Becky Flade, Author

The day job has adopted a hybrid work week (one of the only truly great things to come out of the pandemic) and yesterday was my on-site day. I get home, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I don't want to write, I just want to veg on the couch. I turn the television on and it's the pilot episode of Castle. And was reminded of how Nathan Fillion's Twitter, and a case of the flu, led to my first full length book finding a publisher.  Nathan Fillion Sunglass GIF from Nathan Fillion GIFs My brother recommended Twitter.  We’re both fans of Nathan Fillion and he follows the actor on Twitter.  Being not just brother but also a friend, he knows my sense of humor, probably better than anyone else having been subjected to it for longer than anyone else on this big blue orb, and he figured I’d get a laugh out of the actor IRL.  It didn’t take long for me to start playing with it.  Twitter, not Nathan Fillion.  Which I think is the point or it’s just me ...

Since this post was first published, I've released a total of 7 books (comprising two separate series of romantic thrillers: The Fated Series and Philly Heat), 4 erotic novellas, a collection of noir short stories, a young adult zombie apocalypse novella, and two audio books. And Fall to Pieces the second book in my Philly Heat Series recently won the 2022 RONE Award for best thriller/suspense. But still each new submission, each new release, inspires more nerves. 😳 If you ever meet an author who claims to not be insecure... they're lying.

...and someday, you will be a real book too Okay assuming most everyone has seen and/or read Pinocchio, we all know that's not how the line goes. Nevertheless, that's how life as a digital first author feels. Digital first??   What's that???? I am so glad you asked. Before the advent of the eReader, being published was HARD. Like really hard. Like nearly fucking impossible. You had to sacrifice a virgin under a purple moon naked on the third Thursday of the seventh year kind of hard. Then came the eReader. And digital first was born. It’s not exactly easy now but it is POSSIBLE. And that’s frickin delightful.

Editing: How do you do it? I think every writer has their own systems, habits, superstitions. Friday nights are reserved for writing with a glass of wine, watermelon sour patch kids and some rock ‘n roll. Yeah, it's kinda like that. ;) But even more important, perhaps, is my editing process. This is my pre-submission editing, before I pass to my betas, before I send to publishers, before I do any edits required by the publisher.   This is when I take my rough draft and polish it. I type THE END and spend the next couple days reading other author’s books. Like sorbet between gourmet courses, I cleanse my palate with the words, the images, created by others. Then I read my book, beginning to end, making the obvious changes, run spellcheck and grammar check, and read it again. Then it goes to my two favorite betas: my daughter Casey who is a fiend for typographical and grammatical errors – she has a vendetta against homophones – and my very good friend Jen who is ...

Some time ago I ran post titled Movie Adaptations: It was the Best of Times listing my favorite adaptations with the promise of the companion piece. I submit for your enjoyment It was the Worst of Times We all know the movie never does the book any justice. Here are the ones I think sucked big time: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  do I need to explain WHY this one made the cut?  Ender's Game ; Flowers in the Attic  - no. Just no. Hell no; and  The Last Airbender.  Okay, yeah, I know Nickelodeon's Avatar was a cartoon and not a book. But flying hog monkeys it was deep, an excellent display of storytelling, and the live action movie was crap.  Nearly any feature film length adaptation of a Stephen King horror novel (not the adaptations of his dramatic short stories I praised in Best), to be fair, I haven't seen nor will I see the new It cause, ya know, clowns; and The Dark Tower would've been a fun/exciting movie if I hadn't read th...

Check out this article by Philly Voice magazine Some time ago, but not so long ago, my cousin’s wife sent me a copy of an ad she saw on craigslist – a couple were looking to unload their hand-crafted BDSM play room. This confused me. Why would she be sending me this? And that’s what I asked her. “I know you read the Fifty Shades books.” Was her answer, to which I replied, “I also read the Hannibal Lecter books. Want to come over for dinner Saturday?” She laughed.   And the awkward moment was over. But this interaction has lingered on the edges of my subconscious since. Why is there such a stigma on romance, especially erotic romance? No one assumes I’m a cannibal because I read Thomas Harris’ books. Or that I practice witchcraft since I’ve read the Harry Potters. That I abuse my children (I have every book by V.C. Andrews); or intend to kill all my neighbors in a televised fight to the death (Hunger Games). I have eclectic taste in books, as evidenced by ...

Have you ever heard the old adage: WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW? Taken literally this would mean the end of fiction as we know it; and our judicial system would grind to a halt stymied with a plethora of libel suits. What a boring, gray dull world that would be. However, a writer should, less literally, write what she or he knows. [And I’m talking fiction here, ‘cause fiction is what I do. Well actually I’m a paralegal by trade, writer by wiring, so I guess I do both and the non-fiction pays better, but I don’t love it. I love the fiction. Let’s stick to that.]

2018 was *not* my year. Between personal, professional and financial difficulties, I struggled in every way. Including with my faith; and with my writing. I hadn’t realized before how deeply connected the two were. Have you read any of my stuff? Yeah, I bet you didn’t see a connect there either. But it seemed the further I felt from God, the harder it was to reach inside and pull out anything creative. It was hard to care about something that felt, for the first time ever, useless. I’ve had moments, years even, in my life where I was too busy, or too scared, to pursue my dream but I still wrote in those moments. I never walked away from that, I just did it for me. In many ways, to keep myself sane, it often felt. Until this year when I couldn’t string a sentence together and wasn’t bothered by the lack. I could barely generate an interest in reading, my second favorite activity. As Christmas approached, I began to feel a loss. A yearn for mass, for ritual and rite, for the feel...

My brothers are three of my favorite people. I was almost 17 months old when the eldest of the three, Kenny, was born. Nicholas arrived 8 days before my third birthday. And Christopher about 4 months after I turned five. I don't remember a time when there wasn't a Kenny Flade. But I remember when Nick and Chris came home from the hospital. My mother put them right in my arms, each of them she says including Kenny, and told me they were mine to take care of and to love. I took that responsibility seriously our entire lives. As several bullies could attest if they were willing to admit they got beat up by a girl. My brothers weren’t just my first friends – they’re my best friends. They know all my stories, are featured in all my memories, and share all my friends. I am often saddened by the fact that over the course of adulthood we've made our lives and built our individual families in different states scattered between Florida and Philly. For...

The hubz and I finally went on our honeymoon in beautiful Negril, Jamaica. We made friends with locals and with visitors from all over the United States and Canada.   Our new friends were quick to acknowledge our distinctive accents. Upon our return I began final copy edits and formatting for my most recent release Fated Desires . And the paperback cover went to print, approved by me, with an egregious error. “…the young widower next store” instead of the accurate “…the young widower next door.” It’s vernacular, a local-ism, and embarrassing - it’s on the damn cover! Between being called out in Jamaica for my accent and that damn phonetic typo, a friend suggested I write a blog post in Philadelphian. I thought that was a fun idea. Thanks, Deb This is Deb of the great idea It’s harder than I thought it would be. I don’t exactly recognize that I’m not pronouncing a particular word correctly.   For example, did you know that may...

I always dreamed of being an author. Not for the fame, the fortune, but for the joy. I love when someone tells me they enjoyed my book. I don't have words to adequately express how it felt when my daughter called me every so often sharing her emotional responses to certain events in the story. Sharing a part of myself that way is incredibly rewarding.  The stories and the characters come alive for me when I write. And I think - if I did my job well - that they come alive again when someone else reads them. Feels what they feel, rejoices and suffers along with them. But that only happens if people know its out there to be read. Marketing, promotion, publicity - a trifecta of necessary evils. I don't enjoy spending time online soliciting readers. It feels as if I'm spending all my time hollering READ MY BOOK instead of writing the next one. And I always worry that I'm annoying, or only reaching the same people over and over, which admittedly is annoying. Unfo...