Season 9 Episode #17 Saying Yes to the Story You Were Meant to Tell with Brigid Kennedy

What happens when a dream changes the entire course of your life?

In this unforgettable episode of The Cultural Curriculum Chat™ Podcast, host Jebeh Edmunds sits down with author Brigid Kennedy to discuss ancestry, storytelling, creative courage, and the incredible true family mystery that inspired her bestselling novel, LOST — The Lost City of Incan Gold.

Three years ago, Brigid’s grandmother appeared to her in a dream with a request: write the family’s real history. At the time, Brigid was a violin teacher, a mother, and someone who had never written a novel before. Despite every reason to doubt herself, she said yes.

That decision led Brigid on a journey through Ireland, Peru, family archives, and the mysteries of the Amazon rainforest to uncover the story of her great-grandfather Robert Patrick Kennedy, an Irish treasure hunter who disappeared during his final expedition into the Amazon and was never seen again.

This conversation explores what it means to reclaim family stories, trust creative intuition, and pursue the dreams that refuse to leave us alone. Listeners will walk away inspired to finally say yes to the thing they have been putting off.

🎧 Tune in now for a conversation filled with history, mystery, culture, legacy, and inspiration.

Connect with Brigid Kennedy:
Website: https://brigidkennedybooks.com
Instagram: @brigidkennedybooks

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:25

Welcome back to the Culture Curriculum Chat Podcast, the show where we explore stories, culture, identity, creativity, and the lived experiences that shape the world around us. I'm your host, Jebba Edmonds, and today's episode is one that truly feels cinematic, ancestral, and deeply inspiring. Three years ago, today's guests had a dream that changed everything. Her grandmother appeared to her and asked her to write their family's real history. At the same time, she was a violin teacher, a mother, and someone who had never written a novel before. But instead of talking herself out of it, she said yes. That yes led to best-selling books, international travel, family discovery, and a story rooted in Ireland, Peru, and the Amazon rainforest. Today I am honored to welcome author Bridget Kennedy to the podcast. Bridget, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for inviting me. It is a true honor. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Let's just start from the beginning because when I first researched and heard your story, I immediately thought, wait, her grandmother came into her dream. And I'm a very spiritual person. So it's like when grandma calls, you answer, right? Can you take us back to that dream with your grandmother and what happened afterward?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

It was 2 a.m. I was dead asleep, dead asleep, and there she was. It wasn't a vision, it wasn't a haze, a dream. I mean, she was there live and present. And with all of her directness that she had grow like in her life, that I remember her. And she's like, wake up, write the book, write our story. And at that moment, right, it it didn't feel like a dream. It felt like a conversation. And when someone you love looks at you in that way, I wasn't gonna be the one to tell Catalina Kennedy no, right? You can't say no to that.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

I love that. I love that. And so what strikes me too about your journey, Bridget, is that you were not someone planning to become a novelist. I mean, you were a teacher, you were raising kids, living your life, you know. So what made you trust that calling that grandma gave to you that night?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Well, it it was a sort of lightning bolt experience, right? And when a calling comes to you, it doesn't ask for your permission. It doesn't check your credentials before asking. It is just there. It is there. And and all those little things that we say in our head, oh, well, you know, it's life. Life is so busy when you're a mom, you got kids, you got a career and everything, to do something that you weren't ever trained to do. I'm a violinist, I was a music major, not a writer. I I write notes, not novel. And I I had every reason to say no or put it off maybe later, maybe later. But the thing that really struck me and really hit home was my daughter. She is now 16. 16, all grown up with a driver's license now, which is amazing. And um she was old enough now to really understand the the need for finding out where you came from, where your ancestors came from, your roots, your history. And and I wanted her to connect with my mom's side of the family and that history because it's an amazing story that that I have and from that side. And I wanted her to know that whenever she has that adventurous spirit and she feels like she has to go on a quest, that's her ancestors calling her. And I wanted her to know that. So I wanted to get that story down. And, you know, I only have like two more years with her before she's off to college, and I wanted to get that story down to write it and to present it to her. And and my mom is still alive. So I wanted her to be able to read that history, feel their presence and ancestors, and still have that connection and that conversation with my mom, you know, before she does.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah, and that's important because you laid that foundation, that talking piece. So if she has any questions, your daughter can ask, you know, her elder, your mother, right here in real time. That's just amazing. And and you're right, as teenagers, we're we're thirsty for knowledge of what's beyond us, what came before us. And you just shared that eloquently about knowing that pull from your grandmother to have that story, to share the story and that adventurous spirit. Because yeah, one, we are teenagers, we are adventurous. We want to know what's beyond, you know, our home, our neighborhood. And that was just the perfect timing for you too. I think it was divine timing for you, Bridget. That's amazing. Now I know there's some folks who are listening that have been dreaming, sitting quietly inside of themselves, but fear convinces them that they're not qualified or experienced enough or ready enough. Did you struggle with those thoughts while you were writing as well?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Oh my imposture syndrome. And I had it bad, I had it so bad. And what I had to learn to do was to write through that doubt, right? Because if I just took the time and I analyzed my feelings, why I feel like I can't do this, and I would have talked myself out of it, right? But I could take that first step because experience only comes from doing. Nobody starts a project and knows all the answers right away. Nobody does. And in all those little whispers in the back of your head that says, no, no, no, you know, you just gotta shove them down somewhere dark, and you'll be like, I'm gonna take this first step. And that's the hardest step is the first one. Every little one that comes after is it's a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I love that. I love that. And just like you said, just write through those doubts, right through those feelings because it's gonna be there, but that'll it'll quiet itself, like you said, because yeah, you don't have an experience without doing that's amazing. Now, your story itself feels unbelievable, you know, in the best way possible. Your great-grandfather, Robert Patrick Kennedy, was an Irish treasure hunter who disappeared in the Amazon rainforest. I mean, like it's cinematic, just saying it out loud. Can you share with us a little bit of who he was and why his story stayed with your family for generations?

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Oh my goodness. So my great-grandfather, he left his homeland of Galway, Ireland, with his younger brother John. And they ventured into the open oceans across the Atlantic, right, down around uh South America to the Pacific to Peru. And they were in search of the lost city of Inc and Gold. Well, to get there, you land in the port of Lima, and to get to the Amazons of Peru, you got to cross through a town called Eriki. And that's where he met my great-grandmother. They met, they fell in love, they have an amazing meeting story, which I wrote out in the novellas, amazing meetup story. And what ended up happening was well, her family, the Rodriguez family, was very wealthy, proven aristocrat. And they had box seats, front row seats to the arena of the day, bullfighting. And so when they were crossing throughout Arequipa and they came across the hacienda, they invited them to stay. It's tradition, you know, for to invite travelers, and they invited them to go watch the bullfighting matches. And my great-grandfather got so excited. He started jumping up and down, and he leaped right over the railing into the bullfighting arena, and the crowds were shouting, gringo, gringo, which means white guy. And they threw the cape and a sword, and he bought the bull. And he was doing actually pretty well, pretty well. And then he had this really close pass, very dramatic pass, and he he he he looked over at my grandmother, right? Young, beautiful in the stand, like, oh, did you see what I just did? And right then the bull tilted its horns and impaled him in the side and the thigh, and then float him up in the air, soaring through the air, right? And hit and so they couldn't go and continue their journey into the Amazons because he had open glue. So my grand great-grandmother stayed and became his nurse and healed him. And during that time, they fell in love on that time. And so his younger brother John uh kept going into the Amazons and meeting the local tribe members just to figure out like if their map is real, their information is real. So when his brother heals up, they can go on their expedition. And his brother John actually fell in love with a tribal lady, and he decided to then live his life in the Amazon, in the tribe, in the tribe. And they end up having two daughters that they raised in the heart of the rainforest. So while he was living his his life in the rainforest, my great-grandfather decided to do an expedition on his out. And that's when he never returned and came back from the Amazon. So it has left this huge question in our family. What happened to him? What did he see? Why couldn't he return back to us? And that's where my story is. It's about the children. And they want to kind of close that chapter in their life, put put all the questions on it and move on, right? With the life. So they're gonna try to find clues to what happened to their father. So when they pass into the magical borders of those Amazons, that's where my fantasy starts. And and and you know, interesting enough, when my great-grandfather disappeared, it left a huge hole in everyone's heart. And that's where the story stopped, right? And then the sadness begins. The the family starts to crumble apart, there's loss, there's tragedy. But the story that I wrote was of hope and resilience and bringing the family back together. And a little spoiler alert, they do find their father. And and that reconciliation and unity and bringing the family knitted back together actually brought a healing to every member of my family so far that has read the book. Because it actually brought us that closure that we've never had since he went missing.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Wow, amazing! And and let's talk about this because, like you said, that's like a larger-than-life story, something out of like Hollywood. But that is so epic of a tale that you can share with your daughter and your children and for generations to come. And I like how you shared that that was the closure that they never had. So again, you were closing that circle, you know, for your your you know, your great-grandmother, your grandmother to come to you to say, share that story and and and have our family heal. That's amazing. There's something beautiful how you weave your culture and your ancestry through your work, you know, especially from Ireland to Peru to the Amazon. So, how did your research and traveling through those places deepen your understanding of yourself and your family history?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Oh my goodness. Well, I went to Peru several times as a child. So our summer break is their winter. So we could go down and visit our Peruvian family in Lima and then go up and see like Cusco and Machu Picchu and really experience and live in that culture. And I never went back to Ireland until these past years, and I got to do it with my my husband and my daughter, and just walking down the cobblestone streets that I knew my great-grandfather walked down, going to visit the castle, going to see the sights that that he was there. And you know, he left. He left with his younger brother in the middle of the night. And you always think, Oh, I'm gonna return, right? Back home to my homeland. And he never did. And so by me, I was the first Kennedy, right? Generations and to return to back and step and walk on that soil, right? Breathe that cold Atlantic air that comes right off of the ocean into Galway. I was there, I felt the wind through my hair. I breathed in the Irish spirit, and it just brought everything home. You know, I just loved it.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Oh, that's amazing. And I read that a best-selling Netflix author described your work as not fantasy but reclamation. That line stayed with me because it feels bigger than your writing, my dear. What does reclamation mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

It means so much, and I never thought of it that way until I read that line from her. And I was like, yes, like the like the bells of truth rang and like right. And I was like, I I wrote my story, right? And then I made a fantasy story, but with that giant hole that we had in our family, and and that word reclamation, I actually did that. I actually reclaimed our family history, and and it's not just writing my family into the gaps where where the gaps were. I mean, that reclamation statement, it just hit home in a way that I never thought it would.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Oh, that's so good. So good. So let's talk about your series because this is just amazing. I was just, I love your your protagonist, Callie. And you know, give us one little Catalya, Catalina, yes. Yes, and how she's named after your grandmother. Let's talk about it, share with us the world, you know, lost in this lost city of ink and gold. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

So so true family history. So my great-grandfather, my great-grandmother, so Robert and Yudosha, when they married, they married at Saint Catalina's monastery in 1910. And so Kat, Catalina comes from the monastery that they got married in. So that's her nickname is Kat. And so then they also had Robbie. Actually, Robbie's her older brother, so he came first, technically. But true family history. Robbie actually, when he grew up, he became he continued the treasure hunting part of the family, and he made a business about taking tourists into the Amazon to treasure hunt. And he actually found the famed gold inc and mass, the sun god gold ink and mass, which to this day sits in the gold museum in Lima, Peru. And so it's sitting there. So it's it's just proof that some treasures can be found. So in my book, I have Robbie and Kat as the older siblings. And when they came of age, around nine, ten years old in Peru, the dad wanted them to connect with their Irish history, their Irish and well, his Irish parents, right? The Irish clan, and also to learn the trade of the clan, the specialty, which is masters of blades, which is like a rite of passage that every Kennedy had to go through. So they packed them up and sent them on a ship to Ireland to go and and and learn and be with their family. But the younger brother Patrick at the time was only four. So he was too young to go and travel and to learn the clan tradition. So he stayed behind. And so what ended up happening was that that was the time when my great-grandfather decided, okay, I'm gonna go on another expedition. And that's when he never came out. And and the mom was pregnant at the time, and she had a very hard pregnancy and hard birth. And so things ended up happening, and little Patrick he ends up being orphaned and sent to the monastery. Well, here is Kat and Robbie in Ireland, and now the only real connection, their dad, who knew how to send letters, the connection, is gone. Everyone's gone. Nobody can tell Kat and Robbie what happened. So 15 years go by, and they're like, here's no letter from home. You know, what's happening? So when they finally returned home, they they went to the hacienda. Now it's very important to realize this. So my prologue in the book in Lost, the prologue is the last morning in Erequipa at the Hacienda. And I wanted to showcase, I'm about to cry here, the love, the joy, the peace that was at their house, their parents, the come the comedic gestures of their dad, the love of their mom, the protective spirit, how happy they were, their family bond, their family unit. Because when they return later in the book, it's not the same. People are gone. The house is silent, they don't know what happened. And then there comes the mystery. And that mystery, he is how my book evolves over the time of the length of the novel. But that mystery they have to unfold and figure out what happened, where is Patrick, what happened to everybody, and that's the story that takes place in there. But it's so interesting because when you look at what I was really dealing with, so I mentioned that I do bring the dad back, that they do find him. So we have we have all these siblings, and they're all dealing with this loss, especially Patrick, who was so young when he was orphaned, sent to a monastery, no family. He thought his dad left him, everybody abandoned him, right? He has all of this um anger and guilt at the world. And and when he finds the dad, and everybody has their own perspective of this, when he finds the dad, he then has to confront what he assumed happened and all of his anger as a childhood to what actually happened to their dad and why the dad couldn't come back. And that he wasn't abandoned. He was still very loved by his father, but just that the the hapites that the father could not come out and and and reclaim him and hug him, you know, and love on him for those 15 years and help him grow up. So, what we have in our minds as one perspective of what happened, versus when we get older, we figure out what really happened. How do we deal with those emotions? And so each one of the siblings has this thing that they have to overcome on on. What really happened versus what they thought happened. And where does that meet in the middle? So I have a lot of heart in my book. Yeah, a lot of um family things. They're all siblings. So you're gonna have the sibling banter, you're gonna have the love, the tears, you're gonna have them wanting to strangle each other, right? So everything that comes with the family, like that dark, nitty-gritty, it's all taken place in the book. So a lot, a lot of heart goes into it.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Love that. And I just love how you speak so passionately about your characters and how multifaceted they are, you know, author to author. It's like, yes, we got them. You know, you gotta give them some meat in their teeth to say, oh, you think it's this way, but listen to this person's perspective, why things were not as they all seem. Oh, I can't wait to get this book and the series, because it is a series, correct? Yes, it is, yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

So one thing that I wanted to do so bad is that you know, your first book, you have your lifetime to write your first book. Yes. But once your first book is out, and if you be payment, and if you get a literary agent in a big publishing house, you then like have two months to write the next book. And so I always I find regularly in series, book, series, I love the first book is always fantastic, and then the second book, and the third book, but then like the fourth book, like they come back, right? With that great authorship that they had in the first one. So I did not want that to happen to me. So I actually wrote book one, the novella series set a copy of these book one, which is called Untold. So it's the untold stories in between the pages. So if somebody just wanted that fast-paced action adventure with tons of heart book, it's all here, right? But some readers are a little, they like to go in a little deeper, really know the behind the scenes, the behind the stories, what happened to them with when they were younger. That's in the novella series. So that is the untold stories. And I also have a bonus chapter, it's a beautiful chapter about the villain in my book, told through his point of view. And so then you're like, wait a minute, is he really the villain? And so you see it in a completely different perspective. And I wanted that to happen because going into book two, which I already finished, is a wonderful series. Now I love doing real history, my family history, real history, and I love putting the Kennedy family into those historic gaps. So true story in 1820, 1820 was the Peruvian Revolution because Spain was taking over the conquistadors and everything. So Spain was taking over and controlling. So there was the big Peruvian Revolution, and and the Spaniards were like, We have all these riches in gold. We need to get all of the gold out of Peru and just send it on a ship somewhere to like Mexico just to get it out because we feel this revolution happening. So they got all the gold, the Pirgin Mary statues, everything that they could get their hands on, and they hired a British ship called the Mary Deer. And and they hired this crew to take the gold up to Mexico. Now, when they loaded it on, they also put some Spanish soldiers on and some Peruvian priests on on board. Well, once they got into the open waters, the crew's like, are we seriously just gonna sail it to Mexico? And so they did mutiny and they did end up killing all of the uh Spanish uh guards and priests. So in history, that now treasure is now cursed, right? So they took it to an island that they knew of, Nuba Island, the Cocos Islands, which is actually where Jurassic Park, the big Nubis Island, was is that's that's the thing, right? So that's like their visionary. Okay, that's the same island. Okay, so they went, they hid the gold, but mysteriously, like the entire crew died. And they started going a little mad. And so when the captain and the first mate came off the island, they barely survived. They got captured by the Spaniards and they got put on trial, and they're like, Where's the gold? So they took them back to the island and said, You're gonna show us where you hid this gold. We couldn't remember, and suddenly everybody starts dying and going crazy, right? So they barely make it off. And this is true. There have been several expeditions, the Rockefellers, everybody tried to get this gold every single time a tragedy strike, the weirdest things, like they have the the miners, the the sonars, the the the experts, right? And then they end up just blowing themselves up. Like everybody ends up dying, and nobody has found this goal yet. So there's where that's my gap. So I wrote the kennadys into this mystery. And so what I have is that there's something war-deadly on that island that anybody could imagine, and it causes everybody, this magic in there, to go crazy. Well, the kennedys are known treasure hunters, they get captured by pirates on the open seas, they get taken to this island and says, You find this treasure, or we're gonna kill your family members one by one, right? So the Kennedys, you know, they don't break, right? They they go for it and so they're like, okay, we gotta find this treasure for this, for these guys, so we can get off and get on to Ireland. And that's where my book, too, is so it's all about open seas, pirates, finding lost treasures, the Jurassic Park Island, right? So your visual on there. Yes, yeah, yeah. And and so the thing is is that the Kennedys they have a longtime rival, and this rival is more complex than anybody realizes, and he's chasing them through continents, right? Because he has an old grudge against them that he's also hunting something that Kat has. And uh and so at the island, they all meet up again, and the Kennedys they don't win. They don't win. And I'm gonna leave it there. And so the by book three that I wrote is Solen, which is the stolen legacy of Ireland, and they all have to go back to Ireland because their big rival beat them there, and it's already taken over, and so they have to reclaim their legacy. But it's interesting because you know, I talked about how the great my great-grandfather left Ireland, right? He left in the middle of the night. Well, he was he's the heir to the clan, the big Kennedy clan, which is kind of like the leaders of Galway. And when he returns, he's not so sure what the clan is gonna think about him anymore or accept it. He left. He he left, right? He left, and so there's there's all these complex feelings about returning back to Ireland that I put in there. So books three is the Battle of Ireland. It's huge, it's complex. There's a lot, there's 21 characters, 21 characters to balance out and give character arcs and stories and heart's a lot where where a reader will read a passage and stand up and cheer for that character that you mentioned, right? That's a lot of ties to put into.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Yeah, and then book four, I already have completely drafted out. I haven't written it out, but it's all there. It's gonna be mind-blowing, it's gonna be epic, it's gonna be exactly what you expect the last series of this huge journey that the kiddies go on.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Oh, that is amazing, Bridget. I can't wait to get my copy and all of these books. And I know, like you said, with 21 characters to have their arc, their background, and then you got to stitch it into, and I'm gonna put my little metaphor into your own melody, Miss Violin, Miss Violinist. So people can follow the story and and and still understand the complexities of each people is, and because we're all complex people, you know, so it's just amazing. Oh my goodness, I could talk to you all day, Bridget. Thank you, thank you. Before we close, where can our listeners connect with you, follow your work, get your books? Yes, tell us all the things.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yes, uh, yeah, yeah. So my main platform is my website, my author's website at Bridget Kennedy Books. So everywhere that she can have a social, it's at Bridget Kennedy Books. And on my website, it will give you all of the links to buying the book onto Amazon, Kindle, Kindle Limited, Apple, Barnes and Nobles, Balboa Press. Um, it has my audiobook on there. I actually did my own audiobook. And since I am a musician, I compose my own theme music and soundtrack to it. So it is hidden, it is lit, it's so great. And then all the TikTok socials are all Bridget Kennedy books. And the one thing that I do want all of your listeners to go to is my YouTube channel because I made a very special episode series where I read each one of these chapters and I go behind the scenes and I talk about what is really written in between those words, what seed am I planting for later? And then I pull out my family history. I show you the pictures of my family. This is the actual Robert and Kinby. These are the wedding pictures of my great-grandparents. We go through all the nitty-gritty on that. And you mentioned how it seems like my characters are so vibrant and live. It's because they like have conversations in my head all day long. And I actually give you a sneak peek about what is going on in my head as I talk to my characters, which is completely hilarious. I have my merch that I display also in there. So it's a really titled An Author's Dream because it really is my dream just to talk about my world, just like how we're doing today, and just to stay in it and just get all those positive vibes from it, get the tears from it, get the heart from it. And so check out the YouTube channel, like and subscribe. And my first book loss is out and available.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

I love that. Oh my gosh, thank you, Bridget. And I'll have all of Bridget's book world in our description and our show notes so everybody can follow you. I love how you shared about going behind the scenes as an author as well. People are always asking, what was your creative writing experience? Tell us more about your journey. And I do, I have my characters in my mind too. Sometimes they're in the car with me. There's that random thought I gotta write down. So I love how you share that with bringing your family history, and you can just see it in your in your spirit, how you're just so so profound. And I feel like you did answer that assignment from your grandmother, and she's just sitting there going, Yep, yep. I knew she would be the one to tell our story. And I feel that too with my family, too, of telling our our Liberian culture and histories for the masses. So yeah. I am just so proud of you. Keep doing what you're doing, Bridget. And again, thank you again for being on our show and joining me today. And thank you for sharing your story. I'm just sitting here like, I can't wait to get your book, Lost, you know, the Lost City of Ink and Gold. Learn more about your grandpa. And and I just love how you reclaimed your family history and in that saga, you know, to have that closure. Because I I feel that a lot of people in your family finally got that breath that they so desperately needed. And you were the vessel to help them bring that. So just so amazing. Oh my gosh, Bridget. Thank you. We will connect in in more ways than one, I know. And thank you all for listening to the Culture Curriculum Chat podcast. And if today's conversation inspired you, encouraged you, or reminded you to say yes to your own dream. Be sure to just subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs it. You can also support this podcast by checking out my educational resources, courses, and purchase my book, The Orange Blossom, on jebbaedmonds.com. I'll see you here same time next week. Bye bye.