Friday Author Spotlight: Mary Bernsen

Friday Author SPOTLIGHT! We will feature a Young Adult, New Adult or Adult Author. These post will contain interviews, author posts, book blasts, fill in the blanks, etc... This is just our way to get authors noticed and out there as much as possible. So we hope you enjoy and stay tuned Fridays to see who we have on and what they shared. To see previous posts click here.

Today OUaT is happy to feature Author Mary Bernsen. She is the author of Healing the Bayou. Healing the Bayou was released May 2nd 2014 by Etopia Press.

Author Mary Bernsen 

Mary Bernsen is a southwest Florida native currently living in Punta Gorda with her two beautiful children and a third, much larger child that she affectionately calls husband. She is a stay-at-home mother and spends her days creating characters on the good side of twenty-five because she is in serious denial about the fact that she is now on the bad side of it. She has a passion for fantasy of any kind along with historical fiction. If she isn't having conversations with her made-up friends, you can usually find her clipping coupons or out on the boat enjoying the muddy waters of Peace River (as long as it isn't below 80 degrees).

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What is a Queen without her King?

After learning that she is adopted, Eliza sets off to locate her biological family and finds them in the Louisiana bayou. But they’re more than just locals—they’re descended from the area’s most famous Voodoo queen, Marie Laveau—Eliza’s great-great-grandmother. Surrounded by a mysterious world of séances, spells, and sacrifices, Eliza finds herself worshiped as the last great priestess. What’s more, she’s inherited the ability to heal the souls of others with a simple touch of her hands.

Eliza is expected to cultivate this gift so she can claim her title as Queen and return the Voodoo community to glory. A task Eliza wouldn’t mind as long as she could perform it beside the devastating Samuel Mueller. But according to tradition, Samuel is her keeper, and a keeper never becomes romantically involved with his ward. His sacred duty is to protect her. And the bayou is rife with enemies who would sacrifice anything to eliminate outsiders like Eliza...

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Interview

OUaT: How did you choose the genre you write in?

As cliché as it sounds, I didn't pick the genre, it picked me.  Even though paranormal romance was my favorite genre to read in, I had always written historical fiction.  I was doing research about the famous Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau for what was supposed to be a story about her and her traditions, but before I knew it my imagination took the story and entirely different direcion. 

OUaT: Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with? 

I do kind of wish I had given a little more insight into Samuel's past.  He has a tendency to be stoic, and I think it would have been better understood if we understood where he came from a little better.

OUaT: OUaT: Do you work with an outline, or just write? 

I start with a bare-bones outline, but I've never written a story that follows it past the first couple of chapters.

OUaT: Did you design the cover?

I wish I had that kind of talent!  But no, Etopia Press works with some of the greatest designers in the industry.

OUaT: Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published? 

Finding which path was the right one for me was the biggest challenge.  At first I wanted to follow that clean line: write the book, get an agent, get it published.  It wasn't long before I realized there was more than one way to go.

OUaT: What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What as been the best compliment?
 I was once told that the dynamic between Eliza and her aunt Vivian was unrealistically hot and cold. Eliza has a need to trust her aunt no matter how many times she is proven that it's a bad idea. That one hit me hard because I wrote that relationship directly after one I have with a family member, so I kind of took it as, 

“Wow, we're so messed up it isn't even believable in fiction!” The best compliment I've gotten was that this was one of those stories that you just didn't want to put down, and since I've heard that from several people I'm taking it and running! 

OUaT: Tell us your latest news? 
 I have another novel that is to be released tentatively July 4th titled THE SPAWN OF MEDUSA. It's the first in a series around the villains of Greek Mythology finding their happily ever after. 

OUaT: When and why did you begin writing? 
 Oh gezz, I can't even tell you. I wrote my first “book” when I was a preteen because I was struck with this idea that was a total rip-off of that movie Two Came Back. Since then, I've written notebooks full of poems and short stories. 

OUaT: What do you do when you are not writing? 
 If I'm not writing I'm with my kids. We do all sorts of fun Florida stuff like go on the boat or bum it on the beach.
OUaT: Where do you get your ideas? 
I fall asleep every night watching either the History Channel or the Science Channel. Usually, I'll wake up in the middle of the night after something I've seen on there has sunk in and hatched into a plot.