S5E10: Turning Childhood Doodles into Epic Fantasy Novels, with Brooklyn Quintana

“When people reject you, you just have to say, ‘okay, it wasn't for them, and it's not a personal indictment against me’ and just carry on. Which is easier said than done. But you have to learn how to do it.” - Brooklyn Quintana

 

Brooklyn Quintana is a Florida-based author who received her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida.

 

A lifelong creative, Brooklyn always knew she wanted to tell wild and fantastical stories. From art pieces exploding with color, to bombastic piano recitals, to the first few stumbling steps into fiction as a young adolescent, the drive to create something unique was always there. As an early acolyte of the strange and unusual, Brooklyn found herself drawn to films by Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro, as well as art by Salvador Dali and Caravaggio. She was always inexplicably drawn to the dark, macabre, and wondrously weird things that life has to offer. Fortunately, as she grew up, that fascination with the twisted, surreal, and whimsical never went away. Brooklyn’s debut novel, Fynneas Fog: Nine of Swords, is the initial installment of a planned series consisting of nine books. Embarking on the adventure of a lifetime and beyond, young Prince Fynneas experiences life, death, and every bizarre realm in between. The sequel, Fynneas Fog: Blood in the Water, expounds upon Fynn’s fantastical world and introduces all new mysteries and beloved characters.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Unleash your creativity by turning your passion into a captivating book series that keeps readers coming back for more.
• Discover effective marketing strategies that will help you build a loyal fanbase for your fantasy book series.
• Overcome the challenges of dyslexia as an author and learn how to thrive in the fantasy book genre.
• Dive into the world of fantasy book series and learn the secrets to crafting compelling and realistic characters that resonate with readers.
• Explore the transition from a corporate job to authorship and uncover the key steps to making your fantasy book series a success.

Transcript:

00:00:03
Welcome to your Next Stop podcast.

00:00:08
Hello. Welcome back to your Next Stop. This is Juliet Hahn, and I say it every single episode. I'm so happy to bring you someone that has followed a passion and turned it into a book series. So welcome Brooklyn Quintana.

00:00:21
Brooklyn Quintana. Yep. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. Okay, so my.

00:00:27
So in season five, I have not had a last name that I haven't been able to say, but my listeners do know that I messed it up. Even though the editor did edit it out. I said to you, I need you to pronounce your last name. And I was like, oh, no, that's what I said in my head. And then when I said it live, it's not what I said in my head and I said it completely wrong.

00:00:48
But it is one of those things that sometimes it's interesting because you'll hear people will say, like, why can't people pronounce people's names wrong? Why can't they, you know, take the time to, like, learn someone's name? And I always will say to them, listen, I'm dyslexic. I could practice a million times. And it in my head, it's saying what I'm saying and then I say it and it comes out completely wrong.

00:01:12
And it's nothing that we do as people, I think on purpose. It's one of those things that, like, I will practice and practice and it just sometimes I mess up. It's one of one of those things. But I wanted to welcome you to your next stop and I'm really excited to get into this. So you are a Florida based author, the Phineas Fog series.

00:01:31
You're working on book three right now, Nine Swords and Blood in the Water or your books that are out. You've. I mean, I loved when we connected because people always will ask, where do you find your podcast guests? And you, you actually reached out to me and your email, by the way, and I think I said to you was like a really perfect way to get on and promote yourself. You know, we all know as entrepreneurs and as authors, sometimes it's hard to get out there because there's so much out there.

00:01:59
But your email laid out who you were. You got right to the point. I like, went to your socials and I was like, you know what? I don't actually really even need to do much more because you gave me all the stuff I needed. There's a lot of times where I have people that will reach out to me and they don't give me enough and then I'm like, okay, well, I need to have like a 15 minute call.

00:02:16
Like, I can't just, Just, you know, just. I do know what my podcast is even about, and you just did a really great job, so I want to kind of commend you on that. Thank you. It took a lot of time and refining to get to the perfect intro email when I'm reaching out for, like, marketing purposes and things. But efficiency, that is what has been key, I think, is just get to the point immediately.

00:02:36
Right. Which is great. Which is perfect. So people can find you at Brooklyn, and I'm going to spell your last name so you can also find it. So it's Brooklyn Quintana and it's Q, U, I, N, T, A N, A.

00:02:48
Right. I spelled it right. Okay, you got it right. And then YouTube your Brooklyn Q and then LinkedIn your whole name as well. So people can kind of follow you on all of those.

00:02:59
One of the other things, and I think I shared with you that I loved that you also reached out. My daughter, who's 14, is a huge. I mean, books are like, she loves. She's an athlete, she's all these things, but books are like, what she just absolutely loves. So I was telling her about you because she loves that kind of fantasy.

00:03:16
Um, there's, I mean, and so many series that she's actually gotten me into because that's like, where we connect. So I'll listen to the books that she's read already. So, like, I'm excited to also, you know, let her know. I said to her, I'm going to be, you know, interviewing an author that I think you actually are going to be really into her series. But, like, so I'm excited to learn more about kind of how you got into this.

00:03:37
And so if you can kind of share with the audience a little bit about you, a little bit kind of who you were as a kid, and then we'll get into, you know, how you became this, you know, author. Yeah. Well, first off, thank you for promoting me to your daughter. That's awesome. I hope she reads the book and likes it.

00:03:55
As a kid, I was like, definitely the nerdy, weird, quiet introvert kid. I did theater growing up. I loved being on stage. I started playing classical piano when I was like four or five. I think I did art, so a lot of drawing and painting.

00:04:12
And then my parents are very athletic, sporty people, so. So they threw me into sports, which I guess worked out in some ways or another. I did taekwondo and soccer primarily. But yeah, I was definitely the creative, artsy, whimsical kid who everybody was like, she's a little strange. But, you know, you grow into a confidence about your strangeness.

00:04:32
You're like, I am. But at the time, I was just like that weird, like, quiet, shy kid who just sat in the corner and I like, doodle all the time and come up with stories and everything. I love that. Well, you know, and I think it's important for people to hear that because it is what you kind of described, too, as I'm, you know, athletic, boys, athletic, my sons. And my daughter is super athletic, but it's not what her passion is.

00:04:55
She's good at it, and she does it because she enjoys it. But books are what she like. I mean, if anyone will say, oh, you know, I was trying to, like, you know, family reunions and all these things. Like, you know, I wanted to get into a little bit more conversation with Penelope, and she's a little bit more refined. She's not like, I, like, walk into a room and I'm like, blabbly, blabbly.

00:05:12
She's a little bit more of an observer, a little bit more like her dad. And I will always say, if you just ask her what she reads, and literally, like, I'll have aunts and uncles and cousins come back and they're like, oh, my God, it's like a different kid. And I was like, well, she is super, like, loves books. And the thing that's interesting is, as I said, so I'm like, severely dyslexic. My older son is really dyslexic.

00:05:31
But I love stories. I mean, I love story. I always was the person that would tell a story. I connected people with stories. So as much as reading, the act of reading is really difficult for me.

00:05:42
I can listen to all of that. And I. And so I was able to give my kids at a very young age that, like, even though, I mean, I read, like, the kids books and all of that, but we used to listen to books any trip that we went on. If we did road trips, I would always put a book on tape. And a lot of them were like, in the beginning, the Jack and Annie's, the Magic Tree Houses.

00:06:01
And that's where, like, kind of all three of my kids really did fall in love with stories. The boys, you know, kind of didn't then. They're not big readers as much now. But she got hooked on it. And it was Percy Jackson, I think she always says, is like the first series.

00:06:16
That's a good choice. Yeah. And I mean, I would actually love for you guys to connect, you know, because I think it's the things that she reads, she loves, you know, just like Greek mythology. I mean, the things that, you know, she's 14, will go to museums and the things that she'll tell. I like, look at her and I'm like, okay.

00:06:32
Hello. She sounds very, very familiar because you're like literally describing. My mom's also severely dyslexic. So when we would do car trips to and from Texas to Florida every year, my mom and grandma would always turn on. I hate them.

00:06:47
But we would always listen to James Patterson books. And then when I wrote my book, my, you know, my mom's like, oh, it's gonna take me Forever. It's 700 pages and I'm dyslexic. And she's not a reader. She's very sporty.

00:06:59
She's good at a lot of other things. This is not her cup of tea. And she read it and she was like, I found it really easy to focus on the story. And I got through it quickly, despite the dyslexia. A, because it's, you know, her child's book.

00:07:11
And B, and she's like, I just actually enjoyed the story. So it was fun. And like, I think it opened her eyes to. Fantasy isn't always like just for children. And it isn't just like magic tree house, Ms.

00:07:24
Frizzle type fantasy. Like you can explore really interesting things but also have like man eating mermaids. Right, right, right, right. I love that. So, okay, so tell us a little bit about your journey.

00:07:34
After kind of, you know, being the kid that was the doodler doing sports, what led you down the path that you are on now? I was always really into storytelling. Whether it was like getting a picture I drew and then running up to my grandma and explaining the intricacies of this character I've just designed or theater. I loved acting. Music is kind of like storytelling.

00:07:56
I like performing. I like telling stories. And I finished up high school and my parents were like, we don't care what you go to college for, but you're going to college for something. And I said, wonderful. English degree it is.

00:08:07
So I ended up going to the University of Central Florida and I got a bachelor's in creative writing. And you don't need one to write books. It was probably the most superfluous thing I should have listened to, got a business degree, honestly, because a lot of writing is doing business, actually. But it was fine. And I got to essentially just read and explain to my Professors.

00:08:27
I'm like, this is what I think Don Quixote is actually about. And they're like, wonderful. There's your A. You don't take tests. We just read books here.

00:08:33
That's right up my alley. And then I actually went into corporate America. I worked at law firms, I worked at financial firms. I was in political law compliance for a long time. I did Social Security, disability law, and I hated it.

00:08:47
And it was very stifling. And I just couldn't wait every day for the day to be over so I could go home. And I dreamed of writing a book. And I had an idea in my head and I just never had the energy to actually go and do it because my days were long and mind numbing and tedious. And then I quit.

00:09:06
I just left and said, I don't want to do this anymore. And my parents said, we're behind you 100%. We want you to be happy, follow your dreams. So I wrote a book. I love that.

00:09:15
And you know what? And it, it is to have someone behind you that says, I believe in you. Let's see. Where this goes is so important. And not everyone has that.

00:09:26
I mean, I'm sure you understand the, you know, the. Oh, definitely, yeah. Very, very fortunate. And I don't think I could have done everything I've done so far without my mom and dad being behind me 100%. And those days where, like, people don't care that you wrote them a nice email, they're just like, we don't care.

00:09:42
We don't want to talk to you. We're not even going to answer you. Some of the time you get really down and you're like, oh, maybe it's like, not worth doing. I should go back to a corporate job. It's more stable and it's, you know, a lot less rejection that feels personal at that point.

00:09:54
And then my parents are like, I mean, we don't care. Do. If that's what you want to do, if you want to quit now, do it. And then it feels like when they say that, I'm like, it is quitting. And then I don't want to be laying on my Deathbed in my 90s, like, regretful that I gave up because, like, I hit a hardship or something.

00:10:10
So I'm very, very grateful to have two parents who are very good about, you know, saying, okay, something bad happened. You're allowed 10 minutes to be upset about it. And then you've got to pick yourself back up and get going again because nobody's going to do it for you. We can't do it for you. It's entirely up to you.

00:10:24
So you can either wallow and mope, or you can dust yourself up, get back up, and keep going. I love your parents. They actually. And I not. But it's.

00:10:33
It's really interesting. I mean, it's a very similar way that I raise my kids. I want them to be happy. There's no, like, this is what you have to do. Yes, I would love for them.

00:10:42
I, you know, I went to university. My husband went to university. It is important to us. But, like, as I said, my son is. Is really dyslexic.

00:10:49
School's really hard for him, and he really doesn't like it. But he loves soccer, and he wants to play at a higher level, so that's why he's going. I was the same. I wanted to continue playing athletics, so I kind of went down that path of I'll go to university, but then also where I learned so many life lessons about myself. So I think one of the things that, you know, I hear from you that your parents gave you is you're gonna.

00:11:11
We're all gonna fail, right? We're all gonna have these kind of traumas, these hardships, but it's how you tackle them. So can you kind of give. If someone's sitting there like, oh, my God, I wish I had someone on my side that gave me that confidence. What would you say to someone that was sitting there like, I don't have anyone that's giving me the support?

00:11:30
Like, how would you suggest to them that they're, like, miserable in a corporate job? They have something they want to do, whether it's write a book, start their own business. They have a passion that they want to follow. Do you have any advice that you could give that person? Yeah, I think there's a couple things.

00:11:45
I think the most obvious advice would be before you quit your job, make sure that you have some kind of safety net, like nest egg, so that should anything go wrong, you're not on the streets. That's a logistics. I was raised by very logistical people, very black and white thinkers. So both of them were like, you need to make sure you're okay before you decide to go be an artist somewhere. I was like, that's fair.

00:12:05
I think another thing I would say is, even if you don't have people in your corner, like I said, I am very fortunate and very blessed to have two parents who are behind me 110%. They love the story, they believe in me, they come to events with me so I don't have to go alone because I'm just socially awkward. And I'm better at marketing when, like, my mom's there to be like, you're doing great. So. But even if you don't have people like that in your corner, I think a lesson that you have to learn, and even I learned with having my little cheerleader squad, is you have to toughen up.

00:12:37
Because if you're going to do something entirely driven by your own self determination and ambition, it's going to feel very personal when people say no or when people turn you down, or even worse, when people say we don't like it. It feels like a personal attack against you. And I think the best lesson my parents gave me is give yourself an allotted time to be upset and then stop. You cannot be continuously upset by things. It's going to hurt and it's going to be terrible and it's going to feel like the world has imploded and the walls are coming in on you and you're suffocating.

00:13:08
It's just the worst thing in the world. But you can only feel like that for so long. Otherwise you're going to get nothing done and you're going to be stunted in your growth and you're not going to progress forward. So you just have to be tough and say, like, okay, my product's not for everybody. Whether it be books or art or you're starting a small business or something like in technology, it's not.

00:13:26
Everything's not for everybody. And you're gonna have your demographic, you're gonna have your niche. And when people reject you, you just have to say, okay, it wasn't for them, and it's not a personal indictment against me and just carry on. Which is easier said than done. But you learn how to do it.

00:13:42
Yeah, no, I mean, it takes practice. And you do. As you said, you have to figure out that backbone. You also have to figure out the times where, okay, I'm a little bit more V. How can I tackle this so it doesn't completely take me down?

00:13:53
So the other thing I would love for us to talk about a little bit. So for like the parent that is listening to this or the adult that is raising a child right now that maybe is a little bit different than them, and as you said, socially awkward, but different than who they are, what advice would you give them? Because your parents obviously gave you. They. They said it was okay who you were.

00:14:13
They didn't try to change you. And I'm sure There was times where it was, you know, tough for them to be like, okay, this is who she is. Let's support her. But can you give that parent that advice and maybe, like, from, like, your teenage self, like, things that your mom and dad did that you were like, okay? You know, they helped me build that confidence.

00:14:33
Yeah. I think it's worth noting I'm the polar opposite of both of my parents. My dad is a. He's fifth or sixth generation military. He's a very straight lace, button down.

00:14:45
You know, emotions tamped down. This. We're just going to get things done. Very math kind of guy, black and white. And my mom is.

00:14:53
She's very practical. She's very good at logistics. She's a natural leader. She's just like a lion of a person. I couldn't be prouder of who they are, but they're the opposite of me.

00:15:03
I desperately don't want people to be like, Brooklyn, what do we do now? Be like, I don't know. Don't let me captain this ship. That's a terrible decision. I like having people around me to collaborate with, and my parents are new, much more.

00:15:18
We're just going to do it this way. Like, I know what to do, and I like bouncing things off of people. But. So, like, when I was a teenager, I was doing soccer, and I wasn't bad at it. I was the captain, but it wasn't.

00:15:29
I clearly wasn't going to join the Olympic team or anything. And both of my parents are uber athletes, and they recognized very early on, like, she's not super great at sports. So I just. I really enjoyed doing it. But my parents kind of were the people who were like, when I got an overinflated ego about soccer or something.

00:15:50
My mom and dad would definitely be. The kind of people who told me, look, you're good, but let's. You're not Cristiano Ronaldo. Dial it back a little bit. This is not where your strengths are.

00:16:00
You can do this for fun, and we're proud of you when you do well, and obviously we support you, but focus on things and have that competitiveness and that passion about things where you actually really do excel and to build on that. So I think that was one of the great lessons that my parents kind of had where they always supported me, but they also would let me know, like, you're getting too cocky or bring it down a notch or, you know, this is not where your strengths really are. We're just proud you're doing well at it, but you could do really, really well at this. But no matter what I chose to do, I had those people behind me. So I think my advice to parents would be, if you have a kid who's a bit of a little weirdo or just the polar opposite of you, embrace it and just say, like, as long as they're, you know, socially capable, let them be the little weirder that they are.

00:16:48
And if they like art, you know, let them do it. If they like acting and they're a bit dramatic, don't tell them to stop. Just let them be and encourage where you find their talents to be. So, like I said, like, I really liked soccer, but both of my parents were like, you're much better at drawing and piano and writing. That is where you are going to excel.

00:17:10
So this is a good hobby. It's going to keep you in shape and healthy, and you'll get out and make friends and see fresh air, but you're going to be much better at this in the long run. So also focus on your passions instead of what you think other people want you to be doing. I love that, and I love that last part that you said, because I think it's really important. Because I think it's, you know, where you get.

00:17:29
Your confidence as a kid is really. Is really important as you grow into a healthy adult. Right. With. With less traumas than.

00:17:37
Than you need. If it's like, okay, you either had parents that weren't. And I don't want to say honest, but there's, you know, I've. I'm a parent. I have friends that.

00:17:46
I'm like, okay, they're. They're like, not really talking about the real stuff. Like, I talk about the real stuff with my kids. It's like, yes, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and I think that is something that you touched on that's really important. So when you decided, okay, I'm stopping.

00:18:01
I'm going to stop my corporate job because I am, you know, I'm not happy. What was kind of. Was there a pivotal, like, moment? Was it something that happened? Was it just like, you were like, I've had enough.

00:18:14
Can you take us through that journey? When you decided, okay, I am all in to writing my books. Yeah. I mean, I think there's. There's two really pivotal moments where I said, this is what I'm doing.

00:18:27
My department was imploding, and it was just like rearranging chairs on the Titanic as you're going down. Like, it was just not a great situation for everybody involved. And I was 22. So watching that, it was very stressful. It was terrifying.

00:18:44
I'd never been in this environment. We had people. I was in Texas, so we had people flying in from Boston left and right to try and put out the fires. And it was a scary, stressful ordeal, and I didn't like it. I had no interest in trying to fix the problem because I didn't want to be there either.

00:18:59
And I was just like, this is horrible. I'm seeing people walk out of the office and protest. It was just a weird kind of couple of weeks. And then the other thing that I saw was like, okay, this is what I'm gonna do is I was watching the Crown with my mom and my grandmother, and there's an episode where Prince Philip has a flashback to going to this terrible school in Scotland where they had to do obstacle courses. And I thought, well, that'd be interesting, but make it tropical.

00:19:26
And then that, like, idea just kind of blossomed in my head, and so everything was going downhill, and I was just like, no, I don't want to be here. And they're like. My director at the time in my group at the company was like, look, I'll help you find any other position you want if this isn't for you. Like, you're good at things, you're smart, you're outgoing, which I think is funny. She thought I was outgoing.

00:19:48
And she's like, I will help you get into any other business unit you want to go to. And I said, no, I think I'm just leaving. She said, well, what are you going to do? Is that I'm going to write books? And she's like, that's the plan.

00:19:59
I'm like, yes, that's the plan. We're going to see how this goes. So, you know, I think that was one of the best things, was leaving that environment because it was very stifling, and I didn't like being put into this box that I was being kind of shoved into. So it's very liberating all of a sudden. Also terrifying because, like, oh, I don't have a real job, so I really have to make this work.

00:20:19
But also very liberating because it's like the shackles came off, and I could be who I wanted to be and not this weird construct that I had been for the past year. Mm. And I think one of the things that is so important, and I think so many people miss it, is this, whether you believe in God or the universe, like, these signs that kind of keep coming at us when it's time to make a move, right? When you're not on the path that you're meant to be on, whether, again, whatever you believe in. I truly believe that we all kind of have this path, but sometimes people just go through life without looking left and looking right and kind of thinking and hearing, wait, you know, I keep hearing this, or I keep.

00:21:01
This keeps coming up. Or I get really excited when I talk about writing a book, right? Every time I talk someone says they wrote a book, I get like, these chills and I'm like, oh, my gosh. That's kind of how I founded doing my podcast. It just kept coming to me, and I was like, I need to jump into this, right?

00:21:16
I need to, like, see what this is and see where it goes. And I think one of the things that you said earlier about the timeline is really important that people also don't give themselves a timeline when you were talking about kind of like, you can stew in your emotions for a little bit, but then it's like, get back up. I do believe it's also when you're trying new things, it's like, don't give up too early and don't hold on too long. And that's really hard, right? So, like, when I started this podcast, I was like, I'm giving myself a year, and then I'm going to reassess.

00:21:46
I'm putting the date down, and I'm going to go back and see if. I don't care how hard and how much I. I hate it at some points, which I never really did, but I didn't know, right? I was like, I'm just going to do it. So did you when you decided, okay.

00:21:58
That moment, it's like, okay, you know what? I'm so miserable. I can't. I'm not going to go on. I really do want to start pursuing this writing.

00:22:06
Was there any kind of exercises that you did to give yourself, like, okay, this is when I'm going to start. I'm going to do start here. So really talking to that person, that's kind of like where you were when you were 22. I did exactly what you did. I gave myself a year.

00:22:24
I sat down with my mom, we talked it out, and she said, a year. If you can't come out with a book in a year, you have to reassess and figure out what are you going to do. I was thinking about going to law school at one point. So she's like, you have a year. You have a year, and in a year, I want to See what you turn out.

00:22:41
And in a year, I turned out book one. So I think giving yourself that timeline, in a way, it keeps you accountable and it keeps you motivated. Because there were plenty of days where like, I'm working from home now. It's wonderful. My dog is here.

00:22:54
My best friend was my roommate. So I was having a good time. And then my mom, like I keep saying, I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful mom. My mom would call because I would always email my dad chapters. My dad's a big reader, so I'd email my dad chapters as I went along and said, what do you think about this?

00:23:11
And then if I change something, I would email him again. I was like, okay, I revised this. So I've sent you these two to see how they read together. So if I hadn't emailed my dad in a few days, my mom would call and she'd be like, we working? I'd be like, no, I'm taking a break.

00:23:23
And she's like, you've had a break for a few days now. Now you're getting lazy. It ceased to be a break and now you're just having fun. And she would, you know, she still does it. She will knock me back down and be like, it's your job.

00:23:34
You have to treat it like a job. You can't just go on month long sabbaticals from work and decide you don't feel like doing it just because you're working from home. It is your job, it's your career, and if it's really your passion, you have to go and do it. So I gave myself the timeline, but I have the unfortunate tendency to swerve and get sidetracked or very hyper fixated on other things. So it's very good to have my mom at the helm of my shit being like, course correct.

00:23:59
You gotta get back to work. Like, you can't just, you know, play outside with the dog all day or hang out and watch movies on Netflix. You have to work. I want to see that you're working. And then that accountability would come back where it's like, okay, well, we'll knock out a chapter this week, we'll knock out a chapter the next week, and then we'll go back and revise.

00:24:14
And I have something that I can tangibly show people who are asking me, like, what are you doing all day? I can be like, well, this is what I'm doing. I wrote these hundred pages here, the edits I've done. And I think that timeline as well as Kind of having a team behind me in my family very much helped me stay on track and get things done, because I wrote the first manuscript was done in six months, and it went off to the editor after eight months, and then it was fully ready to go out, ready to buy within a year and a half, maybe. That's awesome.

00:24:46
And so then with the. And I. And again, I love it. And whether, you know, you're talking about your parents being your team, but there's also people out there, right, that. That you can find friends, you can find accountability partners.

00:24:57
There's writing groups. My brother's a writer, so I have, like, such a fondness for this. But, like, there's accountability groups that you can find. You can find people that help you kind of stay that. That course because you're human, right?

00:25:08
Yeah, exactly. I have friends all the time who, anytime I see them, they'll be like, how's book three coming along? And then I feel guilty because I'm like, well, I haven't written anything in. So I have my parents who are like, we want to tangibly see you're working because, like, we're invested in you doing well. You're our only kid.

00:25:24
And then I have my friends who are like, brooklyn, what are we doing here? You said you were writing a book. We haven't seen you write anything. And I'm like, I know. I've been doing other things.

00:25:33
I got sidetracked again. And then my friends kind of knock me back into place a lot more brutally than my parents. Like, they are relentless. And I'm like, for a bunch of people who do not like reading, all of my friends are very invested in this book, doing well. And they're like, you gotta get your stuff together.

00:25:48
Like, let's go. Why are you not writing anything? Or I'll ask them out to dinner. Like, don't you have to write? I'm like, just let me have fun.

00:25:57
But it is. But it is a really good thing because it also shows you that they believe in you, even if they're not, like, saying, you know. You know, being a cheerleader but saying to you, hey, get back on track, because we're excited for you. Right? Yeah, definitely.

00:26:13
Like, I have some of the really best friends I could have asked for. Like I said, none of my friends are readers. I don't know how I keep acquiring all these people who are the polar opposite and surrounding myself with all these, like, engineers and scientists. All of my friends are engineers or marine biologists at this point. And then my boyfriend's A pharmacist.

00:26:30
So I have all of these people who are like very science oriented. And all of them at some point or another have come to my events. They'll come support me. I was at Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago. My friends came out to support me.

00:26:43
You know, they were talking to people for me. They're more outgoing. I have had a couple events at breweries. My, my friends have come in. One of my friends flew out from Texas to come to an event.

00:26:52
He's got my books on his shelf. He hasn't read them, but he'll tell everybody they're wonderful. So he's a great guy. So I just, I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by not only family, but a bunch of friends who are very invested in it doing well. We have a joke that one day I'll buy them a yacht.

00:27:06
We'll all have rum runners on the yacht together. So everybody, like, jokingly. When I see them now, it's like, where's the boat? Brooklyn. We gotta get the boat.

00:27:13
I'm like, I gotta write the book first, guys. Right? Oh my God, I love that. But I mean, it's important and you can see that you're having fun and that you do love what you're doing. Can you take us through?

00:27:23
Because I want people to get, you know, so they can purchase your book, they can go to your, you know, as I said, they can go to your YouTube, they can go to your LinkedIn, they can go to your Instagram, they can go to your website where they can find anything about and purchase. Right. Tell anyone else. I would love for you to take us through some of your favorite moments in your books. If you can do that.

00:27:47
Just like. And I want it to be like, not like you're thinking deep. Like when I said that to you, what was the first thing that came to your mind? Probably the jungle scene. I think that's like.

00:27:58
So book one is a very slow burn, old school, Tolkien esque fantasy. It's not modern fantasy where it's like the plot happens in chapter one and we're going. It is a slow burn mystery. Like, what's happening? What's this world?

00:28:11
There's a lot of characters to build up. It's a nine book series. So book one kind of has to ease you into everything. Book two goes a lot quicker. But the jungle scene in book one, I think is from what all of my friends who I forced to read the book and from readers who have actually read the book, who I don't know and I'VE ended up talking to the jungle scene.

00:28:31
When they're at school on the island and they're in the jungle. That's when everybody says the book really starts picking up. And it goes so fast and it is so fun from there. And at that point, you have a sense of who the characters are, and you're like, oh, my God. I did see this, like, Jumanji esque scene coming, and it's so fun.

00:28:49
It's a medieval series, so you don't expect, like, tropical jungle adventure with nights and training. So I think that's probably my absolute favorite part of the book. I love that. Okay, and so where are you on book three? Not to put the pressure on.

00:29:05
No, not at all. I have it plotted out. I had to rearrange some things, so it is, like, 80% plotted. And I will probably, hopefully, fingers crossed, like, get to work actually writing it September. But I think it'll go pretty quickly because I'm very, very excited about one of the characters that's being introduced.

00:29:26
And I have to keep reminding myself it's not his story because I keep wanting to give him more chapters. But I think it's going to be really fun. And it's a totally different vibe than book one and book three. And I'm excited for people to, like, join the adventure and, you know, go along with these characters and get to book three where things get absolutely wild. I am so excited for it.

00:29:46
Oh, that's cool. I. That. That makes me excited. So book one, you explained how long it took.

00:29:51
Did book two take any. Was it a different. Like, did you have a different feeling as you were going? Was it harder? Was it easier?

00:29:59
Book two was so much harder to write than book one because I took a break. I said, okay, book one came out. I'm gonna give myself, like, two months to hang out, relax, decompress. Because writing a book can be very stressful. Nobody tells you that part, right?

00:30:13
So I took a break. And then when I got back into it, I felt like when I was writing, the tone of how I was writing was different. My writer's voice was different. So then I had to reread book one to reacquaint myself with my own style of writing so that it seemed cohesive when I started writing it. And then I had to remind myself where these characters at and get back into their individual headspaces so everything made sense.

00:30:35
And then I changed the plot, like, three times. So then I had to go back and edit and, like, pull out little pieces where, oh, we used to have this plot. Well, that's gone. So now we've got to fix up this scene. So that was tedious.

00:30:47
And then I moved across country, so that put a damper on my writing progress for a while. And then I had wrist surgery, which obviously took me out of writing for a while. So book two, unfortunately, I had three surgeries on my arm, which kept me from writing. Then I moved from Texas to Florida and had to resettle. And then I kept changing the plot.

00:31:08
So book two had just the worst timeline of things going on. So it was super unproductive. It took probably more like a year and a half to two years, I think, for book two to be ready to go and not a disaster, right? No, that's understandable. So a question just as a non writer, but now I love, again, I love stories.

00:31:29
I mean, stories connect us. So many things about stories just make people either get to know someone a little bit more, you know, just gives you like that window into a person's personality. So one of the things that I'm very curious about, and you could say I have no idea, but this just came to my head. So, like, I would think that it's more difficult to write a series because of what you just said. Like, if you have people that are really invested in your characters and you make that character slightly different out of character.

00:32:03
Right. The readers are going to be like, what the hell? So you kind of have to stay on that path, I would assume, instead of like writing individual books where you can create a new character and have it be this new thing. It's like you kind of have to keep in that same. And it's.

00:32:17
I don't know if I'm making any sense, but in that kind of same context. Because we all evolve, right? I mean, you can. As we go to different decades and different things. I mean, I am the same person, but different than I was at 23.

00:32:29
Right. So I could see that kind of evolution happening with the character. But when you. If you don't have that big span, how do you do it? And it.

00:32:37
And maybe it is just like as you said, you had to reread and kind of get back in that headspace. But can you take me through a little bit of that? Because I'm very fascinated. Yeah. So I think writing a short standalone book would be the hardest thing in the world because I am neither concise nor have the ability to not sit there and delve into my character psychology.

00:32:54
So my books are very character oriented, not plot oriented. Obviously there's an overarching plot, but it's not like we have to defeat the Dark Lord. And obviously that's the end game. It's like, oh, Finn is up to this and, you know, this bad thing has happened to him and how is he going to deal with it? Also there's all these terrible things happening, but you are with Finn.

00:33:14
And Finn is uninterested in the plot because he's a person. Like, we don't live as people thinking, my destiny is to go do this. And so I have this straight line trajectory. We go on little side quests because we're people. So that's kind of how I write.

00:33:28
There's no A to B. It's like we've got a lot going on with a lot of people. And I think it's really fun to write, especially this series. I guess it's the only series I've ever written, so I don't know. But I'm really enjoying it because I think it's really fun to hang out with the characters for so long.

00:33:45
And I think the. One of the most fun things and one of the most difficult things simultaneously is what you were saying is that evolving character. So Finn's 12 and then he turns 13 in book one. In book two, he's 13, 14, and then there's a slight time skip and then in book three, he starts out at 16. So you have the same person, but you have to keep their personality realistically similar to where they started.

00:34:09
Like that's who they are as a person. But now all these things have happened to him. And also he's growing up. He's not 12 anymore. Now he's 16.

00:34:17
So not only is he a 16 year old boy, but also all these horrific things have happened to him in these past two books. So it's a lot of, like book three is thinking about, like, well, based on his personality, how would the character Phineas deal with what's happened and how would he go forward based on who he is as a person? And then you have to do with that, with all of the characters, who are they as people? How are they going to react to how book one ended, how book two ended? How are they coping with this realistically while also maturing as the book series goes on?

00:34:49
I love that. And that's a great answer. Okay, and this is probably the last question before we wrap up because I know I said to you we'd be like between 30 and 45 minutes and this could be. We could get into a discussion about this because. So I will leave this as the last question, but are you as into.

00:35:06
And as a kid, are you into, like, movies and those stories? Or were you the kind of kid that loved a book and then, like, if it was changed into a movie, you were like, oh, they changed this and they changed that. And the reason why I'm asking is because I think it's really. I was always obviously more of, like, the movie, and then maybe I would have read the book or listened to the book and it didn't bother you as much. My daughter, if something's like, when she loves the book and then it's made into a movie when she was younger, she'd be like, no, but they made this different and made this.

00:35:35
And she didn't love that. Like, she loved the book so much more than a lot of the movies that came out. So what kind of kid were you? And then kind of. What kind of person are you still in that?

00:35:46
That's an interesting question. I wasn't a big reader as a kid. Like, my dad read me the Harry Potter series, and I picked up a couple books of my own volition. But I was definitely. I loved movies.

00:35:57
I wanted to be an actor. And then as I was getting a little older, I really wanted to be a director. And I was looking into film schools. And I love the craft of visual storytelling, like how camera angles can portray a certain emotion. I think that's amazing.

00:36:11
And then as I've gotten older and I obviously read a lot more now, I think one of the most interesting things is the fact that there are people like your daughter who's like, well, they've changed Professor Snape from the book to the movie, and now I'm livid. Or, Percy doesn't have blonde hair. He's supposed to have black. And in my mind, I don't. I like, divorce the two.

00:36:31
They're not the same thing. Like, I could watch Percy Jackson or Harry Potter or something and have the context for what's happening on a deeper level maybe, than somebody who's casually watching it. But it doesn't quite bother me, I guess, if it's different, because in my brain I'm like, well, this isn't the same thing. He's called Percy. But it's not the same thing as the book.

00:36:54
Or I've been watching the old TV show Hannibal right now. So I have the context of having read Harris's books, and I'm like, oh, well, yes, well, this happened back in Lithuania. So I understand. My boyfriend's like, that's not. Nobody has mentioned this.

00:37:09
And I'm like, yes, but I have that context because I've read it. But it's completely irrelevant to what's going on. But if you have the context, it helps you a little bit. But I understand that nobody has made one reference to Lithuania. So I just kind of like think about them like they're different things.

00:37:24
This is a different version of the same thing or a retelling. And I think in a way it's a very traditional way to look at it because like back before we had written language or before writing and reading were commonplace, we had oral storytelling. So like we have the Odyssey that was just retold and retold and retold. So every bard who had retold it was probably retelling it just slightly different. So I guess that's kind of how I look at movies and books is it's a slightly different retelling.

00:37:53
They had the same bare bones. And then you just zhuzh it up based on the media. Because a movie isn't going to tell the same story as an 800 page book or a 30 page comic book. You can't do it. They're all different things.

00:38:05
So you have to adapt where you can and build on things where you can. And obviously you have to have a certain runtime. You can't have an eight hour movie. So I just divorced the two from each other. And where there's context needed that I already have in my head from the book, I think it's nice, but unnecessary.

00:38:19
Okay, I love that. And I lied. I'm gonna ask another question. Go for it. I don't know why I said that was gonna be my last question because that's so.

00:38:27
Never happens. So now I'm a little bit fascinated with. Because I love how you just laid that out. So you definitely have this like creative mind where you know, even just how you described the angles in that. And I think that is such a beautiful gift when people have that.

00:38:42
And you, the way you described your parents, it doesn't seem like that they were super into the creative. Right. So I would love like, was it a grandmother? Like where do you think did someone when you were younger like talk about, like, did you watch movies with them? And they would talk about things like this.

00:39:00
Did. Did you know was it. I don't know. I'm just gonna leave it at that. And then I'll give you the context of what.

00:39:05
Cause my, my husband is creative in a different way, but gives my kids this really creative side that is beautiful. Like with music and movies he loves it. And there's things that he loves about movies that all of my kids really love, like a good story because of the way my husband watched movies. And why, like, why, like, he loves movies. Loves movies.

00:39:26
And so I'm just curious if where you think that came from.

00:39:32
I guess it's like an amalgamation of things, really, when it comes to, like, artistic expressions and things. I have a lot of relatives long past who were concert violinists and concert pianists and opera singers and things like that. So my grandma, whose family was the very musically inclined side, she wasn't. She could barely play a radio, and neither can my mother, but they very much encouraged piano. And my grandma took me to my piano lessons, and she was the one who made me practice and would turn on, you know, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky and make me listen to it.

00:40:06
And, you know, she loved Camille Saint Song. So we would over and over listen to Dance Macabre, and she would say, like, okay, this is what this sounds like. What are you envisioning? So she got me really into that, like, envisioning what the music is portraying, like, in a story. And then my dad and I always used to go see movies.

00:40:24
My mom hates movies, theater. She is perpetually convinced a cockroach is going to fall on her, so she never goes to movies. My dad and I, we always used to go to movies together. We still do on occasion when we can work it out with schedules. So I think that's really special to me.

00:40:37
It's something we do. But he got me into movies. But he always gets so upset with me when we go see movies because even when I was a little kid, I would do it, and we walk out and he'd say, well, what'd you think of the movie? And be like, and I can't believe this happened. And can you believe?

00:40:50
And he's like, I was just watching it for enjoyment. I didn't. I wasn't picking up on these subtexts you're apparently getting into. And I would get so heated. And my poor father was like, I don't.

00:40:59
I don't know why you're so upset. And I was like, were we watching the same movie? Are you not furious about this, this and this? And he's like, no, it's just a movie about, like, car racing. I don't know why you're getting so up in a twist about it.

00:41:12
So my poor dad, he puts up with that every single time we go to the movies. But I guess that's where the love of movies started. And then I was, of my own accord, the kind of person who took everything not at face value and would sit there and watch it and be like, I think this could mean this. And, oh, well, this person was framed out and is a little blurry, so maybe they're, like, sketchy or the villain. And my parents were like, maybe they just didn't put them in frame.

00:41:37
I don't know why you're thinking about it too much. Well, it's just. I think, yeah, that's cool. I mean, that's just the way your brain works, you know, like, you had that. You have that creative side, which is that's what lineage of families.

00:41:47
And all that stuff just fascinates me because I think it's really cool because sometimes it is just innate of who you are, and other times it's experiences. And so I kind of love diving in that with people, because you never know. And you never know if it's like one of those little things that kind of sparked this big thing, because you had that moment that was like, oh, my gosh, I saw something different because of this experience. And now this kind of brought me into the passion of what I love. And so I love how you just framed that, and I appreciate it.

00:42:18
Yeah, I think it's like being very individual. I think some people are really fortunate to be born into families where they're very similar to their parents and they could pass on, like, the knowledge of something that they share. And I think I always joke with my parents. They found me somewhere not really their child. I'm like, I don't know where you got me.

00:42:37
If I was really your kid, I'd be like an accountant or something. But, yeah, we go to movies, and I'm over here, like, getting way too worked up. We saw Knives out, and I was like, and there's this subtext and this subtext. And my parents were like, we just watched a murder mystery. I don't know what you were talking about, but, you know, they don't usually stop me unless I go on, like, absolute tirade about something.

00:42:58
But, yeah, I just really like movies. I don't know who else in my family is on board with movies to this level, but I really like them. Hopefully I have kids one day and they like movies, too. Right? Right, right.

00:43:08
You never know. Right. They could be polar opposites, too. But I appreciate you laying this. Can you let everyone, again, know where they can find you, where they can find your books, and, you know, just where to follow you so they can kind of stay with you?

00:43:21
Through book three, because when this goes out, I know you'll be longer into book three, which is exciting. I appreciate your optimism that you think I'm gonna get work done. You can find me on Instagram at Brooklyn Quintana, on YouTube at BrooklynQ. TikTok. I think it's the Brooklyn Q.

00:43:42
Let's see LinkedIn. It's just my name's Brooklyn Quintana. And then. Am I missing any? Oh, my website is brooklynquintana.com or you can go to phineasvog.com either.

00:43:53
Or mine has a bit more about, like, events I'm doing and places I'm going and what libraries have my book and what stores will carry it. You can buy the book on phineasvog.com or you can buy it on Amazon. It's on Prime. It usually ships out pretty quick. It's also available on Barnes and Noble online and most online book retailers.

00:44:10
That's awesome. Well, thank you so much, Brooklyn, for joining your next stop. I so appreciate you sharing your story and sharing your journey with the listeners. You guys, you know what to do, like rate, review, and share. I always say it share, and everyone laughs.

00:44:24
But I say share because you don't know who needs to hear this. You don't know who right now is kind of at that crossroads of their life where they just need to get that push and the kick and this episode might be that. So, again, thank you so much, Brooklyn. Thank you so much for having me. It's so much fun.