Enter to Win a $25.00 eGift Card to Choice Book Seller
PASSING THROUGH BRANDISS
Patricia Yager Delagrange
Releasing May 20, 2016
Ravenswood Publishing
After the tragic loss of her
husband, Annie and her young son search for a new life full of meaning and
hope. Fate nudges Annie into the arms of a man whose wife disappeared with his
child years ago.
Annie’s life spins out of control when first the pregnant
teenager she hires to help her with her garden asks Annie to adopt her baby and
shortly afterwards the long-lost wife of the man Annie loves reappears.
Riddled
with grief and heartache, the experiences demonstrate how, even in the face of
overwhelming sorrow, opening her heart and home to those most in need of love
has reaped unexpected joy for Annie and her son.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area,
Patricia attended St. Mary’s College, studied her junior year at the University
of Madrid, received a B.A. in Spanish at UC Santa Barbara then went on to get a
Master’s degree in Education at Oregon State University. She lives with her
husband and two teenage children in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco,
along with two very large chocolate labs, Annabella and Jack. Her Friesian
horse Maximus lives in the Oakland hills in a stall with a million dollar view.
Interview
Where
are you from?
I
grew up in the small (80,000 people) city of Alameda, California, across the
bay from San Francisco, surrounded on all sides by the city of Oakland. Alameda
is a manmade island and the only way out is either one of three bridges or the
Posey Tube which runs under the water.
Tell
us your latest news?
My
latest news is that my third book is coming out on May 20th - Passing
Through Brandiss. It’s actually the first book I ever wrote back in 2009
but like all books, it’s been through so many revisions, it’s pretty
unrecognizable from the first writing.
When
and why did you begin writing?
When
my daughter was ten she came home from school and said that her friend asked
her why her mom didn’t work. I’d been a stay-at-home mom since I had my son who
is four years older than my daughter. After I stopped feeling put-down for
being an at-home mommy, I realized I had more time to devote to something other
than taking care of my kids. They were in school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. A friend had once told me she thought I
should write a book. So I went to the Apple store, bought a MacBook, and sat
down and wrote Passing Through Brandiss.
When
did you first consider yourself a writer?
When
I actually wrote “The End” on Passing Through Brandiss, I couldn’t
believe it. I’d actually written an entire book. Granted, at the time it wasn’t
something I would have put out there to be published. It was too juvenile in
its structure, too wordy, too much narrative and not enough dialogue, amongst
many other errors of a new writer. But after finding an editor who taught me
how to write, the book became what it is today.
What
inspired you to write your first book?
My
daughter, as explained above, inspired me with her question about my career as
a stay-at-home mom. Additionally, one of the main characters in the novel is a
teenager who’s pregnant and wants to give her baby up for adoption. We adopted
our daughter so this book is very close to my heart.
Do
you have a specific writing style?
I
love dialogue. I’m not much into going on and on about describing the
environment in which the story takes place. I give the reader just enough so
that s/he can picture in her mind where the story takes place and what the
characters look like. But I don’t go overboard with detailed descriptions of
every physical thing that appears in the book.
How
did you come up with the title?
I
love stories about people who come from big cities and move to a small town to
find a better life. I don’t know how I came up with the actual name Brandiss,
but I liked the sound of it. The fictional town of Brandiss is located a few
miles east of Santa Barbara where I spent eight years getting my B.A. and then
working at the University.
Is
there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
There
are several messages I want my readers to grasp when reading Passing Through
Brandiss. One, is that it’s possible to love a child that you didn’t
physically give birth to, just as much as you love your biological child. The
second, is that even after tragedy, you can find love again, in a form that may
be entirely different than you ever expected. The biggest theme in most of my
books is that a woman can be happy no matter how many hurdles she has to jump
over or how many obstacles plop down in her path because she believes in
herself and her inner strength.
How
much of the book is realistic?
As
I said, we adopted our daughter so that’s a huge part of the book, based on my
own life. Also, the book takes place in a fictional town close to the real city
of Santa Barbara where I graduated from college and lived for eight years.
Are
experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
I
never experienced the personal tragedy the main character had to go through
with her husband and I never had the problems that can come with adopting a
child; but everyone has experiences in their lives that bring them sorrow and
pain. A writer takes that personal sorrow and pain and inflicts them on their
characters, thus bringing them to life.
What
books have most influenced your life most?
I
read so many books, it’s hard to pinpoint which have meant the most to me. But
some of my favorite writers are Richard Paul Evans, Nicholas Sparks, Debbie
Macomber, Joy Fielding, Jodi Picoult, Joanne Fluke, to name a few. I love to
write what I love to read.
What
would you like my readers to know?
I
think I’d like your readers to know that if they love stories with a happy
ending but also love the characters to struggle through hardship, as we all do
in life, then they just might like my writing and my books.
Thank you for hosting me today on your website.
ReplyDeletePatti Yager Delagrange
Thank you for hosting PASSING THROUGH BRANDISS today!
ReplyDeleteCrystal, Tasty Book Tours