F. Tilly Brownne

TREVOR’S TORMENT

Welcome F. Tilly Brownne to

Book Treasure Tuesday!

 

Introduction

 

     I write fiction under the name F. Tilly Brownne. I just released my first book in July 2022, titled Audrey’s Search. I’m getting ready to release its sequel, Trevor’s Torment. These books are part of The Reclusive Man series, and part two of that series: Hers to Redeem.

     I also have many more titles coming up: Magi Cottage in the Holiday Cottage series and a book in the new Christmas Ridge Romance series, both coming in November. Then more books scheduled in 2023.

     But I haven’t always been a romance writer. Until now, I’ve been writing nonfiction books and articles (psst: under my real name Dianne E. Butts). And I’m a screenwriter. My screenplays have placed in some pretty big contests, and I’ve produced and directed a few award-winning short films.

     When I’m not writing (which isn’t often!), I enjoy riding my motorcycle with my husband, Hal. We ride with the Christian Motorcyclists Association. I also enjoy photography and tinkering in my flower gardens, but they are often neglected and overgrown because I’m working on some writing deadline!

 

Sneak Peek

 

     I’m super excited that my second book, a historical romance, Trevor’s Torment, will release in the next few months. It’s the sequel to my debut novel, Audrey’s Search, which came out July 6, 2022, in the Reclusive Man series. Both stories center on two sisters in the late 1860’s who hire on with a widower and his two kids to pay their way west with a wagon train. The first story focuses on Audrey Stillman, then the sisters get separated. In this second book, Francine, travels on to Colorado in Trevor’s Torment, which is in Part 2 of the Reclusive Man series: “Hers to Redeem.”

 

Genre: historical romance with a Christian thread

Heat Level: clean and wholesome, subtle touching

 

Trevor lives alone in a forest to protect others from his curse…until Francine needs his healing power. Can love break a curse?  In this sequel to Audrey’s Search, return to follow Audrey's sister, Francine Stillman, to Fairplay, Colorado, where the mysterious gray horse’s reappearance helps the Sweeneys and Trouble the dog. When Trouble gets injured, Francine seeks help from a reclusive man, Trevor Kayne, who lives alone in the forest and is said to heal animals. Can Trevor save Trouble? And when the worst happens, can Francine save Trevor?

Discover the mysterious man tormented by a curse who is hers to redeem.   If you enjoyed Audrey’s Search, you’ll love Trevor’s Torment. Coming this holiday season. Pre-order below. Excerpt  Greta continued talking. “This isn’t a whiteout like I’ve heard described. With those, the wind blows the snow and everything is white.” Mac rubbed his chin. “Well, this surely can’t seem much different.”  Junior ventured out further away from the wagon. His image started to fade as if into nothingness. Mac looked after him. “Don’t go too far, son.” “I know, Papa. But I can still hear your voice clear as a bell.” That sound started up again in the distance. A cry in the wilderness. A moan. From a man? Or a beast? She couldn’t tell. Francine spun around, straining to see into the white surrounding them. “Don’t you hear that?” Junior came walking back toward them out of the mist. It might insult his young manhood for her to say it, but the boy looked like he’d seen a ghost. He and all the others stopped, listening. The sound came from her left, from where the dark evergreens stretching southward had been visible minutes ago. No, wait. It came from straight ahead. She turned around, looking, listening. Around and around. Her eyes strained, trying to penetrate the mist, to see…something. Anything. She failed. All around she could see nothing but white.  Trevor’s Torment is available in ebook. ♥ Amazon   Research Tidbits        I had to do a lot of research about the telegram service in the western U.S. in 1870. I needed my heroine, Francine, in Fairplay, Colorado, to send a telegram to her sister, Audrey, back in Kansas asking her to do some investigating for her. I didn’t think that would be a problem, but boy, trying to figure out where the nearest telegraph was available turned out to be harder than expected.       I did learn that the telegraph service only lasted a few years before it was outdated by the telephone, but not by 1870 when my story takes place.          I also learned that telegraph lines ran along the railroad lines.       When I found a map that showed a railroad spur that went from Como up to Alma, Colorado, which today is about 6 miles north of Fairplay, I decided I’d set a telegraph office there. I also found a photo of a telegraph office called the Alpine tunnel telegraph station on the “Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad.” Fairplay sits on the edge of South Park, so I imagined Alma could have a similar-looking station.       That all took me hours of research, but I needed a not-too-distant telegraph office for my story!        Oh, and by the way. Have I mentioned I used to live in Fairplay?    Interview Questions   1. What was your first published work and when was it published?  My first publication was an opinion column in a weekly Christian denominational magazine, The Lookout, on December 29, 1991. The first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, was in progress and my article was titled, “Should We Really Pray for Peace?” I’ve since published around 300 articles and short fiction in print publications and contributed to 21 books including Chicken Soup for the Soul books. I’ve published six nonfiction books under my nonfiction-writing name, Dianne E. Butts.  2. What is the best and worst advice you have ever received?   Worst Advice: Never outline – it destroys your creativity.   OMG. So. Not. True. Outlining explodes my creativity! I have so many unusable, unpublishable not-quite-finished novels in my computer from trying the “just start and write” and “write from the seat of your pants” theory. I wasted years (decades, really) trying to do it the way “everyone” said I should. Finally, I threw that out the window and started doing it the way I felt I needed to.   Frankly, it was when I started studying screenwriting, which led to studying story structure, that I began to figure out what I needed in order to write a successful story. Once I found my process, I’ve gotten faster and faster at developing and writing stories and I’m loving it.   Best advice: Comes from me and grew out of that worst advice experience: Trust your instincts. We each know in our gut what we need, what works for us and what doesn’t. Trust that. Yes, we need to learn from others and that helps tremendously, but we can sense when something we’re hearing just won’t work for us. We need to listen to ourselves and know it’s okay to disregard even the best-intended advice in order to do what works for us.   Now I outline every story before I write a word. This enables me to move around the outline and add in amazing ideas, set up themes and gags that will pay off later, and I don’t have to keep going back and rewriting large portions when I have a great idea. I develop my characters and their conflicts and motivations before I ever start writing. This process works well for me. I’m able to create what I think are far deeper emotional and thematic stories and write them much faster, which I dearly love because I feel I have a lot of making up to do after being stalled for so many years.   3. What type of book have you always wanted to write?   I have a fictional story about a small group of people who discover they’re living in the End Times described in the Bible. Unfortunately, the majority of people around them don’t believe that. My little group ends up going off grid and on the run from authorities to survive.   I wrote the first book in 1999 and it didn’t go over well with a few first-readers. Kind of a perfect storm of discouragement caused me to shelve the project, but the story has never left me. I’m a better and more confident writer now. I didn’t agree with those readers then, but I trusted them more than I trusted myself.   I now believe those books were ahead of their time. They are even more timely now. I really want to write them, and I’ve begun rewriting the first one. It began as a three-book series, but now I believe it can be much more. I’d like to write the “side stories” of each of the twelve main characters as novellas, then write the main series of books as well.   I have several deadlines coming up that are keeping me busy, but my mind is turning and developing this story and I can’t wait to write it.   Social Media / Contact   Currently, Dianne E. Butts’s fiction, which she writes under the pen name, F. Tilly Brownne, is housed on her main website. There’s a Contact form under the “More” menu where readers can contact Dianne. You can sign up for her newsletter at the link below.   ♥ Website ♥ Facebook ♥ Twitter ♥ Email ♥ Newsletter Signup ♥ Find All Social Links Here Thank you for spending time with F. Tilly and me today! Check your email next time on Book Treasure Tuesday!  Hugs~ Maxine