GRACE BRANNIGAN: I LOVE ANY TYPE OF CREATIONS

Grace Brannigan is a veteran in the writers’ world. She was published traditionally more than a decade ago, but now is enjoying an adventure called self-publishing. Our next guest is a specialist in romance stories. We will take a look at her literary heritage during the following interview.

– What is your book Find Me about?
– Find me is Pandimora’s story. She lives in the faerie realm Aisywel, but it turns out she’s a bit of a rebel, has little interest in the rich faerie history, and loves to eavesdrop on private conversations. Against the advice of Aisywel’s high elders, she hops portals into the earth dimension.
All in all her independent ways aren’t going over so well, but when she discovers a secret, what she knows about herself and her beloved Aisywel will be sorely tested. When she is kicked out of her homeland, she is forced to confront a terrible crime by one of her own, a crime that involves the family she never knew she had.
Pandimora must decide how far she will go to bring the truth to light, even if it means she will be forever exiled from the place she calls home.
Private Investigator Drew Maddox is a former cop, and deals only in the hard facts of life. When a woman claiming to be fae falls in front of his truck one snowy night, his world is knocked sideways. Pursuing the mysterious Pandimora puts his human life at risk. He follows her to a hidden world he never knew existed, one he could get lost inside if he makes a wrong move.

– How did you decide to write the story?
– I actually wrote Whisper Me, the second book in the Faeries Lost trilogy first. It was intended to be a short faerie romance, but ended up a full length novel of 50,000 words. Halfway through Whisper Me Pandimora’s name popped up and then I realized I had all these ideas for another book that needed to see the light of day. So I finished Whisper Me and then backtracked as I wrote Find Me. In Find Me, which turned out to be book one and Pandimora’s story, I put into place all the information and ground work for the rest of the series. Then as I wrote Find Me, I realized there was a brother that absolutely no one knew anything about, not even through recollected memories. So Kirklas’ story is the final book in the trilogy, “Hear Me.”
– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– The biggest challenge was writing three books that really tie together and then writing out of order. They all take place simultaneously, but Find Me has a little bit of a head start so I needed to create the faerie world Aisywel, the main characters, the minor characters, some of whom spill over into the other books. I made charts as to descriptions, mannerisms, what was possible regarding fae magic, etc.I wanted to make sure everything was cohesive through all 3 books. I absolutely loved writing this fantasy story! Creating a believable world of fantasy was challenging but fun! Now the biggest challenge is the last book, “Hear Me”. Kirklas’ story ties everything up that progressed through each of the other two stories. However, each story has its own happy ending and can stand on its own.
– Tell us something more about your main character? Is it close to someone from your real life?
– Pandimora is not taken from any one person, but she’s got bits and pieces of someone any of us chance to meet. She’s a mite insecure at times, and she grows into who she will be as a woman. She acts with integrity, but second guesses herself sometimes, but then when she feels certain of things, she acts bravely and forcefully. She is a caring person whose quest is to find her sister, and then her brother when the odds seem stacked against her. She wants to bring her family together without having any idea how that will occur. She feels betrayed by her own kind, and the deeper she delves into her own world, the more she despairs of finding the truth. Pandimora grows stronger with each tidbit she finds, and begins to fully trust her own knowledge and strength.
– How much time did you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– Find Me took longer than Whisper Me which as stated I wrote first. It took about 4-5 months because of all the fleshing out, the detail in creating the Aisywel world. The story line was tweaked repeatedly until I hoped every detail was addressed. I then let it sit for several weeks to a month and I will then go back over the story, check it for flow and cohesiveness. I will then go through the story again and tweak it for details, adding more emotion if necessary. I love writing emotional stories. At that point I then send it off to my copyeditor/editor to check for grammar, punctuation, story flow. Once I go through her suggestions and keep or tweak again according to her suggestions, I then format the manuscript into an ebook for Smashwords distribution and then for Kindle. At that point I usually upload to both places within a month or so. After about 6 months that the book has been out there, I then format it for paperback to be sold on Amazon.
– Women of Character are your most popular book series. What the readers will find inside?
– Women of Character are all stand alone contemporary western romances. Inside the reader will find a treasure trove of cowboys, rodeos and sometimes cowgirls. Again, I love writing about family and strong heroines and the men who love them. Each book is about women tested when faced with crisis: alcoholism, a nervous breakdown, facial scarring, self-doubt, amputation. In “Echoes from the Past” : Christie is on the run, from her past, from loss, and a sense of failure. She runs to Kentucky to find the sister she never knew and instead finds her sister’s husband and little girl. Three wounded souls determined to go it alone, until they realize all they need is each other to heal. “Once and Always” : Leading a reclusive life after the fire that subsequently scarred her face and robbed her of a promising rodeo career, Anna is on the verge of bankruptcy. When the man she once loved shows up on her doorstep, buried anger and betrayal surface for both she and Tyler. “Heartstealer” : Jacie is afraid she’s lost her edge. Following an aerial stunt gone wrong and then her fiancé running out on her, she’s determined to restore her pride and her life.
Needing time away from well-meaning family, she accepts a skydiving job at Timber Falls. When she meets resort owner Sloan, the sparks fly. He is a man who will tempt her and possibly change her forever.”Wishing on a Rodeo Moon” : Tye is a risk taking, partying cowgirl, a bullrider at the top of her game, until the night a bull drops dead and pins her beneath him. Embittered over the loss of her leg below the knee, she needs to redefine who she is without rodeo. Years before her lifestyle lost her the man she loved. When solid, dependable Jake returns and offers a lending hand, Tye wonders if they can ever recapture the love they once shared ~ but Jake wants no part of her returning to rodeo and bullriding.
– Give us some insight about Women of Strength Time Travel series?
– This series is a fun ride through time with the Remington family. They are my Time Travel with a Twist. Something unexpected always pops up in the time travel aspect of the story. “Once Upon a Remembrance” is book one, Isabeau and Hawk’s story. Photographer Isabeau travels to 1894 and falls for a man she must ultimately leave behind if she can return to her own time. Hawk Morgan is a man endangered by his own lack of memories, as someone wants to see him dead. “Soulmates Through Time” is book two. Elise and Darien’s story. Thrust from her own time, 1822, Elise Remington has been separated from the man she loves for more than 20 years. Can she find the way back, and will Darien still love her after all this time? Elise has learned to survive and thrive in the 21st century. Will she love today the man she knew back then? The last book in the trilogy is “Treasure So Rare” which is Erik and Illiana’s story. Captain Erik Remington has been haunted by a black-haired sea witch. They spend seven glorious days and nights before she vanished as mysteriously as she appeared.
In 1847, his ship is pulled into a strange vortex and they end up in middle ages England. Force to assume another identity by the sorcerer Mandrak, he travels to the home of the Lady Iliana. This world is nothing like the England of history. History itself is twisted and dragons roam the skies. When Erik meets the Lady Iliana, he instantly recognizes her as the woman he’s searched for; however, she wants nothing to do with a man who threatens not only her mission but the very people she is trying to save.
Iliana’s quest is to find the perfect green emerald and restore it’s power so the land and people will flourish once more. Mandrak wants the gem as his own and his manipulations risk everyone she holds dear, including her infant son.
– Who are you?
– I have been a writer almost my entire life. I love writing romances and happy endings. In my other life I pursue art on silk. I love any type of creations. I live in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of New York, and write with the view of the mountains before me.
– What are your writing habits?
– I try to write every day, or I’m plotting out new stories or tweaking my current work in progress. I have no set writing schedule but I find I write best at night. Sometimes even going for a walk I pick up new ideas or solve a plot question.
– Are you satisfied by the sales of the book?
– There’s a lot of competition in this business. There can always be more sales. I try to be proactive and keep my books in front of the readers. Sometimes I will do giveaways and ads, but for the most part I just continue to write.
– What are you doing to promote your book by the best possible way?
– Beginning December 31 this year I am doing giveaways each month, 5 paperbacks of one book every month for 11 months on Goodreads. It should be exciting to see the results of this giveaway. I’ve also lined up to advertise on Goodreads an ongoing campaign to get my books and my name in front of the readers.
– When we will see your next novel?
– Hear Me is the next book planned for 2015. I’m hoping if all goes well to have it in ebook format by March 2015. This is the last book in the Faeries Lost trilogy.
– Why you stop to write for a big period of time before resume in 2012?
– I was traditionally published through Silhouette Books back in 2001. Due to family crisis and illness, I stopped writing for about 8 years. It was a very difficult time since I’d written most of my life. However, in 2011 I started to notice the surge of self-publishing, something I had done back in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, before most people were even thinking about self-publishing. So I did a lot of research and was amazed and delighted at the new opportunities available for authors. So I took all my back log of stories, rewrote them, had them edited, hired a cover designer and learned how to format them myself. Then I began to self publish. “Treasure So Rare, Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara, Deception” and all the Faeries Lost books are all brand new stories written from 2013 to the present. “Treasure So Rare” was only about 60 pages and I finished writing that story during NANOWRIMO writing challenge month in 2013.
– You work as a court transcriptionist. Did you use in your books some of the stories you heard or the characters you saw during your job?
– Not necessarily. Again, we all have experiences we gather in daily life. I see it as a cumulative effect of life. Each day you might get a little idea of something you store away for future use. I think writers are natural storytellers and you can turn just about any experience into something really interesting, just by thinking of life’s experience from different angles.
– If you may ask yourself one question in the interview what it will be? (Don’t forget to answer)
– Is there such a thing as an overnight success? I think it happens in rare moments in the book world. But what I really think about writer’s who “seem” to be an overnight success, suddenly everyone knows who they are or are buying their books, I think in a lot of cases these writers have been writing for years, and they suddenly hit the gold and hit it big. All we can do is keep writing and putting the best stories out there that we can. To me, that is the big success to build upon.

Learn more about Grace Brannigan at her Web page
Twitter

Take a look at her books
Find Me (Faeries Lost)
Whisper Me (Faeries Lost)
Echoes From The Past (Women of Character Book 1)
Once Upon a Remembrance (Women of Strength Time Travel Book 1)