WRITING
WHAT YOU KNOW
BERNADETTE
WALSH
Like
many of my books, JOHNNY BE GOOD is set on the North Shore of Long Island where
I currently live. And like my other books, it also examines the
delicate balance of mother-daughter relationships in a middle-class
Irish-American family. As you may have guessed from my name, I’m writing what I
know.
One
of the benefits of “writing what you
know” is that you don’t need to do a lot of research and you don’t have to
conjure a scene based on second hand resources. An intimate knowledge of a
locale and a social strata allows the writer to delve deep and provides the
reader not only a window into a particular setting but a window into the
writer’s actual experience of a setting. When I write about the pebbled beaches
of the North Shore I infuse those descriptions with recollections from my own
life: my daughter's first sandcastle, a stolen beer after the homecoming dance,
a clandestine kiss beneath a striped umbrella.
But
there’s a downside to basing the setting of your angst filled novel with scenes
from your own life. The Centerport church I visit on Sunday is no longer only a
place where I find solace, it is also where my character Ellen from my second
novel, THE GIRLS ON ROSE HILL, sang at her mother’s funeral. And the beach
where my husband and I stroll together on lazy afternoons is not only where we
reconnect after a hectic week but now is also where my teenaged character Maura
in COLD SPRING was seduced by a much older man.
Because
as writers we spend so much time creating and nurturing our characters, they
are in many ways real to us, and to an extent we feel what they feel. Thus
there is a danger that my character’s experiences of the settings of my own
rather undramatic life may in some ways taint those settings for me. For now
I’m willing to pay the price of my fictional and real worlds colliding if it
allows me to connect more with my characters and create a richer more
nuanced book for my readers.
Bernadette Walsh has been writing contemporary and
paranormal romance for over ten years. She has published seven novels to date.
While Bernadette has hopped around genres, all of her books to date have a
common theme: strong women handling what life throws at them the best way they
can. www.bernadettewalsh.com
Johnny
Be Good
North
Shore Stories Book 3
by
Bernadette Walsh
Genre:
Women's Fiction, Light Romance
SOMETIMES
A WOMAN DOES WHAT SHE HAS TO DO TO PROTECT HER FAMILY.
Peggy
Lynch has too many children and too much to do. Unlike the pampered
wives in her affluent Long Island suburb, Peggy’s not married to a
doctor or a lawyer. She’s married to an uneducated Irish immigrant
twelve years her junior, and has to work two jobs to help make ends
meet. In between the carpools, the laundry, and the food shopping,
she also has to make sure her youngest son takes his ADHD medicine so
he doesn’t flunk out of high school. Maybe if her lazy husband
would get off his ass and help around the house, she’d have time to
connect with her children and be the type of mother they deserve. But
Peggy lacks that luxury because if it wasn’t for her, the whole
family would fall to pieces.
Years
have passed since Peggy ruled the house and Veronica is no longer her
mother’s obedient little girl. Moving into her childhood home with
her husband and infant twins, she’s starting a new life and should
finally be happy. Right? Wrong.
While
cleaning out her old bedroom, Veronica finds a letter from her
deceased mother. If Veronica were smart she’d burn it and leave her
family secrets buried with the dead. But as her mother so often said,
Veronica’s never been that smart.
She
rips open the envelope and proves her mother right...
The
Girls on Rose Hill
North
Shore Stories Book 2
THREE
GENERATIONS OF WOMEN; THREE GENERATIONS OF SECRETS
Ellen
Murphy spent her childhood in an idyllic house by the sea. A house
surrounded by flower filled gardens and a white picket fence. A house
she fled at eighteen. A house full of secrets.
When
Ellen’s mother Rose, an ex-nun, is diagnosed with terminal cancer,
Ellen reluctantly returns home to care for her and uncovers a clue to
the one secret that has haunted Ellen all her life: the identity of
her father. But that is just one of the many secrets hidden behind
the beautiful facade of the house on Rose Hill.
"The
Girls on Rose Hill is a beautifully written story about the
complicated relationship between three generations of women. It will
touch you, make you laugh, and make you cry. Bernadette Walsh's
subtle use of language, traditions, and manners painted an authentic
portrait of an Irish Catholic family. I loved it."
Cold
Spring
North
Shore Stories Book 1
AN
INNOCENT GIRL IS A DANGEROUS THING
Twenty
years ago Maura Lenihan was the curvaceous red-haired teenager at the
center of a political sex scandal. Today, Maura is a thirty-five year
old hospice nurse who spends her days caring for the cancer-ridden
and comatose and her nights reading romance novels. Her life is
boring and safe and just the way she likes it.
However,
Maura’s safe cocoon is now threatened both by the press’ renewed
interest in the twenty year old scandal and the attentions of her
most recent patient -- a thirty year old Wall Street investment
banker whose black hair and blue eyes are oddly familiar.
I
have always been a bookworm and had always meant to write a novel
“someday.” You know, when I won the lottery and could live in
beach house and feel inspired. Twelve years ago I decided to stop
waiting for my winning lottery ticket and sat down and started
writing. In between work and family obligations, I piled the words on
top of each other until they formed sentences, paragraphs, chapters
and eventually a book. While I’ve hopped around genres, all of my
books to date have a common theme: strong women handling what life
throws at them the best way they can.
My
titles include: Gold
Coast Wives,
The
Girls on Rose Hill,
The
Devlin Witch (Books 1-4 of the Devlin Legacy Series),
Cold
Spring, Johnny Be Good, See Me and
Friends
Forever.
Covers
and other information about my books and my writing can be found on
my website www.bernadettewalsh.com.
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