As I am looking forward to the publishing of my second book,
“Of Pigs and Priests,” I wanted to take a little time to get to know other
authors and write a little about their author journey. I was able to recently
sit down with Britney M. Mills and loved getting to pick her brain about her
time as an author.
While I have not gathered the data yet, I am convinced that
the majority of successful authors share a few key traits and one of them is
being prolific. It is hard to learn about Britney and describe her in any other
way. She showed this trait early on when in fourth grade story writing
assignment the other kids were concerned about the minimum they had to write
she had the opposite problem. She just kept adding to the story, and the
teacher finally had to tell her that she did have to wrap it up eventually.
From that very early age she knew writing was going to be a
part of her life. The question was, in what way? After high school, she headed
for Boston College where she had an athletic scholarship as the pitcher on the
soft ball team. She majored in English, but originally considered it the first
step in her desired career of lawyer. However, the day she went to take the LSAT
she felt a need to head in a different direction and decided to serve a mission
for her church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Washington
DC.
After getting home she didn’t waste anytime getting real
life experience with what would become her chosen genre, romance. She met her
husband, started dating him and got engaged all in a four month span. The next
few years were full of excitement as she began life with her new little family
as they started having kids and moving around. He continued school and
ultimately found his career in home building, but she was always thinking of
ideas and desired to find a way to write.
She eventually decided to try her hand at fantasy. Her
husband had the idea of a book around an academy for knights written from both
the perspective of a 12 year old boy and his father. She found a writing critique group on Facebook. It was a
group of five other authors all at various levels, they would each submit a
sample every week, read each other’s, and offer critique in their weekly
virtual meeting. It was during these meetings that she started to get a feel
for writing, crafting a story, and what it takes to get a book to completion.
But after 2 and 1/2 years of struggling with the book she was ready to move onto
something else. It was while watching a movie version of a Jane Austen book
that she decided what that something else would be.
A modern telling of Jane Austen, a series of books starting
with many people’s favorite, the matchmaking Emma. But could she do it? She had
just given birth to triplets--yes, you read that right, three children, all at
the same time. But despite the challenges associated with having three brand
new babies added to her load of another child, she enjoyed the release writing
brought her, and she took on this new project. Clearly, it was a good fit. She
quickly found another critique group on Facebook this time one more focused on
clean romance. She also looked into the various options for publishing,
ultimately deciding to self-publish her work. This would give her control of
the work, but meant she would have to find and pay for an editor and cover
design. This was early 2018 and it was 100% complete and available for purchase
by later that year.
From then she never looked back. Her second book, Austen
Party of Two, the Pride and Prejudice retelling was released a few
months later in December 2018. Her third, Austen Unscripted, a retelling
of Persuasion in January 2019.
But how does a young mother of 4 (soon to be 5), three of which
are triplets find time to write. When asked she credits it to several things.
One, she is very consistent about nap time and uses that time wisely. Second,
Thursday nights. These are the nights that her husband takes over kid duty and
she drives down to his office and focuses for four hours on her writing. Third,
writing blitzes, this is focused writing for 15 minute blocks were she can
quickly get a significant amount written. She often writes 600-700 words in one
blitz. And lastly, those pesky deadlines. She often sets a pre-order date on
Amazon, and as it approaches she knows she has to deliver a book by that date.
It keeps her moving.
This method is clearly a tried and true method because,
since October 2018 when her first book was published she has published an
impressive, 23 books. Let me say that one more time. In less than a four year
span, she has written and published 23 books. That is about a book every 2
months. (I'd be happy with a book every 2 years).
When asked what is the best book to read first, she says she would recommend her book coming out in June, Matched with her Fake Fiancé. I guess like most authors, we find ourselves in love with our latest creation. The good news is when you go to pick one, because of what Britney has accomplished, you will have a large selection to choose from.
It was great getting to know Britney and if you would like to learn more about her or check out her books you can check out her webpage: https://britneymmills.com/
Love this author! I've loved reading her books and watching her career! Her LoveAusten Series is seriously my favorite, I've read them multiple times and I'm very much looking forward to reading all of the RomCom Spin off series!
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