About

Hello friend! What will it be? Tea? Coffee? Lemonade? Water? All the best conversations and introductions happen at a coffee shop, in my opinion. 😉 Okay, a little about me:

• I’m the author of six Young Adult books: Wishtress, Romanov, Fawkes, and The Out of Time Series.
• I love love Jesus. He’s my auto-buy author. 😉
• I’m an adventurer.
• I have four truly adorable wild Halfling children (all born within 4.5 years of each other.)
• I’m a Harry Potter super-nerd who has been known to eat an entire package of Oreos (family-size) by herself.
• I watch Fiddler on the Roof at least once a year. (Wait…you don’t?)
• I love the word bumbershoot.
• I learned to write using a fountain pen. They are the magic behind avoiding hand cramps. For reals.
• I hate kale with an immeasurable loathing, but I like brussel sprouts. (Sorry if you just gasped and gagged at the same time.)
• I’ve driven a dogsled, eaten a raw potato, walked a tightwire, and waded through a cattail marsh all for the sake of book research.
• I’ve been journaling since I was 9-years-old.
• I have new books coming and the best way to not miss any of the news is to be subscribed to my newsletter!

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A Few of Nadine’s Favorite Things

These are the things I fangirl about. We all get geeky about something. Who knows? Maybe we get geeky/fangirl (or fanboy) over the same things!

MOVIES

I find a lot of inspiration from movies. Mainly character inspiration. Here are my favorite movies in no particular order. You know, the ones that will never reach that “I’ve-watched-this-too-many-times” state.

Fiddler on the Roof (my favorite movie of all time), Lord of the Rings (my favorite movie series of all time), Harry Potter (particularly the last three movies), How to Train Your Dragon 1, 2, & 3 (why can’t we have 4, 5, and 1,000?), Divergent (this movie blew me away. *runs to rewatch it*), Inception, Hunger Games & Catching Fire, Anastasia, Cinderella Man, The Greatest Game Ever Played (I’m not a fan of golf, but I could watch this movie on repeat.) Pride and Prejudice (the 6-hour BBC version), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2014), Edge of Tomorrow/Live, Die, Repeat, Cinderella (2015 live action!), Ever After, Belle, A Little Princess, The King’s Speech.

Writerly Movies: Miss Potter, Whisper of the Heart, Anne of Green Gables, You’ve Got Mail, Magic Beyond Words

TV

I don’t watch many TV shows, but when I do, here are my top five:

The Chosen – a series about Jesus’s life and ministry, but not cheesy or Hollywoodized. IT. IS. GOLD. You can watch the entire series FOR FREE with The Chosen App!

Merlin (BBC) – This show was on its way to beating out Harry Potter. At least for a day. I’m weird like that. But then…it ended. Incorrectly. That’s all I’ll say. (There were many tears and I have a severe hatred for a certain director.)

Survivor – I do so much character development when watching this show! I’m convinced Hunger Games was created after Suzanne Collins watched an episode of Survivor. LOL.

The Great British Bake Off – baking. Accents. ‘Nuff said.

BOOKS

Some of my favs:

Fiction – Lord of the Rings (duh.), The Blood of Kings Trilogy, THE HUNGER GAMES (Suzanne Collins), CINDER (Marissa Meyer), THE HOST (Stephanie Meyer), Mark of the Lion Trilogy (Francine Rivers), FIREBORNE (Rosaria Munda), UNBLEMISHED (Sara Ella), BONE CRIER’S MOON (Kathryn Purdie), The Ravenspire Series (C. J. Redwine), THE CROWN’S GAME (Evelyn Skye), THE STORY PEDDLER by Lindsay A. Franklin, THE LAST NAMSARA by Kristen Ciccarelli

Writing/Editing/Marketing

• WRITE YOUR FIRST NOVEL by Gilbert Morris and Steve Laube
• WRITE YOUR NOVEL by Go Teen Writers
• STORYWROLD FIRST by Jill Williamson
• WRITE YOUR NOVEL USING THE SNOWFLAKE METHOD by Randy Ingermanson
•  PLOT VS CHARACTER by Jeff Gerke
• RISE OF THE MACHINES by Kristen Lamb
• EDIT YOUR NOVEL by Go Teen Writers

Non-Fiction LOVE DOES by Bob Goff, THE STORY OF WITH by Allen Arnold, anything by A. W. Tozer, SACRED MARRIAGE by Gary Thomas

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you an introvert or extrovert?

Introvert! I need my recharge time.

Do you have kids?

Yes! I have three children (with #4 on the way!) who I nickname Halfling, Little Orc, and Elevensies. 🙂

What tips do you have for writers?

Well, I just happened to offer 10 Crucial Pieces of Advice for the new writer. [grin]

What would you do if you weren’t a writer?

This question is just cruel. I would want to work at a theme park and build all the tiny little details. I’m waiting for a LOTR theme park to start and then I will sell my pet unicorn to be hired on to help build the sets.

How did you come up with the idea for the Out of Time Series?

Funnily enough, I have a blog post on that, too!

My Long Boring Bio

NADINE BRANDES once spent four days as a sea cook in the name of book research. She is the Carol-Award winning author of WISHTRESS, FAWKES, ROMANOV, and the Out of Time Series. Her newest release is WISHTRESS and 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. Nadine, her Auror husband, and their Halfling children are building a Tiny House on wheels. Current mission: paint the world in shalom.

How Nadine started writing:

I learned to write my alphabet with a fountain pen. In Kindergarten. Maybe that’s what started my love for writing. It’s not every day a five-year-old learns the correct rules on dealing with ink splotches, how to hold her pen, or how to replace cartridges before she even understands 1+1=2.

I started journaling at age nine and thus began my habit of communicating via pen and paper more than spoken words. I never decided to become a writer. My brain simply classified it as a necessity to life, like bathing, eating, and sleeping.

I kept it to myself a very long time. In 2010 I started writing the Out of Time series. That found a home with Enclave Publishing in 2013. I was unagented at the time and had met the publisher at a writer’s conference and he asked to see the manuscript.

In 2014, I signed with an agent (who I also met at a writing conference) and then (in 2016), signed a contract with Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins for FAWKES and ROMANOV. A few years later I signed another for WISHTRESS and then one with Enclave Publishing for a 2024 release.

Upcoming books in 2024. Stay updated via my newsletter!