Fantasy author Madison C. Brightwell is chatting with me today about her new alternative history novel, The World Beyond the Redbud Tree.
Bio:
Madison C. Brightwell is an author and a licensed MFT with a doctorate in psychology. She has been working as a therapist since 2006, before which she worked as a professional actress and in film and TV development. She has written four other novels and three self-help books in the field of psychology. Since moving to Asheville, North Carolina, from her native Britain, Madison has become inspired by the history of this land, originally inhabited by the Cherokee. For this and her other novels, she has drawn on many of her experiences helping clients with trauma, addiction, and chronic pain.
Welcome, Madison. Please tell us about your current release.
The World Beyond the Redbud Tree was published by Koehler Books in April 2023, and has since garnered best-seller status on Amazon and an award from the ABA, along with many five-star reviews.
What inspired you to write this book?
I started writing this book in May 2020, partly as a response to the pandemic. I felt that people needed some hope and inspiration, so I wanted to visualize a utopian society that we could strive for, that would be an antidote to all of the dystopian fiction out there. I intended this book to be the first of a trilogy. I also wanted to use the book to tell an important message and to get people thinking about the themes in the book.
Excerpt from The World Beyond the Redbud Tree:
Prologue
Tears streamed down her face, warm and comforting on her skin. She let them fall. Waves of grief passed through her and then were released to the earth below. Sitting cross-legged on the moist grass, she felt strong hands clutching hers on either side. Her eyes were closed, and all she heard was the soft chanting of the group around her, and a mellow voice intoning:
“We send our dear little Belilly across the Rainbow Bridge for the last time, where all is peace and comfort. And we will miss her, for she brought joy to everyone she met, and now her time has come, and she can remain with us no more.”
The girl’s body swayed back and forth in rhythm to the soft flute music playing a tune she knew well because she had heard it many times before. There were no words, but she hummed a sweet harmony to the notes.
The smell of jasmine permeated the air. She remembered how Belilly had loved to sniff the scented air on her morning amble. She remembered the way the breeze would ruffle Belilly’s beautiful white fur and how her whiskers twitched in anticipation of the events of the day ahead. The memories were bittersweet: bitter because she knew she would never again experience them, and sweet because she had experienced them so many times before and they would always exist in her memory.
Gradually, the tears on her face dried. She felt the stroke of a burdock leaf on her cheek, and she turned her head and opened her eyes to see her mother smiling at her and passing the leaf gently over the dried tears in a soothing ritual. Tenderness emanated from her mother’s face as she made this gesture, and the girl felt a sense of relief at the knowledge that Belilly’s passing was done and all suffering was over.
As the girl allowed her gaze to traverse the scene, she took in this group of about twenty people, all known to her, all seated on the ground and clasping hands in a circle, and all swaying to the music around them. Behind them, the beautiful rays of crimson light cast by the huge stone on its ceremonial plinth were enhanced by the stream running behind it. The tinkling of the water cascading over rocks in the stream harmonized with the flute.
Belilly was gone and would never be here again. She knew there was nowhere else she’d rather be than in this place at this time with these people. An intense gratitude swept over her, casting out the grief and replacing it with joy and contentment.
What exciting project are you working on next?
Book 2 in the Trilogy
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I wrote my first story at age 7 and my first book at age 10. I wrote four novels in the 1990’s and published this most recent novel last year. I don’t know that I’ve ever not considered myself a writer, although not full-time.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I don’t write full-time, no. I am a therapist and that’s how I support myself. I manage to find the time to write around my “day job”, so it usually takes me a couple of years to finish a book. Before becoming a therapist, I was an actress and then a producer, so I’ve never been able to write full-time, although I would love to, of course. My other hobbies include gardening and hiking.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I always write best first thing in the morning, when my head is clear. I like to listen to music (instrumental) that puts me in the right frame of mind. Sometimes, I write sitting by our pond and listening to the fountain.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An actress.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I was a voracious reader as a child. At age four, I was entranced by reading the road signs as we were driving. At age eight, I had read all the books in the children’s library and had to start at the adult library, as I needed more to read. I was very short-sighted and also half-deaf, so I had a tendency to cut off from the outside world and get immersed into a book. When I was seven, I started writing these little magazines that had stories and poetry in. I also started writing songs as a teenager when I started playing guitar.