“If someone would have told me a few years ago that I’d publish three books in 12 months, I would have laughed at them,” said Brackett, who released her third novel, Elyon’s Light, on Kindle on May 31, the anniversary of the release of her first novel, The Key of Elyon.
Brackett has been a writer for a quarter-century, working for newspapers and magazines in her hometown of Augusta, Ga., but novel writing wasn’t something she’d planned.
She always loved reading novels. She grew up in a quiet neighborhood, made up mostly of retirees, and there were no other girls for her to befriend. Nancy Drew, Ramona and Laura Ingalls Wilder were the friends she found in the pages of books.
That love of reading spilled over into her collegiate days, and she majored in English literature.
But there was always a storyteller inside of her. It managed to come out in the numerous people profiles and other articles she’d written over the years. Some of her favorite news pieces were included in a series she wrote for the newspaper at the local Army base about returning wounded soldiers from the war in the Middle East. Their poignant tales won her a second-place finish at the Department of the Army level, beating out stories from U.S. Army bases all over the globe.
However, there was more her inner storyteller wanted to do. In 2011, her characters begged to come out.
“It all started with one vivid scene in my brain,” said Brackett, “From there, it snowballed. My characters developed personalities, and they helped me write the rest of the novel.”
Since she’d never written a novel before, she didn’t know what to expect. After she published it, she found a pocket of faithful fans, who asked for more. Some of them asked rather loudly.
“I started writing a sequel, Elyon’s Cipher, almost as soon as The Key of Elyon was released,” she said. “Once Cipher came out, people still asked for more. It was exciting and humbling at the same time.”
While there are plans for additional novels, Brackett is considering her next move. She has circus blood in her family tree and plans to write a factual account or a fact-based story on their lives using some of her grandmother’s journals as well as newspaper articles.
Want to discover more about Charmain and her writing? Visit Charmain's Author Page on Amazon, where samples of all three titles in the "Elyon Trilogy" can be downloaded free to your kindle. |