📚 A Bookish Chat with 'Birthright' Author Jeanette Baker | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview

 

Today we welcome Jeanette Baker to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! Jeanette is the author of the women's fiction, Birthright. This interview is part of her Birthright Blog Tour by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!

Jeanette Baker is the award-winning author of twenty paranormal, historical and contemporary novels, most of them set in the lush countryside of Southwest Ireland where she lives with her husband and writes during the “Seasons of Silence,” the autumn and winter months. Her ancestors, the O’Flahertys, hail from the counties of Kerry and Galway. She takes great pride in the prayer posted by the English over the ancient city gates, “From the wrath of the O’Flahertys, may the good Lord deliver us.”

Jeanette spent many years teaching 6th grade in a small school nestled under a canopy of Eucalyptus trees where the children consistently surprised her with their wisdom, their hopefulness and their enthusiasm for great stories. Currently, she enjoys the company of her own grown children and her precious grandchildren.

Jeanette graduated from the University of California at Irvine and holds a Master’s Degree in Education.

She is the Rita award-winning author of NELL.

Her latest book is the women’s fiction, Birthright.

You can visit her website at www.JeanetteBaker.com  or connect with her on Facebook.

 

TWL: Welcome to The Writer's Life! How did you come up with the idea to write your book?

Jeanette Baker: Birthright is based on the semi-fictional story of my husband’s oldest sister, who emigrated from Ireland to America in the early 1960s. Ireland was a very different place than it is today. The Catholic Church carried far more influence than it does now. Few people owned automobiles or telephones, and poverty was a way of life. Families were enormous, and nearly every one had a child, or two or three, who left for America.

TWL: Can you give us a short excerpt?

Jeanette Baker:

Look at the time, half-eight, and not a child in the house washed. The expression was my late mother’s, voiced nearly every day in the house where I grew up, ten children tucked into two bedrooms with one bath upstairs.

We were never close, my mother and me, not for any particular reason I can remember; we just didn’t get on. It was Fiona and Kathleen she preferred and Jimmy, always Jimmy, her middle child, the ciotogach, the red-headed lefty of our family who wasn’t supposed to amount to much and ended up in America with more in the bank than all of us put together.

The funny thing is Jimmy loved Tralee, still does, more than Keith or Liam or Michael, certainly more than I ever did. I was desperate to immigrate and wouldn’t have come back, not after Boston, but some things can’t be planned and shouldn’t be remembered.

Never mind all that, my mother would say. Memories never emptied the sink or hung out the washing. All they’re good for is regret. She was right. I know now that she was a font of wisdom I didn’t appreciate. It was my dad I preferred, the jokester, the man’s man, always ready with a wink, a story and a pint. Even when he told me bees could be captured in a can without a lid because they never looked up, and I tried it and nearly died from the experience, I blamed myself and never doubted him. Interesting how perspectives change after six decades.

 Speaking of the washing, it’s a good day for it, breezy without a hint of rain. I’m moving slowly today, feeling unsettled, looking for an excuse to avoid housework. Fergus Murphy, the postman, on his way to the door, is as fine a reason as any to sit down for a pot of tea and a scone.

“Good morning, Mrs. Malone,” he calls out. “How is the day treating you so far?”

“It’s a bit early to weigh in on the day, Mr. Murphy. Have you time for a cup of tea. It’s just made, and the scones are fresh.”

He scratches his head, checks to see that his few remaining wisps of hair are positioned over the shiny dome of his head, and winks. “Wasn’t I just thinking how I’d like one of Mrs. Malone’s scones?”

“Come in, then.” I hold the door for him. “Mind the step and sit down.” I pour two cups of tea, set out the butter, a fresh knife, spoons and the milk jug. “I hear that Bridget Walsh’s son came home for good this time. Did his marriage go bad?”

“Isn’t it an awful shame?” he replies. “They’re different about marriage in America, replacing husbands and wives the same as they do their automobiles.”

As far as I’m concerned, people in Ireland aren’t any different when it comes to replacing a spouse, only we don’t bother to make it legal. We just up and move in with someone else. But I won’t get any information by speaking my mind. “It is a shame,” I agree. “Poor Billy Walsh. She’s a lovely girl, though, isn’t she?” I refill his cup. He finishes one scone and eyes mine. “Would you like another scone, Mr. Murphy?”

“If you don’t mind, Mrs. Malone. This is a particularly delicious batch.”

TWL: What part of the book was the most fun to write?

Jeanette Baker: I wouldn’t call this book a fun book. It’s the story of a woman, adopted into a lovely American family, who never feels quite content in her own skin. She wants desperately to find out why her birth mother gave her up while she kept her younger sister. The mystery has colored her life, and she wants her questions answered. My favorite part of writing is the research. I love to travel, learning about new places and creating new stories along the way.

TWL: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

Jeanette Baker: Despite the story's painful elements, there is humor as well. The Irish are a practical people, accustomed to hardship yet always up for a good laugh.

What other books are you working on, and when will they be published?

Jeanette Baker: While I have other ideas, I don’t usually work on more than one book at a time the same way I only read one book at a time. I become absorbed in a story, and it takes over until I finish the final page.

TWL: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

Jeanette Baker: I’ve learned that human beings are all vulnerable. Our reasons for behaving in certain ways are never simple. Judging others by our own standards is a mistake.

 

TWL: Do you have any final words?

Jeanette Baker: Ireland is a beautiful country. Her people are unusual in many ways. They are musical and conversational. They are serious when it comes to Gaelic football, and they are wonderful storytellers. Mostly, they are a friendly, curious population, and their language is filled with dialects that are sometimes difficult to understand. I highly recommend a visit.

 

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Title: Birthright
Author: Jeanette Baker
Publisher: Top Reads Publishing LLC
Pages: 254
Genre: Women’s Fiction

Book Blurb

Two women on a course to confront the past, one to expose its secrets, the other to bury them. 

Claire Williams travels halfway across the globe from Southern California to Ireland to find the mother who gave her up and the questions that need answering. Norah O’Connor is equally determined to avoid revisiting the most shameful time of her life and the devastating decisions she was forced to make.

Claire’s presence fifty years later is the engine for the confrontations to come when neighbors Norah has known forever recognize Claire’s resemblance to a younger sister. Norah must face the man who fathered both her daughters, and decide to either hold the secrets that continue to embitter her or release them for the shame that will surely mark her.

“Jeanette Baker’s award winning novels have earned her a place in the paranormal genre beside giants such as Barbara Erskine and Kristin Hannah. Now she brings her unique writing style and compelling characters to the stage of contemporary Ireland, sharing a world as alluring as its secrets are opaque.”
—Lauren Royal, New York Times and USA Bestselling Author.

“Gorgeously descriptive and unforgettably moving, Baker’s novel is a wondrous journey of the heart.” 

—Candi Sary, author of Magdalena 

“Birthright will find a welcome place in any library strong in stories of mother/daughter relationships, Irish culture, and the special conundrums faced by adult children who seek answers to the decisions their birth parents made.”

—Diane Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

Book Information

Release Date: June 21, 2022

Publisher: Top Reads Publishing LLC

Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1970107296; 254 pages; $16.99; eBook $4.99

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HJjpzA 

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3tTpSlU 

The Writer’s Life

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