"The Five-senses-world is a small island in a vast ocean of all we do not know and cannot see; in that ocean, there may be faeries."

This second story about the intrepid leprechaun, O'Shaughnessey, takes up where the first left off, that is, with Bobby Mahoney grown and with children of his own.

Having lost the ability to see leprechauns, as it happens to the best of us as we grow up, he takes a trip to Ireland with his daughter, to study folklore and get back something that he knows he lost if only he could put his finger on what that was.

His daughter, twelve year old Margaret McNeil Mahoney will have none of it. She is, after all the brightest pupil at the La Madeliene Academy for (Exceptional) young Ladies and has no room in her life for such silliness as leprechauns and faeries.

O'Shaughnessey has persuaded a reclusive Shenache (storyteller) named Moira McCarthy to take the visitors in, hoping that Bobby may eventually be able to see him again because he knows the faeries need humans to believe in them or they will fade away into earthsleep.

While Bobby gathers folk tales in the town of Burkesbridge, Moira and Margaret tend to the farm. Margaret quickly adapts to the hard work and the total lack of modern conveniences like running water, electric lights and television. She’s intrigued by the old woman who is constantly muttering prayers for everything from baking bread to making butter, and holds daily commerce, she says, with Maeve, the Faerie Queen for whom the McCarthy family has preserved a large area of woodland.

When Margaret expresses skepticism Moira laughs, "The Five-Senses-World is a small island in a vast ocean of all we cannot see and do not know. In that ocean, there may be faeries."

Bobby, having been told not to step into a circle of mushrooms, does and is whisked away to the Court of the Faerie King, Finvarra, where he is kept as a husband for the princess. Slowly, painfully, Margaret begins to realize that there is a possibility that it is as the old woman says and her father was taken to be with the faeries. She can’t imagine her family without him, so entirely by faith in the possibility, she offers herself as a hostage if Finvarra will release her father. She is taken by kelpies under the lake and Bobby Mahoney is returned, having regained the Sight, but at a cost that may be too much for either him or Moira to bear.

Jeremy McGuire is a playwright, author and illustrator who lives in an 1883 Victorian Queen Ann house in Chicago with his wife, Kat, who is also an artist. The Faerie Circle is his second published book. He attended Bradley University for three years before spending two years in the U.S.Army where he achieved great success as an actor at the Fort Bragg Playhouse. After service, he graduated with a BS in Theatre from Illinois State University and went on to get his Master of Fine Arts in Directing. He writes a weekly column for his blog which is found at his website at www.jeremymcguire.com