Today our guest is Brooke Williams. She is a former radio producer and announcer turned stay at home mom/ freelance writer/author. Thank you for joining us, Brooke. Let’s jump right into the interview. What do you do as a freelance writer?
It’s such a fun job. I learn something new everyday. I write a variety of things for a variety of clients. I work for a marketing company that has me writing blogs for everything from window companies to auto tune up shops. There’s a company in England that often sends me articles to write on historical events and they also send a lot of product descriptions my way. And then there are websites that take things called listicles, I did one recently on funny pictures of people at amusement parks. I’m sure there are even some of me out there, but I didn’t use any of those. It’s a little bit of everything. No two days are a like and as long as I’m writing, I’m happy!
So that’s your ‘day job,’ how about the author portion, what’s new there?
Plenty! I decided to really give it 100% in 2017 so I’m releasing something every quarter this year. On March 14th, What Happens at the 
Airport comes out. It’s a short story about a woman who is down on her luck with me. Every time she breaks up with someone or a relationship doesn’t work out, she flies to visit a friend or family member and she’s tired of it! Just when she’s about to give up on love completely, an incident on a plane turns things around for her. That’s all I’ll say. Don’t want to give too much away! That story is up for pre-order HERE so you can grab it anytime.
Then, in June, I am re-releasing Wrong Place, Right Time. That romantic comedy first came out with a publisher in 2014. I just got the rights back to it and am doing a new cover and re-releasing it myself. It’s a fun little story about a girl who tries to stop a wedding, but interrupts the wrong couple. Oops!
And on September 12th, the release I’m most excited about this year, is The Leftover. I’ve been working with BQB Publishing this time and am really excited that they have a huge distributor so the book will be available to bookstores across the country as well as online. The Leftover revolves around a local version of the TV show Survivor. If you’ve ever seen any of the competitions on that show, you can imagine the types of things that will go wrong in this romantic comedy!
Last, but not least, I plan to release Another Backwards Christmas in December. It is based in the fictional town of South Pole, Alaska, which I created for the short story Backwards Christmas. In this second short story, we get to see one of the side characters from the first story find her way to love as a reporter comes to town and tries to ruin their backwards holiday traditions.
That sounds like a lot! What fun! How do you get all of that in with children at home?
I have two little girls, ages 7 and 4. My oldest is in second grade and my little one is in preschool. I am rather stringent about naptime because that is the only time I get to write! So I get about 1-2 hours a day to pull together whatever I can. That isn’t much time, but I type so super fast you’d be amazed at what can result from that small amount. In a year and a half, both of my girls will be in school and I’ll have hours upon hours to fill. I dread that time. I want to keep them little!
Where do you get your inspiration?
I just write what the voices in my head tell me to write. Ha! That’s not that far from the truth, really. Inspiration comes whenever it wants from wherever it wants. Sometimes I get something from a TV show, like Survivor. Sometimes I’ll get pieces of a scene from my own life, like a poor woman accidentally catching fire by getting too close to a candle on a date. Other times things are completely made up. I get a kick out of making things happen to these poor characters, though I sometimes feel sorry for what I put them through. I will say that I don’t write anything unless the story idea is bothering me so much I can’t NOT write it. Stories, when they appear, bother me and bother me until I absolutely have to write them down. And once I start, it’s like an obsession. It’s hard to stop until it’s done.
How can we keep up with your releases this year?
Stop by my website. All the information is there. I also have a blog on the website and you can sign up to receive updates by email. You can like me on Facebook or find me on Twitter . I love to hear from fellow readers and writers!!
One thought on “Interview with Brooke Williams”
Excellent interview. Can’t wait to read more of your books, Brooke. Thanks Angela for writing up this interview. And did you know Brooke is the Ad voice for Wordsowers Christian Writers Conference AD on KGBI, too?