Fortuna is the seventh book by Skibbereen author Caragh Bell.
How hard was this book to write?
Fortuna is my seventh book. In truth, it’s been the most difficult book to write. I spent the summer of 2021 writing the bare bones of the story, but when my husband was diagnosed with cancer later that year, the writing stopped. I couldn’t focus nor did I have time to devote to it. In the summer of 2023, I felt ready to go back. After lots of revisions and changes, I’m happy with it and so proud that I got it over the line.
What is Fortuna about?
It is set over two years after my last book, Mosaic, ends. The story is centred around two female characters: Emilia Thomas and Rosa Weber. Emilia comes from a humble background and defies the odds by becoming one of the leading film composers of her generation. Yet despite her success, she is haunted by the memory of the man who set her on a path to greatness but also broke her heart.
Rosa Weber is second-child of Oscar-winning composer, Johann Weber, and his famous soprano wife, Cassandra Rosso. A talented cellist, she plays in great orchestras all over the world, but ends up in trouble wherever she goes. When she moves to France to stay with her godfather, Raphael Baptiste, she realises how different her life could be.
Fortuna is set in the literary world I’ve created over the years. Characters from my previous books pop up, in different contexts and situations.
What was your inspiration for the book?
Emilia’s early life is loosely based on a friend of mine whom I interviewed back in 2019. I was fascinated by her story and subsequently Emilia was born.
Rosa could have it all, but throws it all away. You see children of celebrities grow up in their parents’ shadow, searching for their identity. Rosa refuses to meet expectations and wastes her talent by breaking all the rules.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was a child. ‘My News’ in Junior Infants was always highly entertaining. In transition year, I wrote a novel and my friends would read the pages each day, urging me to finish it as they were hooked. In 2011, I began Indecision, the first book of my trilogy and I’m about to publish my seventh book in that series.
It’s not all romance. I’ve written features for newspapers and magazines, published in an educational journal on using Twitter as a teaching tool in French, and submitted a chapter in ‘Perspectives on the Teaching of English in Post-Primary Education’ with Cork University Press. I submitted a PhD proposal to UCC last April which has been accepted, so I’m starting that in September.
I love words. Nothing fascinates me more than etymology. So much so, that my daughter gave me the Susie Dent book for Christmas.
When is the book coming out?
Fortuna will be launched at The Corner Bar in Skibbereen on August 8th at 7pm. It will also be available on Amazon Kindle from this date.
