How long have you been a writer?
Seven years ago I turned 40. After I drowned my
sorrows with champagne and chocolate, I made a list of all the things I wanted
to do before I die. Morbid, I know, but number one on that list was write a
novel. I said to myself, yeah, I’ve really got to do that, and continued to
munch on the Cadbury’s chocolate that Dear Husband thoughtfully supplied.
Two years went by. I didn’t lose the day job,
no mean feat given that the debacle that was 2008. I continued indulging my
interest in (some may say obsession with) reality TV. Not a word was written.
Then on a Sunday afternoon while Dear Husband
was taking a nap, I came up with a name: Kate Ryan. Before I knew it Kate had a
husband, family, friends and one big problem -- she and her husband had lost
their high powered jobs and their savings. Her husband loses his mind and high
tails it to Australia. Kate loses her mind and joins the cast of a local cable
channel’s reality TV show.
I had a blast writing GOLD COAST WIVES! I wrote
what I wanted how I wanted. Then reality sank in. I joined a local writing
group, figured out that I made about 100 basic writing mistakes, rewrote it,
rewrote it again, entered it into various RWA chapter contests, wrote it again
and after two years submitted it to some publishers. In December 2010 I got the
best Christmas present ever when Lyrical Press offered me a contract! I have
released five books with Lyrical Press which is now an imprint of Kensington. I
just finished two other books and am contemplating where and how to release
them. I may explore self-pubbing at least one of my new books.
What genre do you write it?
My first book, GOLD COAST WIVES, is a humorous
contemporary romance. My second, THE HOUSE ON PROSPECT, which I expect to
re-release later in the year under the title THE GIRLS ON ROSE HILL, is a
family saga/women’s fiction. The Devlin
Legacy is a four book paranormal romance series of which THE DEVLIN WITCH is
the fourth book (although each can be read as a stand alone). While I’ve hopped
around genres, my books all have some reoccurring themes: All involve either
Irish or Irish-American characters; most involve women in midlife dealing with
a crisis; and all are set either in Ireland or New York. I like to say that I
write about women dealing with what life throws at them the best way they can.What is the hardest part of writing?
Finding time to write is number 1.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I have always
been an avid reader. Books are my drug. When I was a kid my father would take
the book out of my hand and throw me outside to play. I always found a way to
sneak in through the back door and keep reading.
Five years
ago when I decided to write a novel, I started by reading “how to write a
novel” books and did a lot of surfing. For my first book I followed a modified
form of the “snowflake” method and wrote short bios for all of my characters. I
made an outline. However, since then I’ve become more of a pantser.
Are any of your characters based on real
people?
I find inspiration from varied
sources. My women’s fiction title, THE HOUSE ON PROSPECT (soon to be renamed
THE GIRLS ON ROSE HILL), is about three generation of women and it was inspired
by a letter my Irish great grandmother wrote to her daughter in New York when
the daughter’s husband died. Even eighty years on, the anguish she felt in not
being able to comfort her daughter in person is palpable in the thin faded
pages and it really spoke to me. I’ve always been interested in how the
disruption of immigration can ripple through generations. As the child of an
immigrant and the spouse of an immigrant that is something that has impacted my
life directly even though I current only live ten miles from where I grew up. My
paranormal series, THE DEVLIN LEGACY,
was inspired by a remote mountain in Ireland where my parents had a
summer house and it too has characters who have immigrated from Ireland to New
York, with sometimes disasterous results.
Find Me
Here
Website: http://www.bernadettewalsh.com
Twitter: BWalshWriter
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/bernadettewalsh/boards/
Thanks Bernadette!
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