Cathy Mansell: welcome to my blog.

This week I'm delighted to welcome Cathy Mansell to my blog. I've known Cathy for a long time before a few years we shared the same agent for we decided to part company with her. Over to you Cathy.

About me

I’m Cathy Mansell and I write romantic suspense novels set mainly in Ireland during the 50s, and 60s. My next book, Galway Girl, out this year is my first historical suspense, set in the early 19c. My protagonists like to travel outside of Ireland. So, my books have a flavour of other cities, Leicester, Birmingham and Manchester, places I once lived in.

When my husband retired we moved to a little village four miles from Lutterworth, Leicestershire. We don’t have a dog but usually end up looking after my daughter’s naughty Beagle, Billy. I have an attic room where I write each day overlooking green fields and trees.

Why do I write?

It’s like a drug to me, my fix, I can’t live without it. I look forward to each day and usually write from eight thirty, and then on and off throughout the day.  It’s an obsession, therefore I rarely take holidays.  Now that I’m a published writer there just isn’t enough hours in the day to do everything.  I guess, the reason I write is because I love telling stories.

Tips for new writers.

Believe that what you write is worth doing.  If you are serious about getting published, don’t ever give up.  Take advice from authors who are already published, and rewrite as many times as is necessary.  Join a good writers’ group, read your work aloud and listen to feedback.

Plus and minus of writing.

On the plus side, it’s a magical experience when you actually finish writing a novel and write those two little words, The End. It’s creative and keeps your mind young because you are always in your characters heads living their stories. As a writer you get to meet lots of like minded people throughout the year, at various activities to do with writing.

On the minus side, you don’t earn pots of money as some people like to think.  It’s hard work

and at times lonely. You often wonder if you will finish what you started. You need to be disciplined, otherwise it can get a bit chaotic.  Today, publishers like you to promote yourself and your books. You need to be computer savvy, have a website and be on lots of networking sites.

Blurb: Shadow Across The Liffey

Set in 60’s Ireland, life is hard for widow, Oona Quinn, grief-stricken by the deaths of her husband and five-year-old daughter. Struggling to survive, she meets charismatic Jack Walsh at the Shipping Office.

Vinnie Kelly, her son's biological father, just out of jail, sets out to destroy Oona and all she holds dear. Haunted by her past, she has to fight for her future and the safety of her son, Sean. But Vinnie has revenge on his mind . . .

Book links:

www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Mansell_Cathy
www.amazon.com/Cathy-Mansell/e/B00DVKNSY6
www.amazon.co.uk/Cathy-Mansell/e/B00DVKNSY6

Author bio

Member of

Leicester Writers’ Club, Just Write workshop, Life President of Lutterworth Writers’ Group, Member NAWG, Member Romantic Novelist Association and past president of Riverside Speakers club.

Cathy is an experienced writer of romantic fiction. Her early work was competition short stories and articles published in national magazines. She was Editor in Chief of the Leicestershire Anthology, ‘Taking Off’, a book promoted and supported by Arts Council UK.

In recent times, Cathy has turned to writing full-length novels that are set in Ireland/England. Her debut book, Shadow Across the Liffey, a 2013 contender for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Joan Hessayon award was published in February 2013 by Tirgearr Publishing.  Her Father’s Daughter, Cathy’s second book, has been contracted by the same publisher.  She was a recent contestant on the TV show Food Glorious Food.

Links to Cathy:

cathy.ashbymagna@zen.co.uk

mansell-cathy@hotmail.co.uk

www.cathymansell.com

www.facebook.com/cathy.mansell4

twitter.@cathymansell3

www.linkedin.com/pub/cathy-mansell/46/B50/550

Thank you for your interesting and informative post, Cathy. I hope you do as well with your second book as you did with your first.