Brooks J. Young finds herself in a situation more difficult than she would have ever imagined: homeless and living in a shelter. Haunted by her dreams, feeling herself losing control over her life and fearing her grip on sanity might be slipping away as well, she wages war against herself on a battlefield unlike any she had ever stood on before. She struggles to come to terms with herself through a tug of war with her emotions, her goals, her memories, and her heart! Will she grab hold of her destiny or will she let life as she knows it slip away?

Where God Took My Soul chronicles a journey, that begins with the unearthing of private shame, releasing childhood “secrets”, letting go of guilt, and becoming the mouthpiece of millions of her generation.

She realizes that through forgiveness of others and most importantly, herself, would prove to be her path to restore and rebuild her life by putting her life in the Master’s hand.

Writing Journey

Over the last seven years, I’ve gone through trials, tribulations and lessons learned. Homelessness, abuse and depression are a few paths I’ve traveled to healing and wholeness.

In April, 2006, Where God Took My Soul began as a  novel. After revisiting and brainstorming the plot and sample chapters I made a decision to write my life’s truth. Through prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit, I sat on the floor in my mother’s guest bedroom and wrote the introduction to my memoir.

These posts represent my journey in chronological order, so I hope they help you on your own path to writing your first novel. In them, I share my progress as well as lessons learned along the way.

January 2011:

• My website/blog had a makeover.My overall focus for the site were to have it on the WordPress platform, user friendly and a design that would match my personality and passion.
• Started a weekly topic, It’s Monday! What Are You Writing! to share my writing goals and accomplishments.
• Trashed rough draft: I thought it was best to trash my first draft and start from the beginning. I felt that my words were really boring. *yawn* If I felt this way, I knew my readers would too. I had to dig deep to express myself in a way that I know that I am able to do.

February 2011: First rough draft is complete. I’ve learned how to take time away from the book and relax. Now that the rough draft is complete, I will revisit the outline to make sure that I’ve included key components that I had written out. I am expecting to have the entire book completed and sent to Editor on April 2nd.

March 2011: Worked with graphic designer on the final cover. The process of designing the cover was fairly easy. Photos were chosen and suggested by cover artist. I love the photo and the natural hair she is rocking. Her hair is identical to mines. I am still working on my arms looking like hers. Overall, I absolutely love my cover.  I had a few bestselling comment via Facebook and that really let me know that I was on the right track.

April 2011: Sent to Beta Readers for input. Although the comments were great with little revisions, I felt as if something were missing. I’ve also learned that since I am terribly afraid of failing, I have to push my ‘perfectionist’ syndrome aside and write what I feel in my heart and what God tells me.

May -July 2011: Revamped the book. Working on marketing and book promotion.

August 2011:  Decided to publish the book May 2012.

 To stay abreast of upcoming events, subscribe to my newsletter below. You can also find me on Twitter or befriend me on Facebook.