Tell us about yourself!

I live outside Washington, DC, with my husband and two children. We moved here after graduate school and I worked for a few years in the national security world before our oldest was born. Now I’m a homeschool mom and get to pursue my writing in between church activities, soccer, swim, music, and play dates. I’ve been involved in martial arts for almost thirty years, and although I’ve been on a hiatus for a few years, I’m looking forward to getting back to it soon. I also make jewelry, enjoy baking (mostly chocolatey desserts), and going on family bike rides.

What does NobleBright fantasy mean to you? Why is it important?

I wrote a whole blog post about this several years ago! Please check it out here: https://cjbrightley.com/noblebright/noblebright-fantasy-overview/ 

I started Phoenix Crate as part of my passion for spreading the word about noblebright fantasy. It’s not silly, pointless, and naive to be the good guy – it’s a courageous choice, and it matters. The sacrifices, the pain, and the grief all matter, and you can make the world a better place by choosing to do the right thing even when it’s hard, and even when it won’t turn out perfectly. Even when it costs you everything.

As a Christian, I don’t believe that our choices are enough to redeem us – only the grace of God through Jesus can do that. But our choices do matter. By writing stories that show true virtues like compassion, courage, and generosity of spirit in a compelling way, we can show that good is not namby-pamby, weak, and boring. It is courageous, strong, and compelling! Good makes for good stories – not because it’s easy and everything is perfect, but because it is hard, and we can choose it anyway.

How did you start writing?

I’ve always written for myself, but I never really thought I would publish a novel. But shortly after we moved to Northern Virginia, I was looking for a job and I needed a distraction, because job-searching is horrible. So I wrote the first draft of what became The King’s Sword and then A Cold Wind. I put them aside for about five years for several reasons, but after our oldest was born and I was home, I found the drafts again and discovered I still loved them. They needed editing, of course, but I believed in the stories. After several more rounds of editing, I published them and discovered I enjoyed that process, too.

What is your writing process like?

I am a chaotic pantser, in that I generally don’t know exactly where I’m going. I don’t often write in order and I don’t outline or even really plot the story. Generally I start with a very vivid image which is often fairly near the beginning of the story, and then I explore. Writing is how I discover the story, and I don’t really know my characters until I’ve seen what they do and how they interact. Often I’ll write a very important scene from later in the book (the reconciliation scene in A Cold Wind, for example) before I have any idea how the characters got there.

My editing process is mostly additive, in that I have a lot of fairly solid scenes and not a lot of connecty bits between them. I need to figure out how they fit together, write the missing pieces so it makes sense, and then smooth things out.

It’s not really a process I would recommend! But I think it’s how my brain processes story – this works for me because I process a lot of the character arcs and emotional journey intuitively. Even though the process looks and feels chaotic, it comes together in a way that’s very satisfying for me in the end.

Do you have any works in progress? Tell us about them!

I’m almost done with editing the fourth and final book in my dark urban Christian fantasy series A Long-Forgotten Song. I’m hoping to publish it in late spring or early summer 2024.

I’m also nearly done drafting a new book in the same world as The Silent Prince. It stars a vampire and a werewolf, but it’s more fairytale than urban fantasy, and it’s a sweet, clean, cozy romance with a good bit of blood and angst, but also a lovely happily-ever-after. It will likely launch via Kickstarter late next year, and the best way to find out about that is to sign up for my newsletter on my website at https://cjbrightley.com/subscribe. I also have an East of the Sun, West of the Moon / Polar Bear King reimagining planned for the same world. I’m also just beginning a fourth book in the world of The Wraith.

Where can we find you online?

My website is www.CJBrightley.com. You can find my newsletter there, as well as signed books and other goodies.

I run Spring Song Press, a small indie publishing company at www.SpringSongPress.com. I’m also on Instagram @cjbrightley , Facebook as CJBrightley , and in the Noblebright Alliance Discord as CJBrightley .