NADINE BRANDES once spent four days as a sea cook in the name of book research. She is the author of the award-winning ROMANOV, FAWKES, and the Out of Time Series. Her inner fangirl perks up at the mention of soul-talk, Quidditch, bookstagram, and Oreos. When she's not busy writing novels about bold living, she's adventuring through Middle Earth or taste-testing a new chai. She and her Auror husband are building a Tiny House on wheels with their Halfling children. Current mission: paint the world in shalom.

Sometimes I Don’t Want to Blog *hides face*

Sometimes I don’t want to blog. Usually those “sometimes” come around when I’ve had about 4 hours of sleep, missed a writing deadline, babysat, got depressed about taxes, had 177 emails I haven’t responded to, and then had to stay up until midnight packing for a trip that I kind of… Continue reading

15 Bookish Pet Peeves That Make Me Tear My Hair Out

*sheepish grin* So….I was supposed to post this yesterday, but…I’m human. So I missed my post date. But I have a great excuse! I OFFICIALLY FINISHED MY CONTENT EDIT FOR A TIME TO RISE. (Forgive the all caps. I’m kind of excited.) It’s now off to beta readers and then we’ll… Continue reading

I’m Building a Street Team

I know what you’re thinking. “Again? Didn’t you just do a Launch Team or Street Team or Team thingy for A Time to Speak? And didn’t you do it last year, too?” I’M THINKING THE SAME THING! I’m thinking, “This is getting repetitive! And it’s a lot of work. And…do I plan to do… Continue reading

Why Book Three is NOT Titled: “A Time to Live”

Everyone assumed book three would be called A Time to Live. In fact, it even turned into a joke between me and some friends (yes, Lisa Godfrees, I’m looking at you.) And, when you break down the titles and look at the progression, A Time to Live just makes sense, right?… Continue reading

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things (2015)

Um…I’m  not sure how a summer song about favorite things turned into a Christmas song, but thankfully it’s one song (Christmas or not) that doesn’t get old for me. And, because I love sharing favorite things, I thought it’d be fun if we shared a list of our favorite things. 🙂 (But don’t… Continue reading

6 Gifts To Give Your Favorite Author Without Leaving Your Desk

Something I like to do every Christmas is to target an author. Not with a lightsaber or sniper paintball gun (though that’d be fun…), but with a Cupid Christmas arrow. I wrote up this post when I wasn’t an author, and then I got published and felt too weird to post… Continue reading

Do You Remember to Look Back?

Tomorrow is hubby’s and my 4th anniversary. *throws confetti* It doesn’t sound like that long but we have done so much in that short amount of time — much more than we ever imagined we’d do. Every year for our anniversary, I give him a framed photo of us that lists… Continue reading