Author Interview: Brandilyn Collins

What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?

Web of Lies will hit shelves in early February 2006. It’s the climactic ending to both my Hidden Faces and Chelsea Adams suspense series, bringing Chelsea, the woman who sees visions, together with forensic artist Annie Kingston. This is an intense, highly suspenseful and complex story of various crimes and how they may—or may not—be connected. It’s also a creepy book. My spider book. I know that’s kinda weird, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

How long had you been writing seriously before you got “the call?”

I’ve been written my entire career, since graduating from college. I wrote marketing materials (brochures, articles, etc.) for companies before turning to learning how to write fiction in 1990. I must have been out of my mind at the time.

Tell us about “the call.”

I was learning how to write fiction and writing stories for the secular market. I was already a Christian, but a nominal one. God got hold of me but good in a prayer meeting one night, and my outlook really changed. He immediately began talking to me about my fiction. He wanted me to write for Him. That was in the summer of 1998. I immediately set out to rewrite my two secular novels. In 1999 the first one sold, and I’ve been selling in CBA ever since.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

You’re never there. You’ll always have more to learn about the craft.

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard?

Work hard on your first novel and it’ll sell, no sweat. Okay, I haven’t really heard that, but if I did, I’d think it was the worst.

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier on that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

That it would be a very long, hard journey toward publication. That once I started selling, I’d only just begun.

Do you have a scripture or quote that has been speaking to you lately?

Oh, my goodness. I have many! I love to quote this one to folks I’m praying for who are going through hard times: Micah 7:7-8. “But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.”

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

The 10-year journey toward publication in fiction was HARD. You can read the whole story on my blog—the “How I Got Here” story, beginning in February 2005.

{Gina: If you haven't read her "never ending saga" of how she got to publication, you really need to. It's an amazing story!}

What are a few of your favorite books?

How about authors? I love Koontz for suspense. I love Anne Rivers Siddons for her characterization in women’s fiction/contemporary.

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

Well, anything that’s on the shelves, I guess. Until it gets there, I pretty much think it’s awful. By the time it reaches stores, it’s been a year since I wrote the thing, so I’m feeling a little better about it.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

I don’t have enough cabinets to kick when things get frustrating. Which is often.

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

Up at 6:00 to run 5 miles. Take daughter to school. Devotions/prayer for about an hour. Emails, writing blog. Procrastinate until I can’t any longer, then start into the day’s writing. Usually 6-7 finished, edited pages. This sounds so normal, so typical. It never ends up this way. Life happens. I go crazy, particularly at the end, when I’m working around the clock. God helps. And somehow I finish the book. Then I collapse. Until I start the whole thing all over again. You gotta be crazy to be in this business.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

Koontz’s use of language. I wouldn’t mind his sales, either.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

Sell well enough that my hard-working husband can retire early. Problem is, he’s a very successful businessman, so he’s set the bar rather high.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

What a question. Go read my “How I Got Here” story on my blog.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

Favorite—holding the new book in my hand. Least favorite—having to write the thing.

Parting words?

Put your writing career completely, trustfully into God’s hands. He won’t steer you wrong. Oh, and—come join the writing community on my blog. http://forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com.