Interview with Mary Connealy - The Dabbling Mum Speaks

Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys. She is a Carol Award winner, and a Rita and Christy and Inspirational Reader's Choice finalist. She is the author of bestselling Kincaid Brides Series: Out of Control, In Too Deep, Over the Edge, Lassoed in Texas Trilogy, Montana Marriages Trilogy and Sophie's Daughters Trilogy. Mary is married to a Nebraska rancher and has four grown daughters and two spectacular grandchildren.

What was your path towards publication like?
I wrote for ten years before I got my first book published. When that fateful day came that a publisher gave me a contract, I had twenty finished books on my computer. I'd been trying to get published all that time. Trying hard. But it wasn't yet to be. So my path to publication was a lot of labor in mole-like anonymity.

What is your biggest obstacle when it comes to pitching yourself as an author and what steps have you taken to overcome that obstacle?
I suppose the thing I like least if public speaking. Honestly the two skills, writing and speaking are the exact opposite ends of the spectrum. One is done utterly alone. If you say something stupid?in a book?you have lots of time to think it over, reword it and delete it. The other!!! Ack! Once it's spoken aloud, you're stuck with it. I've gained a comfort level with public speaking but I don't think I could ever exactly call it pleasant.

How do you balance your life as an author with your duties as a business person, employee, parent and/or spouse?
Well, honestly, I don't balance it. In fact I'm pretty clearly UN-balanced.

I think there is actual paperwork on file at the County Attorney's Office saying that officially. Writing is my default activity. That's what I always want to do. It's the rest of life I ? ahem ? let's say UNDER PERFORM at. Writers write. That's not very normal behavior but it's what I love.

How do you promote yourself as an author, and what is your best advice for promoting your work?
The very best way to promote your work is the write the best book you're capable of writing. All the promotion in the world won't make up for a poorly written book. So that's my priority, my focus, job ONE.

What was the best writing-related advice you ever received?
I've gotten so much good advice about writing. I suppose the best, the most fundamental is: Write. Finish a book. Finish it, send it out then start a new book. Write and keep writing. No matter how hard to study to improve your craft you can't truly hone it without practice.

Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book?
Over the Edge is book #3 in the Kincaid Brides series. And explosive, shoot-em-up slam bang ending to a really fun series.

Here's a little bit about Over the Edge.

Seth Kincaid survived a fire in a cave, but he?s never been the same. He was always a reckless youth, but now he?s gone over the edge. He ran off to war and came back crazier than ever.

After the war, nearly dead from his injuries, it appears Seth got married. Oh, he?s got a lot of excuses, but his wife isn?t happy to find out Seth doesn?t remember her. Callie has searched, prayed, and worried. Now she?s come to the Kincaid family?s ranch in Colorado to find her lost husband.

Callie isn?t a long-suffering woman. Once she knows her husband is alive, she wants to kill him. She?s not even close to forgiving him for abandoning her.

Then more trouble shows up in the form of a secret Seth?s pa kept for years. The Kincaid brothers might lose their ranch if they can?t sort things out. It?s enough to drive a man insane?but somehow it?s all making Seth see things more clearly. And now that he knows what he wants, no one better stand in his way.

Did you have to do any special research for your book?
The Kincaid Brides series was inspired by a vacation I took to Carlsbad Cavern. That cavern was so beautiful. It captured my imagination like no place I've ever been. I could just BE the first person who'd gone down there. I could imagine what it would have been like with only a lantern for light. The stunning beauty, the terrible danger. It just begged to be used as a setting for a book and here it is in The Kincaid Brides.

If you could choose just one thing for your book to accomplish, what would it be?
I'm not sure this is what you want me to say, but the truth is, I just want to entertain people. I want to have a person slap this book shut at 4 am when they've got to be up at 6 am for work and say, "That was the most fun I ever had reading a book." That's my goal. Any deeper meaning people get out of my work, well, that's wonderful. They may be imagining it, but that doesn't mean I'm not glad to hear it.

To learn more about Mary's books, visit www.maryconnealy.com

You can order Over the Edge on Amazon.com

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Source: http://thedabblingmum.blogspot.com/2012/09/interview-with-mary-connealy.html

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