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Beverly Brandt spent the majority of her teen years scribbling one story after another in the notebooks she carried with her at all times. Even then, she dreamed of becoming a published author, but fate had other plans for her. Her life took a detour through fast food and financial analysis, but she finally returned to her first love—writing. Determined to fulfill her lifelong dream, Beverly completed her first two books and sold them both in record time. Beverly loves hearing from her readers. You can visit her on the web at www.beverlybrandt.com or e-mail her at beverly@beverlybrandt.com. Bonnie Rock caught up with Beverly Brandt in October for this interview. |
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RECORD TIME St. Martin's Press October 2002 Buy Now
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Writerspace: How did you get started writing? How long was it before you sold your first novel? Beverly Brandt: Writing and I go way back! I wanted to be an author back when I was a
teenager. I even wrote to MY FRIEND FLICKA author Mary O'Hara to ask if I
could write a sequel to her series. I wanted to give her protagonist, Ken,
a girlfriend. I guess I should have realized then that I was destined to
write romance!
I stopped writing when I was in my later teens after getting a "real" job at
McDonald's. Writing really wasn't something anyone encouraged me to do for
a living, so I shelved my dream of becoming an author in favor of college
and a regular paycheck. I went through a period of major burnout in my late
twenties and had one of those, "What do I really want out of life?" moments.
I have to tell you, the answer wasn't, "I want to be a financial analyst for
the rest of my years"! It was then that I started reading romance and
rediscovered my dream of becoming a writer. I sold TRUE NORTH, the first
novel I ever completed, to St. Martin's Press six months after I wrote "The
End" on that last page. But I guess you could say that it took me twenty
years to get published!
Writerspace: Could you tell readers a little bit about your current release, RECORD
TIME? Beverly Brandt: RECORD TIME is a humorous romantic suspense starring disaster-magnet Kylie
Rogers and uptight music mogul David Gamble. Kylie's parents are famous
actors, her brother is a successful author, her sister, a rising pop star,
and she is . . . an unemployed accountant with a major crush on one of the
most successful businessmen in Seattle. Record company owner David Gamble
has no idea who Kylie is the night she tumbles out of his home office window
and into the surrounding shrubbery. He soon discovers that disaster follows
Kylie around like a faithful puppy dog, and, in record time, David finds
himself faced with royalty thieves, CD pirates, a warehouse break-in, a boat
chase, three Shih Tzus, a cook who resembles Sylvester Stallone, and the
ultimate sacrifice for our hero-his sense of control.
Writerspace: In RECORD TIME you go into a great deal of detail about the music
industry. How did you do your research? Is there a particular reason that
the music industry is of such interest to you?
Beverly Brandt: On the research question, I'll bet I have more books on the recording
industry than any music company president! I actually enjoy researching
different industries and careers for my books. In RECORD TIME, I set out to
discover how to sabotage an independent record label, so I read a lot about
the business side of the industry. Then, to get some flavor for the more
artistic side, I read books and articles about the actual recording process
and some "insider scoop"-type books that had stories about the musicians
themselves. Obviously, much of what I learned didn't make its way into the
book, but I've found you just never know what nugget of gold you're going to
find when you start digging through the research materials.
There's no special reason that I chose the music industry for the backdrop
of RECORD TIME. I have no connections to the business or anything. It was
just something that interested me at the time I was brainstorming characters
for the book.
Writerspace: The characters in RECORD TIME were simply priceless. I have to admit that
there were times when I wanted to slap Kylie for her seeming inability to
think about the consequences of her actions before she acted, but she always
took responsibility and solved the problem in the end. What inspired Kylie
and David?
Beverly Brandt: Ah, poor Kylie! I don't believe that she's unable to think about the
consequences of her actions-I think she just has a skewed vision in her own
mind of what those consequences will be. I have to say that, so far, I
haven't had real-world inspirations for any of my characters. They spring
to life in my head as if they're real people. That said, I can see now that
Kylie resembles Lucy in the old I LOVE LUCY television shows. She thinks
like Lucy would think, which is totally illogical to the rest of us. Like
Lucy, though, everything always turns out all right for Kylie in the end.
David came about as a result of Kylie's kookiness. I had this vision in my
mind of a guy who was always trying to control the outcome of every
situation and how vexed he'd be by someone like Kylie, who doesn't know the
meaning of the word "control"!
Writerspace: Will you be writing any other books including characters from RECORD
TIME? I know that at the end of the novel I really didn't want it to end.
And not to give away the end, but you did leave one particular character
hanging, so to speak. Do you have plans for more books with these
characters?
Beverly Brandt: I'm glad to hear that you didn't want the story to end! I know exactly
which character you're talking about, and I left her story open-ended
because she'll need a book of her own to get her comeuppance! At this
point, however, I don't have concrete plans for any books connected to
RECORD TIME. My third book, ROOM SERVICE, which is a May 2003 release, is
connected to my fourth, tentatively titled GOLD DIGGING. I do have a
three-book series planned after that, but no one, including my agent, has
even seen a proposal for that yet and none of the characters are connected
to RECORD TIME.
I hope to have a long career in writing, though, so you may see Robyn
Rogers, Bradley Nelson, and Clint Walsh starring in their own books at some
point . . .
Writerspace: Why did you decide to write romantic comedy? You have a wonderful
comedic voice. Did you start out writing comedy, or did you discover it
along the way?
Beverly Brandt: Thank you! I really never set out to write comedy, it just sort of happened
as I was writing. I think the comedy is a function of how I view the world.
I'm always the one with the wisecrack, or the one to take a small event and
look for the humorous twist that makes it larger-than-life. As an example,
there's a scene in RECORD TIME where Kylie accidentally backs her Mustang
into David's new car. Now, in and of itself, that isn't funny. But wait, I
thought, what if Kylie asks David not to report it to her insurance company?
And, being Kylie, it isn't because she doesn't want to pay higher rates-it's
because she feels sorry for her insurance company. And why would she feel
sorry for them? Because of a recent "lawnmower incident" that cost them
thousands of dollars to settle on her behalf. So, by taking an ordinary
event and making something unexpected happen, I (hopefully!) added some
humor to the situation.
Writerspace: What are you currently working on? What will your next release after
RECORD TIME be?
Beverly Brandt: The most interesting thing I'm currently working on is a website for the
three-book series that I mentioned above. It's about a group of female
ex-FBI Special Agents who have started a company called Partners In Crime.
One reviewer has labeled my books as "humorous romantic suspense" and these
books will definitely be in that same vein. I haven't sold the series yet,
but I'm hopeful that the books will find a home and be out in 2004.
My next release after RECORD TIME is titled ROOM SERVICE and is scheduled to
be in bookstores in May of 2003. ROOM SERVICE features a penniless heiress,
a bucktoothed Boxer, and a hotelier who's a sucker for damsels in distress.
One of my favorite scenes is the one where my heroine's belongings are being
auctioned off-very much against her will. But don't worry, everything will
turn out all right in the end. That's what I love about romance!
Writerspace: Finally, how can readers contact you?
Beverly Brandt: Readers can visit me on the web at www.beverlybrandt.com or e-mail me at
beverly@beverlybrandt.com.
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