FICTION

about my novels and life as a novelist

Fiction Extract for Patrons: WB Yeats’s First Breach with Charley Johnston

This extract for patrons from Orna Ross's novel A Life Before features Charles Johnston (1867 – 1931), Irish schoolfriend of W.B. Yeats and one of the core founders of the Theosophist Movement. A Sanskrit scholar, Johnston wrote numerous books on Theosophy, as well as many Sanskrit translations. His wife Vera Vladimirovna de Zhelihovsky was niece to the (in)famous Madame Blavatsky—who is also a real-life character in the novel series

Maud Gonne Statue Campaign: Update 1:3

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This is your latest update about the Maud Gonne Statue campaign, with information about Kickstarter late pledges, a new “stretch reward” book, and formation of the Maud Gonne Society as a company limited by guarantee, seeking charity status.

What is an Uncommittee? Open Post

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Image of a Creative Uncommittee

An uncommittee is a loose collective of people with a shared goal, interest or cause, who meet up to collaborate, as needed. This more creative approach avoids the hierarchical and bureaucratic aspects of traditional committees, such as rigid roles, red tape, and top-down decision-making. Coined by Orna Ross, novelist poet and founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, who based it on the idea of the “unconference” that’s widespread in the self-publishing sector, an uncommittee eschew hierarchical structures in the same way, and foster a more egalitarian experience that thrives on spontaneity and serendipity.