From Dan’s Music shop in A Dream For Winter to Dave’s Music Shop in Joy and Sorrow, I used this place as a visual reference in my imagination. Many an afternoon was spent here, mooning over musical instruments, and people watching. Awesome, inspiring energy in music stores. You see all types of characters coming and going. Each with his or her own dreams of making it big (even if only in their imaginations.) Along with art supply shops, music shops are some of my favourite places for inspiration. Where are some of yours? The following is an excerpt from Joy and Sorrow that takes place in a such a shop: © 2015 Joy…

After a year on Wattpad, the time has finally come to release my pet project to the world. While this is exciting, it also scares the heck out of me. More so, it signifies a bittersweet end of an awesome writing experience. Thank you, awesome watt-padders for your readership. Official Release Date Announcement ✭༻May 22, 2016 World Goth Day༺✭ Except: ©2016 Maria Bernard – HOUSE OF GOTHS “All I want is to rent the spare room,” Becky said, after taking a soothing sip of coffee. “All you want?” Crispin mocked, snapping his newspaper in half. “What about what I want? Which is you, gone from here! Doesn’t that count for…

Falquen’s Nest, Book 1 of the These Bones series. A Book dedicated to my favourite city, Toronto, Canada. (Home to many diverse, talented individuals.) This book and its series partners spawned the House of Goths which many of you are already familiar with. It’s a genre that captivates me and I don’t really know why. As I explained in my previous post, my fascination with Gothdom actually started in A Dream for Winter with my very sweet goth boy, Sage Winters Lane… What fascinates me even more is how two very different individuals can come together and somehow form a bond. In Falquen’s Nest we meet Janie Drago, a watercolourist…

Authors often get asked the following question and we all have different answers. Here’s mine just in case you were wondering. Question: It seems a good many authors struggle with writer’s block.  How do you cope with that particular problem? Maria B: Writers block is not my problem. Procrastination is. I’m a big daydreamer. Distraction is another challenge. Between writing, maintaining a presence on social media, and promoting, time is not always on my side.   

My characters aren’t your average romance novel characters. I am very much aware of that. Some are more out there than others. For instance, let me start by mentioning the weirdest of them all, Sage Winters Lane from A Dream For Winter. I call him my Original Gothstar, because that’s exactly who he is. Before These Bones, before House of Goths, there was A Dream for Winter, starring Sage and Carlie, two polar opposites who are brought together under unusual circumstances. Sage Winters Lane literally walked into my life a number of years ago. I was in line at a cafe, located in a very artsy Toronto neighbourhood. In walked…

Snippet Sunday Since it’s Easter Sunday, and lets face it, besides turkey, we can expect a lot of sticky sweet desserts. So, I thought I’d share a snippet of sticky sweetness from by book, Wherever Girl. If you haven’t read it yet, Wherever Girl is a surf-inspired rock star romance. It’s set in OBX, North Carolina. Sara, our heroine goes there on vacation. She has no idea who her B&B host is until she arrives to discover Skylar Dawn, local skirt chasing surfer/rocker is indeed the owner of the beachfront B&B. Let’s just say, Skylar takes his role as host way beyond the average call of duty. ***Warning*** Steamy Scene…

  Morning coffee, where would we be without it?