Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke French.
Hi Brooke, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I’m an author, recovering lawyer, and boy mom. I have loved living inside a book for as long as I can remember. First, as a reader and, eventually, a writer. I got my undergraduate degree in English from Emory University in Atlanta but, at that point, I couldn’t see a clear path to making a career from it. So, I went to law school and white-knuckled into the world of big-firm litigation. After fourteen years of sometimes-but-mostly-not fulfilling law practice, I took the leap into writing. It was one of the least responsible and best decisions I’ve ever made.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Becoming a writer was not without its challenges. The first was taking the leap into writing to begin with. Leaving the safety of my law practice was scary. I’d been there a long time. I was pretty successful at it. And I knew if I left, there would be no going back. But I also knew I wasn’t happy. And eventually, I got up the courage to do what I really wanted to do. Taking that risk was absolutely worth it.
The second challenge was getting published. The publishing industry is, to put it plainly, a little bananas. For every thousand writers, there’s roughly one that gets traditionally published. First, you have to have written a really good book. Then, you have to convince a literary agent to represent you. And then they have to sell it to a publisher.
There are only four big “traditional” publishing houses now — Hachette, Random House, MacMillan, and HarperCollins. They each have lots of divisions and imprints within them, but all that power is consolidated into not very many hands. And hardly anyone gets to that stage anyway — most people never get an agent.
That’s where my journey stalled the first time around. I finished my first book about a pandemic right before COVID hit. Absolutely terrible timing. And it made getting that book picked up by a literary agent all but impossible — every time I submitted the manuscript, I got the same response: we love it, but we can’t sell it right now. It felt like profiteering. As much as it hurt to let go of the dream right then, they were right, and I didn’t want any part of that. So, I shelved The Carolina Variant and wrote my next book, Inhuman Acts.
That one got published by Black Rose Writing, a publishing house out of Texas, in 2022. And not long after, Black Rose picked up my first book as well. The Carolina Variant came out in June of 2023. My third book, also with Black Rose, is called Unnatural Intent. It comes out this October.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I write the kinds of things I want to read. Thrillers and suspense novels that are dark, fast-paced, escapist fun. My goal is to write something so immersive you’ll burn your dinner reading it.
I have two series. The first begins with Inhuman Acts. When a cluster of inexplicable human rabies cases appears in Tennessee, disease ecologist Letty Duquesne jumps at the chance to trace the virus back to its source. But the closer Letty gets to finding the outbreak’s origin; the further someone will go to stop her. The second in the Letty Duquesne series, called Unnatural Intent, comes out this October.
My other series begins with The Carolina Variant. When attorney Tess Oliver calls a number scrawled on a defendant’s encoded document, a pilot answers from a downed plane. A deadly virus seeps from his cargo, and Tess may hold the key to stopping the outbreak’s spread — if the virus or the people who created it don’t stop her first. I’m writing the second book in the Tess Oliver series now.
What matters most to you? Why?
My boys. There would be no world for me without them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brookelfrench.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookelewisfrench/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brooke.l.french/
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/author/brookelfrench
Image Credits
Moss Media Photographers
