Meet fellow Clean Indie Reads author Bokerah Brumley – with a new release!

Today I’d like to introduce Bokerah Brumley, my fellow CIR author.

Bokerah Brumley is a speculative fiction writer making stuff up on a trampoline in West Texas. When she’s not playing with the quirky characters in her head, she’s addicted to Twitter pitch events, writing contests, and social media in general. She lives on ten permaculture acres with five home-educated children and one husband.

In her imaginary spare time, she also serves as the blue-haired President of the Cisco Writers Club. ​In 2016, she was awarded first place in the FenCon Short Story Contest, third place in the Southern Writers Magazine Short Story Contest, fifth place in the Children’s/Young Adult category for the 85th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, and selected as a 2016 Pitch Slam! finalist. More recently, she accepted novel contracts with Clean Reads Press and Liberty Island Media. She also moonlights as an acquisitions editor for The Crossover Alliance.

Bokerah has a new book out. It’s a time-travel fantasy for middle grade. But before we learn about her new book, let’s get her to answer three questions, shall we?. Here we go with number 1. If you could tell your younger self something you know now, with respect to your writing career, what would it be?

Stay the course and stay teachable. It gets better!

So true! Each book is easier than the last, that’s for sure! Question 2. What three things would you say are the most important for an aspiring author to keep in mind as they being their writing journey?

1) You have to spend time writing messy, disorganized works to figure out how to write better. Everyone writes a first draft. You can’t rewrite a first draft until it’s completed, and revision is one of the steps to get to something good, but don’t spend forever tinkering with the first chapter. Get the whole thing down.

2) When someone criticizes your work, you don’t have to defend the work or argue with the opinion, and you don’t even have to take their advice. You can say thank you for the comments, and for them taking the time to give you feedback. Ignore it if you wish. But, if the people giving you advice are where you want to wind up in your writing career, you might need to listen—no matter how much the critique stings.

3) Give it time.

Great advice, Bokerah. Now, last question. Other than stomping your foot and having a hissy fit, what else do you do when you get a review that isn’t so good?

I try really hard not to have a fit. It hurts my feelings if it’s someone I know, of course, but… Ultimately, it’s okay if people don’t like my work. I don’t write for everyone. I write for the readers that will like my work not the people that don’t. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m okay with that.

Words of wisdom there. As authors, we will never be able to please everyone. I just wish those that feel the need to write harsh reviews could tone it down a bit sometimes–but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

So, you’ve got a new release out — Imani Earns Her Cape: A Middle Grade Novel. Filled with time travel, trolls, sea dragons and underwater cities, this sounds like an exciting book!  Where can we find it?

You can find all my books on my Amazon page, by clicking here.

Thanks for joining me today, Bokerah, and all the best with this new book.