Pat Bertram

When the traditional publishers stopped publishing Pat Bertram’s favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Bertram’s first two novels, More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, will be published later this year by Second Wind Publishing... more »

When the traditional publishers stopped publishing Pat Bertram’s favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Bertram’s first two novels, More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, will be published later this year by Second Wind Publishing .

Bertram’s publisher says: “I was told by some other small publishers with whom I had done research that I was going to get mountains of unacceptable crap for every worthy thing I received. So when I got Pat’s manuscript for A Spark of Heavenly Fire, which was like the first submission to Second Wind, I thought, ‘OMG, is this possible?!’ I knew in the first 20 pages that she was the real thing. Then, as we corresponded, I realized where I knew that name: she and I were neck and neck throughout the FCC contest on Gather.com. I remember reading her first chapter of More Deaths Than One and thinking, ‘Oh, man. I hope her second chapter is messed up! I can’t beat this.’ Well, it just goes to show, if you can’t beat ‘em, publish ‘em!” « less