We recently connected with Amanda Brainerd and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I started writing my novel when I was 41 years old. My agent asked me, “Why didn’t you start writing earlier?” I didn’t have much of an answer, except, “It never occurred to me before!”

Yes, I wish I had started earlier, but until that day in 2008 when I realized I had a book to write, I never had thought to become an author.

There must be a time and a place for everything.

Amanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am life long New Yorker who never imagined becoming a published author (or an author at all, for that matter). It was literally like a light bulb went off in 2008 at the aforementioned dinner party, and I knew I had to write my story. I’m really proud that despite years of rejection by agents, years of re-writes, putting the manuscript in the drawer, writing two more novels that also didn’t work, going back to the first, re-writing, and getting an agent at last.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think the underlying goal of all creatives is immortality. I know that sounds very heavy, but we all realize how fleeting our earthly existences are (unless one believes in reincarnation), and we wish to leave a lasting bit of self-expression behind. Each human being has dreams, aspirations, deep feelings of fear, joy, and pain. Each one of us is special. We wish to scream to the universe, I am here! I exist! I matter! And the universe very often responds with silence. To make one’s creative mark on the world is to rise above our daily grind, our slog, and aspire to more than invisibility.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

To be a creative is to face repeated rejection. This rejection takes many shapes, and morphs and shifts, but no matter what happens, no matter what the world says, a creative person MUST not give up.

Before I signed with my agent, the following happened: a well-known literary agent asked me to send her my MS. I was so excited, and then just two days later, her assistant wrote to me and told me how much he loved my novel! I was over the moon, this being EIGHT YEARS after I had started to write. I’d had several rejections, had shelved the book, had written two more, shelved those, went back to this one, and finally it was getting some traction. Then nothing happened — I didn’t hear from Elyse for three months after the encouraging note from her assistant. One Friday afternoon I was ready to give up forever. I was on a hike, and I told myself, “If I never hear from the agent I will simply keep going. If this book doesn’t work, I will write another. And then another. Nothing will stop me.” At the end of the hike, I turned on my phone, and there was an offer of representation. KEEP GOING. DON’T GIVE UP.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amandabrainerdauthor.com
• Instagram: @amandabrainerdauthor
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/amandabrainerdauthor/

Image Credits
@theojuliet