If you’ve never seen a medieval sword fight up close and personal (A Knight’s Tale doesn’t count) you can see just that on Sunday, Oct. 17, at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library during a book launch event for Janine De Tillio Cammarata’s second book in the Fianna Cycle trilogy, `Eyes of the Goddess,` which published on Sept. 30.
`I wanted to try and get young adults into the library and I thought by having this, I could accomplish that. For one, there’s a lot of sword fighting in the book, so I thought let’s make the action in the book come alive,` said Cammarata. `People from the Society for Creative Anachronism are volunteering their time and will be all dressed in medieval garb, just having fun with some swordfighting.`
The second book in this fantasy series woven around celtic mythology follows the leader of the Elite Fianna, Maecha Ruadh mac Art, who must leave her beloved third century Celtic Ireland to rescue her father, the High King Cormac mac Art from the Picts of Scotland. Her treacherous brother, Cairpre, remains behind to take over the kingdom of Tara for Akir, the Fire Lord, who desires both Maecha and her sword, Imbas Skye. On her journey Maecha encounters fantastic mythological characters such as Manannn mac Lir, God of the Sea and Scathach, the Warrior Goddess. Martial artist, Michaela Sommers is still deeply tied to her ancient Irish counterpart, Maecha. Now she must help 10-year-old Natalie Fischer understand what her dreams of an evil presence and a Celtic druid mean for this girl’s future.
According to Cammarata, through training both body and mind, Maecha learns that you can’t always control your destiny, but how you react to it defines you; that is a concept she said she understand far too well after dealing with the loss of her son Nick from cancer in 2008. Forming Nick’s Fight to be Healed Foundation in his honor and to raise money for childhood cancer, Cammarata said completing this trilogy is another way for her to get through the tragedy.
`I wrote ‘Eyes of a Goddess before Nick got sick and then I just had more important things to handle, but I wanted to finish this book because he had a lot of input in the book. The one character, Akir, the first lord, he made up that charcter and had a lot of ideas in the book. The book kind of changed a lot after his death; it deals with a lot of universal themes of how you can’t control what happens in your life but what you do about it and how you react to it defines who you are as a person,` said Cammarata, referencing a major theme in this latest novel. `Nick read parts of it and read the first book a couple times, and loved it; he would say it was his favorite book and came on book signings with me. He was very actively involved.`
The trilogy started with the first book that was released in 2006. Cammarata said her writing process has been sporatic and in no way systematic, with her just writing as she goes.
`It’s definitely a process. I have a loose outline of what’s going to happen but I like to write and see; develop my characters first and see what their conflicts are and weave the story around them,` said Cammarata.
Many of the storylines come from everyday experiences combined with Cammarata’s own background in martial arts and her love of celtic mythology.
`A lot of characters are based on historical figures that I weave into an interesting story using martial arts and a very avid imagination. The books are geared toward young adults but adults can read them also if they want an action packed adventure with strong female and male characters,` said Cammarata. `I did an independent study on [celtic literature] to complete my masters and really loved it because there were such strong female characters and Irish myths are very rich in magic and folklore, so it really attracted my attention.`
Cammarata said this book’s batch of book signings and events will be a little different without Nick by her side, but she said she’s excited.
`Obviously it’s different this time but I’ve found writing to be very healing for me,` said Cammarata, who said she’s planning to do some workshops on writing for healing for young adults. `Writing is an important process. It can make a difference to people and if I can make more people aware and have them enjoy what they hopefully think is a good book, I think that helps a lot.`
A portion of the proceeds from her books go to Nick’s Fight to be Healed and she said she gives out copies of her books to children in the hospital getting cancer treatment.
`Reading is a distraction and a way to go off into your own world and forget what you have going on,` said Cammarata.
Cammarata will be talking about her book and signing books at the CPH Public Library Oct. 17, with the sword fighting demonstration at 1 p.m. and her talk at 2 p.m. Books will be available for purchase and refreshments will be served by the Friends of the CPH Public Library. More information is available at www.highlandpub.com and www.fighttobehealed.org.
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