Ask the Author: Karla Brandenburg
Answered Questions (8)
Karla Brandenburg
Something caught her eye as she passed the mirror in the empty room. She wasn't alone.
Karla Brandenburg
I loved Lucky Harbor, and of course I loved Castle Leoch. I think I'd go to Lucky Harbor, though, and ogle the hot guys with Lucille since I'm too old to chase them but not old enough to be dead.
Karla Brandenburg
I have a stack! Check my TBR Kindle list
Karla Brandenburg
When I was a kid, I lived near a marshy area and we would ice skate there in the winter. Along the roadside of the marsh, there were several partial cement walls that were never completed. It was the first mystery I noticed. Logically, I could guess that putting foundations in a marsh wasn't the best idea, since they sank and leaned, but I actually went to the Village Hall to find out who built them. Seems like a contractor would have done some preparation before trying to build on marshy land. My imagination took me all kinds of places with why they stopped building, why they built there in the first place. I never did get an answer, and that marshland is now landscaped as "wetland." The cement walls are long gone, but I could definitely see them incorporated into a book.
Karla Brandenburg
Jamie and Clare
Karla Brandenburg
The fourth in the Northwest Suburbs series. Matt, the cheating paramedic, gets a chance to redeem himself. Hey, nobody likes a cheater, but there are two sides to every story, and when he told me his (he doesn't make any excuses), I forgave him. I think you will, too. ("Cookie Therapy" was released in April 2016!)
Karla Brandenburg
Keep writing. You can edit bad writing. You can't edit nothing. I learned once that when you are struggling with where to go next, you put all your ideas down like spokes on a wheel. Then you can prioritize them without losing them because you can't move past the point you're at. If you're stuck where you are, move on and come back to it later.
Karla Brandenburg
Inspiration comes from all sorts of different things. People. Places. A situation.
I've written stories after walking through an outdoor market. I've written stories based on houses I've seen that sparked my imagination.
In "Return to Hoffman Grove," through the magic of Facebook, I had the opportunity to reconnect with my former tennis coach. Sharing memories brought back fun times and resurfaced old memories. One of those memories, a 30-second experience dating back to puberty, launched the idea for the story.
Often, truth is stranger than fiction. You can't write it into a story because people won't believe it. Personal memories get reshaped in a book. Things I witnessed (but didn't live first-hand), people I didn't know well but empathized with. I played tennis with a hot-head who threw his racket into the fence, but I didn't know him very well off the court. I played with a girl whose father gave her hell for losing the first time she met an unknown, untried opponent on the practice court -- someone who usurped her spot as Number One on the team. Again, I didn't know her off the court, but these memories help me to shape the characters you see in the book. Imagine what it must have been like to be that person! Art imitating life, molded to suit the purposes of a story.
I've written stories after walking through an outdoor market. I've written stories based on houses I've seen that sparked my imagination.
In "Return to Hoffman Grove," through the magic of Facebook, I had the opportunity to reconnect with my former tennis coach. Sharing memories brought back fun times and resurfaced old memories. One of those memories, a 30-second experience dating back to puberty, launched the idea for the story.
Often, truth is stranger than fiction. You can't write it into a story because people won't believe it. Personal memories get reshaped in a book. Things I witnessed (but didn't live first-hand), people I didn't know well but empathized with. I played tennis with a hot-head who threw his racket into the fence, but I didn't know him very well off the court. I played with a girl whose father gave her hell for losing the first time she met an unknown, untried opponent on the practice court -- someone who usurped her spot as Number One on the team. Again, I didn't know her off the court, but these memories help me to shape the characters you see in the book. Imagine what it must have been like to be that person! Art imitating life, molded to suit the purposes of a story.
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