Brynn Kelly – romantic suspense author Romantic suspense writer Brynn Kelly has reaped high praise with her Legionnaire’s adventure series featuring broken brothers-in-arms who meet the right woman at the worst possible time. Sounds irresistible, doesn’t it? Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Brynn talks about her hot series, the importance of not quitting, and why she thinks she’s got the ideal life. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: The fun of being allowed to ‘make things up.’ How writing fiction has made her a better journalist Breaking through by writing what she likes Talking about her new series The writers she admires most The one thing she’s done that has contributed to her success Where to find Brynn Kelly: Website: http://brynnkelly.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brynnkelly Twitter: @brynnkellywriter What follows is a “near as” transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: But now, here’s Brynn. Hello there Brynn and welcome to the show. Brynn: Hi Jenny, it’s nice to be joining you on this nice spring morning. Jenny: It is. Most of the time, my writers are way across the world, but this time we’re almost neighbors so it’s lovely. You’re a little bit further north than me in New Zealand, so we do share the same spring day! Brynn: It’s funny; I deal with a lot of people in the US, and often they wish me a “Happy Fall” or a “Happy Winter”, but actually I’m sitting in whatever sunshine right now! Brynn Kelly – romance author Jenny: Beginning at the beginning – was there a “Once Upon A Time” moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction? And if there was a catalyst, what was it? Brynn: For me, I don’t think I could pinpoint a particular time. It was just something that I had always known. I was one of these kids who read ferociously. I loved words, loved reading, loved anything at school to do with reading and writing. I always knew that I was going to be a writer or a journalist. It’s interesting; I have an eleven year old son, and a couple of years ago I was reading a book to my boys. It was very action heavy, and my son put his hand on his chest and he said, “Mum, my heart’s beating really quickly. This is stuff that is happening to this boy in this book, but it feels like it’s happening to me!” It was just this beautiful moment, because that’s exactly what reading feels like to me. I feel like that’s why as a child, reading was everything because I had that empathy and sensitivity – I could really relate. So when he said that, it clicked in me. That’s the magic in it, that’s why I’ve always been on this journey. So I became a journalist basically so I could get paid to write, but with the idea that I’d do fiction writing on the side. Unfortunately, my journalism career became all encompassing and I wasn’t writing enough. So I guess the catalyst came for me when I was in my early thirties. I thought, what am I actually doing to achieve this goal I set myself? I’d always been playing around with bits and pieces of writing, but I’d never finished anything, and it was only ever tinkering. I took a job sub editing for a magazine which was a little bit less intense, and with more regular hours. I was able to claw out some time to write a novel. I wrote it, sent it off and thought “this is it! I’m going to start my fabulous writing career!” And it was rejected, of course, as first novels always should be. From there, it was actually a long stop- start process of figuring out how to switch from journalism to fiction writing. I finally did at the age of forty. Jenny: It’s quite a big switch, isn’t it? Brynn: It is. Your story structures may be the same in some respects, if you’re doing non fiction switching to fiction. But that creative process must come from that whole different part of your brain, going from a set of facts that have already been established. You’re not telling your story, you’re telling somebody else’s story to moving to a set of facts that have come from somewhere in your brain. Legionnaire’s Book Two – Edge of Truth I think I somehow struggle with that, and sometimes I forget that I’m allowed to make things up. In Edge of Truth, my second book, a lot of it is set in Ethiopia which is a place I did some volunteer work in years ago. There was this little town that I set it all in, it’s this ancient walled city – it’s a very evocative place. I spent so much time trying to figure out where all the gates were around this walled city, and to get all the logistics correct. Then I realized that from Google maps and blogs, my own memories and photos that actually, I could probably make some of this up! The overlap between my readers and people who know this city very well would be very small. Jenny: That is so right, yes. Brynn: Do you find that? Jenny: I do. I love knowing that I have bits that are really true. It’s important to me to know that even if something is unlikely, it could happen. I’m not really into fantasy in the sense that I like to feel that if I was challenged, I could argue convincingly that it could happen, even if it was very unlikely! Brynn: Yes, and there’s also that tenet that non fiction could be as wild and crazy as you want it to be, but fiction has to be believable. Jenny: Yes, that’s right. And I think the other difference with journalism is that you have to get inside your people’s heads and show what motivates them. But of course in journalism, that would be very presumptuous – unless you were doing a very in depth piece and they knew that that’s what you were on about. You wouldn’t just assume that you could decide what motivated somebody to do something unless you actually asked them. Brynn: Exactly, yes. But it’s interesting going back to writing non fiction after having written fiction. I do tend to ask those questions a bit more and try to get more into people’s heads. Obviously it’s something you have to do very carefully, because as you say you can’t make those presumptions. But it has been quite rewarding for my non fiction and journalism to be able to do that; to use those fiction techniques. Jenny: And why choose romantic suspense as your genre? Brynn: I think actually- I didn’t choose romantic suspense, but it chose me. I found when I was doing journalism, and I’ve also written a few non fiction books in the creative non fiction category mostly, I really loved writing action driven pieces. What I think drew me to romantic suspense was that you get that lovely mix of action and thriller and that external story, as well as very deep emotions. With a romantic suspense, you can go on the stakes and the action and then balance it out by really digging deep on the emotions. There are so many places you can go, and I think I really love those extremes and that really attracted me and called to me. It does produce challenges when you’re writing, because there’s so much research to do and so many depths to dig, but it’s also very satisfying. Jenny: Your Legionnaires series is a high octane series that follows a band of “broken brothers-in-arms” who “each meet the right woman at the worst possible time.” What’s been the biggest challenge in writing Legionnaires? Brynn Kelly – Deception Island Brynn: Drawing on what I was just saying I guess; for me, it was finding that balance between the suspense and the emotion. It’s very easy in a story like that to let the external plot carry it away and lose the internal plot, lose that conflict, lose the romantic drivers as well. It’s quite hard, because you can write a very action packed, fast paced piece and then slow it down with a bit of romance. You’ve got to make sure that you keep it moving, no matter if you’re slowing it down or speeding it up. One difficult thing is that I can tell from my reviews that I do get a few straight thriller readers who get frustrated at the romance slowing things down. And then you get the romance readers who don’t normally read romantic suspense and they enjoyed it, but it had too much action for them, or there wasn’t enough romance. So it’s such a tricky balance to try to satisfy both demands of the genre; to have this action packed exciting story, but also to have authentic romantic relationships. Especially in my books- it’s not necessarily a conscious choice- but these books all take place within a few days. It’s very hard to write an authentic love story when the people have met only three days ago. In one of the books, they had met a while ago. But yes, all of that balancing is the most challenging thing. Jenny: I guess it’s that scientific thing; when people meet under high adrenaline circumstances, they tend to bond very quickly. That has to be your excuse for how these people meet very quickly! Brynn: Yes, I certainly draw on that definitely! I think that as the series has progressed, I’ve gone away from giving them a strong happily ever after to go to a strong happily ‘now’, to the point where readers are confident that this is going to work. Jenny: Yes, they can decide that they’re at least in a situation where they can decide for themselves in the future what they want to happen sort of thing. Brynn: Yes, exactly. It’s funny when you talk about romance, isn’t it? In any other genre, that would be a massive plot spoiler, but in romance it’s about the how they get there, not what happens in the end. Jenny: One of New Zealand’s founding romance writers Daphne de Jong once said to me that romantic suspense is one of the hardest genres to pull off, because of all those things that you’re talking about. A lot of the romance writers aren’t so good at doing the action. But you really pull it off – you hit the ground running with your stories. You mention the Edge of Truth- that’s where you kind of go off with a blast and half way through the book you’re still in this amazing sequence. It’s remarkable. In No 3 Forbidden River – a novella – you bring your French legionnaire back to New Zealand and give him a Maori love interest. Did this feel like you were expanding the conventions of the genre? And how did readers react? Brynn Kelly – Forbidden River Brynn: It never occurred to me that I was expanding anything. All of my books are set in parts of the world that I have loved, and that have really had an emotional connection with me when I’ve been there. The first one is South East Asia, the second Ethiopia, Forbidden River on the West Coast of New Zealand and A Risk Worth Taking is set in Europe and the UK. It seems natural for me to come home. It was an experimental story for me, because even after a lifetime of writing short journalism, I struggle to write short fiction. Most of my books are 100,000 words or more; this one my goal was to set it for 20-25,000, to set myself a challenge. Could I write it in that word count? I finally got it to being just over 40,000! But back to what you were asking- I’ve had really good feedback. My American readers, who are my core readers, have responded well to the setting. What means so much to me is my Maori friends and readers have absolutely loved having such a strong wahine there, which has a global reach. I didn’t write it as a New Zealand book for a New Zealand market. So yes, I think that was very special to me to get that feedback. Jenny: Did you always intend for the Legionnaires to be a series? And what do you think the appeal of series is for readers? Brynn: No. It’s interesting; the first book I wrote which got rejected, and the second (a contemporary romance which failed at the last hurdle- I might resurrect these at some point!) – I planned to make both of these a series. After failing to get there with trad publishers for those stories, I thought – I’m going to stop writing what I think the editors want to publish, and what I think readers want to read. I’m just going to go mad. So I started playing around with a whole different concept, just to throw some bigger ideas out there. Just taking away those boxes and going big. I only ever saw to the end of that first book. Interestingly, that’s when editors and agents started to sit up and take notice! So that was a real lesson to me. Moving away from what I thought was going to sell, to something I could really sink my teeth into and enjoy writing. Jenny: You had terrific endorsements from some high profile authors like Gina Showalter, Sharon Sala and Heather Graham . . . Getting such an enthusiastic response from names like these must be gratifying . . . Brynn: There might have even been a few tears occasionally! I was very fortunate that living down here, I don’t have those sort of writer contacts that my writer friends in the US might have in their writing groups. So I was very fortunate that my publishers and agent were able to make those connections. But that’s something that blows me away in the romance community; how supportive everyone is.There’s none of this professional jealousy, well not that I’ve encountered. Everyone is so encouraging and I think these big name authors who are so generous at giving endorsements – someone gave them an endorsement once and paying it forward, so people that they endorse pay it forward. It’s just this really lovely, encouraging industry where I think people realize that by lifting up another author, you’re not damaging your chances. You’re hopefully growing the whole industry and pulling in readers across your genre. Turning from specific books to wider look at your career Jenny: What is the one thing you’ve done more than any other that you feel may be the secret to your success? Brynn: Not giving up, and sticking with it. I’m sure that’s the same as many published writers. There’s a famous quote saying that the only guarantee you’ll fail as a writer is if you quit. You only fail when . . . Jenny: Yes; it’s only failure if you stop trying. Brynn: There were many times where I wanted to quit. After my first rejection, I was absolutely devastated because this was not my plan! My plan was that this was going to launch me into a career, and it was going to be beautiful. Although in fact it’s probably good it didn’t happen, because I’m not a fast writer and those early books were category series romance. You have to write those very quickly to keep the momentum going. There were times where I put it aside for a few years, but it would nag at me; it was unfinished business. I would always go back to it. I’ve had a year this year where I’ve kind of had to dig in and try a few different things. I always think of that saying that I can’t remember! If you give up, then you’re definitely not going to succeed. Jenny: There is an intriguing mention in your author profile of your interest in classical singing and theater – where does that come from and is it possible it might be reflected in your fiction in future books? Brynn: It’s just something I’ve always loved doing. Actually we just closed a production of The Crucible on Saturday, which was just fabulous, just being immersed in Arthur Miller for a few months. I think it all comes back to that love of story telling and emotion. It’s something about theater and singing, I did a lot of as a child and into my teens and early twenties. I had a confidence crisis in my early twenties where I thought I sucked, and gave it all up. Then I got to the age of 40, the same time I was getting some traction for my fiction writing. I thought, you know what? That’s unfinished business. So I got back into it. I’ve only been back into it for a few years, but I’m absolutely loving it. It’s hard to pin point exactly what it brings me. It unlocks something in the creative brain, and it unlocks something in my writing because acting is all about motivation, and writing is all about motivation. ‘Immersed in Arthur Miller’ – Crucible movie poster It’s all about language of course, and communication. Sometimes on stage, you don’t know what to do with your hands. So I’m often thinking- what would my character do? Would my character fiddle with her scarf, or rub her hands down her legs? Then I can sort of take those into my writing and hopefully make my writing more authentic! They fit together so nicely. The singing is another interesting one- singing is all about story telling and emotion, but what I found is the sense of rhythm and flow from music that you can bring into writing. Sometimes if I’m looking at a sentence and it feels clunky to me, I can sometimes read it out and figure out what’s wrong with that rhythm and flow, and smooth it out. I think that’s music helping there. But basically I’m living this dream world, where I’m writing fiction by day and acting it out by night! I don’t live in the real world at all. Jenny: You’ve set it out beautifully! It’s sometimes said writers tend to write the same story in different guises. Do you agree with that idea and if so what is that story for you? A redemption story? Brynn: Yep you’ve nailed it; a redemption story. That’s exactly what it is. I’ve read it up a bit- you know, the core story- but it’s something you can only figure out in hindsight. I don’t think I could have come up with that after two books. It’s only after four that you can see the common themes and what you go back to. But I don’t know if that will come into my next books, or if that will change. I think it was Courtney Milan, who is one of my favourite authors; she’s quite big on core story. I think I read something where she said you can only figure this out after six or ten books – after quite a lot of books, you can figure out that thread. It’s definitely redemption through the Legionnaires series. I’m not quite sure that will always be my core story, but it will be a very interesting evolution. And of course with your evolution; it’s something that you don’t know you’re evolving at the time. Brynn as Reader Jenny: The series is called “The Joys of Binge Reading” because I see it as providing inspiration for people who like to read series . . . .The preference in our culture for the instant and addictive – Netflix in reading… So – turning to your taste in fiction who – if anyone – do you “binge read” Brynn: It’s interesting, because I was thinking about that and I was thinking that I don’t binge read writers so much anymore. I think it’s because there are so many romance writers out there, I try to read as widely and many as possible, especially within my own sub genre. But I don’t tend to read all of the books by that person- there’s always something new and interesting, so I’m looking at the shiny baubles. But the one author I would read everything of is Jill Sorenson, who used to write romantic suspense and then went into writing really sexy motorbike contemporaries. She’s just got a wonderful writing style, although I don’t think she’s been writing much lately. But mostly when I binge read, I read outside my sub genre because I can switch off. I like reading historicals – Courtney Milan who I mentioned earlier is my biggest “go to”. She’s just such a talented writer, and her characters are so real and her prose is beautiful. Her historical settings seem very vivid as well. Outside historical romance, Kate Atkinson is my go to author, although I haven’t loved everything she’s written. I love how she’s not afraid to try new things. I loved her literary detective stories, I think they were branded as, which were funny and quirky. Courtney Milan – a favorite I loved her early books- Behind the Scenes of the Museum was like a game breaker for me. I didn’t so much like Life After Life, but she’s certainly an author that I would go to again and again. Although I don’t think that counts as binge reading, because she’s not prolific for that. But I don’t binge read these days as I might have in the past. Jenny: I totally understand what you’re saying; I rarely get the chance nowadays just to read for my pleasure. I’ve got another motivation as well, even if I’m enjoying what I’m doing, it’s not quite the same as sinking into a hot bath. You’re kind of on the alert for things. Brynn: Yes, I think it’s a left brain and right brain kind of thing. Both of them are still working when you’re a reader, because you stop and go “oh, I like how she did that”. Or “I would have preferred a bit more motivation in this scene”. It’s really hard to switch off. That’s why I think I like reading historicals, because I know I’d never write it. I am such a slow researcher, I’d be searching every word! And do you have a current series or author – or more than one – you’d like to recommend to listeners? Circling around from beginning to end Jenny: At this stage in your career, If you were setting up all over again, what if anything would you change? Brynn: No- you know, I don’t think like that. I think life is not a linear thing, where you can change one thing and keep on going down that same line. We all might have made mistakes in the past, and things might have gone in different directions, but there are so many wonderful things about now that might not have happened if we went back and fixed the problem. So I really don’t think like that, and I really can’t think like that. I know there are things that I wish had gone a different way, or I wish I started writing fiction earlier. But that wasn’t to be. If I were to start writing fiction when I was in my twenties, I might not have had the experiences that have made me the writer I am now. I may just be a different writer; not any better or worse. I don’t tend to look back with regrets, because we don’t know what the sliding doors would have given us through life, and it’s more about making the most of now I guess. Jenny: What is next for Brynn the writer – projects under development Brynn: Yes- it’s a very much “watch this space” kind of situation at the moment. To answer your question earlier, if the theater work was going to pop up in my writing- that’s one of the “watch this spaces”! I’m just waiting to hear back on something that I’ve got my fingers very tightly crossed for. But I’m actually going through a process of reinvention. The Legionnaires series is finished, and I’m taking this opportunity to sort of test out new things and figure out if I want to keep on writing along those lines, or tweak it slightly. I feel like I’ve kind of done my masters in creative writing now, and it’s time to figure out what I want to do in my life. So yes, as I say it’s a very much watch this space thing, and I’ve got nothing I can promise coming out in the next few months. I’m working on may things. Jenny: So just give us a little hint on the theater thing- is it like you’ve pitched a new series? Brynn: Yes, and it’s actually in front of some editors at the moment, which would be huge. But we shall see. Then again, it could come to nothing! Jenny: These things occasionally don’t! Brynn: Yes, exactly. You’ve got to be prepared for anything. I’m also interested in exploring Indie publishing as well, either doing both- traditional or indie, or going full indie. But we’ll see; there are so many possibilities! Jenny: Coming to an end where can readers find you online… Brynn: On Facebook, I have an author page- if you search Brynn Kelly Author, you can follow me there. I also have a website, www.brynnkelly.com. I’m on twitter as Brynn Writes. Jenny: Are you fairly active on social media? Brynn: Twitter is my go to, but it takes up a lot of time! It’s like 30% writing and 70% Twitter. So yes, I’m mostly active on Twitter. I always put any news on Facebook as well. Jenny: Thank you Brynn, it’s been great to talk to you and I’m sure that your readers found it fascinating, and you’ve had very thoughtful answers. Thank you so much. Brynn: Thank you Jenny, lovely to talk to you. Thanks To Our Technical Support: The Joys of Binge Reading podcast is put together with wonderful technical help from Dan Cotton at DC Audio Services. Dan is an experienced sound and video engineer who’s ready and available to help you with your next project… Seek him out at [email protected] or Phone + 64 – 21979539. He’s fast, takes pride in getting it right, and lovely to work with. Our voice overs are done by Abe Raffills, and Abe’s another gem. He got 20 years of experience on both sides of the camera/microphone as a cameraman/director and also voice artist and television presenter. Abe’s vocal delivery is both light hearted and warm and he is super easy to work with no matter the job. You’ll find him at [email protected]

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