Throwback Thursday with Juliane Weber

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we revisit Under the Emerald Sky, the first book in The Irish Fortune Series by Juliane Weber, originally published on 25th October 2020. This compelling historical novel transports readers to 19th-century Ireland, where love, loyalty and ambition unfold against a backdrop of political tension and looming hardship.

Mary Anne: When you first imagined Under the Emerald Sky, what drew you to set the story in 19th-century Ireland, just before the famine?

Juliane: I actually fell into 19th-century Ireland by accident. I had been thinking about writing a book for some time and while I knew it would be historical fiction, I had no idea when or where the story would take place. At some point I found myself googling significant times in history (or some such), looking for inspiration, when I came across the Great Famine, which immediately piqued my interest. I liked the idea of Ireland as a setting, with its myths and legends and beautiful scenery; I liked the idea of the 19th century; and I liked the idea of writing about a time in history that hasn’t been written about as many times as some others. So I thought, why not? 

Mary Anne: Looking back now, what part of writing this book surprised you most — whether about the story, the characters, or the historical setting?

Juliane: What surprised me most is how easily it came to me to write a book in the first place. I knew I could write well enough, as I had been working as a medical writer for several years before I started on Under the Emerald Sky, but I didn’t know if I could write fiction. Once I got started, though, I found that it came quite naturally to me to invent characters and storylines, create dialogue, and find ways to include historical details within the book. 

  

Mary Anne: How did you approach blending romance and political conflict in a way that feels authentic to the era?

Juliane: I did a lot of research to get a good understanding of the political situation at the time, as well as societal norms of the era. I then tried to put myself into the characters’ shoes to imagine how they would act and feel within that context as the story unfolded.  

Mary Anne: Quin and Alannah’s relationship crosses cultural and political lines — what was your process in shaping their emotional journey?

Juliane: Because I don’t write with an outline or plan out all the details of a story before writing it, I don’t really have much of a process for things like that. For Under the Emerald Sky I decided to make one of my main characters English and the other Irish to be able to explore Anglo-Irish relations at the time. For various reasons Alannah ended up the Irish character, which led me to giving her an Anglophobic brother to add some more tension to the narrative. From there I let the story unfold as it came to me.  

  

Mary Anne: During research, what was a historical detail or discovery that became especially meaningful to you?

Juliane: It’s not so much meaningful but I found it interesting to learn that the Irish peasants were not as badly off before the famine as many people think. It’s often assumed the peasants were starving even before the potato harvest failed but, in fact, they were relatively well fed by the large quantities of nutrient-rich potatoes they consumed and were likely healthier than many of their counterparts in continental Europe. Irish peasants were incredibly poor, though, which contributed to the disaster that was the Great Famine, as hundreds of thousands of people had no means of replacing the potato upon which they depended so heavily for their survival.  

Mary Anne: How do you feel you’ve grown as a writer since publishing Under the Emerald Sky?

Juliane: I have definitely become more confident as a writer and worry less about what people think. Although I believed even while working on Under the Emerald Sky that it would turn out to be a good book that would find an audience, once it was actually published I became very much aware of the fact that people would read what I had written! Would they love it? Would they hate it? What would they think of me as the brains behind the story? These are things I worry less about now. I’ve realised there will always be people who criticise you, no matter what you do, and so now I simply write the story that comes to me without concerning myself too much with other people’s opinions.   

Mary Anne: Which scene or character in the novel resonates with you the strongest today, and why?

Juliane: A scene I think fondly of is the very last scene in Under the Emerald Sky. When I first started writing I thought I was writing a single book but I soon realised that I’d never be able to include all the important historical bits in just one book, nor get all the way through the years-long famine. Evidently, I’d embarked upon writing a series! As soon as I realised this I knew exactly where I wanted the first book to end. With the scene clear in my mind I decided just to get on with writing it, even though I hadn’t yet written much of the rest of the book. And while it’s the end of Under the Emerald Sky, in many ways that scene represents the start of the series as a whole.    

Mary Anne: What’s one piece of feedback you’ve received from readers that has made an impact on how you view your own work?

Juliane: Several readers have told me they enjoyed learning about how the famine impacted the Irish people as it taught them about their own ancestors, the readers being descendants of famine survivors or Irish emigrants. Such feedback reminds me that I’m not simply writing an entertaining story that involves fictional characters. I am also writing the story of hundreds of thousands of people who suffered terribly during the famine years. This makes me even more determined to ensure that the historical details included in my books are as accurate as I can possibly make them.  

Mary Anne: If you could revisit your author self at the start of writing this book, what would you say to them?

Juliane: I would say to myself that it’s important to keep the joy of the process in the forefront. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of writing Under the Emerald Sky, whereas publishing the book and attracting readers thereafter was fraught with frustration. I had the expectation that a good book (which I’d convinced myself mine was) would fly off the shelves but the reality was rather different. When faced with the multitude of tasks necessary for marketing a book and worrying about sales rankings, reviews and ratings, it’s easy to lose sight of why one started writing in the first place. It’s the simple joy of creating a story and learning unexpected historical details that I would remind myself to focus on even while trying to build up my author career. And I do frequently have to remind myself of that very thing even now.     
 

Mary Anne: Finally, as you reflect on your journey with this story and its place in your career, what does Under the Emerald Sky mean to you personally?

Juliane: I would say Under the Emerald Sky represents something of my resilience as a person and the start of a new chapter in my life. I started writing the book shortly after my husband and I moved with our two young boys to Germany from South Africa, where I’d spent most of my life. Leaving our home was not easy and settling in a new place even less so. Writing became my escape and allowed me to deal with the stress of it all. Looking back at it now I’m proud of how far we’ve all come. Not only have we built a life for ourselves in a new country, but I’ve also built up a business of my own. At least in part, it’s all linked with me deciding to write my first book.   

Check out the blurb:

It’s 1843 and the Englishman Quinton Williams has come to Ireland to oversee the running of his father’s ailing estate and escape his painful past. There he meets the Irishwoman Alannah O’Neill, whose family is one of few to have retained ownership of their land, the rest having been supplanted by the English over the course of the country's bloody history. Seeing the injustices of Victorian Ireland, Alannah’s brother Kieran has learned to hate the English and imperialism. Aware of Kieran’s hostility towards the English, Alannah keeps her growing relationship with Quin a secret – but it's a secret that can't be kept for long from those plotting to end England’s oppression of the Irish people. In the face of hate and revenge, an action-packed romance ensues.

But all the while, Ireland is deeply troubled, steeped in the stark contrasts that separate the rich few from the plentiful poor – which will prove to have devastating consequences.

Can Quin and Alannah find happiness in a land teetering on the brink of disaster? 

This book is available on #Kindle, paperback and # KindleUnlimited. You can pick up your copy HERE.

Juliane is a scientist turned novelist. She holds degrees in physiology and zoology, including a

PhD in physiology. During her studies she realised her passion lay not in conducting scientific research herself, but in writing about it. Thus began her career as a medical writer, where she took on all manner of writing and editing tasks, in the process honing her writing skills, until she finally plucked up the courage to write her first historical novel, Under the Emerald Sky. The book is the first in the Irish Fortune Series, which is set in 19th century Ireland around the time of the Great Famine. Under the Emerald Sky was awarded bronze medals in The Historical Fiction Company 2021 Book of the Year Contest and The Coffee Pot Book Club 2022 Book of the Year Contest. 

The second book in the series, Beneath the Darkening Clouds, was selected as an Editors' Choice title by the Historical Novel Society and was awarded a bronze medal in The Historical Fiction Company 2022 Book of the Year Contest.

Juliane was born in Germany, but spent most of her life in South Africa. She now lives with her husband and two sons in Hamelin, Germany, the town made famous by the story of the Pied Piper. 

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