Lost for a Century: Family Secrets, Irish Heritage & Incan Gold with Brigid Kennedy

Some stories don't disappear. They wait. They linger. They whisper through the generations until someone finally listens.Three years ago, Bridget Kennedy's grandmother came to her in a dream at 2am and asked her to write the family story, a story buried for more than a century. Bridget was a violin teacher, a mom, a well rounded life. She had never written a novel in her life. She had every reason to say no.She said yes anyway.That yes became the spark that resurrected a lost heritage, uncovered an Irish treasure hunter, a monastery wedding in Peru, and a disappearance into the Amazon that was never solved. I'm your host, Michael Hurst. Welcome to one more thing before you go. Today we're pulling up a chair for a story that feels mythic.Irish myth, Incan legends, and a treasure hunter who vanished into the Amazon forest. And a granddaughter who traveled across continents to reclaim a heritage that almost disappeared forever.Reggie Kennedy is the debut author of Lost the Lost City of Incan Gold, a historical fantasy series rooted in her real family history.Her great grandfather, Robert Patrick Kennedy was a real Irish treasure hunter who crossed the Atlantic, traveled through South America, married Educia Rodriguez at the monastery of Santa Catalina in Arequipa, Peru, and then vanished into the forest.This spring, Brigid traveled to Ireland, to the cliffs of Maher, Oranmore Castle, Galway, the Buren, filming the real locations where her characters live. She wasn't just researching a novel, she was making a pilgrimage. And she's going to share that journey with us today. Today.Welcome to the show, Briged.

Hi. Thank you so much for having me today.

What an amazing journey in life, in totality, but wow.

I know, I know. You know, I've always had like my pictures of my great grandfather and my great grandmother. Like when you walk into my house, they're right there.And I tell all my violin students or guests who come into my house the story, and everybody says the same thing, like, it, it sounds, it sounds like a movie and Netflix, you know, a Hollywood thing instead of real life.

Yeah.You know, I think that sometimes there's there, there's secrets in our background, secrets in our genealogy that we don't, don't really know the full story for. Sometimes we have to dig a little bit to kind of find those tidbits of, of our origins, where we came from, how we became, who we became.And I think your journey and discovering that and then turning it into a book was like profound from that perspective. But this is one more thing before we go. I like to start at the beginning. Every story has a beginning, right?Had you ever thought you Wanted to be an author. What do you do? What you do? What do you do?

Never. Never. So as in my childhood, I was actually a very sickly child and like a bubble child almost.I couldn't go outside and play, do sports, have, like, lots of friends. So. And I didn't even go to school until about fifth or sixth grade.The doctors were more concerned with just keeping me alive than having me learn to read and write. And so I started very late in life on that aspect.And never in a million years would I, I have guessed that I would have turned my life around near the age of 50 and become an author. That was a miracle in itself, to say the least.

Well, I think that sometimes we talked about this right before we started. Sometimes we're given an opportunity to kind of redefine our purpose a little bit and I think becoming the story. You tell stories through music.A lot of people don't really understand that stories are told through music. So as a violin teacher, you teach your students to tell a story through music, right?

Oh, yes.

So you're a natural storyteller. I guess the evolution the universe gave you the next step in that pathway. What do you think?

I do believe that. And I found my music background helped me in the writing. Finding the beats, the rhythm beats, finding crescendo parts, finding the silent parts.It all mimics how we feel because music is a human expression. And just the ebb and flow of the emotions that go through it is the same way with writing.

I agree. That's an amazing way to put that.I studied the use of creative arts in healing, and music was like, at the top of the line, you know, top of the hill for that. Let's start, if you don't mind, let's start with the mystery, the story that waited more than a century to be told.Your great grandfather was a real Irish treasure hunter. That is, like, profound. That's very cool. That's crazy cool, actually.

I know, I know. It's amazing. So my great grandfather, Robert Patrick Kennedy, he was in love with, like, history and. And maps and treasures and quests.And so he actually won the map to the lost city of Incan Gold on a very lucky poker hand.And so at that table, he was sitting with the rival clan member, like other clans and him and his younger brother, one year younger, Uncle John, he was sitting with his brother there, and a thaler from South America came and joined the poker game. And he anted up the pot to the. And he brought the.The map and the gold pieces to prove that the map was real and everybody at that table wanted that pot, but my great grandfather ended up winning it.

That's amazing. And how lucky that is.

I know. And that right there, that, that changed the course.Like, if that sailor never came and joined that game, that game, he would have never then sailed brave the open oceans of the Atlantic and sailed for three months on a trade ship. Three months to get the Lima. And he would never met my great grandmother Yudosha.

And I tell you what, to believe in the map, to really look at the evidence in his hands and say, is this real? Is this not?And to take that chance, you know that right there is a very noble individual to kind of take that chance and to meet your great great grandma. Her great great great grandma.

No, just my. Just my great grandma. Great grandma, yes.

Forgive me. And they got married in a monastery in Peru.That's kind of unique in itself, actually, especially being Irish going from Ireland to, to Peru, that's a, that's a journey.

It, I mean, it is the, the, the three months at sea, they had to go to New York as a protocol after three to four weeks of sailing across the Atlantic and on a trade ship. So. And then like, no.And then they would have to go down North America, down South America, and then up through the Cape, and then back up to Lima, Peru. And so to get from the Porta Lima to the Peruvian Amazon, you have to pass through a little town called Arequipa.And that's where my family, the Rodriguez family, had their hacienda, a grand plantation. And it was Peruvian tradition to invite travelers to stay the night, give them accommodations.And the very next day was a bull fighting match, a Spanish bull fight, bullfighting match. And the two Irish brothers, they were so excited because they'd never experienced or seen this. And it was right there in that town that day.And the Rodriguez family were very wealthy. They were Peruvian aristocrats. And they had those front row seats, the barrera seats to the Spanish bully fighting match.And so they invited the two Irish brothers to come with them the next day. And at the bullfighting match, my great grandfather was so excited, he started jumping up and down.And then he leapt over the railing and into the hard packed dirt of the arena and fought that bull. And the crowd went wild. They were chanting, green goat, green goat, which means white guy.And they threw him a sword and a cape and he fought that bull.And on one dramatic pass, when the bull went underneath the cape, he turned to my grandmother, my great grandmother Yudosha, and he flashed her like a debie near smile and a courtier smile and like saying, oh, look what I can do. But right then that bull turned its horns and hooked him into the side in his leg. And then the bull launched him in the air. And the paramedics, the.The medics were able to save his life, but he did have deadly wounds and he couldn't go and venture into the Amazon for the next day. But my. But Udosha stayed by his bedside and became his nurse. And that's when they fell in love over that time.

What an amazing story. That beats that. I mean that. That kind of. That beats meeting somebody in the restaurant and going, hey, I think I love you.

A cute. A meet cute. Yes. Well, then when they got.They got married at Saint Mont, at the monastery Saint Catalina, which if you've ever been to Arequipa, it's one of beautiful architecture, most beautiful architecture, church. It has these archways around it and it's so beautiful. But so then there's their first daughter that they had, cat Catalina.They named it after the monastery. And that's my grandmother is Catalina.

That's very cool. Very cool. Very cool. I. I don't know much. I mean, I do a little bit about Peru. I've never been to Peru, but the.I had a conversation with a Peruvian director and he had. He did a film, profound film, called Mistera, and it was all about the Peruvian. The culture, the architecture, the.Back in the 50s, in the 60s, and recreating what had been lost through film. It was an amazing conversation. I learned a lot, actually, about. From the Peruvian perspective. You had.Speaking of your grandmother, you had a dream, what, approximately three years ago, your grandmother came to you in a dream, asked you to write the family story. Would that moment feel like. I mean, a lot of us, we go to sleep, we have a dream. Sometimes we remember it, sometimes we don't.This one must have stuck.

Well, it was 2:00am and I was sound asleep. And it was more than a dream. Like she was, she was there. Her presence, her face, her voice was there.And she looked directly at me and she's like, she said, write my story. And then she was gone. She vanished. And so I sat up in the dark and I thought about what she asked me to write. And I knew the story.It was the same story that was told around the family table and all the special holidays and occasions and the pictures that would come out with all my family. And I knew that story. The only problem was, is I'm a violinist, I'm not a Writer. I didn't go to university, you know, for writing.I went to write university to write music and write notes.And so I thought about it for a little while and the thing is, is that when a loved one comes to you and asks you to do something in that way, and I wasn't going to be the one to tell Catalina Kennedy no. And so I went ahead, got up, I made a pot of coffee, and I started writing.And I wrote the story that I knew, the story that was told around those family get togethers. And most of it was like genealogy, names, dates, places and everything.And I was writing and writing and my pen stopped at the same point in history where our family stopped. So to continue our true family history, the background of it.So when Robert was recovering with his bullfighting injuries, his younger brother John went and ventured into the Amazon with a guide to meet up with the local tribes and to kind of get lay of the land and also to see if the map was real or not.And during his time in the Amazon, getting to know the local tribes, he actually fell in love with a tribal lady and he thought that he found his true treasure and so he wanted just to live his life in the Amazon with her.And, and they ended up getting married and they ended up having two daughters that they raised in the heart of, of the rainforest, and that's where they stayed.And so then once my great grandfather healed up, he was venturing into the Amazon and treasure hunting by himself until one fateful expedition he ventured into the Amazon and he never returned. And we don't know what he saw, we don't know what he found, we don't know what kept him from coming home.We didn't know if it was another injury or not, that he just couldn't. He was going to come back like a week, two months later, another year later, and.And so that was the point where our family kind of crumbled away because then Yidosha was left as a single mom and all of the expeditions that he took dwindled away their fortune. So she was left, single mom with kids, penniless and in Peru wondering if her husband was going to come out of that Amazon any day.So not only did we lose all of the Rodriguez wealth, the Hacienda Robert, but also Uncle John, he was somewhere in the depths of the Amazon. She couldn't reach him.We lost all communication with our site in Ireland because Robert had the information of how to get letters back home, but nobody there had the address that they knew too. So all of the Irish side of our family, Uncle John, his wife, his kids, everybody, it was just. It just crumbled apart.So that's when my pen stopped that night when I was writing. And my grandmother's like, no, keep, keep writing. And I was like, grandma, that's the end of our story. You know, I, that's, that's where it stopped.And then she started playing like this movie in my mind. So real, so vivid. The Amazon, how it tastes like everything. And I just started writing the story that she wanted me to write.And so I continued the story with the siblings getting old enough to go and venture into the magical borders of the Amazon and to find clues what happened to their father. And at the end of it, they do find out what happened. They come face to face with it.And through that, everyday, surviving in the jungle, the family unity, that bond got stronger and stronger. And so the sadness and the grief that they felt was turning into joy and unity and togetherness with the family. And.And so after I got done writing the book, a New York Times bestselling author, she became a quick fan of mine. She goes, bridget, you did not write fantasy. I was like, what, what do you mean I didn't write fantasy? There's. There's dragons in this book.Yes, it's fantasy. And she goes, no, what you did was you wrote reclamation. You reclaimed your family history.And then I, I took a step back and I realized what my grandmother was actually having me do. And to write, I wrote. I'm going to tear up when I say this. I wrote the final chapters that they never got to experience.Their story ended so suddenly with grief. And I got to bring that joy back to them. I got to bring them that closure to it. And I just never realized that that's what she wanted me to do.

Well, that's amazing. You were able to kind of give you.Reclaim your, your, your family legacy, create a new ending like you said, and give them closure, which I think we all, we all strive for and need for. When, especially with family, when you have holes in, in your genealogy that you don't know what happened, you don't have any answers.You gave them answers, which I think is like a brilliant. In some of my research, I think I had found some things you had lost photographs. You found unlabeled photos, half remembered names.The heritage quality was like slipping together.What was it like piecing that all back together through those photographs, through those remembrances, from that perspective, did you, did you, did you start really understanding the connection between what was coming basically from Your soul? I guess not. I guess I would see it as coming from your soul onto the. The written word. How did that play? How did that play?

Well, it was. It was kind of like threefold on there. The first thing is, you know, this is my grandmother that we're talking about, Catalina.This is their daughter. So the. The hurt and the grief is still very painful within my family, and especially with all my aunts and uncles on that side.And when you want to try to move past and heal, right, you go to therapy, you go to all these things, and people's like, just talk about, just speak about it. You work, you know, work your way through it to heal. But that's. That's a really hard thing to do when.When you go through so much trauma and so much grief because it's buried, you know, deep down inside.And to be able to talk about it means that you're going to have to bring back up and look it in the face, that grief, and it might hurt your heart the same way that it did when it first happened.So for me to write the story about my family, I had to connect with my aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in 20, 30 years, and that they're still carrying the grief with them. And I had to be very careful with asking them to share stories with me about the love story between their grandparents.And so I didn't know if they would be flexible enough and want to bring out that grief and to be able to heal from it and talk about it. But they all did, and they all shared so many wonderful stories with me.But beyond just the stories that they shared, like I said, I haven't talked to him like, in 20 or 30 years. Years. And so my grandma Catalina, she, yes, she had me reconcile the family in my book, right, all those siblings in my book.But then being able to, in this present day, she. She brought the family together on that present day right now. So for. For me to gather all the stories and to reconnect with them.So, you know, a calling always knows more than you do. And so she really knew that I had to write that conclusion for them, that closure for them, but also to reconnect and get stronger bonds with the.

Family today, which is amazing. I mean, what an opportunity for healing, you know, deep down. Deep down, intergenerational healing, which is kind of profound in itself.You went through this also, another unique approach that you, when you first reached out to me, you were talking about the journey and the places that your ancestors walked in, your places where your characters now live. So you went to Ireland, right, to kind of.To connect with the family, to kind of walk the same footsteps as your ancestors have walked the Cliffs of Moher. And I may be not pronouncing that correctly, but Mohair, take me to the moment you stood at the Cliffs of Mohair, for example.What did that feel like? What did it feel like? Had you ever visited Ireland before?

So I grew up going back and forth to Peru each summer because my mom on my mom's side wanted to go back and visit all her family.But, you know, when you're as a kid and you go and visit another place, another country, visit the ancestors, you know, your relatives, you don't really realize what's going on. You're just in your kid world. So I didn't. I knew I was in Peru.I knew I was climbing Machu Picchu, right, that they kept telling me what this was, but it just didn't click as these are my roots, this is my history.So when I went to Ireland as an adult, it was a totally different, different sensation in there because my, my abuelita Catalina, she never went back to Ireland. My mother never went to Ireland. None of her brothers and sisters did. And so when I went, I was the first Kennedy to return back to that homeland.So soil. And as an adult, I took that in, that bull impact in.And every step I took over those cobblestone streets, I thought about my great grandfather running down those very streets as a child, you know, and when we went to the Cliffs of More to stand there and feel that cold rush wind of the Atlantic Ocean coming up on you, and seeing that green of Ireland, just tasting it, breathing it, smelling it stand before the castle, like every part of it just really hit home so much harder than it did when I was visiting, like, Peru as a child. And so that journey was so magical. And I got to take that with my. My daughter.And I wrote the book for my daughter so that all that genealogy, all that knowledge, everything of, of.Of our fantastic family history of treasure hunters, she would know and she would understand and she would know that, you know, she had treasure Hun coursing through her veins.And if any day in any time of her life, she felt the need to go on a quest, to go find something, I wanted her to know that that's her ancestors calling her and that's. That's something that she can treasure for that. But, yeah, Ireland was an extremely impactful visit because I knew exactly what it was as an adult.And knowing that I was the first Kennedy to return to that home soil.

There's got to be fair. There's got to be soul feeling right deep down in your soul.I mean, walking the streets of Galilee, you visited Oranmore Castle and you filmed the real locations from your book. How did. How did that change your understanding of your own story?I guess, what's the relationship, for example, for the castle, how did you come up with. In what relation is that castle to your story and to your family?

So Oranmore Castle is the story that I wrote into for the Canadians. Now, like I said, when Robert never came out of the jungle, we lost all connection with that part of our history.So I had to invent an Irish side for my book because I didn't have connections with that side. So the parents, the grandparents that I wrote into my book were actually on my dad's side. So Grandma Bonnie and Grandal Lyndall I wrote then.So I got to bring my dad's parents as the grandparents in Ireland. And when I was Ireland, in Galway, I. I studied the. All the clans, and the Blake clan is very big, as well as the Kennedy clan over there.And so I put in there that my grandma Bonnie was Bonnie Blake from Ireland. So it. All their names and everything all fit.So I. I had to bring up that Irish side from just my own personal history and blending that in to the book.But standing in front of it and going to Ireland, that's when I wrote my third book, Stolen, which I felt such a need for all the Kennedys to go back just like how I did, to go back and stand on that soil and just even, like, jumping off the rowboat onto the shore from a ship when they sailed onto the rowboat and stepping into that cold Irish water and almost being blessed again by it. And for the homecoming, I wanted my characters to have that homecoming, just like I felt. So it really inspired my third book.

That's amazing. And what a journey, too. Why did you decide?I mean, obviously you probably filmed it for personal perspective as well, but, you know, filming on location, I think you. On your website, you have opportunity for. For people to take on and see some of that footage, correct?

Oh, yes. Yeah. I have it posted everywhere and on my. On my socials. And, you know, today's day and age is so.It's so easy to have those huge, epic shots when filming because of the drones and everything that had the cameras. And so, yeah, they're all on my socials and put in there. And also my YouTube channel, I also put Some of the clips in.

Into those kind of feel. I mean, what did it feel like? What does it feel like to give your ancestors a voice again?

It's. It's comforting.It's comforting because one of the things I never thought I would get out of writing, writing as an author writing is the joy and the sheer happiness that you have all the control of your story and your characters.I don't know if you ever read a book and you fell in love with a character or storyline, and then it started taking this turn that you don't like, and you're, like, yelling at the pages of the book, no, don't do that. And sometimes it gets frustrating.Like, they ended up the book how you didn't want to end the book, but writing your own book, you can do exactly how your heart, where it moves you to write.And so it just felt so comforting to be able to give life to that Irish side of the family and to the rest of the story that they will be living forever now, because I have given them a voice and given them a platform to live and to share the story around the world.

Yeah, I think that you called it the calling earlier. That creative leap that you took, the legacy that you're carrying forward, is due to the. Is saying yes in the dream.It goes back to your dream and your grandmother. Right?

Yeah. I mean, I could have easily said no, because, you know, I have my whole violin studio. I have my symphony orchestras.I. I'm a mother to a teenager, and she's in sports, and. And I'm a faculty spouse. And so my.My life is booked every minute of the day, and as if you have children and they're in sports, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, there you go. And. And, you know, I just. I just had my birthday, and I just turned 49, and I called it the I'm not 50 yet birthday.And the funny story was, thank you. Thank you. I was on podcasts, and. And I was telling. I. I really believed I was turning 50.And so after some of the interviews that day, my husband came up to me. He's like, bridget, you're not turning 50. And I'm like, what do you mean? He was like, you're 48. You're going to turn 49.And I'm just like, wow, I get a whole nother year in my 40s. So my whole birthday thing was, I'm not 50 yet. But at that point in life, to take on that new challenge was a daunting task.And the challenge Itself of writing. I found that very easy because I didn't create the story. My grandmother did, and she was playing it in my head.So I was kind of like just transcribing as much as I could on the story going forward. But it was taking that time away from my family to do this calling that was the hard part.To find the hours in the day that your day is already booked up and in full. Now note that I did not give up being a violinist and my studio and my family, I took everybody on this crazy journey with me.Like my whole symphony orchestra, all my students, they all came on this journey with me that I continued to do. But you know, every minute that you spend writing, that's. That's a minute that you spend away from your family. And so that.That was a huge ask, I think. And you know, where dinners go uncooked, maybe my husband had to pitch in and take my daughter to cheer that night. So those little tiny moments that.That I was taken away from, I think that was the higher toll of taking on a creative thing. But for me, that first step of writing, even though I'm not a writer, the story was already playing out in my mind.I just had to, like, you know, write it down. So that was the easy part.

Well, it's a gift. I think you were given a gift. You had every reason to say no. You just express that, look, I'm a. My wife and I were parents. We have two.They're adults now, but we're still parents. And we're still parents to them to this day. Obviously, they. They still call up Sedan. Dad, dad. You know, it. It's a never ending job. It's a very in. In.Especially in the teenage years, it's tight. Mike has played soccer, they were in theater, they were in dance. They were. It was a constant running, a constant lovingly.When I say this just so everybody knows, I'm not complaining.It was a brilliant opportunity to let our children grow up and experience the world from different perspectives and allow them to grow into the beautiful, intelligent young people they are now. So, yeah, it takes time, it takes effort. You get little sleep. So you had every right to say no, but you said yes anyway.And from that perspective, from a personal perspective, what do you think that yes unlocked in you? Did it bring about a whole new person?

Not really. Because I find that to write and do all this is a discipline.And as a professional violinist, I grew up knowing that you got to put six or eight hours of practicing every single day, no matter if you Feel inspired to play music or not, you had to put it in anyway so that you can edit. And every time like, so if we're practicing, it could be just like a 20 second little segment that we're trying to work on.So every time you go through, through it, it's a new, a new correction, a new dedication to it, and another way to play it louder, softer, an accent here or a decrescendo there. And so you keep reworking it for those six or the eight hours. So every time you hit it, it's going at it with a new goal.And so I took that dedication into my writing and I was.Even though like some days those pages just flowed and some days it felt like a block, I still put in that, that time and still went over it and over it and really moving each one of my phrases, my sentences to a goal, to, to a path in there. So I don't think it changed me as a person. It made me a lot busier of a person, that's for sure. I really time managed everything.But I'm a very spiritual person. I've always have been. I think I have like an open mind and open heart.And so I always felt that when you have a calling and, and something comes to you and you choose to do it, it's. It's almost like it's anointed at that part. And, and, and if you decide to follow that path, that path will be very easy. Everything's set for you.All you have to do is take that first step and that path will open up. And it really did. That time opened up for me to write.My family was generous enough, you know, where I didn't have to feel the guilt of leaving them for, for to fend for themselves for dinner or lunch or something. So it did really open up that path to do it.So I think a calling is also a blessing on its own, and it, and it will allow you to do what it's asking you to do.

Yeah, I think I am grateful that you had that opportunity as a human being, that you had that opportunity to really have that understanding and the open mind aspect of that.And as you said, I'm sure that your tenacity, your strength and your ability through your music career, you've understood the work that needs to be put into it very definitively. And that kind of allowed you from, from a genealogical perspective, you have both Irish Incan heritage in your blood.It spans continents, Irish myths, Incan legends. I mean, what does it mean to carry two ancient cultures as One story. Because you've. You've melded opposite kind of opposite ends of the world.

I did. I did. First off, I want to say how completely honored I am to be the one to bring Incan history and mythology to mainstream.We all know about the gods, the Greek gods, we all know about the Aztecs, right? But that Incan society, it's shrouded in a lot of mystery. And their gods that they had were all earthly gods.And so to be able to bring that forth in my book was an amazing honor for me to be able to do that. So I do. I really, really cherish being able to dive into that Incan mythology and bring that forward.Because in my story, once each of the siblings, they pass into those magical borders of the Amazon, they are all wearing the pieces that their dad won on that poker game that night, that fateful night in Galway, Ireland, that sent him on his journey. And so all those pieces are mounted in a necklace. And so each one of the siblings is wearing it as they cross over the borders of the Amazon.And being so close now into petit into the Amazon, they get imbued with the Incan God powers. And each one is designated to each sibling, depending on what that sibling's nature calls to. So. So it was.It was just so fascinating to be able to take their.The, the Incan names and what they were able to do and put them in each one of those siblings, because now not only are they trying to survive minute by minute through the. Of the Amazon, but now they're dealing with these powers that they have suddenly taken on, and they're trying to understand them.And it's just this huge, fantastical, wild ride that the siblings have to on take. But I really did like blending in the. The Incan side of everything.And when on my book three, when they go back to Ireland, I have all of that Celtic mythology blending in as the main hand in that one. So just taking those two different mythology systems just made a precious gift that was so unique to give to the.

World, which is like. It just makes me smile. I have a question, though.In all of your research and in understanding the Incan mythologies and the Irish mythologies, do you see any overlaps in those mythologies?

I do, I do, I do. Because the. They are both grounded in earth magic and earth gods. So the Irish, right, it's all the gods from underneath the ground that affects.And same thing with the Incan. So they had similar structures that I was able to entwine and play with a lot.

Oh, that's very cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the research, yeah, the research aspect on all of it was so fun to do, but not only that, it was just how they live, breathe, and talk.But in my story, the Kennedy clan, they have a specialty which is the masters of blades. So each one of the Kennedy clans is a. It's passed down generation through generation to teach that clan skill and to learn how.What all the ancient Irish weapons were and how they would train with them and how they would use it, the stance, the. The block, the attack.But then also in my story, when the siblings, she, she, she want, she felt the need to also fight with swords, and she couldn't understand it. And so her wealthy aristocratic family bought her a master of sword from Spain. And so he was her. Her trainer.And so I also had to learn Spanish fencing. And so just the posture, the front foot, how they held the sword, how they went into their attack, the moves that they would have to do.And then at one point in my story, I have the Irish sister and the Spanish blade sister having it out like in a, in a match, a sparring match. And so then to have each one of those fighting styles clash in a ring. So tons, tons of research that took.

Place in there, that had to be number one, a unique approach to being able to write your story.Because not only are you integrating family into this, a family story, a true life, family history within this and intergenerational opportunities, you also. It had to be fun. It had to be somewhat. Had to be fun.

It was so much fun. And each one of the characters took like an avatar character, which, which I'm wearing right now. So let's see here.This is Robbie, so the oldest brother, and then Kat and then little Patrick, and then I'm going the wrong. And then Maria and Bastian.And so they, they play these stories out of my head and the interactions and conversations and they're just so fantastic to have and to. To bring onto the page.

Well, and you're wearing the. The Incan necklace around your neck too, correct?

Yes, my family talisman. Let's see if I can get an up close. So the outer shape is the Incan symbol for family, and then the inner is the Irish symbol for family.So together it represents both of my bloodlines, the Incan and the Irish.

And can I ask, did that come with passed down from your family? Did you have it made?

It has been passed down. So it is from Peru. Yes.

That's profound. That's pretty cool, actually. That's awesome.Especially holding that that's got to be a muse in itself to be able to just hold that and understand that, you know, here's both of my, my families, both sides of my families, and they're integrated even in this thing I'm holding and I get it and I have to put it down on paper.

So in my book I have my character. She. She wears the charm and the charm becomes a talisman, a power for her. So it's very, very unique and very special to our family line.

Yeah, that's very cool. That's very cool. Cool. Well, the Lost.The Lost City of Incan Gold, your debut novel, launched with 75, five star reviews, a full cast audiobook with 21 character voices, which I think in itself is very unique because you get more, you get storytelling, you get the opportunity to listen to a radio show, kind of sort of like the old timey radio show. How did this story transform you as a writer and as a person? This one more thing before you go.I love to be able to show people that you have the ability at any age, 49, 50 or more, that you have the ability to transform and to grow and to kind of. What did you, what did you get from this personally?

You know, I had a very happy and fulfilled life. I, I was doing exactly what I was trained to do all my life. Music, my studio. I was at the top of my profession. Right. My marriage.We just celebrated 26 years of marriage. Our, our daughter is beautiful and she's, she's turned 16 so she, you know, she's, she's getting into everything.So I'm seeing like all of the, the, the fruits of our labor, so to speak, over the years. And I was very happy, very satisfied with my life. But my grandmother knew something I did not and.And to be able to be filled so new with like a new passion, I think that's, I think that's the key word there. It's because when you settle into your life, you get settled, right? Everything is more routine and you can be happy.Yes, but, but to feel that new spark of something that can. Gives you that passion. That's what she gave me. That's what I'm feeling now in my new part of my journey. I feel a new spark of something.

That I'm very passionate about, which you're continuing the journey. There's more books that you are going to be writing and releasing and more stories, more integrations, more.Is that those new Avengers, do they all come in about as a series or are they going to be individually supported within itself.

So each one of the books is a standalone book, but it is part of the series.So you can pick up each one of the books and be able to fall right into the storyline, the characters, and experience that particular journey that I see set the reader on for the book theme. But they are all connected together in a timeline series from that perspective.

That's cool. Very, very cool. I. I have to ask this question. I asked this of all my guests whose lives were changed by a single moment.If your grandmother had never come to you in that dream, if you had never taken up this trip, did the genealogist research, reconnected with your families, if you had never written this book, who do you think you would be today?

I would be a violinist in her studio with her husband and her child. I would definitely have more time on my hands and I would definitely be relaxed and settled into a pace that I was used to.And I wouldn't have connected with, reconnected with all my aunts and uncles. And my daughter probably would not have ever known that she had treasure hunting blood in her veins.And my grandmother would be probably very, very upset at me up in heaven by not following her instructions. And so I feel like, I feel like probably how my family felt when my great grandfather never came out of the Amazon.That emptiness, that hole in your heart, that's probably how I would have felt if I didn't say yes to that calling.

Well, we're happy that you did. I think that your grandmother was. Your grandmother was pretty smart.

She was always a smart and a tough cookie. Yes, yes, yes.

There you go. She poked you at the right time. It's like, hey, wake up. Got something to say?

Or in my story, she whacked me over the head with a sword.

Oh, that. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Which you can see that cartoon, a little animation version of that on your YouTube channel.

My YouTube channel.

Let's tell everybody how they can get your books and follow you in your journey.

Yes. So everything is at Brigid Kennedy Books. So all my social handles, tick tock, Instagram, Facebook threads, everything is Bridget Kennedy Books.My personal website is Bridget Kennedybooks.com and on there I have all the links that you can click to take you right to purchasing the books. I do have a lot of sellers that are selling my books. Amazon, Barnes and Nobles books, a million. All the indie stores that have supported me.If you are in Virginia, go to Blacksburg Books.If you're in the Florida Panhandle, Salt and Story, the Bodalicious Cafe in Pensacola, the Sundog Bookstore in Seaside and also in Melbourne, Florida. If you were out by the Space coast over there, go to Cozy Cottage, a bookshop in Melbourne, Florida. So all those places you can get the books.My audiobook you can get off my website.My audiobook is super cool because since I am a professional musician, I wrote my own soundtrack and theme songs to it and it's a very cinematic experience. Experience.So I definitely recommend the audiobook but go to my YouTube channel at Bridget Kennedy Books because I'm reading every single story, every single chapter in this book.You can hear it from me, the author and then I go all the behind the scenes of each chapter and talk about all the little Easter eggs and the nuggets and all the threads that I woven through and talk about what I had like in other drafts and I bring that up and then I take out my real family photos of Yidosha and Robert's wedding in the monastery of Saint Catalina. The actual photos of Robert and, and, and Kat.All my family photos I take out and I show and I present what was the real, the real history behind all of the stuff that I was putting in.

That's amazing. I'll make sure there's of a lot link in the show notes so that everybody has an easy way of going there as well.I know that you know, in my journey in, in, in across your website I found videos, I found the books, I found your stories, I found the behind the scenes footage that you had from Ireland and, and a whole bunch of things. So what, what It's a brilliant website by the way.

Thank you. I hand created it. Hand created by myself and so it's with Squarespace, but I am put all that together.

Yeah, put it together. Well you did a brilliant, amazing job.I, I, it's very easy to navigate and it's got a lot of information on there that will inspire, it will inspire people and motivate people. We're out of time and, and we could talk next time you get ready to release your next book. We should talk again. Is that we need to do.See, just continue the conversation before we wrap. I always have like one more thing before you go because this is one more thing before you go. So I want to ask you this.After everything you've uncovered, resurrected, written and reclaimed, what's one piece of wisdom you want people to carry with them about their own heritage, their own creativity, their own dreams without having to talk themselves out of it.

So a calling I think comes down as like higher being than us, spiritual. And it knows more than you do. It's almost like your answered prayer when you ask, God, send me a sign, help me do this. Show me where I need to go.When you get centered in yourself and you're calm enough to hear that calling, it is a blessing. And that is the answer to all the things that you've been striving to find answers to. And it knows more than you do.And your job is not to question it. Your job is not to wonder why you. And when it came to you, it didn't say, excuse me, is this a good time in your life?It comes to you at the perfect time in your life, and it is anointed. And it is supposed to be the path that you need to be on.And so when you choose to take that first step and go, you're going to find it's incredible easy to do that step. It's going to help you along the way. So my advice is say yes.Say yes to that calling because it can lead you into the most happiness, the most happy place that you have ever experienced. It can really fulfill you in ways that maybe your life is not currently fulfilling you.And it can be a new passion, a new discovery, a new spark that, that, that gives you more life to have.

Brilliant, brilliant words of wisdom. I think we should all take heed to those. Bridget, it's been a wonderful opportunity. This is an extraordinary journey.The treasure hunter, the monastery, the Amazon dream, the pilgrimage, the heritage that refused to disappear. Your courage to say yes. As we just said, you're asking everybody else. They should say yes when that opportunity arises.You did, and look where you're at now. It is just brilliant when you had every reason to say no. So I think that's going to stay with the listeners for the long time.I really appreciate you being here. Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a treat.

It's been fun Again. Next book, do it again.

Of course. Of course. I'm here.

You're here. You know, as I sit with Bridget's story, I'm struck by how fragile heritage really is and how powerful it becomes when someone decides to reclaim it.Her journey reminds us that stories don't disappear. They wait. They linger. They whisper through generations until someone finally listens. She did. And you should. That's a wrap for today's episode.I hope you found inspiration, clarity and a few new people perspectives to take with you. If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to like subscribe and follow us and stay connected.You can find us on Apple, Spotify or your favorite listening platform and head over to YouTube to catch the full video version. In the meantime, I want you to have a great day, have a great week, and thank you for being part of our community.Until next time, I'm Michael Hurston as is one more thank you before you go.

Thanks for listening to this episode of One More Thing before you go, check out our website@beforeyougopodcast.com. You can find us as well as subscribe to the program and rate us on your favorite podcast listening platform.