Works in Progress
The Irish Dresser Series, Screenplay for television
Logline: In turbulent, racist, and gang-mired 19th-Century New York, a young, plucky, visionary Irish woman who survived the Great Famine, achieves a hard-won identity as an Irish-American. Loving an Irish rebel, helping escaped slaves, and overcoming rape and loss, this gritty character is no pig-headed Bridie, and could be any woman, any immigrant, at any time in America.
Synopsis: In County Cork, Ireland, thirteen year old Norah McCabe crawls inside a dresser and finds solace during the ravaging effects of the Famine. It is in this dresser Norah is hidden when her father declares they must leave for America and there is no ticket for her passage. Separated from her family, Norah travels to America stowed inside the dresser. She steals food to save passengers and helps the sick and dying, avoiding getting caught and tossed overboard.
Arriving in Five Points, New York, after finding her family, Norah encounters further poverty, violence, and injustice as Irish Catholic immigrants. Norah meets Sean, a street tough boy who teaches her how to survive the streets. She becomes a newsie, meets Walt Whitman and challenges his views about the Irish, and visits Pete Williams Dance Hall. Norah is thrust into the first major theater riot when her beloved Da, a fiddler who is playing music for the Astor Theater when it is attacked during the riot, is missing and presumed dead. A wake is held and Norah buys a ticket for Ireland but days later, Da returns home. After this near loss, Norah learns that true belonging is in the human spirit and in the love of family and friends. Norah remains in New York and in the ensuing years, becomes an even more spirited and determined young woman. She buys a used clothing store, A Bee in Your Bonnet, and meets the dandy, Harrigan, who owns an Irish-American newspaper and is hired to work for him. Her childhood friend, Sean, leaves New York to work as a ship’s mate and thereafter Norah experiences passionate romance with Thomas Murray, an Irish rebel. Norah undergoes corruption and violence via a police commissioner who eventually abducts her and sells her to a brothel. After escaping the brothel, Murray convinces Norah to join a rebel organization that raises $30,000 to fight for Ireland’s freedom. Norah leaves New York with Murray, John Mitchel, the leader of the Young Ireland movement, and other rebels on a ship bound for England to purchase arms. Norah marries Murray on the ship, but soon after, the ship wrecks and Murray perishes at sea. Norah survives and returns to New York grief-stricken and finds she is pregnant.
Harrigan once again hires Norah to work for the newspaper and she comes into her own as a writer. Norah meets a feminist, Nellie, who invites her to the Seventh National Women’s Rights Convention. She seeks to understand the feminist movement. Harrigan proposes marriage, but as a homosexual, only a deep philia love exists between them. Norah eventually triumphs over loss, displacement, and poverty. Her solitary freedom becomes the colorful warp and weft in the fabric of her becoming an Irish-American. Sean, her first love as a teen, returns to New York from working on slave ships. He is humbled and deeply in love with Norah McCabe. Norah has her baby, learns millinery, and is in love with her new life. Embellishing this new life is the renewal of friendship with Sean O’Connelly, whom she steps out with on occasion to go dancing at Pete Williams Dance Hall. For now, it is enough, but will she marry Sean and continue to long for Ireland?
Logline: In turbulent, racist, and gang-mired 19th-Century New York, a young, plucky, visionary Irish woman who survived the Great Famine, achieves a hard-won identity as an Irish-American. Loving an Irish rebel, helping escaped slaves, and overcoming rape and loss, this gritty character is no pig-headed Bridie, and could be any woman, any immigrant, at any time in America.
Synopsis: In County Cork, Ireland, thirteen year old Norah McCabe crawls inside a dresser and finds solace during the ravaging effects of the Famine. It is in this dresser Norah is hidden when her father declares they must leave for America and there is no ticket for her passage. Separated from her family, Norah travels to America stowed inside the dresser. She steals food to save passengers and helps the sick and dying, avoiding getting caught and tossed overboard.
Arriving in Five Points, New York, after finding her family, Norah encounters further poverty, violence, and injustice as Irish Catholic immigrants. Norah meets Sean, a street tough boy who teaches her how to survive the streets. She becomes a newsie, meets Walt Whitman and challenges his views about the Irish, and visits Pete Williams Dance Hall. Norah is thrust into the first major theater riot when her beloved Da, a fiddler who is playing music for the Astor Theater when it is attacked during the riot, is missing and presumed dead. A wake is held and Norah buys a ticket for Ireland but days later, Da returns home. After this near loss, Norah learns that true belonging is in the human spirit and in the love of family and friends. Norah remains in New York and in the ensuing years, becomes an even more spirited and determined young woman. She buys a used clothing store, A Bee in Your Bonnet, and meets the dandy, Harrigan, who owns an Irish-American newspaper and is hired to work for him. Her childhood friend, Sean, leaves New York to work as a ship’s mate and thereafter Norah experiences passionate romance with Thomas Murray, an Irish rebel. Norah undergoes corruption and violence via a police commissioner who eventually abducts her and sells her to a brothel. After escaping the brothel, Murray convinces Norah to join a rebel organization that raises $30,000 to fight for Ireland’s freedom. Norah leaves New York with Murray, John Mitchel, the leader of the Young Ireland movement, and other rebels on a ship bound for England to purchase arms. Norah marries Murray on the ship, but soon after, the ship wrecks and Murray perishes at sea. Norah survives and returns to New York grief-stricken and finds she is pregnant.
Harrigan once again hires Norah to work for the newspaper and she comes into her own as a writer. Norah meets a feminist, Nellie, who invites her to the Seventh National Women’s Rights Convention. She seeks to understand the feminist movement. Harrigan proposes marriage, but as a homosexual, only a deep philia love exists between them. Norah eventually triumphs over loss, displacement, and poverty. Her solitary freedom becomes the colorful warp and weft in the fabric of her becoming an Irish-American. Sean, her first love as a teen, returns to New York from working on slave ships. He is humbled and deeply in love with Norah McCabe. Norah has her baby, learns millinery, and is in love with her new life. Embellishing this new life is the renewal of friendship with Sean O’Connelly, whom she steps out with on occasion to go dancing at Pete Williams Dance Hall. For now, it is enough, but will she marry Sean and continue to long for Ireland?
Tea on the Rocks, A Basket of Sumptuous Charm
I had a Victorian tea catering business many years ago called Miss Havisham’s Victorian Teas. One summer, while sitting on rocks overlooking the ocean in Maine, I became ravenous for scones and tea, but there were none to be had for miles around. Later, I was inspired to create a new business to cater to those who, like me, yearn for tea and scones, served with elegance and grace, no matter where you are. Tea on the Rocks, A Basket of Sumptuous Charm, coming to rocky shore near you is a dream, but not yet in progress.
Nevertheless, at our antique home, I have a dance room and often have quartet practices, Irish ceili dances, and readings where I serve tea and delicious tea fare.
I had a Victorian tea catering business many years ago called Miss Havisham’s Victorian Teas. One summer, while sitting on rocks overlooking the ocean in Maine, I became ravenous for scones and tea, but there were none to be had for miles around. Later, I was inspired to create a new business to cater to those who, like me, yearn for tea and scones, served with elegance and grace, no matter where you are. Tea on the Rocks, A Basket of Sumptuous Charm, coming to rocky shore near you is a dream, but not yet in progress.
Nevertheless, at our antique home, I have a dance room and often have quartet practices, Irish ceili dances, and readings where I serve tea and delicious tea fare.
Diamond Juba
In the early spring of 2005, I was at a Barnes and Noble book event hosting New England authors. Alongside me sat the robust and spirited Haywood Fennell, Sr., author of Coota and the Magic Quilt. As we connected, my mind began swirling with possibilities. Haywood is also a playwright and has written two theater productions, “From Gospel to Hip-Hop and All in Between” and “Harlem Renaissance Revisited with a Boston Flavor.” I shared with him about the scene in my sequel, Hope in New York City, where Norah and Irish immigrants dance with African-Americans at Pete Williams Dance Hall. We laughed and felt that his character, Coota, and my character, Norah, were meeting that very day! I pulled the scene from my novel, Hope in New York City, and wrote the musical play, Diamond Juba, with Haywood’s encouragement. Two young children (black and white) in New York of the 1850s meet Jack Diamond, the famous Irish jig dancer and Master Juba (William Henry Lane), the famous ham and bone dancer and all of them collide into dance in the midst of racial sharpness and honesty. It’s time to see this play produced, as we unfortunately still struggle with racial harmony and injustice.
In the early spring of 2005, I was at a Barnes and Noble book event hosting New England authors. Alongside me sat the robust and spirited Haywood Fennell, Sr., author of Coota and the Magic Quilt. As we connected, my mind began swirling with possibilities. Haywood is also a playwright and has written two theater productions, “From Gospel to Hip-Hop and All in Between” and “Harlem Renaissance Revisited with a Boston Flavor.” I shared with him about the scene in my sequel, Hope in New York City, where Norah and Irish immigrants dance with African-Americans at Pete Williams Dance Hall. We laughed and felt that his character, Coota, and my character, Norah, were meeting that very day! I pulled the scene from my novel, Hope in New York City, and wrote the musical play, Diamond Juba, with Haywood’s encouragement. Two young children (black and white) in New York of the 1850s meet Jack Diamond, the famous Irish jig dancer and Master Juba (William Henry Lane), the famous ham and bone dancer and all of them collide into dance in the midst of racial sharpness and honesty. It’s time to see this play produced, as we unfortunately still struggle with racial harmony and injustice.
The Blue Vega – Screenplay
Based on a short story about a small town in upstate New York, this screenplay expands on a single mother’s life and dreams to sing and raise her six children in the 1960s.
Based on a short story about a small town in upstate New York, this screenplay expands on a single mother’s life and dreams to sing and raise her six children in the 1960s.
Transatlantic Tarts, Wee tales and Fare by Two Celtic Cake Queens
This is a work-in-progress cookbook. We, the "Two Celtic Cake Queens" - one Scottish and one Irish - are neighbors, who met at a local ballroom class and became great friends. We both love to bake for social events and for our loved ones. Accompanying these tried and true recipes are anecdotes about the recipes and our baking lives. Margaret Mitchell owns Stillmeadow B&B and has special expertise in baking and cooking. I am a former owner of a tea catering business and a writer who goes to the kitchen to work out stories while I create delectable fare.
This is a work-in-progress cookbook. We, the "Two Celtic Cake Queens" - one Scottish and one Irish - are neighbors, who met at a local ballroom class and became great friends. We both love to bake for social events and for our loved ones. Accompanying these tried and true recipes are anecdotes about the recipes and our baking lives. Margaret Mitchell owns Stillmeadow B&B and has special expertise in baking and cooking. I am a former owner of a tea catering business and a writer who goes to the kitchen to work out stories while I create delectable fare.