Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
April D Brown’s fascination with history, science, and social science led her on a quest to uncover forgotten societal mythology, which often masquerades as fact. New solutions to old queries will be uncovered in the future, through studies of the past. Her novels and novellas, while adventures, are written in a more clean and classical style, without extreme action, romance, or violence. Characters think before they act. Sometimes, this leads to trouble.
Her nonfiction is often written at the request of others.
Gluten (and allergy) free cookbooks, include tips for tricks for people with multiple common disabilities, including poor memory, low vision, and limited dexterity.
Journey Through Life Lists was written at the request of friends with serious memory loss planning their future, and desperate to remember their past.
VoiceOver with the Brailliant Braille Display was designed for personal use, when there was no written manual for learning to use a screen reader for the first time as a middle-aged adult.
The clear path April D Brown dreamed of as a child had roadblocks no one could foresee. Of those, the loss of memory caused far more concern, than the loss of hearing and vision.
Deafblind and doing fine, most of the time.
After all, vision, and hearing, can be internal, as well as external. With the help of her husband, cats, and dogs, she wanders along the path that unfolds slowly before her stumbling feet. The one path she tried to push away as a teen. Writing doesn’t come as easy now, as then. Though, it seems far more impactful. Full of hidden vision, wonder, and forgotten sounds and odors.
Depending on how you split my books, I have 19 books published. Or even 20, for one I edited and put together.
My Coffee, Tea, and Gluten Free can be broke into three main segments, and the Resource Appendix.
As for my fiction, they tend to be written in pairs. Or as some would say, as twins. Whether identical, or fraternal, or good, or evil, is up to the reader. I have a few pairs left to finish. I usually prefer to publish both in a pair close together.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Echo Lives is novel pair within itself. It follows identical twin boys who were born in different alternative universes. On Galataria, the differences are accepted, normal, and he grows up like everyone else. His twin on Earth does not have that luxury. Or any luxury. Life happens to him, with opportunities to make his own choices.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I used to enjoy working out writing issues in the garden, or while cooking. Doesn’t work anymore. Maybe I need to find a new one!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Many authors over the years have influenced my writing style. Classics – Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder. While some of their writing may seem problematic today, it opened the eyes of readers as gently, and yet as strongly as they dared. Also, we do not know how much they fought against changes their editors and publishers may have wanted. They laid a foundation for writing against the grain of society.
I miss the classics writing styles, in the longer, more in depth, more developed way. At the time, there was no internet, no tv, and no color pictures. Many readers didn’t travel much, so all of the indepth description gave a life to places most readers would never see. We’ve lost much with that. We can no longer write descriptive alt-text for those who are blind or low vision. We have forgotten how to describe in a way those who will never see a place, a time, or an idea, will see it as if they were there when they read it.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I am going back to one that has been setting on a shelf for nearly ten years. While two other books are percolating – Karma’s Children and Parasitosis.
Karma’s Children is almost a triplet for my Abuse Survivors pair. In a sense it is how people in positions of power abuse those under them. Whether it be bosses, strangers, managers, or medical people abusing their employer, client, or a random stranger.
Parasitosis is about a super bug parasite that affects people, and causes them to revert to a more vicious state, where they do not trust, or respect anyone different than them.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still looking.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. Listen to yourself. Even if a book idea isn’t popular now, it will be again. Write it and have it ready. Listen to your characters. Don’t throw it away, you’ll use it later. Maybe only on the website.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I wish I had started self publishing instead of wasting so much time looking for agents who weren’t interested in the books I wrote. Often submitted when the topics were unknown, then published everywhere a year later. If I had started sooner, I might have developed a group to work with to trade edits, cover art, and more.
What are you reading now?
Mostly mysteries. Looking for fun mysteries, that don’t involve crime. Finding missing and lost items, family members, and ancestors, searching for forgotten places and people.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to finish the stories I have started. That’s my hope.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
That’s a difficult question. As I lose my vision, I can only read text in Arial Rounded MT bold size 18, so read on my Ipad, until I can’t. Then, I’ll have to read braille. If I were on a desert island, I’d need books that would help me survive. Is it a desert? Does it have plant life? Animal life? Or is it ice? What will I need to survive?
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