Interview with Brandie LaGarde

Today’s interview is with Brandie LaGarde who was a stay-at-home mom who home-schooled her six children. She was happy acting as a teacher and didn’t really consider writing until she was challenged by one of her children.

So let’s get right to the interview and find out how she was inspired.

Where did you get the inspiration for writing Nathaniel Ages?
My twenty-two year old daughter suffers from Bipolar Disorder and hasn't found her niche yet. She decided upon being a writer and showed me her work and I was amazed. She soon lost interest and quit and I tried encouraging her to continue to the point of upsetting her. She told me that I had no idea how hard it was to write a book and to back off.

She was right. I had no idea, so I decided that I would try it. A new passion emerged in me, I loved writing almost as much as reading. I generally read two books a week and had no idea that I would love creating a story that I controlled would be so exciting. So in between home-schooling my other five children, I wrote Nathaniel Ages in four months. I showed it to my daughter and she told me that it was great that I wrote a book, but now I just had an unread manuscript in my laptop. Again, she was correct.

So I let a few people read it and once my husband read it, he insisted we do more with it than let it sit in my computer. We googled “publishing” and that is where I developed phobias for the first time in my life. Phobias to the words, synopsis, query, tag line, social platform....I was done. Deep down, I knew I had to do this publishing thing to show my daughter that I could, so she would know that she could.

Who is your target market for this book?
Christian suspense, but this has a powerful romantic element to it also.

Is this your first book or have you published other books besides this one?
This is my first book, but certainly not my last. I have recently been approached by a screenwriter, who has two scripts that Universal is interested in making into a two-part movie. He asked me to write the novelizations for these scripts. He is writing a script for Nathaniel Ages and he has pitched all to a couple of agents who are interested and are waiting on us to send them some things to look over. He wants to form a corporation and turn out scripts and books from our collective minds.

After much prayer and wise counsel, I have decided that I am going to pass on this offer. I want my books to remain a way to point the reader to Christ's loving salvation plan that He has for our lives and no amount of money is worth going astray from what He has planned for my writing. I have had some pretty amazing letters from readers who have dedicated their lives to Christ after reading this simple story about an angel with a powerful gift that in anger walked away from his Father, a human girl who turned her back on God in the face of tragedy, and a humble human man that obeyed God, no matter the consequences.

Did you contact any other publishers to produce your book?
With my newfound phobias, I settled on self-publishing as the way to go for me. I contacted a local author in my area that someone had told me about and after speaking with her, I decided that I would use I Universe and chose a publishing package and began the ball rolling. It was important to me that the book look really professional and it does; I'm very pleased with their services. I am on every website and my book is downloadable to every EBook format and my printed book is available in hard and soft back. I still own my book and can take it in any direction I choose.

What plans do you have to promote your book?
I actually just used Facebook and recently entered Up Authors best first contest and won, then my husband googled me and saw that I was already on Ron Knight's list of top fifty authors on Facebook. My book has some great discussion questions and seems to be a hit with reading groups. The book seems to have a life of its own and that's how I drew the attention of the scriptwriter. I don't know what's next for me and the agent or a movie from my book. After going to a writer's conference recently, I saw how unhappy several of the traditionally published authors were and discovered sites like Smashwords, I may be thinking of writing EBooks and keeping this writing thing going as fun.

Where are you in the process of publishing your next book, The Myth of Lilith?
I am on my seventh chapter. I stopped for a while as I had actually began work on the novelization, The Shroud, until I have recently decided to pass on doing it altogether. So now I feel happier and am back to work on The Myth of Lilith.

I may self-publish this one because I have some people, who only read printed versions of books, waiting to read this one. Westbow Press has offered me fifty-percent off any publishing package, so it is something to consider. My first job is homeschooling my children and the whole reason I ever wrote, my oldest daughter, has decided to begin writing again. It's all I wanted in the first place.

What advice would you give to other writers for encouragement? To write a good book. Word of mouth sells a book better than anything. It is a tough thing to get an agent and get traditionally published, but it does happen. First, you need to know what direction you want to go in, some people do very well with just EBooks, it all depends on a well written story. Keep writing and continue reading everday and let God lead you in all that you endeavor.

That’s it for today’s interview. If you would like to learn more about Brandie and her books, you can do that by going to her website at :http:/www.BrandieLagarde.com or you can contact her by Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ponchatoula-LA/Brandie-Lagarde/12628467731059