Live Zoom tonight! Join me over on Patreon. You can join the meeting if you become a free member (Zoom link in chat) or you can join The Chain Breaker tier for $25 and get access to 189 videos and posts. I use this platform to teach and encourage writers. Here’s to the journey! patreon.com/brandyvallance

Stories matter more than people realize. One woman risked her life to read “Gone With the Wind” in the Warsaw Ghetto, sharing it with others who faced certain death. Stories offer hope, courage, and a reminder of what’s important. You never know who needs your story. Watch the rest of the class on Patreon: patreon.com/brandyvallance 

Next Thursday ( September 18, 2025 at 6pm EST ) I would love to do a meet and greet (lots of new members) and a Q&A. I’ll be sure to give you some updates and I would love to hear what’s been going on in your world.

Be sure to register to get the Zoom link. If you can’t make the meeting, write your question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it on the recording. See you there!

You can read my latest article here: https://www.writingdayworkshops.com/blog/the-emotional-journey-pitfalls-of-fiction-writers

I kind of love pulling back the curtain. All those tears through the years have to count for something, right? 😂 In all seriousness, writing fiction has a lot of highs and lows. I hope this article helps you on your journey. You matter and your story matters! Stay in the fight.

So pleased to announce that I’m now representing Tamatha Cain! Tamatha’s book, Sarina Miracle, is a YA historical. I first met Tamatha at a Writing Day Workshops conference. Her  beautiful writing is definitely something to be celebrated.

Tamatha Cain is a former musician and bandleader. Her work has appeared in national and international publications. Awards include: 2024 Historical Novel Society First Chapters Short List (in progress), 2022 Florida Book Award, 2020 Royal Palm Literary Award, and grand prize in The Experience Poetry Competition. She writes reviews for Southern Literary Review, and is a member of the Historical Novel Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Women Writing the West. She is a wife and mother of three and lives in a hundred-year-old bungalow in North Florida. You can find out more at: tamathacain.com

Here’s the book blurb:

Unable to sit still for long, seventeen year old Sarina Miracle grew up running–from her Indian Mama’s expectations, her American missionary Papa’s lessons, and especially from the suspicious gaze of strangers. So when she commits an impetuous act of treason at the Maharaja’s palace during the Prince of Wales’ highly-anticipated visit, she does what comes naturally. She runs.

What follows is an unexpected journey around the world, from Bombay to London to New York City and beyond, carrying Mama’s precious set of handpainted Ganjifa cards with her. Sarina heads west, using the escape as a chance to search for V.J. Singh, a brilliant and handsome young man, Papa’s student, from whom there has been no word since he left to find work in distant San Francisco.

Sarina joins forces with the wily and endearing Celine, an aspiring Harvey Girl also on the run from her own life as a card shark. Over one remarkable year, between two very different Christmases (one in an Indian palace and one beneath the world’s first outdoor Christmas lights in Colorado), Sarina experiences a new and changing world as a young woman of two races, with two homelands, but no true home.

When she learns Papa faces punishment for the crime she left behind, can she keep running–all the way back to the opposite side of the world–before he suffers the retribution meant for her? And will she find herself along the way, or lose herself to a world bigger and wider than she could have imagined?

Editors: We should talk! 

Here are some common things I run into as I’m evaluating manuscripts. Hope this helps!

Read the new article here: https://www.writingdayworkshops.com/blog/why-literary-agents-are-passing-on-your-book

Read the new article here: https://www.writingdayworkshops.com/blog/remove-query-stress-with-these-three-points