Meet author, editor, screenwriter, Sandie Bricker, and get the inside story on her new contemporary romance, Moments of Truth
Fabulous Fridays
Welcome, Sandie! You have a rich and varied career! Tell us a little about your background and what you’re doing now.
Well, I was raised as a Cincinnati Kid, and escaped to L.A. as soon as I could to go to film school. So I started out as a screenwriter and, although part of my heart will always belong to films and television, I had to leave Los Angeles to care for my mom until she passed away in Florida and the writer in me started to go a little crazy after a while. So I tried my hand at writing books. I had no idea at the time that my life was about to change with that one decision, but here I am!
How do you find time to write and keep up with your job as editor and have a personal life?
I wonder about that a lot. But every time I reach the place where I think I’ve lost my mind and can’t keep it up, something new happens, a fresh blessing rains down, and things suddenly fall into place again. I think it’s all about knowing you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, praying for God’s leading, and then following.
What inspired your latest novel, Moments of Truth
This particular book was a departure for me. Although I’ve always written romantic comedy, I’d wanted to do 
something a little meatier for quite a while. I’ve always been enamored with ensemble pieces where various characters and their stories intersect, and I also really love the amazing things that seem to happen when women come together. Moments of Truth
As a multi-published author, where do you find your inspiration for your books?
Whenever I used to be asked that question, I’d always cite outside influences. But over the years, I’ve discovered that there’s really no creativity in me at all that doesn’t come from divine inspiration.
How much of yourself you write into your characters?
I’m usually the key influence for at least one of the characters in each book. But in the case of Moments of Truth
How do you go about researching and creating a setting?
I almost always set my books in a place where I’ve been. And if I don’t know the place well, the internet comes into play. Between me and my good friend Google, almost any location can come to feel like home.
How did you weave a spiritual thread through Moments of Truth
With five main characters in this book, it was kind of exciting to tell the story with a realistic worldview. Every woman is different with a very unique perspective; so by having just the one Christian member of the group, I was able to demonstrate how each of us can float through life believing our sweet little element of faith is somewhat insignificant – until that light starts to shine out in many directions, touching all the lives around us in very different ways.
How do you see the importance of Christian fiction?
As the “new norm” of pop culture and the world around us darkens, I think Christian fiction – or even wholesome fiction, in some ways – gains more and more value. Even if one book is a ray of light cutting through a dark world for just five or six readers, that’s five or six people touched by a message that counteracts what we’re slammed with every single day.
Please share a short excerpt from Moments of Truth
Eight years of marriage. No kids. She got the house.
Regan felt as if those words might make a great tattoo—assuming she were inclined to get a tattoo, of course—maybe right across her forehead. Anything to keep from explaining it time after time. With the long bangs she still wore acting as a curtain of sorts, when someone inquired yet again, she could just lift them with the back of one hand, give the inquirer time to read her forehead, and be on her way. Story told. No muss, no fuss.
No muss, no fuss.
The words made her chuckle as she stirred vanilla creamer into her morning cup of bold roast. Had she ever had a muss- or fuss-free day in her life?
Regan twisted her long dark hair into a knot at the top of her head. She pushed her brown-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose before snapping the lid on her travel mug and padding, barefoot, across the cold stone tile of the kitchen. She climbed the oak stairs to the loft and pushed the large window wide open, stopping to inhale the salty Pacific Ocean in the distance. She flopped into the creamy Italian leather chair in front of her desk, flicking the power button on her laptop as she did. It wasn’t much of a commute to work, but she set the alarm every morning, showered and dressed, and filled her travel mug with coffee before setting out across two thousand square feet of house. It made her feel as if her role as blogger for Vertical Magazine carried more importance than a simple lifestyle blog for women might tend to hoist. Regan knew a little something about the challenges of remaining spiritually vertical, after all, especially in the face of adversity.
It didn’t pay much, but her one lone skill for putting words on the page combined with an abundance of random opinions on just about any topic concerning women made the job a good fit for her now. She’d almost thought it was a joke when Vertical’s senior editor called.
“I ran across your blog this morning,” said Delores Cogswell. “And I was so drawn to it that I spent hours reading the archived material. This is really something special, Miss Sloane. The way you tie your friends and your life with the lives of your readers. Oh, and I love how you refer to your ex-husband as 30-Watt.”
Actually, it was 40-Watt; a metaphor for the realization that his 100-watt smile—the one promising a shiny future together filled with wonder and joy and children—soon grew dim in the face of reality.
“Anyway … You have a very in-your-face writing voice that I really appreciate,” she went on. “Would you consider writing it for Vertical?”
Seriously? Regan had only just found her so-called in-your-face style in recent years. Since Craig left.
“You’re like a mousy little bombshell,” Craig had told her when they first started dating. If only she’d have paid closer attention. When a man referred to a woman as mousy right out of the gate, she later realized, that might be a sign their foundation lacked what was needed for him to stick around.
She’d started MOMENTS-OF-TRUTH.NET on a whim; an outlet for venting the steam of her own white-hot shame and niggling perplexity over the end of her marriage. Surely there were other abandoned women out there, married one moment and single the next, who might relate to what she had to say.
“Miss Sloane?”
“I’m sorry. Could you repeat that, please?”
It wasn’t like she hadn’t already thought about going back to work. She couldn’t just sit on her duff and do nothing but collect a meager monthly alimony, after all. But Regan had spent the last four years of her eight-year marriage trying to get pregnant. It seemed like an important focus at the time—fertility treatments, about three hundred sharp kicks in the fanny with a hypodermic needle, ovulation calendars and lunchtime rushes to the bedroom, Craig’s conference room, even the back seat of the car on one occasion. Anywhere they could find to seize those opportune moments for baby-making. But those experiences had resulted in nothing to show beyond the occasional breathless satisfaction. Not a baby, and not even her husband and the potential father of said baby sticking around.
Those years of frustration and failure didn’t exactly bulk up a resume. Out of nowhere, however, this phone call from Delores Cogswell had solved the problem. Someone out there saw the only thing she had left with any value, and liked it enough to offer her a job.
So, what? A few years of working from home for Vertical during the healing process, writing her little blog and connecting with women just like her suited Regan just fine; despite that irritating little flutter in her gut lately, the one that poked her and whispered it might be time for something more. The one she worked hard to ignore because change struck her as quite terrifying in light of the fact that she’d only just begun to feel sure-footed on her own.
Book blurb:
Regan Sloane was married once. Eight years, no kids, she got the house. In the years since the divorce, she’s managed to keep afloat with the only real skill she has: Writing. She hadn’t really noticed how her readership had blossomed until a well-known reviewer noticed her sweet little lifestyle blog. When had it transformed into a single woman’s go-to? With the life and loves of her four BFFs to fuel the content and have her back at every turn Regan realizes that something magical happens when women join forces. Girl Power just might be the new super power!
About the author:
Sandra D. Bricker was an entertainment publicist in Los Angeles for 15+ years where she attended school to learn screenwriting and eventually taught the craft for several semesters. When she put Hollywood in the rearview mirror and headed across the country to take care of her mom until she passed away, she traded her scripts for books, and a best-selling, award-winning author of Live-Out-Loud fiction for the inspirational market was born. Sandie is best known for her Another Emma Rae Creation and Jessie Stanton Novel series for Abingdon Press, and she is the managing editor of Bling!, an edgy romance imprint for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. “I believe in the power of the parable,” she says. “And I just love words in almost any form. From the assembling on the page to the polishing and perfecting, there’s almost nothing more powerful.” As an ovarian cancer survivor, Sandie also gears time and effort toward raising awareness and funds for research, diagnostics and a cure.
Connect with Sandie:
Website: www.SandraDBricker.com and www.moments-of-truth.net
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojVRfEzG6uM
Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/SandraDBricker
Twitter: @SandieBricker
Book Link:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Moments-Truth-Sandra-D-Bricker/dp/1941103952/
10 Comments
Love learning more about you, Sandie. I also love the term “wholesome fiction.” Perfect.
Thank you, Linda!
Thank you for the giveaway and interview.
You are so welcome, Ann! I hope you will visit often!
I am a newer reader of Sandra Brickers. I have recently been reading her Emma Rae Creations series. Romantic comedies are my favorite genre within a genre and Sandra is a funny gal. I also enjoy a good chick lit book and I know Moments of Truth will have its funny moments among its more poignant times. I read a book this summer called Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid and the female friendships were central to the story. I was so moved by the that part of the story line. I hadn’t really been drawn to stories with strong female friendships before, but that story had me searching for more like it. Moments of Truth seems like a perfect book for that niche.
I just love the dynamic of groups of friends, for some reason. I’m sure you saw that in the Emma Rae books as well. I hope you enjoy Moments of Truth.
I love that she wasn’t looking for a job. It came to her. It also tells me that I can treat my home duties as I would a job by getting up and getting ready for work just as I would a paid job. I would love to read more of the story
Jan, that’s an interesting reaction to Regan’s story! I had to adopt that behavior myself as a work-from-home writer, and it really did change the way I looked at my “calling” to write.
I love the concept of friends being there for each other no matter what.
Thank you so much for stopping by, Susan!