Guest author Bernadette Walsh

Please join me in giving a warm welcome to today's guest, Bernadette Walsh.

THK: Tell me about yourself. Anything you would like readers to know about you?

BW: Six 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!

THK: Wow. That’s pretty awesome. Tell me about your current and upcoming releases. Please include a blurb and a link to where the book can be purchased. Did I mention I am in LOVE with this cover?

THE DEVLIN WITCH

Genre: paranormal romance

Buy links: http://lyricalpress.com/the-devlin-witch/

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Cover artist: Valerie Tibbs

Length: 123

Heat rating: hot

Tagline: The Devlin magic can bring your heart’s desire...but at what cost?

Blurb:

Anne Marie Devlin has given up on finding true love. She’d rather just hide out in her opulent apartment on the Upper East Side. Then her grandmother is violently killed. Forced to leave her safe world, Anne Marie must survive a hot, persistent cop, her cousin Rita’s hysterics and her grandmother’s confused ghost.

Rita has everything: a loving husband, a beautiful house, exotic beauty, and she’s a partner at her law firm. Having a baby would make her life complete, but it’s not to be. Or is it? When she and Anne Marie find the ancestral Book of Magic, with powers beyond their imagining, all things become possible.

But someone else in the family wants the Book of Magic too, and they’ll do anything to get it. Even kill. Can Anne Marie and Rita win the struggle for their legacy, becoming the next Devlin witch? There can be only one, and should they fail, not just their lives are at stake--their souls will be lost for eternity.

THK: What genre do you write it? What drew you to write in that genre? If you mix genres talk about that too.

BW: My first book, GOLD COAST WIVES, is a humorous contemporary romance. My second, THE HOUSE ON PROSPECT, 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.

THK: I like that description. How many books have you written? How many have been published?

BW: Six books of which five have been published by Lyrical Press and one, my women’s fiction title, THE HOUSE ON PROSPECT, was published by Echelon Press.

THK: What is the hardest part of writing? 

BW: Finding time to write is number 1.

THK: Boy, can I ever relate to that. LOL Any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?

BW: Keep at it. You will never have enough time in your life to write. Do it anyway. For years I wanted to write but told myself I didn’t have time with my busy career and family life. Guess what, I still don’t really have time to write, but I make the time. Even if I only have time to write a paragraph, well, it’s a paragraph more than I had the day before--and eventually all those stolen paragraphs written in the margins of your life will add up. If something is important to you, you have to make the time. I’m certainly glad I did, and my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner!

THK: Great advice! I’m a full time writer and even I feel occasionally like I don’t have the time. Now, for something fun, just because. Werewolf or vampire? 

BW: I’m a little over both to tell you the truth.

THK: Yep, me too.

Thanks again to Bernadette for being my guest. I hope everyone will check out The Devlin Witch. It sounds like a great read.