BLOGGING WITH BEVERLEY: Dreaming With Addison Brae

Addison Brae lives on the edge of downtown Dallas, Texas. She’s been writing since childhood and continues as an independent marketing consultant. She’s addicted to reading and enjoys jogging, sipping red wine, traveling the world, collecting interesting cocktail recipes, binge-watching TV series, vintage clothing, and hanging out with her artistic other half and their neurotic cat Lucy.

Dreaming and failing is better than never dreaming at all

People often ask if it’s always been my dream to be a writer. The answer’s no—to commercial writing, at least. It’s a job, one I enjoy, but still a job.

I started writing in college working for a record company. Then I continued my writing career working for a newspaper, corporations, and agencies. Today I’m a marketing and public relations consultant and write for clients every day.

Writing fiction is a whole ‘nother story, as we say in Texas. About 10 years ago I took a mini work sabbatical. The extra time motivated me to clean out boxes I had lugged with me for years. In one was my teenage diary I wrote when I lived in England. The diary contents sparked the idea for my first novel that I hope to revise and publish someday. I didn’t tell a soul until I had 30,000 words written. That’s when I realized I could finish a novel. That’s when my dream for other people to read my novel came to be.

Then there’s that little thing about believing in myself.

While growing up, no one encouraged me to think big. To dream. My destiny was to go work, get married, have kids, then retire. Me? I don’t think so. When the inspiration for my first novel hit, I realized I could do lots more than live the expected life. To cope, I was very selective about who I told I was writing a novel. That way, no one could discourage me. Squelch my dream.

I meet so many people who don’t reach for their dreams. They don’t believe in themselves either. Some are afraid of making mistakes and what people might think if they mess up along the way.

Missteps are a must-have. Without the mistakes hard-working inventors made, we wouldn’t have matches, artificial sweetener or penicillin. There would be no x-rays, microwave ovens, Play-doh, or brandy. Our lives would be vastly different. Cheers to messing up!

I’ve failed. Made plenty of mistakes. The first was a biggie, sending my first manuscript to J.K. Rowling’s agent as soon as I finished it. If he likes Ms. Rowling’s writing, he certainly would appreciate mine. His was the first of many rejection letters. With each rejection I improved my writing, learned the business. I wrote another novel, and then another. The rejections got much more constructive and encouraging. With input from agents and editors, I believed in my abilities more. The third manuscript, Becker Circle, was published last March. In it, Gillian, the heroine, dreams. She fails and learns, but you’ll have to read it to see if she achieves her dream. I thank Tirgearr Publishing and others who know who they are for believing in me.

With a new year ahead, I encourage everyone to dust off a dream. Dream up a new one. Take one step and then another. Fail. Take five more steps. Enjoy learning and growing and messing up and achieving along the way. Why? Life without a dream isn’t worth living.

Blurb for Becker’s Circle

My first and only boyfriend believed I was too gutless to leave. He was dead wrong. My name’s Gillian, and I graduated Harvard early and left his hot temper and everyone else behind for Dallas. Determined to make it on my own, I land a second job bartending at the neighborhood pub smack in drama central where most every jerk in the neighborhood hits on me—at a huge price.

A week into the job, the neighborhood’s very popular drug dealer falls to his death a few feet from the table I’m serving. The cops say suicide, but the hot guitar player in the house band and I suspect foul play, and I intend to prove it. We dig deeper, grow closer, and make a shocking discovery. We know the murderer. Watch the trailer.

Buy Links for Becker Circle
Amazon US, Amazon UK, Smashwords, iTunes, Kobo, and B&N Nook.