An inside look with Erin Marie Bernardo- Scent of the Past
An inside look with Erin Marie Bernardo
Scent of the Past
What inspired you to write your book?
People actually ask me that all the time—as the story itself is rather unique—and usually all I can do is shake my head, because I feel that I didn’t have a choice. The story was gifted to me.
It was a bright, sunny morning in Tennessee and I was soaring. I had just spent the past 10 years of my life begging my husband to move out of the frozen fields of Minnesota and step into southern living below the Mason-Dixon line, and he had finally said yes! Within a few short months we had packed up our house, rented a UHAUL, thrown the cat in the car and made the trek down to Nashville. And now there I was, driving through gorgeous countryside headed into my new job. I was happy, content, and free. It was an exhilarating sense of accomplishment, because moving to Nashville is where I had set my dreams.
And then it sort of hit me. The vanishing of a purpose. A halt in my lifeline; almost like running down a path and having it end. For so long moving was all I wanted to do. It topped my ‘to-do’ list, it was written down as every goal, every wish, every dream—and now, that spot was empty. And I thought, ‘what the heck am I going to do now !?’
I didn’t have to wait too long before a voice said, 'You are going to write a book.' I know that sounds crazy, but as I kept driving I heard the title, and then the characters and then the plot. By the time I had arrived at work I had a 30-chapter outline mapped out in my head, and I started writing that night.
What books have most influenced your life most?
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Do you have any advice for other writers?
If you have a passion for it, stick with it. Santa Claus is the only one who can work magic in one night, and even he had Rudolph.
What genre do you consider your book(s)?
Fiction/ with historical fiction elements.
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
Research, only because it disrupts the creative flow. There were times I couldn’t move forward with a scene without an answer, and that added extra challenges during the writing process.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
Getting lost! In the characters, in the story, in the past. I love when a scene can take you to a different place, and then I wake up and find I missed breakfast.
Do you write every single day?
Oh I wish! But honestly it just doesn’t happen. I need to immerse myself in the story every time I sit down to write—think about my characters, reread a few chapters, research a few things—to open the creative pathway. Once I get going I like to write continuously without interruption for two to three hours, and that precious time is hard to find during a busy work day.
What are you working on at the minute?
I am writing another historical fiction novel that crosses planes between the past and the present. It is not a time-travel book like Scent of the Past, but rather connects present day with events that happened in the mid-1800s. The story—about a ghost— is set a few years before the start of the Civil War on a prestigious sugarcane plantation in Louisiana.
Purchase The Girl in the Shadows here: Amazon
Find our more about the author here: www.erinmariebernardo.com
