{"id":221685,"date":"2025-05-03T23:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T23:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/i-appreciate-how-hearty-pacific-northwesterners-are-the-dorset-book-detective\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T23:00:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T23:00:28","slug":"i-appreciate-how-hearty-pacific-northwesterners-are-the-dorset-book-detective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=221685","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI appreciate how hearty Pacific Northwesterners are\u201d \u2013 The Dorset Book Detective"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of my guilty pleasures is cutesy, small-town romance books, even ones not set in Dorset. You can see the love for the local area and the small community kinship among the characters. While her books are set across the pond, it\u2019s a privilege to chat to Jennifer Bardsley about her work in this genre.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Please tell me about your books. Which one was your favourite to write?<\/em><\/p>\n
All of my books hold a special place in my heart, but writing Sweet Bliss<\/em> felt magical. Inspiration struck when my daughter and I were watching our town\u2019s Fourth of July parade and I made the decision, then and there, to switch from writing young adult fiction, to writing sweet romance books set in places similar to where I lived.<\/p>\n
I had no idea if Sweet Bliss<\/em> would sell to a publisher or not. Previous to that, I had sold to two small publishers, and also self-published under the name Louise Crypress. Writing Sweet Bliss<\/em> was a big risk. Thankfully, my phenomenal agent, Liza Fleissig of Liza Royce Associates, sold it to Montlake in a two book deal. Since then, it\u2019s been translated into three different languages and enjoyed by readers all over the world.<\/p>\n
Tell me about why you set your novels in the Pacific North West? What is it you love about that area?<\/em><\/p>\n
I appreciate how hearty Pacific Northwesterners are. They rarely let rain stop them from doing anything and almost never use umbrellas. People here value nature. Almost everyone I know enjoys some sort of outdoor hobby like camping, hiking, fishing, rock climbing, boating, walking, or golf.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a big sense of community spirit and feeling the duty to make your voice heard. It\u2019s almost like the town hall scenes in The Gilmore Girls<\/em> where everybody chimes in on what they think ought to be done. That really happens here and is a great source for drama in my books, especially when it spills into Facebook groups like in Talk of the Town<\/em> or a campaign to save the beach, like in Slow Burn<\/em>.<\/p>\n
What Was Your Career Before You Became A Writer<\/em>?<\/p>\n
I wrote a newspaper column called \u201cI Brake for Moms\u201d for The Everett Herald for eleven years. Seeing how poorly local journalists were paid, and also how hard they work, inspired me to write Good Catch<\/em> which is about a Seattle Times journalists who falls in love with his childhood nemesis.<\/p>\n
Before I wrote a newspaper column, I was an elementary school teacher in California.<\/p>\n
What books do you like reading yourself? Any authors you\u2019re particularly fond of?<\/em><\/p>\n
My guilty pleasure is reading celebrity memoirs. There are so many things I love about them like, name dropping, behind-the-scenes secrets, and trying to figure out if they were ghost-written or not. I\u2019m also constantly surprised by how much I learn about human nature after reading them.<\/p>\n
Right now I\u2019m reading Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman<\/em> and there are parts that are so deeply moving that I take a picture of my Kindle so I can remember the quote. Paris Hilton\u2019s memoir was also outstanding and taught me a lot about what it\u2019s like to live with Attention Deficit Disorder. Matthew Perry\u2019s book was absolutely heartbreaking, and I\u2019ll think about it the rest of my life whenever I encounter someone dealing with substance abuse issues.<\/p>\n
If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, on a writing project, who would it be and why?<\/em><\/p>\n
I would love to write a book with Carolyn Brown, because I adore her small town romance books and how she mixes humor, love, and age inclusivity in her story lines.<\/p>\n
What books are you looking forward to in 2025?<\/em><\/p>\n
My friend Paulette Kennedy has a book releasing May 1st called The Artist of Blackberry Grange<\/em> that\u2019s already racking up incredible early reviews. Mansi Shah has a new one on August 12th called Saving Face<\/em>. I have both of those titles preordered.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for you? Any new projects you\u2019re excited about?<\/em><\/p>\n
My next book comes out on June 24th and is called Glued to You<\/em>. It\u2019s about an adorkable crafting consultant who accidentally becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with her billionaire boss, and ends up hiding out in a quaint log cabin in a small town to have her baby in secret. I\u2019m doing the final, final, final proofread now.<\/p>\n
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