WINTER 2010/11 /
VOL. 11 ISSUE 1
Liffey Rivers Mystery writer
Briggs Tells All
By Andrew Gregg
Brenna Briggs is the author of the
Liffey Rivers mystery series, which
relates of the rollicking adventures of a
13-year-old Irish dancer named Liffey
Rivers. The series currently consists of
four popular titles: Liffey Rivers and
the Mystery of the Sparkling Solid
Dress Crown, The Mystery of the
Winking Judge, The Secret of the
Mountain of the Moon, and In the
Shadow of the Serpent. Briggs
revealed some of her mysterious
motivations and methods for Irish
American Post readers.
IAP: When did you begin your career
as an author?
Briggs: My career as author was
launched with the Liffey Rivers Irish
Dancer mysteries in late November,
2005. Prior to Liffey, I wrote for several
newsletters and edited legal briefs.
IAP: What led you to create the Liffey
Rivers series and what sparked the
desire to write these stories?
Briggs: I worked in my husband's law
office off and on for 20 years. We did
mostly criminal law and I became
familiar with everything from burglary
to homicide. I always wanted to write a
good mystery and had plenty of
background to start one but no
'platform.' When my daughter began to
take Irish dance lessons, I found my
soap box. I tried to work on brief
editing while I waited for her lessons to
end, but found myself watching dramas
among dancers and parents and
teachers instead.
When we went to our first feis in
Chicago, I was horrified to discover
that all of the dancers did not place. I
had been to a family feis a few months
earlier and everyone got a 1, 2 or 3
rank. I saw my daughter's two first
places on the Chicago results board
and then noticed that there were four
boxes with only one number in each
box. Many of the dancers in her
competition did not place.
This completely ruined the feis for me
as I imagined what it would be like had
my daughter not seen her competitor
number on the results board. She
would have cried. A lot. I thought the
family feis's 1, 2, 3 system was a fair
and excellent way to show a dancer if
they were doing their best. They had
competed against themselves at the
family feis. This Chicago revelation
took all the fun out of a feis for me
because it just all seemed so arbitrary
and subjective.
So. I decided that there was lots of
excitement and intrigue surrounding a
feis and that Irish dancing might be a
good backdrop for a Nancy Drew kind
of mystery series featuring an Irish
dancer. Liffey Rivers is a dancer who
wants medals like everybody else but
she is so much more. Sometimes she
deliberately misses her stages
because she is 'otherwise engaged' in
solving mysteries. I wanted Irish
dancers to wannabe Liffey Rivers-a
dancer with a bigger agenda than just
placing at a feis.
IAP: If someone wanted to pick up the
series, should they start at the
beginning or would the books allow
them to begin at one of the other
volumes?
Briggs: It is best to begin with the first
book, The Mystery of the Sparkling
Solo Dress Crown. But each book
stands on its own as well. The ongoing
plot is easier to follow if a reader does
each book in sequence.
IAP: Were you also an irish dancer?
What troupe, when start, any awards,
how far did you go to perform?
Briggs (laughing) No!! I never
became an Irish dancer. I can hardly
walk.
IAP: Can you describe your writing
process? Idea generation, outlining, do
you dance a jig after you complete a
book?
Briggs: My writing process at the
moment has to be flexible out of
necessity. In Ireland, I got up at 5:00 a.
m. faithfully and wrote for
approximately five hours each day.
That was a luxury.
My good friend in Sligo, author Eoin
McNamee, (Resurrection Man, The
Blue Tango, The Ultras, and the The
Navigator series, plus other books)
says he gets 99% of his writing done
each day before noon. He inspired me.
Here in Wisconsin, I am caring for my
mother who is in the end stages of
Alzheimer's so I write around her
needs.
My fourth book took eighth months
longer than anticipated to complete
because I just could never seem to
stay on top of it with my mom's care
factored in. One day, my mother is
talking non-stop gibberish and the next
she appears to be in a coma all day.
I also missed several deadlines for my
serialized Liffey Rivers short stories
which are published monthly in Irish
Dancing and Culture magazine. They
have been very patient with me.
Anyway, I almost danced a jig after I
managed to get the fourth book done!
I may still try.
(Editor’s Noted: Briggs is also working
on a novel about Sydney Owenson,
author of The Wild Irish Girl and the
first woman to receive an author's
pension in Ireland. Additional
information about Liffey Rivers and
author Brianna Briggs can be found on
her website
http://www.liffeyrivers.com.
IRISH AMERICAN POST INTERVIEW