We’re kicking off 31 Days of Debut Authors with the talented Sally Bradley and her fantastic debut release, Kept. Isn’t this cover amazing? Kept has garnered incredible reviews and much praise:

“Gutsy and fast-paced.”—Laura Frantz, author of Love’s Reckoning 

“One of the most surprising and best books I’ve read this year.”—MaryLu Tyndall, best-selling author of Legacy of the King’s Pirates series 

“Vibrant characters, compelling questions, modern-day issues… Kept is a contemporary Christian classic along the lines of Redeeming Love. Impossible to put down, this story pulls us into the heart of Chicago and shows us how God’s hand can work, even when we repeatedly make the wrong choices. Sally Bradley’s voice is gripping and clear, and her debut is a shining beacon of how very relevant Christian fiction can be.”—Heather Day Gilbert, author of God’s Daughter and Miranda Warning

Blurb: 

Life has taught Miska Tomlinson that there are no honorable men. Her womanizing brothers, her absentee father, and Mark, the married baseball player who claims to love her—all have proven undependable. But Miska has life under control. She runs her editing business from her luxury condo, stays fit with daily jogs along Chicago’s lakefront, and in her free time blogs anonymously about life as a kept woman. 

Enter new neighbor Dillan Foster. Between his unexpected friendship and her father’s sudden reappearance, Miska loses control of her orderly life. Her relationship with Mark deteriorates, and Miska can’t help comparing him to Dillan. His religious views are so foreign, yet the way he treats her is something she’s longed for. But Dillan discovers exactly who she is and what she has done. Too late she finds herself longing for a man who is determined to never look her way again. 

When her blog receives unexpected national press, Miska realizes that her anonymity was an illusion. Caught in a scandal about to break across the nation, Miska wonders if the God Dillan talks about would bother with a woman like her—a woman who’s gone too far and done too much.

Mini Q and A with Sally Bradley:

When I read a book that sticks with me–characters that I can’t forget and circumstances that I continue to ponder long after the last page is turned–I want to know more about how that book came to be and the life of the artist behind the story. I’m a writer, but I’m also a reader, and part of me goes a little “fan girl” when I read a great book. Without further delay, here’s Sally’s responses to my questions:

What was the inspiration for your novel?

A few different things.

The plot came straight from SportsCenter. They ran a series on temptations pro athletes face, and one of them was about women who made their living off pro athletes. One woman they interviewed was completely silhouetted, but she did have a very unique short haircut. As the interview went on, she confessed that not only was she “kept” by one pro athlete, being available only to him when his team came to town, but by a second one—and that each man thought they were the only one. My immediate thought was, Honey, I hope you’re wearing a wig. Or they know now.

I couldn’t get her out of my head and had to figure out what would make her live that way and what it would take for her to see—and want—the truth. Plus she just needed a truly happy ending.

As for the theme or underlying message, I wanted to address how our society’s acceptance of casual sex affects people who come into the church, and I wanted to show that pastors are real men too. I get so tired at how pastors are portrayed in fiction, even in Christian fiction. They’re almost always depicted as almost gender neutral and effeminate, as people who don’t deal with anything the rest of us do. I wanted readers to see that they’re real men who fight all the temptations and struggles every other man faces. A good pastor is a man to be truly respected.

If you could have dinner with three people (living or dead), who would you choose and why?

 I’d love to talk to my great-grandparents, my mom’s grandparents. They were the first Christians on that side of the family and they accepted Christ in the middle of the Roaring Twenties, when they were in their twenties themselves. They went from making their own moonshine to being a pastor and pastor’s wife. How’s that for a change?

I’d also love to meet the pastor my parents knew when I was very young. He was instrumental in huge spiritual growth in them and them going into new careers. Those careers led my parents to a specific church where both my sister and I met our future husbands. So I’d love to meet him (and his wife!) and thank them for their impact on my parents.

In terms of writing a novel, are you a plotter or a pantser? Or a hybrid combo?

For me, writing that rough draft is like sprinting through the pitch black alongside a cliff with a lantern at arm’s length in front of me. Two parts fun, one part terrifying!

I typically know my beginning and have a vague idea of the end. I know maybe three or four big scenes in between but that’s it. The rough draft really is a discovery draft for me. I’m a character-driven novelist so I’ve learned to let my characters get on stage and talk. They always do or say or reveal something that leads to the next scene, and typically I only know what’s going to happen in the very next scene. And sometimes not even that! I’m getting chills just thinking about it. J

What can your readers expect from you in the future? Prequel, sequel, novella, etc.

Originally Kept was meant to be a stand-alone novel, but now I really want to do a few sequels. Not sure yet what they’ll be, but I’m thinking hard! I have three ideas I’m debating for my next book. One’s a previous book that needs a rewrite and would be the first in another series. The other is a book I’d started, and then the third would be some sequel to Kept.

Please share one piece of advice for aspiring writers you wish you’d known before you started this writing journey.

Don’t despise the wait. We all want to be published in our twenties, before we hit thirty or forty or fifty. But all that life in those years does us—and our books—a world of good. Live life, enjoy your family, and don’t get frustrated with closed doors. Grow as a person, as a Christian, and as a writer. It’ll all pay off later.

Wonderful insights, Sally. I love your description of writing a rough draft. I appreciate the reminder that waiting is an invaluable part of our experiences and we are called to live life apart from our creative pursuits and that waiting helps us hone our craft, so to speak. Thank you for taking time to participate in this blog series. Congratulations on the release of Kept. 

 Sally Bradley writes big-city fiction with real issues and real hope. A Chicagoan  since age five, she now lives in the Kansas City area with her family, but they  still get back to Chicago once in a while for important things—like good pizza  and a White Sox game. Fiction has been her passion since childhood, and she’s  thrilled now to be writing books that not only entertain, but point back to  Christ. Kept is available onAmazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Sally can be  found on sallybradley.com or her Facebook page, Sally Bradley, Writer.