Contents 3-9: Yovette B. Brooks 10-17:Roseanna M.White
Yovette B Brooks
Yovette B Brooks is the author of novels “Glimmer” “Glimmer’s New Beginnings-The Training Years” and “Not My Own”
1 How long have I been writing? This question is a tad hard since I think I have been story telling since very young. I have never slept well so as far back as I can remember I have been telling myself stories to fall asleep. Writing them, if you will, in my head. But it wasn't till about 15 years or so ago that I started putting those stories on paper.
found I could escape into my stories. 3. What was your first Novel? The first published was Glimmer. The first that I wrote, however, I am currently reworking to hopefully publish soon.
2 What started me
4. Can u tell me about
writing?
it?
As for what started me
I actually find it hard
putting the pen and paper
to talk about my work.
is simply a rough time
I am still learning.
going on in my life. When
Each book my writing,
others may have turned
r so i am told,
to, infidelity, drinking or drugs, I
improves. So hopefully I
the main focus of the
will get better at writing
series but you must start
synopsis.
somewhere and that
My first book Glimmer is
where this one starts.
basically an introduction to the Glimmer series. It just gives you a touch of back ground but yet not enough that more won't be explained in the next few books. It's about a young girl who finds nothing is at it seems. What seems like cancer and a death sentence, can be the start of an epic journey that has nothing do with cancer at all. It's full of supernatural/ spiritual / magic or whatever you prefer to call it with a small budding romance. But as I said it's the introduction to the series. Romance is not
5. What is the inspiration behind it? I once a a young friend who believed most everything she read. No matter if it were fiction or nonfiction. She really took it to heart, researching everything. Myself being a Christian I wanted to witness to her, but her dad was an atheist and would not have it, so I wrote a book she could read. Even if it was a fictitious story. Christ was there and if she did as much research she might just find Him herself. The first book in my series is not at revealing and open about Christianity as the next ones.
My hope is to get you hooked a little then a lot. Then to make you want to look up what could actually be Biblical. 6. Can you tell me about your journey to publishing? I said why I wrote Glimmer, but as I did I also must say I felt compelled or lead to do so. And publishing was not different, I felt compelled to do so. Now actually doing it has been an adventure in itself. I had to do some research and went with a company that could do all the leg work for me since I was quite ignorant to the business of publishing. This took the guess work out of what do I do next? Now after publishing three books this way I am learning
how to do some of those things for myself and I believe my next book I will attempt to do with out a company. Luckily I have made several friends that are also authors who are helping me. 7. Tell me about your writing process. You know I have talked to authors many times and the process always comes up. I always get tickled. I don't think I really have a process. Especially after listening to so many others. Or maybe mine is just really strange. Personally I come up with a name and what profession they're in. Then I set down at my laptop and start telling myself a story about this person just like I did when younger trying to get myself to
to sleep. Once that first line is on paper, the characters just tell there own story. I always thought that sounded funny but now I understand it. I do however know if I start down the wrong path in a story it all quits. I believe that's God's way of saying, nope not that direction. I have had to delete as many as five chapters before heading in the right direction. Yes, I know that sound strange, but it's the way I feel I am led to write. I just go for it. 8. What other projects have you been working on? As I said earlier I am working on the first
book I ever wrote. And I am still currently work on book three in the Gilmer series. 9. Do you have any advice for new writers? Just go for it. Tell your story. Find something you love to read about or excites you and go for it. Your family may be supporters but don't expect them to read and like your books. But there is a group out there that will. Most of the time that group is half a country away so don't give up.
Roseanna M.White Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels and novellas, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to make their way into her novels…to offset her real life, which is blessedly boring.
Being educated at St. John’s Collete (the Great Books School) taught Roseanna to ask questions, to value conversation, and to never accept the simple answer without exploring it for herself. She and her family make their home in the mountains of West Virginia where she and her husband both grew up. Roseanna is a member of ACFW, a frequent speaker at writers events and also small groups of readers, and an unabashed email addict.
1. How long have you been writing? I’m one of those writers who have been at it since primary school. I still remember the first short story I wrote for an assignment in first grade—and the day I was home sick later in the year when I thought, “Hey, I could write a story!” There was no turning back. From that oh-so- inspired Secret of the Magic Hairbow, ahem, I’ve always loved writing above all other pastimes. 2. What inspired you to start writing? I just love stories! As a kid, playing make-believe with my friends (or by myself if necessary)
was always my go-to. So finding that I could then write my stories down—or the ones my friends weren’t interested in playing—was like unlocking a secret treasure. 3. What was your first novel? The first novel I wrote was begun the first week of seventh grade, when I was twelve, and finished up in eighth grade, when I was thirteen. It was entitled Golden Sunset, Silver Tear . . . later rewritten, and rewritten again, and totally revised, and revised again, and eventually dubbed The Lost Heiress. Published, twenty years after I first scratched the opening words in
pencil in a notebook, by Bethany House Publishers in 2015. 4. Can you tell me about it? Absolutely! The concept has remained this from the get-go: what if there were a girl raised among a royal family in Europe who discovers she’s in fact an Englishwoman? And what if the secrets to her past—and the death of her mother—could be found in the heirlooms she’s carried with her all the years of her childhood? 5. What was the inspiration behind it? Honestly, The Hawk and the Jewel by Lori Wick, LOL. I loved, loved, loved her books as teen,
and that one was my all-time favorite. So that premise of a girl lost and coming home combined in my head with a bead necklace I had, which I thought really ought to have some treasure hidden in the beads. Those two ideas twisted together until I ended up with a full-length historical romance. 6. Can you tell me about your journey to publishing? It was a long one! I continued writing novels all through high school and college, with eight of them finished by the time I graduated from St. John’s College. About a year later, my husband said he wanted to start a small publishing
company—and to launch with one of my books. I was none too sure about that, so I prayed about it…and realized it was exactly what God wanted me to do. So giving up my dreams of a bajillion-dollar advance from a NYC house (for then), we published A Stray Drop of Blood. I kept seeking publication from other houses too, though, and finally saved up the necessary funds to attend a writers conference in 2007. After that, things started happening at a quicker pace (relatively, LOL). We reprinted Stray
Drop as a paperback, released a second biblical novel through our company, WhiteFire Publishing, called Jewel of Persia, and in 2011 I also landed my first bigger-press contract with Summerside/Guidepost . From there, I published a series with Harvest House, a few more biblicals with WhiteFire, and finally ended up at Bethany House with my English-set series. 7. Tell me about your writing process. Well, I love brainstorming ideas. Usually within a day or two I can come up with a fully fleshedout idea—I have dozens of them just waiting to be needed. Often it’s inspired by real history,
and then I come up with the characters to bring it to life. Though my books usually have some sort of mystery or suspense, that part’s harder for me to really develop—my best friend/critique partner and I joke that first we come up with the character and her backstory, and then tend to say, “And then, you know, plot stuff happens.” I’m a pretty quick writer, over all. When actively writing, it takes me 2-3 months to finish a novel, getting up at 5:30 each day to have time to write before I homeschool my kids. Of course, when you factor in procrastination and edits and revisions and homeschooling and life and my other jobs—book designer and editor at WhiteFire—I use up my whole 6-7 months between deadlines every time.
8. Can you tell me about A Lady Unrivaled? The final book in the Ladies of the Manor Series follows Ella, bright and optimistic friend to Brook (book 1) and sister of Brice (book 2), and Cayton, cousin of Justin from book 1, as they make one final attempt to end the violence and mystery surrounding the mysterious Fire Eye jewels once and for all. But Cayton isn’t just a widower with a small child—he’s convinced that he doesn’t deserve any more chances at happiness after breaking the hearts of two perfectly good young ladies already. And does Ella dare to trust her instincts
where the scowling earl is concerned, when her instincts have been so off before? Combine that with a Russian ballerina posing as a spy and villains out to steal the treasure they desire at all costs, and you get some fun sparks! 9. What inspired it? In a way, this one sprang very naturally from the previous books in the series. Ella and Cayton had both been secondary characters in the previous books, so I knew from the start what their personalities would be and the road of change they’d both have to travel. It was so much fun to explore how the moody might mesh
with the optimistic, and to finally explore the story behind the Fire Eyes that I’d had planned out for years! 10. What other projects have you been working on? Currently I’m hard at work on my next series with Bethany House, Shadows Over England. This new series is also set in Edwardian England, but focuses on a very different group of people—one of thieves who have banded together to forge a family. Through a series of assignments from the mysterious Mr. V, Rosemary, Willa, and Barclay will end up finding redemption and true
love as they’re seeking secrets that will aid England in the great war that has seized their land. The first in the series, A Name Unknown, releases July 4. I’m in the midst of edits on the second book, A Song Unheard, and currently writing the third one, An Hour Unspent. 11. Do you have any advice for new writers? I think some of the best advice I ever heard was to respect your dream—give it the time, energy, and focus it deserves, just like you would if your dream were to be a doctor or engineer or teacher. And something I certainly needed to learn was that my path wouldn’t look like anyone else’s.
Sometimes God asks us to write a book just for us or our family; or for that one life it’ll change; or for the masses. Our job is to embrace the path He places us on, trusting that He’s leading us exactly where He wants us to be.