Brandy Vallance's Blog, page 9
April 15, 2016
Join My Book Launch Team and Get Six Exclusive Opportunities
A lot of work goes into successfully launching a book. Frankly, I can’t do it alone. That’s where you come in. I need your help. If you would like to be a part of an exclusive group of influential people, apply below. There are a limited number of slots and this opportunity will not be available for long.
Here’s what you get:
A free, electronic copy of the ebook in advance. This will come around late May.
Exclusive access to me and other like-minded people in a private Facebook group.
The opportunity to interact with other launch team members and see the behind-the-scenes of a book launch.
A special THANK YOU with a link to your blog or website on www.brandyvallance.com.
Backstage insight that I won’t tell the public about the writing of this book.
Cool Within the Veil swag.
What I’m asking from you:
Write an honest book review on Amazon and any other book review site.
Add Within the Veil to your Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf.
If you’re on Twitter, tweet about the book at least once and try to retweet me.
During the week of June 28th spread the word in any way that you can. We’ll talk about that more in the group. I’ll be posting videos and cool things that you can share on social media.
Post a picture of yourself with your ereader showing the cover. If that’s not your style, post a picture of your ereader in an interesting setting. This can be as simple as your ereader next to a cup of coffee or with your pet. As an author, this is the most fun for me. I loved seeing all the interesting places my first book went! If you happen to get a copy of the paperback, post pictures of that too.
Interact with the rest of the launch team and participate with the community. I plan to have fun. I hope you will too!
If you receive an email (or a Facebook message) from me, you’re in! If you don’t hear from me by 10pm EST on April 22nd, you can assume that the slots have already been filled. Please don’t apply if you don’t have the time or energy to get the word out and keep the conversation going.
Thank you so much for your interest. I can’t wait to meet all of you!
~Brandy
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April 24, 2015
The First Three Chapters Podcast – Weekly Excerpts From Great Books That You Probably Haven’t Read
Wow! Beren Hollins has graciously included The Covered Deep on his podcast, The First Three Chapters. Here he reads the first chapter of The Covered Deep. He’ll also be reading chapters two and three in the near future. Guess what ladies! He’s English and has a voice very similar to Richard Armitage in North & South. I admit to blushing a little when I heard it. Hearing someone else read the words that you wrote is really amazing.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/first-three-chapters-podcast/id984955338
March 25, 2015
Gothic Romance Giveaway! Mist of Midnight, The Covered Deep and more!
To celebrate Sandra Byrd’s new release, Mist of Midnight, we’re doing a Gothic romance giveaway! The grand prize winner will receive: one autographed copy of The Covered Deep, one autographed copy of Mist of Midnight, hand woven bookmarks (Victorian Lace & Oriental Carpet), Marich Curry Cashews (sure to take you away to India while you read) & Punch Studio peacock notecards with decorative case. Yay for contests! Happy entering and I hope you win!
Be sure to check out Sandra’s website: www.sandrabyrd.com to find out more about her books.
March 8, 2015
Giveaway! 10 Historical Romance Authors Have Teamed Up!
Time for a GIVEAWAY! Ten authors of historical romance have teamed up to bring you a fun giveaway — just in time for your spring reading. Enter to win one of the books pictured here — there will be 10 winners in all, each winning 1 book. Open to US residents only.
February 17, 2015
September 8, 2014
2014 ACFW Pre-Conference Mix and Mingle
Laurie Tomlinson has a great idea–a pre-conference mix and mingle where writers can get to know one another before the ACFW conference in St. Louis, Missouri, September 25-27th. Laurie has links to all the websites on her blog.
For those who have not met me, here’s my answers to Laurie’s questions:
Name: Brandy Vallance
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
What you write/tagline/trademark: Inspirational historical romance in the Victorian time period. Tagline: A Purveyor of Fine Words.
Place in the book world: 2013 Operation First Novelist Winner, 2012 ACFW Genesis Winner (historical romance). My first novel, The Covered Deep, releases on October 14th with Worthy Publishing. Represented by Rachelle Gardner of Books & Such Literary Management.
On a scale of hugger to 10-foot-pole, please rate your personal space: All the hugs. I kept Laurie’s answer. 
The unique talking point that will get you going for hours: BBC period dramas. The Victorian time period. Tea. England. Scotland. Archaeology. History. Romance. Supernatural experiences of God. I love deep conversations!
Loved ones at home you’ll be missing: Husband, son, daughter, great dane, cat.
Conference goals we can pray for? Divine appointments. I would love for my agent to sell my second book soon (Within the Veil).
Anything we can celebrate with you? The Covered Deep releases next month! Also, if you happen to be local to Colorado Springs, I am having a book launch party on October 18th.
One or two ways we can help you build your platform? Please spread the word about The Covered Deep and when you read it, leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I’m available for interviews and book giveaways (depending on the date). Here’s my Facebook Author Page if you are interested in liking it. You can also find me on Twitter and Pinterest.
I’m excited about seeing everyone at the ACFW conference!
August 16, 2014
The Primary Job Of A Novelist
How many emotions do you experience in a week? A month? If someone told your story, what emotions would they put on the page? Think about your lowest moment and your best experience. Translate all that with ink and paper. Isn’t that the stuff that makes up our stories?
Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This is true for life and for fiction.
Have you ever thought about what your primary job is as a novelist? People will come to your fiction for a couple of reasons. They want to be entertained. They want to escape. Sometimes they want to learn. However, primarily your readers want to feel. They want to experience the emotions that your hero or heroine experience.
I always ask myself this question as I begin a scene—What is the primary emotion of the P.O.V. character? When I know this, I can show instead of tell. I can use body language, layer the story, and apply the theme. I can sometimes bring in personification and metaphor. Knowing your character’s emotion on every page is the key. Is the scene lacking tension? Look at emotion.
Emotion is what will carry your story to the end and leave your reader with a lasting impression. If you can make someone laugh, cry, or ache, you have done your job as a novelist. You have made them feel.
At the February Writing for the Soul Conference Brandilyn Collins said this: “You should never apologize for human emotion.” I think as writers sometimes we’re afraid to let people know that we feel as deeply as we do. We’re tempted to write half-truths in the fear of being judged. But, there comes a point when you have to decide what kind of writer you’re going to be.
Think of your favorite novels. Why do you love them? Did they portray real, raw, deep emotion? It wasn’t until I embraced this that I began to succeed as a novelist. As you’re writing, remember that to be human is to feel. So get all that on the page—all that anger, hope, passion, love, rage, despair, anxiety, and shame. Make the reader feel. That’s your job. You are the memory. People will come to you to remember. Remember well.
August 6, 2014
The Courage to Write
Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” I definitely believe that courage plays a huge part in writing. First, there is the courage that is needed to go to the empty page. We have to silence the voices that tell us we can’t. There is courage needed to be authentic and vulnerable. As Ernest Hemingway said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed.” If a scene I write doesn’t make me feel, then I know I need to work harder, go deeper, explore more. My particular rule for writing—If it doesn’t scare me, there’s no power. When what you’re writing starts to scare you, it’s usually a sign that you’re being real. When you start to worry about what others will think, that is the writing that will affect people the most. You’ve finally tapped into raw emotion and that’s a really good thing in fiction.
Next, there is the courage it takes to get better. Critique groups and conferences are usually involved. But if you take this leap of faith, you’ll find that you really enjoy it. You’ll meet people just like you—your tribe. These writers will become your friends for life and be your best ledge talkers. Because every writer needs to be talked off the ledge at one point or another. They help you believe in yourself when you’ve lost hope and the road is long.
There is also courage needed to finish a book. Sometimes you have to get up early just to write. Sometimes you stay up late. Months go by and people question what you’re doing. You start to wonder if all the hours you’re pouring into your book will come to anything. Insane amounts of caffeine may be consumed. But then, there comes a point when you can’t live without the writing. You look up at the clock and the hours don’t matter any more. A smile comes when you get a phrase just right. You start to dream your story. It, and its characters come alive. The story is part of you now. You breath it and it breathes you. You begin to believe that someday it will make a difference. Amidst a feeling of unparalleled euphoria, you finally type THE END.
Now comes the scariest part of all, and a step that requires a great deal of courage. You know your story is good. You’ve laughed, you’ve cried . . . In other words, your writing has made you feel, and therefore it will do the same for others. You’re going to put this baby out into the world and believe that something will happen. You know there’s a chance you’ll get rejected, but hey, you’ve read accounts of how all the greats went through that too. And now, since you went through all those dark hours that required courage, your finger hovers over the send button and you know that you can. So you press it. And then you’re feeling all happy and light, but then in about 2.5 seconds you’re kind of terrified. And then you have to go gather your courage again.
But, this is what we do. We’re the brave ones. We tell stories, and that is no small thing. If you’re on the fence about submitting, just employ that thing you’re so good at already—courage. Here’s a secret: I almost didn’t enter Operation First Novel last year, but at the last minute, I hit send.
You can do this. Go change the world.
July 21, 2014
The Writing Process Blog Hop
The unparalleled, Joseph Courtemanche invited me to do a blog hop this week. I first met Joseph at the 2014 Writing for the Soul Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he was a finalist in the Operation First Novel Contest for his novel Assault on Saint Agnes. Joseph is one of the most gracious people I know and it was an honor to be able to get to know him. Joseph’s all about being real, and I appreciate that so much.
The subject of this blog hop is writing process. I’ve enjoyed reading the posts before me. I’m sure there are as many different writing processes as there are authors. Here’s mine:
About me as a writer?
My favorite time to write is late at night. There’s just something magical about the hours after 10pm. A large part of my first novel was written between the hours of midnight and 2am. During the school year I write from 8-3 and then I take a break until the evening. When everything is settled back down again, I’m back at the keyboard.
Black tea is my writing fuel. I drink it the English way, of course, but with raw honey instead of sugar and half and half instead of milk. Some of my favorite tea brands are Twinings, Harney & Sons, and Taylors of Harrogate. I’m also pretty addicted to Himilania Dark Chocolate Goji Berries. On occasion, I like to eat walnuts while I write. I think it’s my way of pretending I’m being healthy.
What am I currently working on?
I just finished up the edits on my first novel, The Covered Deep, which releases on October 14, 2014. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Christianbook.com.
These next three months I’ll be busy doing blog posts and interviews in preparation for the book release. I’ll also be planning a book release party in Colorado Springs. In August, I’m teaching a class for Pikes Peak Writers on query letters. In September, I’ll be at the ACFW Conference in St Louis, Missouri. In October, I’m headed to Monterey, California for a client retreat with my literary agency, Books & Such Literary Management. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to start my third book soon.
How does my work differ from others in its genre?
A friend of mine describes The Covered Deep as Anne of Green Gables meets Indiana Jones meets Around the World in Eighty Days. I love that Bianca has the freshness of small town Appalachia and a head full of dreams. There are a lot of interesting superstitions that are her daily normal. I especially love that Paul, the British Museum’s historian, has unquenchable wanderlust and speaks eight languages. It helps that he’s also crazy swoon worthy. The backdrop of Victorian London and the Holy Land make for some pretty spectacular scenes. Add some intrigue, lots of romance, and plenty of secrets, and I think it’s the best Victorian romance around. But you knew I would say that. 
Why do I write what I do?
Ever since I was a child I was attracted to the Victorian time period. My favorite movies are Victorian and I go crazy over BBC period dramas. I’m also a shameless Anglophile so I love writing about all things British. I pretty much breathe history so getting to spend my days writing about it is the best thing ever. Also, nothing intrigues me like romance–the hows and whys. I love, love, love, getting to know my characters and then journeying with them through matters of the heart. I’m big on the gray areas and I like to push myself to see how everything fits. I write to find my characters deepest truth, the story’s deepest truth, and then I add a spiritual element to all that and it makes it especially interesting.
How does my writing process work?
I’m sort of a mystic when it comes to the process. My books normally begin with an object. The Covered Deep was an old photograph and Within the Veil was a locket that I saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. When I see these objects it’s like time stops–a lightning moment. For me, it’s very much God saying, “Pay attention to this.” I start thinking about it and that could take a good amount of time. Characters begin to take shape. I research names and their meaning. I research the history of the locations like crazy. I know the character’s birthdays etc., even if I never use that information. I write all the possibilities as well as the character’s backstory in one journal.
That said, I’m not really a plotter. When I finally do sit down to write chapter one, the characters pretty much tell me a lot more than I’ve written down. Often they’ll say one word or phrase that will be a key to their personality or the entire story.
My scenes come in flashes, kind of like a visual impression in my mind. I might know that there’s a window, so I start describing the window. Then I know it’s raining. Then I think about the smells, the sounds, and the temperature in the room. I know a character is reading a letter. As I go deeper in, more comes. I also listen to music that expresses the emotion of the scene. I usually have playlists for scenes, characters, and for the themes of my books. Since I love rain and it relaxes me, I often listen to rainymood.com while I write. When I wrote the window scene in The Covered Deep, I pretty much kept the first two minutes of the below song on repeat.
As far as drafts, I wrote eleven for The Covered Deep. But, there were a lot of years of learning in there. With my second book, I wrote three drafts before I gave it to my agent.
The first draft is normally just me getting to know the characters and the general story. I push myself to get a daily word count. 2000 words per day is ideal but I don’t always hit that mark. Sometimes a bit of historical research I need for the story to move forward and click will take me forever to find.
The second draft fills in details, like making a tapestry. With this phase, I push myself to finish a chapter. Sometimes this takes days (or weeks) but each thread makes it deeper and richer. My personal rule is that I don’t go on until I think the chapter I just finished is my favorite. It’s normally my second draft that my critique group sees. When I go all the way through the book, I let it rest for a little bit and then I attack the third draft. That finishes the story, the character arcs, etc.
Well, that’s a little about my writing process. Thanks for stopping by. If you’re a writer, what’s your process? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
NEXT BLOG:
Next week (7-28) John Otte will be chiming in on the writing life. To see what his writing process is like and to find out about his books, click here.
John W. Otte leads a double life. By day, he’s a Lutheran minister, husband, and father of two. He graduated from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a theatre major, and then from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. By night, he writes unusual stories of geeky grace. He lives in South St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife and two boys.
May 7, 2014
The Covered Deep Release Date
Today was like Christmas and my birthday! I found out that The Covered Deep will be released on October 14, 2014! You can check out Worthy Publishing’s page here and you can pre-order on Amazon here.
Last week I was at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in Colorado Springs where I taught a class on Personification and Metaphor. To be able to do that was a dream come true. Two people told me that it was their favorite workshop of the entire conference. What an honor! I was so touched. I love helping other writers and I’m a big believer of paying it forward. Also, while I was there, I overheard some say they wanted to read The Covered Deep. After so many years of dreaming about it, hearing someone say that is all kinds of bliss. I am so excited to share Bianca and Paul’s story with all of you! Five months and counting!
