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Dave and Lillian Brummet have been writing professionally as a team since 1999, starting out as free-lance writers – which they continue to do today. To date, they have written three published books, a family cookbook memoir and several published songs. The Brummets are also the hosts of the Conscious Discussions talk radio show and of the Authors Read radio program. They supplement these activities with two blogs and a newsletter in an effort to provide ample information to their audience. The main focus of their work is to inspire hope in individuals, helping the average individual realize the value of their efforts and encouraging them to become more positive, proactive in life.

Thank you Dave and Lillian for taking the time to answer some questions for us!  To start, please tell us about your latest project.

We just finished experiencing the emotional rush of watching the revised edition of Towards Understanding come out in e-book via booklocker.com around the end of July. This edition includes five additional poems that create an ending I am more comfortable and one that fits better with the overall theme – finding understanding about one’s purpose and value in life. Only one month prior to this we saw the release of Purple Snowflake Marketing’s 2nd edition, also in e-book format via booklocker.com

Have you received any awards for your work?

Oh yes, actually quite a few – which is really quite a humbling yet encouraging experience! Back in 2004, with the release of our first book Trash Talk - we were honored with an award for "outstanding use of various media in ongoing outreach work to reduce waste in our environment" by the Recycling Council of British Columbia.

Seeds of Diversity also awarded us with a Certificate of Appreciation for volunteer contributions and were recognized by Boundary Family Read - Columbia Basin Alliance For Literacy for my ongoing support for this organization.

Our efforts to promote conscious and green living has brought us recognition in all kinds of unexpected ways, for instance we received carbon offset certificates from Brighter Planet organization and the Brummet’s Conscious Blog (consciousdiscussions.blogspot.com) was recently listed as one of the Greenest Blogs on the Planet – by Best Green Blogs Directory.

My husband, Dave, has also won an award for his photography through Cottage Magazine – he is the graphic artist that manages our website, promotion materials, print or audio ads and book cover designs… a handy hubby indeed!

Do you also do speaking engagements, or seminars?

Sure, we’ve done a few locally over the years at the library, to youth groups and at one of the local high  school’s writing program. Public appearances are not my strong point – however I am fluent with radio and print appearances. That is the beauty of developing a unique marketing plan – you can utilize your unique talents and current situation, standing out among your peers.

How has your education, profession or background helped you in your writing career? Or conversely, how has you writing success helped you in your profession?

Starting and running two successful businesses in the past fully prepared us for the amount of self-discipline and energy it takes to be self-employed. We knew what we were getting into beforehand and, actually, our experience in developing flexible marketing plans played a large role in our present career. Dave and I have both taken a variety of courses from business and hospitality management courses, to small business, computer and writing courses in the years prior to delving into free-lance writing.

What kind of other works (books, scripts, poems etc.) have you had published?

Dave and I have co-written two non-fiction how-to books; I have written one on my own so far, however we work together on everything we do be it graphics, marketing, editing, research – Dave and I are able to share the load in this way.  Our first book, Trash Talk, was based on a column that I began in 1999, which quickly grew to include Dave as a writer in order to reach the international audience with weekly articles. This book inspires proactive behavior in readers by stimulating them with positive knowledge and real tools to save money and green the planet. Trash Talk was first released in 2004 in paperback format, however this year it was also released in hardcover. Towards Understanding – would be book #2 – and this was released in 2005 in soft cover format. This book is a collection of poetry in chronological format that share the story of recovering from an abusive childhood, being on my own before I was 14 years old and finding the value and purpose for my life.

A reviewer recently commented that a unique aspect of this particular book of poetry is the exploration into a variety of poetic styles. This book, too, was released in hardcover this year – and as we discussed earlier, it was revised and released in e-book format in late July. Purple Snowflake Marketing is the third book that we have written and this is based on the experience we had as authors, book reviewers and radio show hosts in dealing with the media, networking and making contacts, building a strong platform to create name recognition from and developing a frugal, effective marketing plan for our books. This is available in e-book format only since writers are on their computers and will want to access the 900 resources we offer with just a click of their mouse.

Is there any aspect to your profession that gets you in touch with your readers directly?

There are several. First, we make ourselves available through the contact button on our site – www.brummet.ca - also they can message us through myspace. Readers who are drop by one of our two radio shows can utilize the station’s message center or leave comments on the radio show sites. Alternatively we can be found at facebook, selfgrowth, authorsden, twitter and other social networking sites.

So there are a lot of ways an individual can contact us. We encourage this because their comments help us refine our writing, improve the radio show or glean ideas for future projects or topics. We also share their tips with our audience via the two blogs I manage and on the Conscious Discussions radio show. In this way, our audience is able to help inspire and accelerate the conscious shift we are seeing in the world.

What will your next project be?

I am currently working on editing and revising the e-book version for Trash Talk. We are looking at making this a two-part series due to the volume of information we can now share. We are working with booklocker.com exclusively right now, however we do have plans on joining clickbank around the end of August, which offers a strong affiliate program, among other incentives.  So it is in our plans to have all three of our book titles out in e-book format through both booklocker.com and clickbank by the end of this year.

After this we have several other book projects that have been set aside until we have time to get back to them. (she laughs) These projects are about conscious gardening (biodynamic, seedsaving, succession crops, organic, composting) and cooking from the garden harvest. I also have a second book of poetry that I would like to see reach the public in the future… so yes – lots of projects for us!

Who inspires you on a personal or business level?

There are so many that it would be hard to list them all here. First, I suppose, I must admit that I hear my mother’s voice in my head often. “Start how you mean to continue” is one. This refers to setting your boundaries and creating a precedent to follow. Another is “Only handle things once” – for me, this is a great piece of advice and encourages me to complete projects, rather than leaving bits of things to do later and creating a mess.

Secondly I would have to say that Einstein’s habit of not memorizing things he could look up in a book helped me discover the value of lists. I can tell my cycle of thoughts to quiet down when I know I have that item on the list and that it will be taken care of as other things are checked off. This way I feel organized, but at the same time I feel less stressed from repetitive, stressful thinking.

What type of work is the most rewarding or satisfying for you?

When looking back at all the jobs I’ve held the only ones that appealed to me were ones that showed an immediate result. When gardening, for instance, I can look at the beauty my work created, the aide I provided the various little microsystems and all their critters. This feeling of satisfaction is also one that reinforces a feeling of worth. It is a strong passion of mine to feel like my life has value. Every day I want to look back and be thankful I was here and justified the gift of living and breathing at this moment.

What can you recommend for writers who are just getting started and are trying to make a name for themselves?

New writers need to learn patience – it sounds easy, but it is not. They will also need good organization skills, excellent self-discipline, good verbal as well as written communication skills and some marketing experience would certainly be of benefit. Building a platform to create name recognition from is a slow process – sometimes taking years.

Articles can be in the hands of a magazine publisher for months before you hear if they even want the piece or not, and then you’ll have to wait until it is actually published before you get paid. So you have to know where each piece is and be writing all the time in order to have a steady paycheck coming in. Authors are often paid quarterly or every six months – although every publisher will have their own unique schedule in this regard. And there are a lot of potential expenses to get caught up in if the author isn’t careful. Publicists and agents won’t take you on if you don’t have at least 5,000-30,000 for marketing upon the release any one book. Whereas the author can do a lot of that work themselves if they are willing. So I guess the main thing is to be realistic, do your research and do as much as you can yourself to reduce your costs.

How did you get started as a writer?

I grew up in a broken home; my mother was married four times and two of those men found me too attractive, unfortunately. Sadly there were no rulebooks at the time to help families deal with situations like this and I found myself on my own and on the street before I was 14 years old. I stayed out of the government system by working the same jobs I always had up to then, such as working for nurseries and babysitting and yard chores and the like while going to public school. Soon, though, I found out how different I was from others at school and I just didn’t fit in anymore. I mean the children in school were giggling about sex and painting their nails, I had calluses, broken fingernails from the work and bills to pay – we lived in different worlds. So I stopped going to public school for a few years.

At age 15 I was caught living on my own and was taken to a foster home where I was given the option of working part time, having some independence still, but going back to school to get my grade 10. Which I did, but when I soon was on my own again by choice this time, more due to my discomfiture with family activities and bonding than anything else. At 19 I went back to school and eventually received a university level of grade 12 (meaning some of the highest available courses in maths, sciences, etc). Eventually I took several other college courses that lead to a career in the field of hospitality management in my mid-twenties. On the side, I helped run my mother’s market garden and my husbands drum teaching business. To say I was on over-achiever is not an exaggeration. I had this drive in me to not let the past be forever torturing me and holding me back.
 
When I was growing up, teachers often commented on my writing ability - and honestly, English was one of the few classes that kept me going to school when I was first on my own. I am not sure why, but the pen and I have always been very comfortable with one another. I used poetry as a healing tool, a way to get the pain out where I could examine it. Eventually, prodding from friends lead me to enter a contest and then another and another… I never did win a grand prize, but my work did appear in five hardcover anthology books and several publications throughout North America. I also had the honor of attaining "Editor's Choice Award for outstanding Achievement in Poetry", not once – but twice. These small achievements and praises gave me some confidence in the quality of my work.
 
But what prompted me to write as a career began with a bad car accident – a three-car pile-up and I was in the middle. After a year of full-time physiotherapy, followed by a year of trying to get back to operating my business and continuing therapy, I realized I was never going to be able to continue that work full-time.
 
At that point Dave and I were feeling like our lives were going the wrong direction. I knew that with the injuries received from the car accident, I was not able to continue to run my business and having a full-time job elsewhere was not looking like a possibility due to chronic pain issues.  I mean, we worked hard for our careers and to have it just taken away like that was really shocking – of course, I’m grateful for it now. At the time, however, I looked back at my life in disgust because I felt all my efforts, overcoming the past, building a business… all the work, pain… it was all for nothing. No one would notice and no lasting benefit was left behind. I questioned why I survived the life I had only to have these things happen – and I questioned the value of my life. This was the trigger that helped me realize that I just couldn’t live like that any longer. Dave and I had several heart-to-heart discussions about the meaning of our lives, what was important to us and how we mean to use the time we are given. I wrote a short poem about it at the time:
 
LOCOMOTION
 
Locomotion keeps me moving through the confusing compulsive waves of life. And, lost in this rush, I consume and exhaust myself for the unknown. Feeling awfully tired, I pause - and look in at my routines in disgust. And a desperate yearning to escape beyond the maze, and into self-sufficiency arises.
 
Right around this time, my husband was taking a writing course and I began taking it alongside of him. Soon, our submissions were accepted and sold and a free-lance career began, which later developed into our career as authors.

Which is your favorite book/work published? Is there a favorite?

Do I have to pick ONE? (She laughs). My favorite book of all time would have to be Shibumi by Trevanian – this book on my shelf is so dangerously close to falling apart despite layers of tape and glue holding it together. Closely on the heals of that one would be Great Peacemakers by Ken Beller and Heather Chase, The Ovum Factor by Marvin Zimmerman, The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer, Battlefield Earth by L Ron Hubbard and Hawkwood’s Voyage by Paul Kearny. I know I will think of dozens of others later, but these are the ones that come to mind first.
 
What does a typical work day look like for you?

It will vary with the gardening season slightly – since I tend to do the garden, yard and pet chores as early and as late as possible to beat the summer heat. However, I tend to spend about 2 hours in the morning dealing with emails that have arrived since the closing of the previous day, reviewing upcoming events on my schedule for the day, rotating the featured shows on the Conscious Discussions site. Following this, at between 8-9:30 AM I tend to spend time with the dogs training and walking them, etc and doing yoga. After a snack I’m back in the office to manage my two blogs and run one of the radio shows, or deal with interviews and any other emails or messages.

The afternoon, unless something else is booked, is usually reserved for marketing and writing. I write when the mood strikes, so I tend to be flexible with the hours here. When I need a break I’ll wander out of the office and start some laundry or do the dishes and run the vacuum. In this way I find a balance between managing the house and the office. I don’t find myself wasting time on social networking sites or forums… I tend to hit the my two favorite forums once every day or two, and thesocial networking sites three or four times a day -posting several times in a 15 min time frame before moving on. I find ping.fm quite useful for this since I have it set up to sent each post to facebook, linkedin, twitter and myspace - all at once.

Dave and I tend to trade off on the office in the late afternoon or evening when I am tired and he is raring to go. (She smiles) He likes to stay up late and do graphics, editing and writing without the distractions of barking dogs and ringing phones.

Have you ever had a mentor, or someone who sparked your passion for writing?

Yes, in school English teachers were always very supportive – several would read my work out loud or enter it in contests, which was a really cool feeling as a young person.

Finally, a most important question: what was the last song you sang out loud when you were by yourself?  :)

Ha! What an unusual question! Well, you are probably going to roll your eyes but I sing all the time and just yesterday I was humming Xmas songs – couldn’t get them out of my head for a while, and I’m sure I drove everybody nuts! (She laughs) A few moments ago I sang bits of Brian Adam’s When you Love Someone, and then my husband’s song Keep the Change (performed by the band Grooveyard) and then Would I Lie to You? by the Eurhythmics.

Thank you Lillian and Dave! We wish you great success with your upcoming book projects!