introducing novelist Therese Walsh!

“An original, intriguing tale about the ways that love can break us or bind us.” Therese Fowler, author of Souvenir and Reunion

Those of you who write are probably familiar with the acclaimed writing website Writer Unboxed. A few years ago, I became acquainted with one of its founders, Therese Walsh. Through who knows what web of connections, she was also a reader of my blog. In our correspondence, she named herself “the other Therese,” and was one of first to interview me when my debut novel, Souvenir, was on its way to publication.

Over time, I watched this “other Therese” go from aspiring novelist, working on a manuscript called Unbounded, to agented author of a completed novel.  Soon after finding her agent, she asked me to read her manuscript and, if I was so inclined, to “blurb” it before her agent began submitting it to publishers. This is one of many strategies agents/authors sometimes use, hoping that endorsements from more-established authors will help make a sale.

I had begun reading the manuscript but hadn’t finished when Therese told me her agent was moving up the submission timetable to, in essence, immediately, in order to take advantage of interest they were already seeing from publishers abroad. I didn’t even have the chance to finish reading before it was in the hands of editors around New York, and shortly thereafter sold to Shaye Areheart books (an imprint of Random House).

Seeing a fellow author land a book deal is tremendously exciting. Following my own first sale, I’d seen a fellow MFA classmate and two other “blog pals” sell their own debut novels, and was almost as excited for them as I was for myself. When Therese Walsh told me she, too, had a deal, I was delighted for her. And new deals are good news for all of us: each one is proof positive that books by new writers are still in demand–which, to anyone who hasn’t gotten there yet but desperately hopes to, is no small thing. It’s nice for readers, too; new stories, new voices, new perspectives are all good things.

The writing business is tough. The persistence and tenacity required to simply complete a novel, let alone find representation, let alone get a book deal, let alone stay in the business, does not come easily. The odds are stacked so highly against success, and that’s why each new author’s deal is cause for celebration.

Today I want to celebrate the publication of that novel Therese Walsh worked so diligently to finish, to refine, and to sell. (Read her Writer Unboxed interview here.) Its title became The Last Will of Moira Leahy, and I was pleased to be given an advance copy to read and blurb. Her publisher took the pithiest part of my endorsement to use for promotional purposes (as seen below the book’s cover art, above), but here it is in its entirety:

“A bit of the fantastic threads through Therese Walsh’s debut, an original, intriguing tale of the ways that love can break us or bind us, depending. Though it’s Maeve Leahy’s journey we follow, Moira Leahy’s will may well be for us all to discover the triumph of the spirit that’s possible only through letting go.”

Help Therese get established in the crazy, crowded book marketplace by going to your favorite bookseller and picking up a copy of The Last Will of Moira Leahy. You’ll be doing a good deed, but more than that, you’ll be getting a great read! What a treat for these long autumn evenings.