Accept This Dandelion
Renee Lockhart has her eye on a lofty goal…to fill the open position of morning radio show host at the radio station where she works. When her co-workers sign her up for a local TV version of “the Bachelor,” Renee goes along with it in order to raise her public profile. Ben McConnell, the most eligible bachelor in town, insists that Renee be placed on the show, despite her bumbling audition. Ben gets much more than he expected in Renee. He gets a girl who doesn’t bow to his every whim…and a girl who opens his eyes to true, unexpected love. When nothing goes right on the local program called "Accept this Dandelion"...hilarity ensues. Imagine your worst possible dates happening...on TV!
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Guest Post Topic: The impact of radio on fiction writing
I write romantic comedy. In my books, like “Accept this Dandelion” I put two unlikely characters together. While they are falling for one another, things happen all around them and none of it ever goes right. I enjoy giggling while I write and I hope my readers say the same thing about what they read.
While I love what I do, fiction writing is not my first career. With any luck it will be my last and it will most likely always be my favorite. But I began my career in radio, of all places. I started in college on the campus radio station. I continued on to get jobs at other stations around town and an internship in another city, which then turned into a full time job when I graduated. I spent ten years writing scripts, producing shows and spots, organizing promotions, and being on the air in various time slots.
There are many things that I enjoyed about radio, but as an introvert, people had a hard time believing that’s what I actually did for a living. What they did not think about was the fact that when I was on the radio, I was in a room by myself…talking TO myself. Or so it felt. In that way, writing is the same. I only write when I am alone. Things are quiet and still. I know that people might read my words someday, but that’s beside the point. I am alone when I write them.
Radio has had quite an impact on my most recent fiction writing, as has my other very brief career in TV news. I have been to a number of writing conferences and I have heard over and over again “write what you know.” I gave this a try in a number of my books. For example, “Wrong Place, Right Time,” is a romantic comedy centered on a woman who works as a bumbling traffic reporter. That is the very job that I did in TV news for a whole 5 months. So her experiences at the TV station are things I experienced or saw.
In “Accept this Dandelion,” I decided to go even closer to home. The main character in this novel is an on air announcer and scriptwriter at a radio station, much like I was. Everything you read in the book surrounding radio is authentic and I know that because I’ve been there. I was there for a full decade, in fact!
My background in radio also helped feed my current creativity. When I wrote scripts for radio, I sometimes wrote standard stuff. Here’s the client name, here’s the product, here’s the phone number blah blah blah. But when given the chance, I would write some pretty out there things and producing commercials with sound effects is a real blast. In “Accept this Dandelion” someone brings up a vet commercial and asks my main character if she made it. She did. And it’s one that I actually remember making myself several years back.
My career and life in radio seeps through many places in my work. Radio is a fascinating world and not that many people get a chance to work behind the microphone like that. I found bringing it to life in book form easy since I was in it for so long and also a lot of fun.
While I enjoyed scriptwriting and still occasionally dabble in that work, scripts were generally 60 seconds in length at the longest. And as a writer, it’s hard for me to stop once I’m on a roll! I’ve found that fiction writing is much more suited to my lengthiness. I’m not sure that’s a word. And while I enjoyed many aspects of radio, my only regret is that I didn’t jump into the fiction world sooner.
About the Author
Brooke Williams writes in a sleep-deprived state while her daughters nap. Her romantic comedy is best read in the same state. Brooke has twelve years of radio in her background, both behind the scenes and on the air. She was also a television traffic reporter for a short time despite the fact that she could care less about hair and make-up. Today, Brooke stays at home with her daughters and works as a freelance writer for a variety of companies. When she isn’t working for paying clients, she makes things up, which results in books like “Accept this Dandelion.” Brooke is also the author of “Wrong Place, Right Time,” “Someone Always Loved You,” and “Beyond the Bars.” And she looks forward to the upcoming released of “Mamarazzi” and “Baby Sheep Gets a Haircut.” Brooke and her husband Sean have been married since 2002 and have two beautiful daughters, Kaelyn (5) and Sadie (nearly 2).
Connect with Brooke:
Website
Blog
Praise for Accept this Dandelion
"This book is adorable. I had to sneak away from my desk to read the rest of it once I started. It had my smiling and laughing the whole way through."-Sarah, Advanced Reader Copy Review
What could possibly evolve from such a strange attraction? That's the meat of Accept this Dandelion, purportedly a romance, but in essence so much more. Acceptance is, indeed, at the heart of Accept this Dandelion: acceptance of self, others, and the paths life offers up, whether for good or bad.
-D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer, MBR
