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 havenβt read the poetry of Yeats, here is an excerpt from WHAT THE WIND KNOWS, where Thomas recites βWhen You are Old,β to Anne, the woman he is falling in love with. If Anne doesnβt love Thomas before this moment, she does by the time he is through. The poetry of Yeats has that effect.
βItβs your turn, Doc!β Eoin cried. βWhat is your birthday blessing?β
Thomas shifted uncomfortably, and a bit of color touched his cheeks. βAnne 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 βWhen You Are Old.ββ
Everyone chortled, and Eoin looked confused.
βAre you old, Mother?β he asked.
βNo, darling boy. Iβm ageless,β I answered.
Everyone laughed again, but the OβToole sisters urged Thomas on, pleading for the poem.
Thomas stood, and with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slightly hunched, he began.
βWhen you are old and grey and full of sleep.β Thomas enunciated βold and grey,β and everyone tittered again, but I knew the poem well, knew every word, and my heart had turned to liquid in my chest.
βWhen you are old and grey and full of sleep,β he repeated over the chuckling, βand 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.β
The room had grown quiet, and Maggieβs 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 βpaced upon the mountains overhead and hid his face amid a crowd of stars.β 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.Β
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:
Angelica Day 9
Drat, I missed it. I’ll be back. π
sherry @ fundinmental
Awesome! I feel like Amy Harmon is a really versatile writer. I read the first book in her fantasy series and really enjoyed it. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
That scene alone has me even more excited for What the Wind Knows. I’m still hoping to squeeze it in to my February reads!
I hope you’ll read it soon too Tanya! I can’t wait to compare notes π
I got goosebumps, Sophie! That poem is beautiful – and I agree, Amy is a fantastic author π
I am so happy Lexxie!!!!
Wow…that’s beautiful! I really love that and I’m not much of a poet person. And I entered the giveaway…fingers crossed! π
Fingers crossed for you TRisy as she is such a fantastic writer!!!
So lovely! I added this book to my wish list because of your high praise for the story and writing, Sophie!
Oh Laura Amy has such a gorgeous writing truly!
Oh, what a beautiful excerpt. For that alone I’d want to read this one, Sophie.
Enter the giveaway Alexandra! I promise Amy is insanely gifted and has a gorgeous writing!