My name is Siobhan Limerick. I don't really exist, just in the novel that Jim Wood is writing about my daughter, Agnes. I'm a fifty-year old Irish Catholic widow who lives in Philadelphia and I'm doing the best I can, given the setting Jim has created for us all. He put me and my family right in the middle of the Great Depression, and he's not going to let up on the conflict until World War II is over! I wish he could've dropped us into a more congenial setting, but we do the best we can. I'm hoping, too, that he writes more about me in his novel -- and in this Daily Write Round Robin -- because, as most people don't know, he has a really hard time writing about older people. But he does pretty well with young women and gay men. Odd, isn't it?
My name is Collin Doherty and I'm also a fictional being in Jim's book. I'm Siobhan's older brother and for the past thirty years I've been the pastor of St. Patrick's Church on Locust Street in Philadelphia. People sometimes think I'm harsh, judgmental, and autocratic ... especially my niece, Agnes, who seems to be at the center of every conflict in the novel. I do my best to save her from the clutches of Protestantism, but alas, well -- you need to read the book. I'm hoping that Jim fleshes me out better in the Round Robin and makes me more three-dimensional, because every time I appear in a scene from Jim's book, I wince. I do know that Jim looks for the good in just about everybody, even a mean old Catholic priest like me.
My name's Brian Larney. I've known the Limericks all my adult life -- Siobhan's dead husband, Martin, was my best friend and he really saved my life. But you're not going to find out about it until the end of Jim's book. I'm also a gay man and, boy, has it been hard to live my life in Philadelphia during the first forty years of the twentieth century! But thank goodness for Martin Limerick and, when she grows up, for Agnes. I adore that child and she's been my favorite piano student. Hopefully, you'll get to read about me and my adventures in the Round Robin. I do know that Jim wants to get inside my head. I just wish he'd also get inside my body. He's super-cute!
M'name's Gracie Honeywalker and Lord a'mighty it's been a rough eighty years. Ain't bad enough, I had to work on that slave plantation in old Kentucky but then I done showed up in upstate New York and met me Old Man Honeywalker -- he up and died on me when I was barely thirty years old, back in '85. One day right after I done turned eighty, this young married couple comes up to my farm house and the lady, she's named Agnes, she's about to have a baby. So I take her in and birth her. You'll probably read about me in the Round Robin. I done captured Jim's imagination and he's made me real nice. I just hope he gives me more than the cameo appearance in his book's second draft! All I appear in is that one chapter, and I want another chapter!
My friends, I'm Victoria Balmoral and you'll know me as Agnes's mother-in-law. I've seen a lot happen in my sixty-five years -- and nothing has pleased me more than to see Agnes grow into the kind of woman I always wanted to be. The kind of person that Jim always wished he were -- independent, fulfilled, happy, and a natural born leader. You see, I had those skills, but I always followed what my husband wanted. Agnes didn't do that with my son, and that's good, because she needed to assert her independence. You'll find out why during this Round Robin, or at least I hope you do.
Oh, poo! I'm Annie Kate Limerick and if you don't like it, it's to the cellar you can go. I'm also in Jim's book and he made me as salty and fussy as he could -- because I'm supposed to lighten the mood in an otherwise serious drama with lots of conflict. Agnes is my granddaughter and, besides, she needs all the help she can get. And what's a red-headed grandmother of eighty to do, anyway, except act as the foil for my daughter-in-law Siobhan's pompous brother. That Collin Doherty drives me batty.
I'm Norman Balmoral and I'm the hot sexy dude in Jim's novel. I know I'm supposed to talk more like someone from the 1930s, but let's face it, Jim had to have someone drop-dead gorgeous for Agnes to fall in love with, right? You might not know this about him, but he's a total slut (again, I know it's not a '30s thing to say) and loves the exotic look he gave me -- swarthy, sinewy, muscular, dark hair, blue eyes, and short. SHORT? Why did he have to make me so short? I know he likes it, but couldn't I have been tall, dark, and handsome? At least I get to be a successful architect, just like Jim's grandfather. Most people don't know it, but Jim once wanted to be an architect, just like me.
My name is Agnes Limerick and I'm the main character in Jim's novel. He seems to know me really well and, boy, he's given me a fascinating life! I get to marry a really handsome man, we have a house and two children. But couldn't he have made my husband a little more congenial? I have to survive the Depression, World War II, and a really bad marriage. Not to mention being ostracized by my Catholic family because I left the church to marry the man. But I have to give Jim credit -- he makes me a woman who can survive on her own. I like that about him, he believes in female empowerment. I owe a lot to Jim. At first, he was going to kill me off before I turned thirty years old, but once he got to know me, he really, really fell in love with me and decided that I should live -- and prosper. And I've got to admit, I don't mind it one bit that he killed off my husband instead. The lying, cheating bastard deserved it. And I had some fun, being a young widow living with her two children, her mother-in-law, and her gay piano teacher.
