Translating a World on the Edge

In this present climate of hatred toward our fellow human beings,

there is no better time for this novel.

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Love and hate, life and death, trust, betrayal, and the ‘always hovering’ choice to forgive, are prominent themes in this novel–themes that every person on earth struggles with.

In 1723, Ireland is still subjugated by the English Crown. Nell, an unruly Irish, peasant girl, and Arthur, the cautious grandson of a Scottish lord, find an unlikely love. On their wedding night Nell is snatched from her new husband’s arms by British soldiers. As Arthur lies bloodied on the ground, Nell is thrown on a ship headed for a sugar plantation in the West Indies, where she is sold into slavery. All seems lost, except Nell’s understandable vow for revenge. Beautiful and cunning, Nell seduces the plantation owner’s infatuated son who sneaks her away to pre-revolutionary Philadelphia. There she agrees to marry him, keeping her first marriage secret. She becomes a loyal wife and mother–and also, a patriot, never forgetting what England has done to her Irish family.

Tensions rise between the Patriots and Loyalists. Nell finds opportunities to pay back the English–blood for blood with no remorse–not only for her own kidnapping but also for her Irish mother’s hanging two decades earlier. When her first husband shows up in Philadelphia, very much alive and married, too, emotions between them run high, but Nell’s Scotsman remains stoic and the two families actually bond in their desire to leave the turmoil around them and take advantage of land offers in the Carolinas. Except the American Revolution follows them in full flow. Nell experiences more tragedy, and a crescendo of hatred after the Battle of Kings Mountain that increases her desire for vengeance.

And then, a child is born. The circumstance of his birth cause a final migration into the wilderness of the Mississippi Territory to a cave of miracles, where Nell’s eyes are opened at last to what it will take to truly love.

The Wind That Shakes the Corn is not only Nell’s story, it is the saga of the feisty Scots Irish immigrants in a burgeoning America, and their heart-held faith and courage that led the struggle toward freedom for the colonies. The novel spotlights both Catholic and Protestants immigrants to America who brought with them age-old grudges against the English Crown.

The Wind That Shakes The Corn was Runner-up for the Josiah Bancroft Award for Novel sponsored by Florida First Coast Writers,  a Finalist in the New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Society William Faulkner/William Wisdom Writing Competition, and Finalist for the Tuscany Prize for Fiction.