Author Interview: Lillian Brummet

Biography

Lillian & her husband Dave are the team behind Brummet Media Group, high-fiving cheerfully as they pass each other on the way from checking off one item or other from their long to-do list. Their business includes Dave’s music studio & percussion accessory products & graphic design work as well as numerous award-winning non-fiction books & popular blogs.  Visit the Brummets @: www.BrummetMedia.ca  -&- drop by their Amazon Author page @: https://amazon.com/author/lillianbrummet

Tell us about your recently revised book, Purple Snowflake Marketing.

Purple Snowflake Marketing – How To Make Your Book Stand Out In A Crowd (May 2021) is a step-by-step guidebook for authors shows how to create effective & frugal marketing plans for every book they write, one that suits the author’s unique situation at that moment & time. Purple Snowflake Marketing offers a realistic view on what an author can expect upon publishing a book & how to make a memorable first impression. Learn from the experience of seasoned writers, be inspired by effective advice & discover quotes from PR experts, members of the media & agents. Readers will also learn how to run the office efficiently; discover business operation, succession planning, budget-friendly advertising advice & tax tips.

We share 3 decades of researching, learning & hand-on experience, hosting radio shows & podcasts, professional book & product reviewing, staff writing & freelance positions that we held, managing blogs & newsletters or managing & starting up businesses. The main focus of this book is to guide the author to design frugal, unique book launch & marketing strategies that will have their book standing out in a snowstorm like a purple snowflake. We have plans to give this book a fresh cover design & new formats for people to enjoy later this year

You have a wide variety of books, from poems to recipes. Briefly tell us about your books & your publishing goals.

There’s the 2-book series in the poetry genre: Playing In The Sandbox Of Words, which includes Towards Understanding (a survivor’s journey to understanding one’s purpose & the value of life) & Rhythm & Rhyme (a collaborative collection on grief, music & life).

Trash Talk – It’s Easy To Be Green is a 2-book series in the green living genre sharing information about reducing waste, extending budgets, helping communities & reducing consumption of water, fuel, etc. 

We’ve already touched on the writer’s guidebook… & the cookbook is:

From One Small Garden – Over 300 Delicious Nutritious Recipes (Feb 2021) – the ultimate guide to utilizing fresh fruits & vegetables from backyard gardens to farmer’s markets – the purest source of food we can draw from. This book is not only loaded with nutritional & historical information, it also shares tips to save water, reduce energy costs & food waste & other frugal ways to extend your budget. Learn how to make your own chicken coating, or taco seasoning, air fresheners & cleaning supplies – – without the use of harsh chemicals, packaging & numerous plastic bottles.

You have experience in radio, product reviews & blogging. Talk about those ventures. Do they tie into your writings?

Yes in the 25 years in this career I’ve worn many, many hats. (She laughs) I ran the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio show for 15 years – it aired 3 times per week with guests showing how they were making a difference in the world. I also ran the Author’s Read podcast for 2 years; this was a quick half hour weekly program that featured other authors reading from their books. I worked for 2 publications & one book review agency providing book reviews for about 6 years or so… & this enabled me to donate around 300 books annually to local literacy organizations.

Today we run the Brummet’s Conscious Blog which has been active for about 18 years & focuses on creating positive change.  The Drum It With Brummet blog began a couple years ago & is mainly Dave’s forte as it deals with music. We also run the fairly new Brummet Media Channel on Youtube. Dave provides all the images, audio, ads & technical know-how to make all of these activities possible.

You also have experience as a musician, both playing & teaching. Talk about that venture.

Dave is the musician, teacher & service provider. Dave has performed on stage for nearly 4 decades with a variety of cover & original bands during that time frame. He spent many years as an on-call studio drummer as well, & at one time he visited schools to introduce percussion to youth.

Today, he operates the Angle Hill Studio, located in the lower half of our home – where he creates the audio & graphic needs for our business, hosts jams, band practices & teaches students. His services to percussionists & drummers include tuning & repairs, refurbishment, cleaning & polishing, purchase advice & set-up help for those that are looking at purchasing new or used instruments.

Are your activities leading you to feel like you are chasing various interests, or is there something deeper that ties them together?

The theme that ties them all together is our desire to be resting at the end of each day feeling as though the time that we were given was spent wisely, thoughtfully & we found ways to create positive change. In our home life we are passionate recyclers & find ways to reuse & repurpose items that would have been destined for the landfill. We donate when we can & because of our productive gardens we are able to give food to 5 houses around the neighborhood, various students, friends, family & coworkers. We garden using biodynamic, bio intensive, permaculture & organic methods, starting with building healthy soil first – & that means composting. We gather leaves & grass & cardboard from neighbors & landscape companies to help us build that valuable nutrient-rich soil.

Both this home & our last 3 homes attained certification with various wildlife, bird, bee, butterfly & organic organizations. Those homes were also modified to be more eco-friendly re water & energy conservation. We adopt from animal shelters, dog sit & work with connecting volunteers & nonprofits together. We give others in the realm of media & writing exposure through our blog, musicians through our other blog, & run several online groups as well for networking, entrepreneurs & volunteers.

Our passions carry forward to our business – we have strict green in-house policies & use our interactions with the media & writings to continue to create positive change. Our aim is to educate & empower people, help them realize the incredible power they have to create positive change in their own unique way with seemingly small daily actions.

What book project are you currently working on? When do you expect it to be published?

Right now we have a trilogy celebrating Dave’s late father’s lifetime of writing & photographic collections – but this has been set aside due to a variety of things causing delays that we are working through & hope to get the first 2 books out before Christmas.

In between this, as mentioned, we have the updates to the Purple Snowflake Marketing book to do… & we plan on making our books available in more formats by spring 2023.

I do have a manuscript that I attack occasionally, as time allows – it is a back yard garden guide that my late master-gardening parents & I began working on about 20 years ago or so. My mom was dying & I wanted to get all her knowledge on paper, & I was taking on 5 acres of market gardens while running a spa – so having the information on hand was important to me. Since then, we’ve added to it & have a huge file of notes & information to go through, lots of graphic imagery to create, etc. So I’m slowly working on the draft manuscript behind the scenes whenever the schedule allows it. I find spring – late summer is the hardest season to get intensive work done in the office, due to the heavy workload dealing with the gardens & processing garden harvests.

Talk about the challenges & joys of writing together as a married couple?

We have 2 separate offices – mine is where the dining area is traditionally located in a home, & his is down in the studio. Dave works a full time job & plays in 2 bands, so his time can be very limited – which brings in the extra challenge of trying to accomplish the goals in our annual action plan, while balancing that with understanding & elasticity.

My time is also limited because I manage the house, office, dogs, gardens, & do most of the menu planning, food prep /processing, appointments, the budget, etc. I find my day is often split in half – half in the office, half dealing with the home life.

This year we had a minor flood in the basement due to water from a heavy storm coming over the foundation wall so we ended up having to take apart the studio, cut the drywall, clean the carpets, all that fun stuff. There always seems to be something to interrupt our plans & we’ve learned to take these unexpected events with some grace… most of the time 🙂 We have monthly meetings and create a new action plan at the beginning of each year that we use to keep us on track.

Websites: Find us online via these landing pages:
https://taplink.cc/brummet
https://linktr.ee/LillianBrummet