Dianne C. Braley, author of The Silence in the Sound
A fiction novel about a woman coming to age. Life has not been kind to Georgette. Growing up with an alcoholic father and an enabling mother, she clings to the loving memory of a childhood trip to Martha's Vineyard to help see her through the bad times; and now, as an adult, she returns to the island to start her life over. Soon she becomes the private nurse for a prize-winning novelist. As the two become friends, he opens her mind to new possibilities.
Transcript
Hey everybody, this is Travis from Author Echo.
Speaker:Today I have Diane, and she's gonna tell you a little bit, maybe a lot
Speaker:about herself and her book or books and just to kinda get to know her
Speaker:and her writing style and what she likes to do and talk about her book.
Speaker:Diane, take it away.
Speaker:Hi everyone.
Speaker:I am Diane c Braley.
Speaker:That's where you can find me everywhere.
Speaker:That's what I go by.
Speaker:So I just, first of all, thank you for having me, Travis.
Speaker:I appreciate it your time.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:What you're doing is really cool cuz I think, you know so many of us.
Speaker:My book, The Silence and the Sound, it's women's fiction coming of
Speaker:age novel is my first novel and.
Speaker:Wish that I had more podcasts.
Speaker:There's a good amount there's not enough.
Speaker:I wish that I had more podcasts to listen to about first time authors and
Speaker:the mistakes you make and all kinds of things of what to do, what not to do.
Speaker:the laundry list.
Speaker:A lot of us end up teaching ourselves along the way with all kinds of
Speaker:errors and failures and successes.
Speaker:And there's a lot of work.
Speaker:I think, and I'm sure you can attest to this, that you put in.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I really probably, even though it takes an incredible amount of work to write a
Speaker:book, just getting it out there and then the marketing and all of this and getting
Speaker:it published is just it's so difficult, but then I think when you don't know
Speaker:things, it makes it 50 times difficult.
Speaker:Yeah I would agree.
Speaker:I tell people that the easy part was writing the book.
Speaker:To me, imagine the marketing.
Speaker:And just getting it out there is because there's just so much out there right now.
Speaker:Getting it out there seems tough to me.
Speaker:So how do you, what do you find is the best approach to marketing?
Speaker:What have you found the most success?
Speaker:I'm a, an animal.
Speaker:I'm a very disciplined person.
Speaker:I am to a fault.
Speaker:I'm exhausted, really.
Speaker:But I , I.
Speaker:Market.
Speaker:I just, it's almost like I throw something at the wall
Speaker:just to see if it sticks.
Speaker:And I do a ton of marketing.
Speaker:I do face Facebook ads, which I'm not.
Speaker:The thing about marketing though is you have to really be good with
Speaker:like kind of graphs and numbers too.
Speaker:Cause you can't really tell exactly what's working if you Yeah.
Speaker:It's hard to keep track of.
Speaker:So if I have Amazon ads running and Facebook ads running, actually Amazon, you
Speaker:can see from what you spent to the sales.
Speaker:So how many clicks?
Speaker:But Facebook ads, it'll just tell you how many clicks to the link.
Speaker:But that doesn't mean they bought.
Speaker:Yeah, that to get into that point.
Speaker:So I I started my own company a few years ago and that's why I ran some
Speaker:Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads and some other things, Twitter and everything.
Speaker:What I found out that some people just like to click on stuff.
Speaker:The people that just that, they don't understand that's actually costing
Speaker:you money every time they just click on it because they're click happy.
Speaker:I really thought when I mean I've had so many link clicks,
Speaker:like it's just unreal and.
Speaker:The problem is, and I think a lot of authors have said this, is I think you'll
Speaker:get a lot of people that'll put it in their shopping cart, but how do you get
Speaker:them to pull the plug to buy the book?
Speaker:Sat wonderfully.
Speaker:And sadly, I have found the best approach is to connect with people directly.
Speaker:So just putting a post somewhere, no one cares.
Speaker:Messaging people directly, book clubs, things like that, which
Speaker:is so tedious and especially I work, I'm a nurse, I also work as a
Speaker:nurse and to connect with everyone.
Speaker:I would love to connect with individually.
Speaker:It takes so much time.
Speaker:I'm on TikTok, I'm on Twitter I'm on all of it.
Speaker:And so if Diane has to run out real quick, she'll be right back.
Speaker:She just have to tend to a patient.
Speaker:So if she runs out real quick.
Speaker:actually, I gave up Brun Delta patient Care quite a while ago,
Speaker:but I do more of an administrative stuff now, but I'm still working.
Speaker:I'm still a nurse and I still I love people in this kind of genre now,
Speaker:and I wish I could connect with them more.
Speaker:I just, who has the time to individually connect with every
Speaker:single person that you love to.
Speaker:That's tough.
Speaker:It's really tough.
Speaker:So you do Facebook.
Speaker:So tell us about your book.
Speaker:I am curious cuz I had some other female authors on and each one was.
Speaker:From a perspective of writing or their books.
Speaker:So I'd love to hear about your book and I know I should hope so.
Speaker:We're all, we're not all the same.
Speaker:Oh, I know.
Speaker:Isn't that everybody when you stereotype ? So my book is, it's coming of Age story,
Speaker:upmarket, women's fiction actually.
Speaker:And it's about a young nurse.
Speaker:It's inspired by actual events.
Speaker:It's about a young nurse who leaves her life and her family's
Speaker:dysfunction on the mainland behind.
Speaker:And heads to Martha's Vineyard Island.
Speaker:But sometimes the past isn't so easy to escape.
Speaker:It's a small what?
Speaker:It's a small world . Oh, really?
Speaker:It's a small world.
Speaker:Why I run into my neighbors at the airport in Chicago.
Speaker:I run into people all the time.
Speaker:So it's just look around.
Speaker:Oh, I know that person.
Speaker:It's always crazy.
Speaker:So I I had the honor the book is, it's funny cuz the book I, when I wrote it,
Speaker:I had the story in my head for a very long time and when I started writing I
Speaker:didn't realize what the book was gonna become and the book actually became and
Speaker:actually a reader told me, This after a beta reader, one of the initial readers
Speaker:of the book surmised the book for me.
Speaker:And it's funny cuz I was looking for an elevator pitch and I couldn't quite
Speaker:grasp it's the hard, an elevator pitch is one of the hardest things cuz
Speaker:you have to just tell about your book in one sentence, as I'm sure yes.
Speaker:And a beta reader has said to me your book is really about, the premise of
Speaker:your book is really about the devastating effects of growing up in addiction.
Speaker:And I was like, boom, that's.
Speaker:It really is, even though that wasn't my intention when I set out to write
Speaker:it, I grew up in an alcoholic home and I don't like I always say,
Speaker:I don't, I say this now, I don't wear this as a badge of honor, but Right.
Speaker:I ended up writing about Joette, my protagonist, she has a relationship
Speaker:with our father who is an alcoholic, and when I started writing, I
Speaker:really just meant to touch on that, but I could really just tap.
Speaker:My feelings of growing up with my father who suffered from alcoholism and I just
Speaker:kind all of my young, being a young adult and a child is my anger and my
Speaker:toughness and all this stuff just came out through the page and I just went with it.
Speaker:So it ended up being a book about, really the premise of growing up
Speaker:in addiction and the choices, the cause and effect, and the choices
Speaker:you make in life because of that.
Speaker:But it also is a beautiful setting.
Speaker:It has some celebrity friendship, and I also features a relationship between a
Speaker:young nurse and a patient who is a famous Pulitzer Prize winning author, which I.
Speaker:Honor of living on Martha Vineyard and caring for Pulitzer Prize winner,
Speaker:William Styron, who arguably is best known for his book, Sophie's
Speaker:Choice among many others.
Speaker:Who actually became my motivator in writing.
Speaker:I, it was always my dream I wrote as a kid, but growing up blue collar and how I
Speaker:did, and a tough town outside of Boston.
Speaker:I followed of in my blue collar roots and my mom and became a nurse just like her.
Speaker:And I'm very proud to be a nurse and nursing actually led me back
Speaker:to my real, like my real passion.
Speaker:Oh, cool.
Speaker:Interestingly enough.
Speaker:So it's really inspired by a lot of actual events.
Speaker:That is fiction, but it's inspiring at just, it's very
Speaker:emotional and it's been a journey.
Speaker:, was it was it therapeutic?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I just was talking about this.
Speaker:It's funny cuz I I'm a big advocate for therapy, but in therapy you're
Speaker:talking to someone about your problems and in writing, and I'm not sure if
Speaker:you can relate to this in writing.
Speaker:I, you can actually be reliving things on the page of, even if the, even if it's
Speaker:fiction, it's I write from feelings.
Speaker:Places I've been and people that I know, and even if I compile,
Speaker:like if I combine them in one character or that's how I write.
Speaker:So it's almost like I was reliving so much a, this a love affair, my relationship,
Speaker:my father, my time with William Tyron.
Speaker:So it definitely was.
Speaker:Cathartic and I, it took it was pretty exhausted by
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I try to, or when I write, I can visualize it.
Speaker:So I write what I'm visualizing to the point where I talked to somebody
Speaker:the other day she read the book she goes, Travis, love how you put it.
Speaker:Cause I can actually read it and close my eyes and I'm doing it, or I'm there.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:Something else.
Speaker:I, and I like to do that.
Speaker:I like to, A lot of detail in there where I think detail is needed to
Speaker:be able to, for the reader to say, Oh I can see myself doing
Speaker:that, or or I've been there.
Speaker:I do that and my, and I write my novels in the first person and my
Speaker:second novel that I'm working right on right now is in the first person,
Speaker:which is really difficult to do.
Speaker:But I, I don't, and I'd to try another way, maybe my next
Speaker:book, but I have to almost feel.
Speaker:The, what the characters are feeling, what that protagonist is feeling.
Speaker:So I tap into feelings I've had or feelings that I've seen others have.
Speaker:And I have felt from that.
Speaker:And that's of how I have to do it.
Speaker:And I'd love, I'd like to experiment another way, but I'm scared.
Speaker:, don't be scared.
Speaker:So I can read sideways and I see where that says New York City.
Speaker:Oh, nyc.
Speaker:that's the Empire State Building.
Speaker:So tell us about that.
Speaker:That's pretty.
Speaker:Yeah, so I I, the book came out and it got some great reviews and blah,
Speaker:blah, blah, and I submitted my book to a couple of different awards and
Speaker:initially it won a Firebird book award in women's fiction, which was really cool.
Speaker:And then it became a, Honorable mention in the Hollywood Book Festival.
Speaker:So that was really exciting.
Speaker:That's quite nice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then I just, I entered the New York City big book award, which
Speaker:I had, I didn't think at all.
Speaker:I had a shot at this because the New York City Big Book award takes books from.
Speaker:Indie every book out there, Indie authors, university presses traditional
Speaker:the big five publishing houses.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:And I won, I I got the notification that I won for women's fiction
Speaker:and I just was That's amazing.
Speaker:I was blown away.
Speaker:I was blown away.
Speaker:. That's amazing.
Speaker:Good for you.
Speaker:So I find it, you go out and find these different awards.
Speaker:Our competition or whatever, you go out and find them and put your
Speaker:book submit your book to 'em.
Speaker:It's pretty good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And people think I have to be on people who don't know anything and about and
Speaker:why would they lay people not in the literary world or any of this.
Speaker:They, everyone will say, Oh my God, how did they find out about you?
Speaker:Look, how did ? And it's, No, I sent them something.
Speaker:You, Yes.
Speaker:My, my own family would say, God, how did you get.
Speaker:Library talk.
Speaker:This book event though.
Speaker:How did you get this restaurant event?
Speaker:I'm like, I hustle like nobody's, no one's coming to me.
Speaker:I have, not only do I have to email once, I have to literally stock
Speaker:them, hunt them down and circle.
Speaker:Oh, I do too.
Speaker:I, So actually, I'm going to a signing of a book event in on next Saturday, the 22nd
Speaker:in Manas, Virginia, and I live in Dallas.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:My son lives, and we were there April and I started to finish up my first
Speaker:book and we went to this beer garden.
Speaker:And you ever been somewhere where you're like, I love this place?
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I love I I felt of course bricking beer, what?
Speaker:Can't go wrong with that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But just the atmosphere.
Speaker:I just said, I love this.
Speaker:So I said, I'm gonna put this in my book.
Speaker:So I actually put it in my book where the team goes after a mission to.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:And so I got ahold of the folks said, Hey, I put y'all in my book.
Speaker:I'd like to do a book signing.
Speaker:They were like, Love that.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we got, they're, we're doing it next next Saturday.
Speaker:And That's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Every, everything in my book is a real place.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mine is too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Some of closed, but I actually.
Speaker:I have found personally and I've told a couple of authors this and
Speaker:I don't like giving away too many of my secrets, but I'll mute this.
Speaker:Just go ahead and move your mouth and I'll mute it.
Speaker:Oh, it's fine.
Speaker:. But I have found that people the library events, which are so important
Speaker:and, but it's such touch and go.
Speaker:It's so touch and go.
Speaker:I've had nobody show up.
Speaker:I've had a good amount of people show up.
Speaker:It's really right.
Speaker:It's really, you just don't know.
Speaker:But I had a couple of events at different restaurants.
Speaker:They would just stuck me in a corner.
Speaker:One gave me a beautiful tape table and I set my books up and the customers, I
Speaker:had people come and the press came to one and they'd come and it's almost,
Speaker:the customers are so excited cuz it's something for them to talk about and
Speaker:do and it's just been so successful.
Speaker:So like rest To me, restaurants are just a great, and it's so unusual
Speaker:you go for it's read something.
Speaker:So anywhere you, anywhere your book takes place.
Speaker:Like my book takes place in Martha's Vineyard is in, It also takes place
Speaker:on the north shore of Massachusetts.
Speaker:Hit them because wherever your book I and you know what, hit wherever.
Speaker:I just came back from Ireland.
Speaker:I brought books with me and I'm hustling it.
Speaker:I dropped some off at the Irish Writer's Center.
Speaker:I went into a bookstore.
Speaker:I said, Hey, do.
Speaker:Can I, would you wanna sell these books?
Speaker:And I did a little signing there, I, everywhere, anywhere
Speaker:you go bring your book.
Speaker:Oh, I just bought a trench coat and I'm gonna put hard cover,
Speaker:soft cover and open it up.
Speaker:That's a hundred what it is.
Speaker:And then the reviews, I feel like I'm the mafia.
Speaker:I'm like, Did you review my book?
Speaker:You need to review, Please review.
Speaker:Did you I swear like I.
Speaker:I'm shaking people down.
Speaker:I'm like, You need to review.
Speaker:Then I keep track of, I'm like, Really?
Speaker:That's supposed to be my friend.
Speaker:Then she's done.
Speaker:I know she didn't review it.
Speaker:I'm like, My family.
Speaker:I'm like, Did she review it?
Speaker:, . I'll say I Facebook, Hey if you guys, Cause I know pretty
Speaker:much some folks that bought, Hey, make sure that give a review.
Speaker:Cause those are important.
Speaker:Or whether they're, Oh my god, Amazon, or Good Reads or whatever.
Speaker:They're, everything is so important.
Speaker:Cause some people determine.
Speaker:What they buy based on a rating where I typically don't.
Speaker:I just, if it looks good, I'll read it.
Speaker:Cause some people like stuff, some people don't.
Speaker:Someone made a good point to me.
Speaker:Two things.
Speaker:Amazon, if you get a certain amount of reviews, Amazon will
Speaker:start promoting your book, right?
Speaker:So you, it's so important.
Speaker:The way to thank an author for their book is to please leave a review.
Speaker:And then the second thing, it was funny cuz someone I read something and.
Speaker:I found, I find this to be true of myself.
Speaker:If someone has completely five star ratings or the reviews are just all
Speaker:so good, I almost don't trust it.
Speaker:I'd rather, Yeah.
Speaker:If a book is a totally five star, I, you almost want be like a foreign change.
Speaker:There has to be some negative reviews because it's, I don't trust it.
Speaker:I'm like, Oh, they're paying people . I tell you, go out and to verify that.
Speaker:Go out and look at some of Dan Brown's.
Speaker:Oh, two, 2% ones in some of them.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:He's a great author.
Speaker:Look at some of these other authors.
Speaker:There are.
Speaker:Everybody gets a bad review.
Speaker:Nothing personal.
Speaker:Oh, everyone I the best, the classics that understood the
Speaker:test of time have bad reviews.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So if a book doesn't have many a handful of bad reviews good god.
Speaker:There's and so you are not self-published.
Speaker:You found a publisher.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is that correct?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And just why and why did you decide that route I went, I exhausted I
Speaker:think like a lot of us I knew that it's very hard to get an agent and get.
Speaker:The whole in the top publishing houses.
Speaker:But I think we all write our book and we, even though and you send it off
Speaker:and I send it off to the first like 10, bat 10 agents and you really think
Speaker:once they see my book, they're gonna, there's it's gonna be like nothing
Speaker:they've ever seen before, . Oh yeah.
Speaker:And that doesn't happen often.
Speaker:So I wrote my book.
Speaker:I sense agent the first 10 knows I was just gutted.
Speaker:And then it just gets easier.
Speaker:Just keep keep it up.
Speaker:It's just, and actually some of the feedback that I got, if
Speaker:I got any, was very helpful.
Speaker:And I made I changed some things, right?
Speaker:I got so many great responses from agents too that where they said they
Speaker:loved the book and very sincere.
Speaker:But, , it's in the market.
Speaker:So high concept right now that we didn't, they didn't know
Speaker:if they could sell it, right?
Speaker:So I appreciated the honesty, but I knew that I had my book is an alternating
Speaker:timelines, and it wasn't at for us.
Speaker:I wrote it linear, and I, after I, I knew that it would be better
Speaker:in the alternating timeline.
Speaker:I knew it.
Speaker:But I didn't know it till I finished it, which of
Speaker:course the hardest way possible.
Speaker:So I, yeah, I, after a hundred or so rejections, I re ripped the book apart
Speaker:and did the alternating timeline.
Speaker:Kept sending it out in great response, but it just wa wasn't happening.
Speaker:But, so in the interim I sent it, Oh, sorry.
Speaker:I sent it to a bunch of publishers too, like medium
Speaker:presses, small presses, all that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I had an acquisitions editor that messaged me back and just
Speaker:so got the book like, It was, I just really felt a connection
Speaker:with how he felt about the book.
Speaker:And I went through the whole process of being then it went through the next
Speaker:set on the next, and they they took it.
Speaker:So I was just, I just felt like it found its home.
Speaker:So that's, that, That's And who do you publish through, if
Speaker:you don't mind saying Kohler.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's what I, so I did my, my book is linear, but in multiple
Speaker:occasions at the same time.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Like I get, Oh, did I need, did I remember the name of that person?
Speaker:, There's different characters in different places at the same time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like at the same time, some people are in Russia.
Speaker:The, there's things going on in DC interesting things going
Speaker:on somewhere at the same time.
Speaker:So I switched back and forth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Location.
Speaker:But I, Yeah, that's difficult too.
Speaker:That's I really I writing just a linear book about a weekend just seems
Speaker:like a dream to me now, it's just doing the alternating timeline of every
Speaker:chapter of my book starts off with the Georgia, the protagonist journal and
Speaker:tree, like the date right in a little.
Speaker:She's Ari she likes to journal, so there's a little quote that
Speaker:she writes, and it lets you in on what's gonna happen in the chapter
Speaker:a little bit, what her thoughts are.
Speaker:So that kind of helps the reader keep track.
Speaker:But readers are fairly, I think for the most part, readers are
Speaker:fairly they're really fairly intelligent and I think sometimes
Speaker:we don't give them enough credit.
Speaker:I've seen books right now where they're, they've gotten rid of dialogue quote.
Speaker:And I've, and I just reviewed, Yeah.
Speaker:And I just, My book would never work without those You
Speaker:would know who's talking.
Speaker:I don't think some would, I don't think mine would either.
Speaker:There's a lot of inner thought in my book too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But this book, it was I actually found it easier to read.
Speaker:It wasn't as distracting, like it wasn't so broken up.
Speaker:And so I think it just depends on the book.
Speaker:But some readers though too you, I don't know the alternating
Speaker:timeline, How you have it too.
Speaker:Some, sometimes I think it has to.
Speaker:You really wanna make it clear, but sometimes I think, I don't
Speaker:wanna be, you don't wanna be too much of showing telling and
Speaker:not showing we're right here.
Speaker:They can figure it out.
Speaker:So what else is anything else you're stewing on or started on or,
Speaker:Yeah, so I God, it would, whoever thought like you'd have to market
Speaker:so much because I haven't even touched anything in my next book.
Speaker:For a month, and it's bothering me so much because I've been just marketing.
Speaker:But I have to writer's write, You have to write.
Speaker:So I'm Nano Rhino is coming up in November, so I have to get on it.
Speaker:But I'm about halfway nano writer, Rhino Nano Nano Rhino.
Speaker:It's like the month of November.
Speaker:It's it's a contest and they have it all over the place where you have to
Speaker:write a novel in about a month or 50,000.
Speaker:In a month, and then there's contests and all that stuff.
Speaker:It's pretty cool.
Speaker:And it's a goal, right?
Speaker:It's a it's a lot.
Speaker:But my next book, I'm about a little, almost halfway
Speaker:through and just so excited.
Speaker:I it's wasn't I wasn't, I was writing something else and something happened
Speaker:on the outskirts of my life that there was a trial, there was a conviction.
Speaker:And I found it fascinating and tragic and it was horrible.
Speaker:But the trial was fascinating.
Speaker:It was fascinating.
Speaker:The characters were fascinating, and the subject was fascinating.
Speaker:So I just, Sorry, I keep saying fascinating.
Speaker:. . So I, I started inspired by this and I'm trying to do this justice, like
Speaker:my book, The Silence and the Sound now is, I've had personal experience with
Speaker:this growing up in addiction and all.
Speaker:What's going on there?
Speaker:This book, I have not what's it's about and I'm gonna be, I'm being cryptic.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:I apologize.
Speaker:But I'm excited.
Speaker:I'm doing a ton of research.
Speaker:I wanna do this justice and it's, I gotta get on it.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:I do a lot of research for my books.
Speaker:I want it to be, mine is like realistic fiction, so Yeah.
Speaker:I want it to be believ.
Speaker:Yeah, me too, actually.
Speaker:It makes sense, right?
Speaker:So I do a lot of that research and but I enjoy it and sometimes
Speaker:I just get on a roll and I'll just start writing and it just flows.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I really I wouldn't say writing is such an art and a craft, and I don't
Speaker:think you can ever really master it.
Speaker:I think it's always a learn.
Speaker:You're always learning.
Speaker:And I always say I'm not the best writer, but I'm.
Speaker:I'm a great, a good or great.
Speaker:I've been told.
Speaker:I didn't say it, someone else said it, but I'm a great storyteller.
Speaker:I can tap in.
Speaker:I like writing about the human experience.
Speaker:I like writing about humans and the multilayers of them, and I feel
Speaker:like I can really grasp that well.
Speaker:With a good editor and good Baer readers.
Speaker:I can hope, hopefully nail this book, . Well, Good.
Speaker:Yeah, that's, I'm excited.
Speaker:So I already finished my second one.
Speaker:It's called Cobalt and the editors or the, my publisher's looking
Speaker:at it or hopefully start that process here next couple weeks or
Speaker:whatever out by March or whatever.
Speaker:Cause I have a library thing I'm doing in.
Speaker:What genre is it?
Speaker:What kind of fiction?
Speaker:It's realistic fiction.
Speaker:It's a espionage military thriller.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Sort of book.
Speaker:It's, but I put humor in it too, right?
Speaker:Cause there's humor in everyday life.
Speaker:Everybody doesn't have to be like, all bummer.
Speaker:All I do too.
Speaker:I have, I put humor in it.
Speaker:Mine is, so my book and the way I write being around one of the
Speaker:greatest writers of all time, Mr.
Speaker:Styron.
Speaker:I remember talking about writing one time and he, I was tell, I had the
Speaker:gall to tell him I, I was writing, or I had written a book a little, I
Speaker:started a book about a Virginia bar.
Speaker:Let read, let me read that book.
Speaker:. He said, I said, I, he said, Why are you writing about Virginia?
Speaker:Do you know anything about Virginia?
Speaker:And I said, No.
Speaker:And he said, Why are you ri, do you know anything about horses?
Speaker:I said, No.
Speaker:And he said why are you writing?
Speaker:This write about the steeled adage right.
Speaker:About what you know and if I write how I speak a little, or I'm New
Speaker:England, I'm Boston I'm snarky, I'm sarcastic, I'm like all these things as
Speaker:a real New England voice to my writing.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:I oh, I grew up in New York and California, Spain, Arkansas.
Speaker:I've been all the, Oh wow.
Speaker:I dunno if you even have an accent, but I did do some work in.
Speaker:Mention Jesus Boston Scientific long time ago.
Speaker:Oh, nice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I used to go there every week for about four months.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:My publisher, my pub, you what you write?
Speaker:My publisher write.
Speaker:So they publish a lot of military books, espionage mil, a lot of military people.
Speaker:There's all kinds of books that I, It's I'm cur Who's your publisher?
Speaker:Defiance Press and Publishing.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Out of, they're out of Houston.
Speaker:Area north of Houston.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's interesting.
Speaker:I never thought I would do it, to be honest with you.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Nor anybody that I know whatever thought I would do.
Speaker:I was saying to they, in a, in every, almost every interview I've had
Speaker:someone people have said what advice would you give to other writers?
Speaker:And my number one advice is, you ha a hundred percent
Speaker:have to believe in yourself.
Speaker:Be disciplined, believe in.
Speaker:because writing is the loneliest journey.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Everyone's writing a book or everyone wants to write a book.
Speaker:There's so many people that just wanna write a book.
Speaker:And so when you say to someone, especially your first novel, and I can
Speaker:only speak to that's what I shouldn't say especially, but when you say to
Speaker:someone, I'm writing a book, even my own mother's Oh, that's nice.
Speaker:The same thing my friends, so I already told 'em, so I had to.
Speaker:Oh Yeah.
Speaker:It motivates you.
Speaker:And no even even talking about the marketing.
Speaker:So I was on a podcast a couple weeks ago, and so I created a team in the
Speaker:book, and it's gonna have a series of, in this book, in, in the, in this team.
Speaker:And we're talking, he goes how how are you gonna market that?
Speaker:And I go he said what about branding said, So I'm like, Darn.
Speaker:So what I did, I went out there and secured a website called teams tech.com.
Speaker:Oh, My team is gonna have an online presence of their own.
Speaker:So the team in the book.
Speaker:Yes, will have their own online presence.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:What will you do with it though?
Speaker:To have like their profiles, mission profiles Oh yeah.
Speaker:What's the next mission?
Speaker:They can, There's even an email address, a video that I put in the book that
Speaker:people can email that and it come, it goes to that email address and get replies.
Speaker:Oh, that's kinda cool.
Speaker:That's different.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's kinda, I think, what the heck get, buy a website for pennies on the.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I like that.
Speaker:That's different.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you have to try so many things.
Speaker:Like you just have to see.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:And I, you know what I do believe, Someone said to me don't I
Speaker:think you can get lost in feeling like you have to be everywhere.
Speaker:Like you have to be on every social media site.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But Really do the some of you like better than others or if
Speaker:there's a I prefer Instagram.
Speaker:It's easier for me to do.
Speaker:I can't even get into TikTok.
Speaker:I'm like, Oh God, I'm, Oh my God.
Speaker:No, I can't do that.
Speaker:I'm on there and I'm old and I just, I'd rather go on there
Speaker:and make fun of my husband.
Speaker:Then talk about the . Maybe they should have TikTok for seniors.
Speaker:They should, Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know what that is?
Speaker:Don't, No one goes on it.
Speaker:. We're napping.
Speaker:Boomer talk.
Speaker:They're called a boomer talk.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:. No.
Speaker:The social media presence is.
Speaker:And I'll tell you, it's true to get an agent.
Speaker:And I've heard from so many sources, agents themselves that have said, If
Speaker:you don't have a social media presence, then they don't, They're not gonna
Speaker:take you if you, cuz they don't even, it's it's not 50 years ago where
Speaker:they marketed the hell outta you.
Speaker:You have to market yourself and if you're not gonna, they're not taking you.
Speaker:No I agree.
Speaker:So I, when I had my own company, I had online presence, but then
Speaker:I decided not to have one anymore.
Speaker:Then I have to get back into.
Speaker:And so I, I'm getting anything where I can schedule.
Speaker:Tweets and different things where I don't have to do it every day.
Speaker:I can schedule it in advance where unless something cool happens, then
Speaker:I can go out and send a tweet or Facebook and things like that.
Speaker:So it, it's all marketing and marketing background.
Speaker:Anyways, I do that too.
Speaker:And I, and then someone said I had a, this gal that I was, did a library
Speaker:event with, she's an author too.
Speaker:She said, God, you're everywhere.
Speaker:I'd love to hire you from my book.
Speaker:And I'm like I don't have time for that.
Speaker:But the only way be everywhere.
Speaker:How much?
Speaker:How much What are you gonna pay me?
Speaker:? Yeah, you'd have to pay me a fortune because the actually, when you go to hire
Speaker:someone, like even my publicist they have a separate cost and department that does
Speaker:like social media and there's tons of people that'll manage your social media.
Speaker:They charge you a fortune to just do four posts a week?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I'm a beast on there because it's my book.
Speaker:So if you are not, if I'm gonna pay, I'm gonna pay someone all
Speaker:this may do four posts a week, It's not gonna amount to anything.
Speaker:I can do that.
Speaker:That's, But some people can't do that, but I'm just like, you're
Speaker:not really gonna get much traction.
Speaker:Like you have to engage a little, which.
Speaker:You gotta take breaks from it though, because I get Oh God, you're, Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I try not do anything on the weekends.
Speaker:But the key is market and then market again.
Speaker:But you know what, too though?
Speaker:You're your first book.
Speaker:It's my first book.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I feel like even though I'm exhausted and we're establishing our writing career,
Speaker:we're establishing our author presence.
Speaker:It's a ton of, usually people, it's a ton of work at first and hopefully then
Speaker:the more you know, we'll put out another book and it might be a little easier.
Speaker:We already have a good amount of follows.
Speaker:We have some people that have read our first book and all those things,
Speaker:so I'm just hope you know, it's an investment in our, and everyone
Speaker:else should think of it like that.
Speaker:It's kill yourself grind, hustle because it's an investment in your
Speaker:writing career and if that's what you want, no, I agree that, yeah.
Speaker:I never would've funk it six, eight months, 10 months
Speaker:ago, I said, You're crazy.
Speaker:Have another beer.
Speaker:You're crazy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, so it's great.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay, so tell us about your book, a little bit, about your book
Speaker:again, because I want everybody to understand and what it's about.
Speaker:Where they can get it, where they can contact you and 1, 1, 1 bit of.
Speaker:Bullet point, a one bit of advice.
Speaker:You can give either a new author or somebody that's been
Speaker:an author that's struggling.
Speaker:As I said, my books are coming of age story inspired by actual
Speaker:events and I, and to me, the most beautiful setting there is.
Speaker:And yeah, I've heard so many people feel like Marthas Vineyard is, a lot
Speaker:of people's, I've heard dreams bought.
Speaker:They're interested by it.
Speaker:They're intrigued by it, and there's.
Speaker:It's hon, it's honestly one of the most beautiful places ever and I can't
Speaker:tell you that it, the magic there.
Speaker:It's just I fell in love the moment I landed there and I really worked very
Speaker:hard to cap to try and capture that cuz I, if I didn't, I knew a lot of island.
Speaker:Folks would be very upset.
Speaker:So kick you off the island, like Gilligan's Island, they kick you off?
Speaker:I think so, maybe.
Speaker:But yeah, they could be a tough could be a tough audience.
Speaker:But , it's really a journey.
Speaker:It's a young woman's journey of self discovery.
Speaker:I'm not trying to sound cliche, but it's she, her cause and effect life
Speaker:of growing up on addiction that's she doesn't even tend to really
Speaker:realize And a spiraling love affair, friendship this relationship.
Speaker:Author that is subtle, but he, and he really is her grounding
Speaker:force, which she never really had.
Speaker:So there's, it's really a story about this three men in her life that have affected
Speaker:her life greatly and her relationship with them and coming out the other
Speaker:side and really figuring out herself.
Speaker:And the ending will surprise you as she has to make a heart rendering choice.
Speaker:With the help of her patient's most famous novel, she does this.
Speaker:So I hope that intrigued you, . Awesome.
Speaker:So where can everybody find you if they wanna connect?
Speaker:So I'm Diane c Braley, everywhere.
Speaker:Two Ns, d i a n e c.
Speaker:Braley, B R A L E Y.
Speaker:Twitter, Instagram.
Speaker:We already discussed this.
Speaker:Good reason everywhere.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:You probably have seen me and you're probably sick of me and I apologize, but
Speaker:you know how know how you don't get sick of me if you buy my book, Take it off the.
Speaker:And Yes, I until you do a review, Until you do a review, until you do a
Speaker:review, then I will leave you alone.
Speaker:Otherwise, I'm the I'm the gustapo.
Speaker:I'm gonna show up at your door.
Speaker:. So where can everybody find your book at?
Speaker:Oh, it's an Amazon, all the sellers, Barn and Noble, that's on all the sellers.
Speaker:And if you can't find you can find it there, but you could
Speaker:also just support local, Always.
Speaker:Your local bookstore can order it if they're not carrying it.
Speaker:Beggar Town Books, it's all on the vineyard, obviously,
Speaker:and stores in Massachusetts.
Speaker:A good, I just I just saw this morning I'm in Flagstaff, Arizona
Speaker:Library, so that was really cool.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Yeah, and I'm in Ireland now too.
Speaker:There's a Conley's books in Ireland.
Speaker:now you can go and write it off.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:And I just found out you can write off cuz I go the vineyard every summer
Speaker:and I shouldn't talk about all this stuff, but I do a lot of book events.
Speaker:This year I did a ton of book events and I can write the trip off.
Speaker:I'm like, Oh my God, I can write the.
Speaker:As long as it's legal.
Speaker:Yeah, my taxes.
Speaker:My taxes this year aren't gonna be fun cuz I have to go through so much.
Speaker:Cuz honestly, guys, it you.
Speaker:It takes money to make money and invest in yourself because you it
Speaker:costs I will vouch for that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:that.
Speaker:Oh, and a of advice.
Speaker:Yeah, you told me.
Speaker:So I said earlier, believe in yourself and I can't stress that enough.
Speaker:Please believe in yourself.
Speaker:If this is your dream, you have one life.
Speaker:You have one life to live, do it.
Speaker:Slow and steady wins the race.
Speaker:You are not gonna write a book, a first novel in a week, six week.
Speaker:I don't care what people say.
Speaker:I guess you can, but I got up at, I have a son, a husband.
Speaker:I don't even think their life became affected because why would it ? Yeah.
Speaker:I got up at five o'clock a every day and made sure I wrote, even if
Speaker:it was a sentence every single day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Then my live, my life had to do what I had to do.
Speaker:And before you knew it, a book, Some Shape Way was formed.
Speaker:And now I really was like, okay, I ha wow, I have something here.
Speaker:And then I have to really crack down.
Speaker:And once you're, once, I know for me, once I'm like halfway to the finish line
Speaker:of something, I, there's no going back.
Speaker:I have.
Speaker:I've talked about it and talk about it and who cares If people
Speaker:don't listen, talk about it.
Speaker:Say why?
Speaker:Cuz it's a motivator for you.
Speaker:Talk, say you're writing a book, do whatever you need to do, but
Speaker:it's your journey, it's your life.
Speaker:Do it.
Speaker:You'll, I'm telling you, just do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You need to conquer.
Speaker:I'm an extrovert.
Speaker:I'm an extrovert.
Speaker:So a lot of authors are introverts.
Speaker:I'm an extrovert, so I will talk to anybody.
Speaker:My wife says I have never met a.
Speaker:So I grew, That's because I grew up in Air Force family moving every three years.
Speaker:You gotta make new friends all the time.
Speaker:Oh, you had to.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's easy.
Speaker:So I can shoot I can talk.
Speaker:I'm both like, I'm that like introvert, extrovert, even though
Speaker:I hate that I can't stand on people like these trend trendy terms.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But yeah, I can put myself out there, like I'm doing so many events, but then
Speaker:I really just get I need to rest from talking and whoever knew you, this is
Speaker:perfect for you because when you write a.
Speaker:you don't realize.
Speaker:I'm doing so much public speaking, which I have anxiety.
Speaker:I suffered from anxiety my whole life and it don't love public speaking.
Speaker:So now all of a sudden I'm in all these talks and libraries, I'm getting emails
Speaker:to do these other things and talk and I'm like, and if I collapse,
Speaker:so be it, whatever, but it's my book.
Speaker:I know the book.
Speaker:It's not like I'm giving a lecture like I had to study.
Speaker:That's why you can do it.
Speaker:I used to I do public speaking.
Speaker:I used to do public speaking and speak at conferences all over the world.
Speaker:And if you are confident in the subject that you're talking about,
Speaker:yes, it's, you'll have not, you will not have a problem if you don't.
Speaker:That's when it becomes problem.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Cause people, and it gets easier.
Speaker:I get I get nervous and, but then it just gets easier and I just
Speaker:keep throwing yourself out there.
Speaker:Who cares?
Speaker:No one cares because you just do the best you can and it's your book.
Speaker:They don't know.
Speaker:Yeah, they don't know they're looking to you.
Speaker:So it's hard for some people and I don't love it,
Speaker:but I'm getting better at it.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:It had been great convers.
Speaker:Can I just interrupt?
Speaker:Can I just say one thing I forgot.
Speaker:I apologize.
Speaker:Course.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So part of the proceeds of my book go to the Robert F.
Speaker:Kennedy Community Alliance here in Massachusetts.
Speaker:And they have a division that helps kids affected by addiction, kids and families.
Speaker:And they help almost a thousand families in Massachusetts.
Speaker:They have a camp, they also have a juvenile justice program nationally,
Speaker:they're amazing organization.
Speaker:We're also working with the In the name of the book, we've,
Speaker:I've donated a experience.
Speaker:Mata Vineyard is a camp called The Fuel Program, and the kids go out on, there's
Speaker:a restaurant called the Black Dog.
Speaker:There's two tall ships, and they go out for a week on one of these
Speaker:ships, the Shenandoah, and they learn to sail and are taught all this.
Speaker:It's a, it's an experience of a lifetime.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:So cool.
Speaker:And we're donating an experience to one of the RFK kids in the name of the book.
Speaker:So just you're supporting a great cause too.
Speaker:And it's just there's often, there's so much funding and there's so
Speaker:much help for people suffering from addiction and there's nearly, not
Speaker:nearly enough, but there's rarely, there's hardly any help for the kids.
Speaker:And these kids have a higher tendency.
Speaker:They're.
Speaker:Have a higher tendency to be addicts themselves or live a life of dysfunction
Speaker:and anxiety, despair, all these things.
Speaker:And helping the kids to me is a huge deal.
Speaker:I'd love your support.
Speaker:So you helped out Diane and she a philanthropist, so also there
Speaker:philanthropist, so that's awesome.
Speaker:No, that'd be great.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Again, folks, go out there and support her charity that
Speaker:she very strongly believes in.
Speaker:And if you know any any other authors wanna be on the podcast,
Speaker:please reach back out here to meet Travis at Random Thoughts Fight llc.
Speaker:But it's been fabulous and I wish you all the most success.
Speaker:Next time I wanna see some more of those awards in backing, I
Speaker:wanna see like a, Oh, think it's crossed . Thank you, Travis.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:We'll see.
