AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Sally Bradley, author of Kept

Tell me a about yourself. What got you started in writing? 

I've been a reader as long as I can remember, and I just think in stories. I wrote my first one back in fourth grade and pretty much haven’t quit since!

How and where do you write? Do you prefer a lap top or do you prefer writing freehand? 

I love my laptop because I write in a few different places. I have two desks at home. One is in the living room next to the TV and Xbox, so sometimes, when it’s loud, I go downstairs to the unfinished, unheated basement and work at the desk there. If I need to get out of the house, I head to either the library or Starbucks.

What's your favorite part about writing? Your least favorite part about writing? 

I love editing, partly because the hard part of creating is done! But when I’m writing the first draft, I discover I love that too. It’s so fun to find out what’s going to happen next.

Least favorite part? Getting started. It’s sooo hard to start a book. At least, for me, anyway.

How do you come up with your characters? Why would readers want to get to know them? 

There isn't one specific way that characters come to me. I've gotten ideas from ESPN (Kept came to me that way), and I've gotten ideas while having my devotions. But usually the character comes to me with a specific situation, and I want to explore that to see what happens and how it ends.

As for why readers would want to know my characters… Well, my goal is to write realistic, honest fiction (that stays clean), and part of that means that my characters need to feel like people readers actually could meet who are dealing with situations that actually could happen. I hope the reality of my characters makes them people readers connect with.

What types of marketing do you do to promote your writing? 

Marketing is tough! I've done paid advertising in book groups, Facebook groups, blog tours… It can be more time consuming than writing the book. Can I admit that my favorite part of marketing is when readers tell their reading friends? J

How do you schedule your writing time? When do you write? 

Right now I have to confess that I’m really struggling with this. I home-school our kids, and our youngest just started kindergarten. So I've got more on my plate now and have lost a bit more of my day. I used to have my afternoons free for writing, but they’re mostly taken up with the kids’ schooling now. So I work writing in to evenings and weekends and whenever I can get a small block of time.

What are you currently working on? Do you have a new book out? 

Right now I’m working on a book called Shelf Life. Kyla Burkholder is a new Christian who’s found so much peace and comfort in her relationship with God, but her husband, out-of-work baseball closer Brett Burkholder, wants nothing to do with Him. And those new beliefs seem to be damaging their already fragile marriage. On top of that, Brett is receiving death threats and doesn't seem to be taking them seriously. Kyla begins to wonder if Brett really loves her or if she was just a trophy wife.

I’m hoping to get the book out later this year. If you want to know exactly when it’s out, you can sign up for my newsletter on my website, sallybradley.com.

Do you have a project on the back burner? Tell me about it. 

I’m thinking through a potential sequel to Kept. I've had readers request stories about some of the secondary characters, and I’d love to do that. So right now one idea is slowly simmering away. I’d love to think I could write that one after Shelf Life.

What would you tell a beginning writer who wants to publish but doesn't believe he/she has enough talent? 

That talent is only part of the equation. If you’re willing to study and learn and ask for and accept honest criticism, you can grow a ton as a writer. Hard work and perseverance probably get more books out there than talent.

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Thank you Sally!

Learn more about Sally at the links below:

"Gutsy and fast-paced."—Laura Frantz, author of Love's Reckoning

"One of the most surprising and best books I’ve read this year."—MaryLu Tyndall, best-selling author of Legacy of the King's Pirates series

Life has taught Miska Tomlinson that there are no honorable men. Her womanizing brothers, her absentee father, and Mark, the married baseball player who claims to love her—all have proven undependable. But Miska has life under control. She runs her editing business from her luxury condo, stays fit with daily jogs along Chicago's lakefront, and in her free time blogs anonymously about life as a kept woman.

Enter new neighbor Dillan Foster. Between his unexpected friendship and her father's sudden reappearance, Miska loses control of her orderly life. Her relationship with Mark deteriorates, and Miska can't help comparing him to Dillan. His religious views are so foreign, yet the way he treats her is something she's longed for. But Dillan discovers exactly who she is and what she has done. Too late she finds herself longing for a man who is determined to never look her way again.

When her blog receives unexpected national press, Miska realizes that her anonymity was an illusion. Caught in a scandal about to break across the nation, Miska wonders if the God Dillan talks about would bother with a woman like her—a woman who's gone too far and done too much.

Sally Bradley writes big-city fiction with real issues and real hope. A Chicagoan since age five, she now lives in the Kansas City area with her family, but they still get back to Chicago once in a while for important things—like good pizza and a White Sox game. Fiction has been her passion since childhood, and she’s thrilled now to be writing books that not only entertain, but point back to Christ. A freelance fiction editor, you can find Sally at sallybradley.com and on Facebook at Sally Bradley, Writer. Kept is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.