Virginia author has a story to tell

The Poison Throne, by Virginia author Celine Kiernan, is a compelling story of court intrigue, adventure and romance. Billed as "this year"s most exciting crossover title", it"s a spectacular fantasy straight from the imagination of the author. But SINEAD HOGAN found out that Celine has many a story to tell... Creative to the last, Celine is happily drawing an animation while she chats about her new novel. The first instalment in The Moorehawke Trilogy, The Poison Throne was officially launched at Crannóg Bookshop, Cavan, and has been winning a tremendously positive response. Set in a fantastical medieval Europe, it tells the story of 15-year-old Wynter Moorehawke, who returns home after a five-year sojourn in the bleak Northlands. All has changed in her absence. Wynter is forced to make a terrible choice: stay and bow to the King"s will, or abandon her ailing father and join her friend Razi and the mysterious Christopher Garron in their efforts to restore the fragile kingdom to its former stability. But this changed kingdom is a dangerous place, where all resistance is brutally suppressed and the trio constantly risk assassination, torture or imprisonment. Dramatic? Very... and Celine is delighted and humbly surprised with the reaction so far. 'It"s set in the Renaissance era and I tried to keep it realistic in terms of the times, but there are things like talking cats in it, and it"s got a complex political plot,' explains Celine. 'I thought it would be too quirky. It amazes me that people like it.' A good yarn But Celine has a winning ability to tell a good yarn, whether in a novel, a classical animation or a conversation. Even the story of the author"s move from her native Dublin to Virginia is one of drama and destiny. About seven years ago Celine came to Virginia, where her grandfather Seamus Cahill was from, on a one-week holiday. It was her first time visiting Co. Cavan as an adult - but within months she had moved to Killinkere, where she is happily settled with husband, Noel, and children, Emmet (17) and Grace (14), not to mention their dog, flock of chickens and two ducks. 'I had lived my entire life on the same street in Donaghmede, Dublin, with myself and Noel having bought the house next door to my parents" house and my brother living just up the road,' says Celine, who was meant to go to Galway for the second week of her holiday seven years ago, but stayed an extra week in Virginia instead. 'I just fell madly in love with Virginia. It was so nice, the people were so friendly and I was amazed by the freedom that the kids had. It wasn"t until I came down here that I realised how different life could be. I loved where I lived so it was a shock to me that I would even want to move.' Coincidentally, Celine"s parents, Eva and Eoghan Cahill, who had come down on holidays with them, decided to move to Cavan too. 'When I went to break it to my mam that I"d be leaving Donaghmede for Cavan, I thought she might be upset. I said "Mam, I"ve something to tell you" but she said to sit down she had something to tell me. My parents were moving to Cavan as well!' All things considered, Celine believes the move was meant to be. 'We got a house so quickly and we were able to sell ours so quickly. It was just near the end of the Celtic Tiger, shortly after 9/11 and the timing was perfect. I really do believe I was meant to end up here.' Celine values Cavan as a good environment for her children to grow up. 'There"s a real sense of community. I love it. I was afraid we would be isolated but it was easy to get to know people and we felt very welcome. It"s great for the kids. The secondary school in Virginia is really great, and that was one of the reasons we moved down.' Roddy Doyle Celine is a great believer in education, having high praise for her own secondary school, Greendale Community School in Dublin, where the authors, Catherine Dunne and Roddy Doyle taught her English. 'We were blessed that we had exceptional teachers all round. They were a great bunch of teachers who made an effort to encourage any spark in us, for example our creativity. When I rang my English teachers to ask if I could dedicate The Poison Throne to them, they both remembered me, my brother and my two best friends by name. That was over 20 years later.' While Celine didn"t have the finances to complete her own third level studies, she feels lucky to be able to make a living out of doing what she loves. She was studying Film in Dun Laoghaire for a year and a half and couldn"t finance it, but got a paid apprenticeship with Sullivan Bluth Studios in Dublin and subsequently worked for 17 years in the film industry, doing much work as a classical animator. But while a picture tells a thousand words, Celine"s creative urges inevitably extended to storytelling with the written word too. 'I have always been creative. I have to write and I have to draw,' says Celine, who wrote her first book (a fantasy story about giant swans) when she was 11. While The Poison Throne is her first book to be published, she is now writing her seventh. And with this prolific, creative and multi-talented artist and author, who knows where the story will end. The Poison Throne is available in all good bookshops.