with us her love for the poet William Yeats.

In my new novel, What the Wind Knows, each chapter is prefaced with a poem by the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. His poetry is lush and romantic, full of anguish and longing, just like the novel I attempted to write. What the Wind Knows is set in Ireland in 1921 during the Irish Civil War, and though it is a love story between Thomas Smith and Anne Gallagher, it is also a love story between me and Ireland and between me and WB Yeats. I fell head over heels for his work in the months I spent on this novel.

If you haven’t read the poetry of Yeats, here is an excerpt from WHAT THE WIND KNOWS, where Thomas recites “When You are Old,” to Anne, the woman he is falling in love with. If Anne doesn’t love Thomas before this moment, she does by the time he is through. The poetry of Yeats has that effect.

“It’s your turn, Doc!” Eoin cried. “What is your birthday blessing?”

Thomas shifted uncomfortably, and a bit of color touched his cheeks. “Anne loves the poet William Butler Yeats. So maybe instead of a blessing I will recite one of his poems to entertain our guests. A perfect birthday poem called ‘When You Are Old.’”

Everyone chortled, and Eoin looked confused.

“Are you old, Mother?” he asked.

“No, darling boy. I’m ageless,” I answered.

Everyone laughed again, but the O’Toole sisters urged Thomas on, pleading for the poem.

Thomas stood, and with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slightly hunched, he began.

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep.” Thomas enunciated “old and grey,” and everyone tittered again, but I knew the poem well, knew every word, and my heart had turned to liquid in my chest.

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep,” he repeated over the chuckling, “and nodding by the fire, take down this book, and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; how many loved your moments of glad grace, and loved your beauty with love false or true, but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, and loved the sorrows of your changing face.”

The room had grown quiet, and Maggie’s lips trembled, the soft sweetness of memory gleaming in her eyes. It was the kind of poem that made old women remember how it felt to be young.

As he spoke, Thomas looked at everyone in turn, but the poem was for me; I was the pilgrim soul with a changing face. He finished, reflecting on how love fled and “paced upon the mountains overhead and hid his face amid a crowd of stars.” Everyone clapped and stamped their feet, and Thomas bowed jauntily, accepting the praise. But he met my gaze before taking his seat.

Giveaway

I would love to gift a copy of WB Yeats Collected poems as well as a signed copy of What The Wind Knows for one reader. I hope my readers will fall in love with both. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

Amy’s bio

Amy Harmon is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times Bestselling author. Amy knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, and she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story. Her books are now being published in seventeen different languages, truly a dream come true for a little country girl from Levan, Utah.

Amy Harmon has written thirteen novels – the USA Today Bestsellers The Bird and The Sword, The Smallest Part, Making Faces and Running Barefoot, as well as the #1 Amazon bestselling historical From Sand and Ash, The Queen and The Cure, The Law of Moses, The Song of David, Infinity + One, Slow Dance in Purgatory, Prom Night in Purgatory, and the New York Times Bestseller, A Different Blue. Her next novel, What the Wind Knows, a historical set in Ireland 1920’s, will be released March 1, 2019 by Lake Union Publishing.

Read the other posts:

Beware Of The Reader Day 1

Tijan Day 2

Tanya Day 3

Aleatha Romig Day 4

Alexandra Wolfe Day 5

Leylah Attar Day 6

Trisy Day 7

Kate Stewart Day 8

Angelica Day 9

Emma Scott Day 10

Pam Nelson Day 11

Chloe Walsh Day 12

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more to come tomorrow!

Sophie