Hi there!
Welcome to my blog where I plan to ramble about my writing process. I’m glad you’re here.
A little about me. Hi, I’m Brandy and I love romance books . I love reading them, and I love writing them. About 3 years ago I published my first book, Keeping Christmas. At the time, I was just starting to explore the world of Indie Publishing. I’d had an idea for a Christmas book and decided to just put it out there. I had a goal to publish a book before I turned 40, and I achieved that goal. Yay for me!
After my official author launch in 2021, life happened, and it’s been difficult to get another book out. Since then, I have changed jobs, moved across the country from Florida to Illinois, lost pets, lost family members, been diagnosed with ADHD, had some major upheavals at work, and dealt with a significant level of burnout due to all of this. Looking back, it’s no wonder I haven’t put out another book. I’m surprised I got any writing done at all!
I tend to come up with these big, sweeping, complicated story lines, which is completely understandable now that I have the ADHD diagnosis. They make for great high-concept pitches, but writing these stories can be a struggle. It’s all about “the promise of the premise” right? Well, my premises promise a lot, and it’s hard to deliver.
Take the example of my follow-up to Keeping Christmas. I’d conceived a 4-part series, with each book revisiting a character from classic literature in a modern-day setting. I decided that the second book I should write in that series would revisit the character of Bertha Antonietta Mason from Jane Eye. That’s right. I decided I would write a book where I gave Mr. Rochester’s wife, the one he locked in an attic, a second chance at life and love. Talk about a BIG concept. And Toni couldn’t just be a “normal” person. Oh no. That wouldn’t be authentic. So, I created a woman with bipolar disorder and a whole host of other issues and then tried to write her a love story. Easy peasy, right?
Obviously not. A character like Toni would be a struggle for an author at the top of their game. A baby author like me with a personal life in shambles? Yeah, no, that wasn’t happening. I wish I’d been able to recognize that at the time, but, of course, I couldn’t and ended up convinced I just “couldn’t hack it.” Even so, I did manage to write 30k words in that story. Maybe one day I’ll come back to it, but it was too much for me to take on at the time (and still is).
Not everything was bad, though. Moving to the Chicago area put me physically closer to author friends. Honestly, I credit those friends for helping me write anything during this tumultuous time. In particular I have to thank my friend Liz Lincoln, for helping me get over the hump and start writing again with an eye toward publishing.
Liz is a fellow romance author who is also a therapist and burnout coach. She offered to coach me last year, and somewhere during that process, I decided to try writing something “easier” instead of continuing to try and slog through Toni’s book. I put easier in quotes because my choice was to write a Regency romance.
But Brandy, you might say, historical romance isn’t easier to write than contemporary! And you are right, in a sense. It does require research, especially for those brave authors who choose to write about periods we don’t have as much readily available information for. But, to me, Regency is easier. I’m a Jane Austen fan from way back, and I love me a good Regency/Victorian England romance. Regency appeals to me as a writer because it has set rules and guidelines, which makes plot development easier. Was the heroine caught alone in a darkened hallway with a known rake? For shame! Now they must marry or face social ruin!
But, of course, because I’m me, I can’t just write a straightforward Regency romance. Where’s the fun in that? You can credit Liz for the inspiration for this next one as well. Liz is also my witchy friend (we text each other our daily tarot card pulls), and she was writing a witchy romance. I wanted to write about witches too, and thus my Witchy Regency romance book was conceived.
Now I have a manuscript that I am in the process of editing and about 25k words of book 2. It feels good to be writing regularly again. One of the things I’ve learned about myself is that I need some external pressure to finish things. So, this is where I need your help to hold me accountable (and, if you’re still with me now, you rock!). I put up a placeholder cover and a blurb for the first book in this series on my books page. Can you go over there and check it out? If you want to be extra be amazing, I’d love it if you shared this with anyone else you think might be interested. I will share on my blog and my newsletter when the pre-order is live.
I feel like I’m finally emerging from this burnout, and my goals have changed. I’m publishing now because I love these characters and I hope you will love them too. My goal is to create a community with my readers, because I love being a part of other reader communities. So, here I go. Thanks for being a part of this journey with me. See you around!
Author Brandy Shaw 