Today, I welcome USA Today bestselling author Sally Bradley. We met years ago at ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Conference. First off, Sally, tell us about your most recent work in progress.
Homestands is book one in the Chicago Wind series, a loosely connected series that follows couples in need of different types of second chances. While Homestands deals with a divorced couple thrown together when he discovers she hid a pregnancy from him, Shelf Life—my work-in-progress—covers an issue so many women relate to, marriage to an unsaved or spiritually unconcerned man. And, me being me, there’s always a suspense subplot in the story, just to make it more fun. In Shelf Life, Kyla Burkholder’s husband, Brett, is an out-of-work baseball player desperately trying to get back into the big leagues, all while facing a death threat. What could go wrong, right?
What three things about you might surprise your readers?
I am a diehard baseball fan. Diehard. Maybe that wouldn’t surprise my readers since most of my books have some life-aspects of the professional athlete world, but I grew up watching the Cubs with my dad, then met my husband who converted me to the White Sox. And then, once I started writing what eventually became Homestands, I watched every. Single. Game. For over three seasons straight. Just as research for my book. Not so I could include game play but the behind-the-scenes details.
I hate drama. LOL. I seriously hate it! I want life to be calm and easy and kinda boring. I guess who doesn’t want that, right? But I make up for that by throwing all kinds of drama in my books. I’ve thought more than once that I was grateful not to be one of my characters.
I have struggled with an auto-immune disease for the last eleven years. AI diseases are so common now, yet they can be kept secret to some degree because you don’t necessarily look sick. That was me, and I struggled. 2016 and 2017 were tough health years for me, but I’m so grateful that God led me to a solution last fall that gave me my life—and the ability to write—back. Of course I still have the disease, but I’m living a normal life and don’t have any struggles now. So grateful to God for that answer to prayer!
What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?
This is something I would never have thought possible until I lived it, but success has been my most difficult obstacle. Kept, my first book, had a lot of success. People raved about it and it did very well out of the gate and still sells four years later. Now it’s in audio book, and I was even approached briefly about it becoming a movie. (That’s not in the works right now, just in case someone’s wondering.) So sitting down to write the next book was like a debilitating case of stage fright. To me, Kept was a pretty unique and special book, and I didn’t think I could keep up that level of writing or even duplicate that kind of success with future books. Who knew how tough success could be?
Thankfully, though, Shelf Life has—to me—the feel of Kept with its cast of characters and real-life issues and suspense and twists and turns. I hope readers will love it, once it comes out.
What are your recommendations for a great summer read, and why?
I’ve done a bit of reading lately. My husband gave me a gift card, and I had fun recently picking out books to read. Jocelyn Green’s and Laura Frantz’s latests are in my reading stack, as well as Courtney Walsh’s Just Let Go (loved Just Look Up!) and Beth Vogt’s Things I Never Told You. I hope to get to Tammy L. Webb’s two latest books soon. Oh, and I did just finish one of Rachel McMillan’s Toronto girl-detective books—those are very fun!—and Jennifer Rodewald’s Finding Evergreen. Jenn’s going to be, and kind of already is, a big name in Christian women’s fiction. Finding Evergreen was fabulous.
