Jeanette Baker is the award-winning author of fifteen novels, published by Pocket, Kensington and Mira Books. Many of the books are set in the lush countryside of historical and contemporary Ireland where she lives and writes during the summer months. Her ancestors, the O’Flahertys, hail from Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands located off the coast of Galway. She takes great pride in the prayer posted by the English over the ancient citygates, "From the wrath of the O’Flahertys, may the good Lord deliver us." Jeanette graduated from the University of California at Irvine with a degree in journalism and international relations and holds a Masters Degree in Education. When not in Ireland, she teaches in Southern California, reads constantly, attempts to navigate the confusing world of Facebook and, more recently, e-publishing, concocts creations from interesting cookbooks and enjoys the company of friends and children. She is the RITA award-winning author of Nell.
Please visit and blog with her at www.jeanettebaker.com.
When did you first know you could be a writer?
I don’t remember an actual epiphany or “first” realization that I could be a writer. From my earliest years in elementary school, writing came easily for me. As a child I was never taught to write. I don’t think that kind of instruction was considered as essential as it is today. There was a point in high school when my journalism teacher said, “You’re very good at this,” which I ignored for the most part. It wasn’t until college that I decided to write for a living. I was a journalist for 9 years in Northern Ireland. I remember the excitement of seeing my byline for the first time. I thought it would become routine, but it never has. Even after 16 novels, each new one is as exciting as the first.
What inspires you to write and why?
A story, for me, begins with an event in history. I love exploring country roads in settings rich in Celtic history, primarily Ireland and Scotland. I always take the tour, if there is one, and something small triggers my interest. It can be a place or a character. All my novels stem from those beginnings.
What genre are you most comfortable writing?
I would have to say the paranormal and, going into the more specific, the historical/paranormal. Someone, a reviewer, once said I’d created my own niche in the paranormal because I don’t have people traveling through time and attempting to live there. My books flirt with DNA memory and ancient curses that continue for generations within the same family.
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