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Mary Connealy is my guest on the podcast this week. She’s always a fun interview and a wonderful lady. We talk about her new release, Forged in Love, and about why Wyoming was the perfect choice of setting for a book starring a female blacksmith. And have you seen the cover of Forged in Love? The way the heroine is standing with her hands on her hips and a determined look on her face is great. I ask Mary about how that cover came to be. And my patrons get to hear, after 74 books, what Mary’s greatest achievement is.

Forged in Love by Mary Connealy

When sparks begin to fly, can a friendship cast in iron be shaped into something more?

Mariah Stover is left for dead and with no memory when the Deadeye Gang robs the stagecoach she’s riding in, killing both her father and brother. As she takes over her father’s blacksmith shop and tries to move forward, she soon finds herself in jeopardy and wondering–does someone know she witnessed the robbery and is still alive?

Handsome and polished Clint Roberts escaped to western Wyoming, leaving his painful memories behind. Hoping for a fresh start, he opens a diner where he creates fine dishes, but is met with harsh resistance from the townsfolk, who prefer to stick to their old ways.

Clint and Mariah are drawn together by the trials they face in town, and Clint is determined to protect Mariah at all costs when danger descends upon her home. As threats pursue them from every side, will they survive to build a life forged in love?

Get your copy of Forged in Love.

Preorder The Laws of Attraction.

Preorder Marshaling her Heart.

Get to know Mary Connealy:

I wrote for ten years before I got my first book published. When I did get my first contract I had twenty finished books on my computer at home. I had just enough encouragement through those ten long years to keep me going.

I was a stay-at-home mom when I started but during those years my children grew up and I got a job. I’ve worked forty hours a week, teaching GED, for the last five years.

Somewhere in about the third year of my writing, I sent a manuscript into Silhouette Romance and they requested a full manuscript. From the time I sent the three chapters in, then their request for a whole manuscript, then finally their rejection, it took a full year. So I’m starting to see just how slow the publishing world is. I sent that book in as a result of placing third in a writer’s contest and I did pretty well in them.

I learned a lot from the critiques. Also when I’d final, I got judged by editors and agents.
There came a time when I expected to final in any contest I entered. The two years before I got published I was a finalist in eleven contests with five different books. And all the while I’m entering these contests, I kept writing.

I discovered ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and entered my manuscript Petticoat Ranch in their unpublished contest. I was a double finalist in 2004, another book of mine, Montana Rose, was in the running, too. (Montana Rose released in July).

I won The Noble Theme contest and got a lot of requests to send in my book. I also got a really simple request from Cathy Marie Hake. She asked me to send her my first three chapters. Cathy read what I sent her and said she thought I was ‘ready’.

By this time, I had so many rejections I had a hide like a rhino, so submitting work didn’t even phase me. Okay, well maybe I crawled under my computer desk and sucked my thumb for a day or two every time I got one but other than that I was fine.

Just before the next year’s conference, Cathy Marie Hake told me she wanted to pitch my name to write a book as part of a three book series set in historical Alaska.

Every year at the conference the acquiring editor for Heartsong Presents gives a contract to an unpublished author. I was so hopeful! I knew there was a chance it could be me. The Heartsong editor, Tracie Peterson, said someone else’s name, so okay, I’ve been rejected before. I kind of expect it.

And then she said, “And this year we’re giving two contracts to first-time authors. We’re offering a contract to Mary Connealy.” I get chills saying that! It was a wonderful, thrilling shocking moment. I had to go up and get the contract, in front of 350 other writers, all clapping. A great, great moment in my life.

With numerous books published, I’ve also had the honor of being a Carol Award winner and a Rita and Christyand IRCC Award Finalist. Subscribe to my email newsletter for the latest information. You’ll also find me on Seekerville, Petticoats & Pistols, and my blog. More details are on my media kit page.