Author Interview: Bess McBride

The Basics
– Bess McBride
– Genre(s): Light paranormal/fantasy, contemporary, vintage, time travel, romantic suspense
– Publisher(s): The Wild Rose Press

To Other Authors

– What are the three MOST important pieces of advice you would give to a brand new author?

• Use elements of your life in your writing…it helps lend your story authenticity. In other words, write what you know…and then make up the rest!

• Don’t quit. Just like jogging or exercising, don’t quit…because you may never go back.

• Diversify. Like an investment portfolio, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Keep submitting to new publishers.

– What’s your favorite way to advertise?

• Well, my favorite way would be to have a publicist, but I’m not in that league… I love the use of the Internet, and I’ve found most of my readers through online groups.

– What hard-knock lesson did the publishing world teach you (can be your own experience or someone else’s that you learned from)?

• As I mentioned before, diversify. Just because one is completely happy with a publisher doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t always keep an eye out for other opportunities to publish their work.

For the Readers

– What are you reading, if anything, at the moment?

• Lots and lots of training manuals for my new job. I haven’t had a chance to read anything for pleasure in a while.

– Do you prefer ebooks or print for your reading pleasure?

• I’ll admit to enjoying print books, but if I want an immediate read, I’ll order an e-book.

– Name three of your all-time-favorite, read-them-over-and-over books.

• “A Knight in Shining Armor,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “The Ivy Tree”

Idle Curiosity Compels Me to Ask

– What inspired you to be a writer?

• I wanted to write ever since I was a troubled 14 yo, and a counselor suggested I write my life history…no doubt as a way to get me to talk. After reading it, she said I should write. Although I’m sure it was a way to focus a lost teenager, I hung on her words.

– What do you do immediately after finishing a manuscript?

• I write up the query and e-mail it off to the publisher.

– Do you talk to your characters or your muse or both?

• I really don’t have a muse per se. And I don’t talk to my characters. But I listen in as they talk to each other… 🙂

Promo Section

~ Most Recent Release ~

My most recent release is “Caribbean Dreams of Love,” available at all online bookstores. Publisher: The Wild Rose Press ISBN: 1-60154-374-3 Blurb: Daisy and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lily, are embarking on a Caribbean cruise. She isn’t looking for anything special on the cruise other than a pleasant break from her humdrum existence as long-time divorced single mother to a busy teenage girl. She certainly isn’t prepared for an enigmatic man named Peter whose idiosyncrasies in dress and speech mark him as an eccentric person to avoid. But Daisy can’t avoid him. In fact, she begins to obsess about him from the first moment she catches him staring at her in the cruise ship terminal. Peter remains elusive and mysterious throughout the cruise. She catches sight of him occasionally, never often enough to please her, and they connect one wonderful night as he sweeps her into his arms for a waltz. A waltz? On a Caribbean cruise ship? While Daisy’s dinner companions share nightly tales of the legends of cursed pirates, Daisy dreams of the mysterious man who has captured her heart. BUY NOW

~ Coming Soon ~

My upcoming release is “On a Warm Sea of Love,” from The Wild Rose Press ISBN 1-60154-584-3 Blurb: Hailey Saunders accompanies her beloved matchmaking sister, Megan, on a cruise to the beautiful and exotic Caribbean…something she’s avoided for a long time…ever since her young husband, Zach, was lost off a fishing trawler in the Bering Sea during a storm. At first, Hailey cried daily for months, then weekly for a year, but now she doesn’t cry at all. Why? Because Zach returned to her…or at least, his ghost did. His voice remains her constant companion, allowing her to avoid the pain of real life…of falling in love with someone else. A flirtatious but ineligible Scots ship’s officer, Alan Campbell, has his eye on Hailey as does the handsome and mysterious European, Karl de Groot. Megan is ready to make a match for her sister, but Zach finds it hard to let his wife go…or is it Hailey who refuses to say goodbye? Three men want her…only one can have her! Buy Link, available September 25, 2009

Learn More
– Website: http://www.bessmcbride.com
– Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bessmcbride
– Blog/Newsletter: http://www.willtravelforromance.blogspot.com

Thanks Bess!

Join me next week for Michelle M. Pillow.