Inkwell Guest: Bev Irwin

Hi all! Welcome back to the Inkwell for another guest. Today I’m hosting Black Opal author, Bev Irwin. She’s going to talk about goals and persistence (as she notates below *grin*). Hope you’ll say hi to let her know you were here. 🙂

Take it away, Bev!

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Hello everyone. Thanks for coming to visit, and thank you Michelle for inviting me.

I’m so excited to be able to talk about my new releases. Yes, I did add an ‘s’ on that word. My first release, GHOSTLY JUSTICE, a paranormal youth novel will be released on April 14th with Black Opal Books. The second, also with Black Opal Books, MISSING CLAYTON, a women’s suspense, will be out later this year.

I want to talk about goals and persistence.

Do you have goals? Of course you do. We all do. Mine is to be on the best seller list and have financial freedom so I can travel. I love traveling. Just yesterday I went on a fantasy trip to Paris and sat in a cafe and had coffee and crepes. Tomorrow, who knows where I will be. That’s the great thing about being a writer, we can go as far as our imagination will take us. But I do have my suitcase open and ready for the real thing comes along.

Where would you go? Would it be in real time or are you a time traveler going into the past or the future, or another realm. Tell me.

My journey took another step closer to my dreams last September.

What an amazing fall I had. After years of writing, taking course, being in writing groups, entering contests, sending off to agents and editors, IT finally happened. I GOT A CONTRACT!

Soul Mate Publishing offered me a contract (don’t you love that word) for my first novel (not the first one written), WHEN HEARTS COLLIDE. I got that offer in September and the release date was to be in November. My first birthday present that year. But it was delayed to December so became my first Christmas present.

Then, on Oct 30th I received a very apropos offer from Black Opal Books. The day before Halloween and I get an offer to publish GHOSTLY JUSTICE my paranormal youth novel. That was my second contract. I’ll tell you my witches cape and my curly toed black boots were doing a happy, happy dance. I did some wicked flying on my broom that week.

Then, I couldn’t believe it, a few days before Christmas, I got another contract offer from Black Opal Books. This was for my women’s suspense novel, MISSING CLAYTON, that will be coming out later this year. WOW!

So, remember, your dreams can come true! Believe!

Work hard, take courses, join critique groups, enter contests, submit your baby to the horrors of being rejected. Broaden your shoulders, edit again and again, send it out there. One day you will get THE EMAIL or THE CALL bringing you that one step closer to your dreams.

But most of all, don’t quit. Persistence pays off.

So tell me your dreams and goals, or write them down. SEE THEM HAPPENING.

About Bev

Award-winning author, Bev Irwin, lives in London, Ontario, with three assorted cats. One that hid in her car when she moved from the farm and two others dropped off by her daughter on two different occasions. Her three children have flown the coup, but her granddaughter, Jasmine, is a frequent visitor.

As a registered nurse, she likes to add a touch of medical to her romance and mystery novels. She writes YA, children’s, and poetry. She prefers spending time in her garden, writing, and reading to being in the kitchen.

Her debut novel, WHEN HEARTS COLLIDE, a contemporary romance, came out in December of 2011 with Soul Mate Publishing under the pen name of Kendra James. Her YA paranormal, GHOSTLY JUSTICE, will be released by Black Opal Books on April 14th, 2012. MISSING CLAYTON, a suspense novel, will also be published with Black Opal Books later this year.

These are some of my books.

In His Father’s Footsteps

This book will be on Kindle when Bev figures out how to format it properly.

He promised he’d be back by the full moon. But that was days ago and Jason Sharmon’s father hasn’t returned from his prospecting trip. Now the fourteen-year-old must battle the Ontario North and his own fears to find his father. He encounters several obstacles including a wolf encounter, a raging river, and a fall down a cliff. After finding and caring for his injured father, Jason learns to believe in himself and his own abilities. He and his father learn to accept their differences and mend a troubled relationship.

If you witnessed an accident on a lonely stretch of highway, would you stop or continue on your way? For nurse Molly Tanner the choice is clear. Risking her own life, she pulls the seriously injured driver and his young daughter from the car. When Pearce begs her to pose as his wife to keep Gracie from foster care, memories of her unhappy childhood rush back. But can Molly keep up the charade without her own secrets being discovered and her heart from being shattered?

Fifteen-year-old Daria Brennan doesn’t want to hear people’s thoughts. She doesn’t want to see ghosts or talk to dead people. And she definitely doesn’t want to help Amanda solve her forty-year old murder. But Amanda wants revenge, and Daria is the first human contact she’s had since the day she died. Now the killer is after Daria and her friends. Can they solve this Amanda’s murder in time, or will they become the next victims?

COMING SOON! Release date April 14, 2012

You can read excerpts of these books at my website. Browse, read some poetry if you wish.

Find Bev around the WWW:

www.bevirwin.com
www.blackopalbooks.com/
www.kendrajames.net
www.soulmatepublishing.com