The Celtic Warrior Princess

Well, it was a no brainer - the title change. Only a short way into the edit of the first book in my new series I realised that the word"princess" is loaded with all kinds of implicit notions like sophistication, manners, restrained emotion and good behaviour which couldn't be further from the character of my tempermental barbarian wild child, Fenora. Just add one word to "princess" - i.e. "warrior" - and all those notions go right out the casement window. Language is a virus, as William Burroughs once commented. Words are signifiers - was that Foucault? Derrida? well, all those semiotic/semiology types - and they come loaded with cultural layers of what is being signified. This gal is not a prissy princess. Far from it. Oh and go visit my new Facebook page for The Celtic Warrior Princess - www.facebook.com and search "Celtic" and click if you like. She's just up new. (Image: (c) James Brady, Ireland)

To be Shee or Sidhe? That is the Question

Here's a delightful all-woman Celtic folk and trad band called "The Shee." I found them on youtube when I was googling "Shee" as the antiquarian spelling for the "Sidhe" or fairy folk. I'm thinking of using this spelling in The Celtic Princess because, let's face it, the average non-Irish-language-speaking person would not in a million years know that you pronounce "Sidhe" as "Shee." And don't be annoyin' me, ye purists. J.M. Synge himself used that spelling.