The Painted Fan by P. J. Braley

8/30/2026

Multi-genre, multi-volume author Paula Braley introduces us to her time-slip adventure, “The Painted Fan”:
One fall. Two eras. No way back.
Newly engaged Ruby Saunders is finally on the brink of the life she’s always wanted—law school, a prestigious internship at a downtown Tampa law firm, and a future that feels perfectly within reach.
Until one storm changes everything.
A misstep on a spiral staircase sends Ruby crashing into a world that shouldn’t exist—a dazzling 1940s gentlemen’s club alive with music, danger, and secrets. At first, she thinks it’s a dream.
It isn’t.
When Ruby overhears a chilling plot involving kidnapped women from Havana, she realizes the glamorous club is only a façade for a powerful Tampa crime syndicate. The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes.
The law is compromised.
Loyalties are bought.
And trust can be deadly.
With time running out and danger closing in, Ruby must navigate a world of mafia corruption, hidden informants, and deadly secrets—where one wrong move could cost her everything.
Because someone is watching her.
And they know she doesn’t belong.
Perfect for fans of time travel thrillers, historical suspense, 1940s crime fiction, noir mystery, mafia intrigue, and strong female protagonists.
Step into a suspenseful time-slip mystery where the past is alive, the danger is real, and escape may be impossible.

I love stories about involuntary time travel! When they are tied to historical events and real places, the story is so much better.
Braley is an amazing author! She is so good at plotting and weaving the many threads into a cohesive and surprising whole! There are a lot of twists and turns in this story, enough to keep you turning the pages.
I am committed to not giving any spoilers, so I can't say more; except read this book!

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Painted-Fan-P-J-Braley
https://www.goodreads.com/-the-painted-fan
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/the-painted-fan-p-j-braley

You can connect with the author:
https://x.com/PJBraley
https://pjbraley.com/
www.instagram.com/pjbraley
www.facebook.com/PJBraleyAuthor
https://.pjbraley.bsky.social

I have reviewed another book by the author: www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/the-bookbinders-apprentice-by-pj-braley

Copyright © 2026 Mark L. Schultz, except for the author’s introduction.

36 Comments

PJ Braley link

9/1/2026 09:07:28 am

Mark,
Thank you for such a glowing review! I am so happy you enjoyed reading The Painted Fan. It was written out of love and respect for the City of Tampa, its history and its future, and the people who kept revitalizing and reinventing it to bring Tampa to its current state-of-the-art existence. Every time I make that drive into downtown Tampa, my heart bursts with pride.

Mark

9/1/2026 11:38:29 am

Tampa is a nice town. We were there a couple of weeks ago and felt right at home in the downtown area. It reminded us of downtown Portland, Oregon. My wife and I were from the Portland area before we moved to Florida.

A note to our visitors: Paula and I are continuing the conversation we started during the promotion of "The Bookbinder's Apprentice". Feel free to ask us questions about writing or the business of writing. I loved that collection of short stories. The link for that is above.

First question.

What was the first paying job you worked as a kid and how old were you?

P.J. Braley link

9/1/2026 12:48:11 pm

Unlike many kids, I didn't have a paying job. I am the oldest of six, so I guess you could say I had an ongoing "non-paying" job for most of my at-home years. My first paying job was the summer I graduated from high school as a clerk-typist for a company that made outdoor furniture and pool floats, which was appropriate since I grew up in Florida. About two years later, I moved to Tampa with some high school friends. It was an adventure.

9/1/2026 03:45:03 pm

Many authors have told me that babysitting for a neighbor was their first paid job and it was the same for me. I took a Red Cross First Aid for Babysitters course when I was in the sixth grade, and watched the kids down the driveway.

You didn't have a chance to do something else.

New questions.

Have you done any public speaking?

If so, will you be doing more in the future?

9/1/2026 06:10:53 pm

As the past president of the Citrus Writers of Florida, I conducted meetings, gave workshops and presentations to the membership, and spoke at several creative writing seminars for the Citrus County Libraries and the College of Central Florida. I have also participated in a podcast interview, which I found interesting; a microphone can be almost as intimidating as a full room of people. It’s never easy, of course, but I find that believing in what I am going to say is the best approach and the first step to speaking to one person or a crowd.

9/1/2026 07:30:53 pm

You are right. It's not easy, and it doesn't come naturally for most of us. So many get that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on their face, otherwise known as stage fright. The internal lockdown is real if you have no idea why you are on stage. The key, the secret for effective public speaking, is hidden in plain sight. Only speak in public about something you are very knowledgeable about. If you are a writer, no one knows your books better than you do. You are the expert. Book lovers flock to hear an author talk about their books. Many in the audience hope to get the author to autograph a copy. Some will buy a book on the spot.

As a boy, I struggled with a severe stammer all through school and well into my adult years. I steadfastly refused every opportunity to speak in public until I learned the secret. Now I enjoy public speaking. I still get nervous, but I channel the nerves into passion for my topic and I enjoy my time on stage. I hope at least one person is helped by learning the secret.

New questions.

Have you entered any writing contests?

Have you won awards of any kind for your writing?

9/1/2026 09:28:36 pm

I entered contests early in my writing but never won any awards. I applied and earned a Writing Certificate from the Department of English at the University of Dayton based on my work. In fact, one piece in my application portfolio was a segment from a very early version of The Painted Fan in screenplay form. I haven't entered any contests for years. I was going to enter my collection of short stories, "The Bookbinder's Apprentice and Other Impossible Love Stories," to the Florida Writers Association annual awards, but the competition was canceled this year. Next year, I'll check again. One difficulty I have with contests is that I write something and then look for a contest that fits my story/essay/poem. However, I believe many writers do it the other way around: they pick a contest, write within the parameters of the contest rules, and then submit their work. I might try it that way next time.

9/2/2026 08:42:16 am

Different authors have different reasons for entering contests. Fame and glamor are but two reasons for entering contests. I left 'fortune' out on purpose. Not many will earn an appreciable amount of money. I have recommended to writers that short-story writing contests, especially those that provide feedback from the judges, can help a writer improve their writing skills. I do have a warning: there are a lot of shady contests out there. Some want to extract as much as they can from your wallet; others want to steal your intellectual property. Here is a copy-and-paste link about those things: Beware Bogus Writing Contests! Look for These 8 Red Flags. https://annerallen.com/2019/05/beware-bogus-writing-contests. You can also use the search box below to find the link. There are other blogs I have links to on my Highly Regarded Blogs page.

New question.

Among present or past family members and friends, how many are or have been writers or authors?

9/2/2026 10:24:37 am

I agree that many contests seem to be created just for the entry fee, but I also think it gives writers a chance to exercise their “writing muscles” and test the waters. I know that organizations have costs, and readers, especially knowledgeable readers, should be compensated for their time, so a small fee is not unreasonable. Another consideration is whether there is a cap on the number of entries to, let’s say, increase the odds of careful consideration. Lastly, even using a definable rubric, judging other writers’ work is still subjective, and judges rarely provide feedback on why entries were passed over. I think winning a contest would be quite exciting, but for those who do not win, there is little benefit for their time, effort, and cost. Writing and submitting their work is what writers do—it’s in our DNA—but with all the ways to reach the public through social media, books, articles, blogs, video, etc., that are essentially free and provide almost instant feedback, contests are just one way to shine a light on your work amid a dozen other spotlights.
Among present or past family members and friends, how many are or have been writers or authors?
The writing bug has skipped around in my family; most are all off doing other things. For instance, I have a sister who is an artist and has her own IMDb page for her film work, but I also have a brother who writes poetry in bits and pieces, my son likes to write gaming scenarios, and my niece has written a motivational book, but I am, so far, the only published fiction writer.
I am also very lucky in that I am the past president of the Citrus Writers of Florida and have dozens of wonderful writerly friends for mutual encouragement and critiques, who understand that having a shoulder to cry on is just as important as having someone to share your victories. I have learned so much from them that I cannot state emphatically enough how important it is, at least for me, to surround myself with creatives who, although we may not understand each other’s writing process, we trust, respect, and support it.

9/2/2026 12:23:40 pm

You are lucky to have family and friends who write. Many authors have told me they are the only one in their family or circle of friends who write.

Being in company with other writers is important for all the reasons you mentioned. Understanding, encouragement, and trust are vital to every creative person working in their chosen field. Those connections allow us to grow as authors.

New question.

Outside of the CWF. Is there anyone you know who might claim you as their inspiration for writing?

9/2/2026 05:32:57 pm

As lovely as it sounds to think I might inspire anyone to write, I’m not sure I’ve been writing long enough to inspire anyone. My first book, The Fire Slayers, was published in November 2020; my most recent novel, The Painted Fan, released August 18th, is only my fifth book. I think, though, if anyone were to be inspired, I’m not sure I want it to be for my writing; I would rather it be for my tenacity and/or my willingness to try different genres.
For example, my first three books are science fiction romance; the fourth is a collection of short stories; and The Painted Fan is an urban fantasy. While all five books share common genre elements—historical, romance, fantasy—each one is set within the primary criteria required by its genre. Is there a little genre mashing going on? Absolutely, but meeting reader expectations for each genre is essential to holding the narrative together.
Tenacity, the ability to believe in yourself, in your art, and not giving up despite setbacks, rejection, and loss of confidence, makes all the difference in becoming the artist, writer, creative you see when you look in the mirror. My favorite Peanuts cartoon shows Snoopy on his doghouse with a typewriter; the caption reads, “Writing is hard work.” It is, but it is also exhilarating, wonderfully fulfilling work.
Although you didn’t ask for it, my advice to writers is to embrace your words, fall into your characters and their lives, make their world your home, and your own writing will become your source of inspiration.

Mary Lu

9/3/2026 11:11:34 am

Don't let her kid you, Mark. She is an inspiration to many of us.

9/3/2026 11:22:07 am

I suspected that, Mary Lu. Thank you for providing confirmation.

9/3/2026 09:08:16 pm

You are very kind. I think the writers in our group inspire each other.

9/2/2026 06:26:30 pm

Thank you for explaining about the genres and how to gently bend boundaries without alienating the readers who love their genre. Finesse is required to do that well.

New questions.

What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

Did the published book stray much from the original vision?

9/2/2026 10:30:40 pm

Inspiration comes in many forms, but I cannot take any credit for this one. A long, long time ago, there was a building in downtown Tampa that once had (or may still have) a spiral staircase, and I remember thinking how pretty it was and how perfect it would be for a wedding. In my imagination, I could see a bride walking down the steps, and I’ve also worked in a couple of Tampa law offices, so it was less inspiration and more being hit over the head. The only parts I had to work out were who, why, when, and, oh, yes, the storyline.
Over time, I drafted a bit of a short story out of it, but it was one of those pieces I kept in the bottom drawer that eventually migrated to a file on my computer, to which I added scenes now and again to develop the elusive storyline.
My legal assistant career shifted a bit when I started working at a university and decided to finish my degree (at the same time). I took a Screenwriting course in 2013, and the final assignment was, of course, a screenplay. So, I assembled the bits and pieces, put together a screenplay, and named it The Painted Fan. I knew it still wasn’t finished, and when I graduated in 2015, I promised myself it would be a novel someday.
When I compare the published book to my original vision, I can only say that the finished novel exceeds it by 1000%. Who, why, when, and the storyline are all in place; the character arcs are layered and unique, and the title—that was once just a placeholder—is the heart and soul of the book.

9/3/2026 10:14:49 am

That's a great story! I love how it changed and morphed into this fabulous story! It would still make a great screenplay and would be very entertaining.

New question.

The Painted Fan is described as an urban fantasy. What specific elements – without giving away any spoilers – identify it as an urban fantasy rather than a paranormal time-slip or historical-fiction novel?

9/3/2026 02:32:23 pm

Although I have enjoyed urban fantasies – both books and movies – writing in this genre was new to me, but it fits The Painted Fan in the location, plot, and the supernatural elements that are inherent in any urban fantasy. The location is contemporary Tampa, Florida (decidedly urban), and the story takes place in a small downtown building surrounded by other, taller structures which lend a claustrophobic feel to the setting. The interior of the building is well-lit during the day and is not inherently evil, but one midsummer’s eve, when the sky turns dark and thunderclouds roll in, the innocence of the building’s interior seems to fade. The hard surfaces of the paneling and the metallic accents of the furniture combine with supernatural elements: a flash of lightning, a woman’s whisper, and the ticking of a vintage pocket watch, and although none of these things are transcendental on their own, when they come together within a summer storm, they provide the catalyst that sustains the other-worldly tension throughout the storyline.
Many urban fantasies include werewolves, vampires, fairies, or other supernatural beings to represent the danger underlying the setting's contrasting normalcy. The Painted Fan, however, uses something a little more authentic, yet just as mysterious: gangsters, organized crime, and human traffickers. Before they became stereotypical characters in crime and film noir, these underworld monsters possessed every bit of the horror that inhabits human nightmares as much as the fangs and claws of mythical beasts.
The contemporary Tampa setting, juxtaposed with Tampa’s darker past, would give The Painted Fan an air of historical fiction if it did not use surrealism to introduce the plot's underlying fantasy. Ruby is determined to save three young women from being sold into prostitution. This is her quest, and although the women are only one floor above her, the obstacles—and the human monsters—in her way are very dangerous and very real, and so are the consequences of discovery.

9/3/2026 03:34:30 pm

You wove many different elements into this story, with some direct and others not so much. The dangers Ruby faces are quite real despite her hope of waking up in her proper time and place, her expected life.

In the midst of her quest, Ruby learns a great deal about herself while dealing with some of the ancestors of her contemporaries. She changes within.

New question.

How concerned were you about the Butterfly Effect when writing a novel that uses a time-slip of 70 years?

9/3/2026 09:06:30 pm

I was extremely concerned about the Butterfly Effect (i.e., the concept in chaos theory where a tiny, initial change in a complex system can lead to large and unpredictable outcomes later [Wikipedia]), as was Ruby. Within the context of her time in 1948, she is confronted with the horror of perhaps hastening the death of one of the characters, and even with the knowledge that she may not be able to save the young women if she leaves, she prays to “wake up,” fearful of harming anyone else. When she returns, she finds a series of small but definable changes that affect her life and her future.
To ease through these changes without making any of them seem “jarring” or completely unfathomable, I kept a very tight timeline on a spreadsheet as a constant reality check. Seventy years is a long time to calculate the Butterfly Effect and how it alters the outcomes of characters involved. By making those alterations mesh with the growth and changes to the building and the surrounding downtown area, the City of Tampa becomes a foundational character in The Painted Fan, not just the setting. The forces that change Tampa over seventy years also shape the characters’ destinies, some of them even to their deaths.

9/4/2026 10:01:06 am

The butterfly effect underlies every time-travel story I have read or watched. It certainly seems like a legitimate concern to me. Some deep thinkers have postulated that there are paradoxes associated with time travel that indicate it is impossible. Time travel seems doubtful to me, but there isn't any concrete proof for either side of that discussion.

New question.

Organized crime is mentioned several times in your book both in 2018 and 1948. How did you research that particular part of Tampa’s history?

9/4/2026 01:30:53 pm

Luckily, there is no scarcity of books about the Tampa Mafia, and I list several of my research sources at the beginning of The Painted Fan. They include:

Cigar City Mafia
From Saloons to Steakhouses
Hitman
Politics and Growth in Twentieth-Century Tampa
The Silent Don
The Trafficantes
White Shadow

Each of these books added something to my imagination as I began building the setting and characters. I also referenced newspaper articles to verify much of the information I found in the slightly veiled fiction and nonfiction books, and I used vintage maps to track the growth of the downtown area and docks.

An additional source was the firsthand conversations I had with people I met while working in downtown Tampa in the 1980s. It seemed everyone knew – or knew of – someone who was “connected.” Taking all these conversations with a grain of salt, they nevertheless piqued my curiosity and started me on my quest to learn more.

As a Florida girl, born in Jacksonville and growing up in South Florida, I was aware of organized crime through TV news and newspapers, so I wasn’t surprised to find it in Tampa, but the Tampa Mafia was far more interesting with its associations between the Italian Mafia, the Cuban Mafia, and the Florida Cracker Mob.

As fascinating as it is intriguing, read about the Tampa Mafia and let it inspire a story of your own.

9/4/2026 03:20:31 pm

Such a fascinating topic. The Mafia, the Mob, whatever name is used, the organizations are real. They have existed in many forms in many parts of the world.
A friend I met in San Francisco more than 50 years ago had very solid Italian roots. He told me about an uncle who lived well with no visible means of support. He didn't elaborate beyond that. Knowing the passions that can reside in the human heart, I am not surprised at what many people do to others and for themselves.

New questions.

How did you construct the three parts of The Painted Fan? You set the beginning in 2018, the middle in 1948, and the ending returns to 2018.

Which did you write first?

Were there any changes to Ruby’s return to present-day Tampa that surprised you as a writer?

9/4/2026 05:09:25 pm

Originally, I was so caught up in the stories about the Tampa Mafia that I just concentrated on the historical 1948 part. I was so deep into the research, sketching characters, dialogue, mapping the building, and renaming streets, that I thought it would become a historical fiction novel. Then I saw the staircase, and my thoughts on how to incorporate it spiraled around the story like a vine around a tree, and an urban fantasy began to take shape in my mind.

The POV was the hardest to figure out because first-person can be tiring in a novel and can also limit the scope of the narrative. So, the book begins in third person but shifts to Ruby’s POV at the beginning of the second part (1948). Some readers may find that shift a bit jarring, but I thought readers would have a more authentic experience if most of the dialogue and action were seen and felt through Ruby’s impressions. Also, until the next-to-last edit, the ending was also in Ruby’s POV, but after a discussion with my editor, we decided the third-person POV should bookend the 1948 (first-person) section.

Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that there was a major change in Ruby’s return that I didn’t expect until I wrote it, and it was that bit of subtext that pulled the entire book together.

9/4/2026 07:17:56 pm

I noticed the POV change when Ruby woke up. It was abrupt, but it fit her accident quite well. First-person point of view is intimate and limits what the character and the reader know. The different characters revealed their motivations in turn and it was effective in maintaining the tension of 1948 Tampa.

Ruby's return to her time period was great! No spoilers from me either.

New questions.

When did you start thinking about this book? I know sometimes writers think about books for a long time before they write a single word; some make an outline and then start; and some write by the seat of their pants.

Which process did you use for The Painted Fan?

9/4/2026 10:13:23 pm

I’ve actually been thinking about The Painted Fan since the 1980s. I thought it would be romantic and mysterious, have a spiral staircase, and I never planned on it being set in 1948 or in a building. More like late 19th-century Southern historical/gothic fiction in an aging antebellum house painted white that has weathered to the wood on the edges. Think William Faulkner meets Daphne du Maurier. Right around that same time, I discovered that Tampa once had a Mafia (who knew?), and I found that far more exciting than Spanish moss, moonlight, and magnolias, and so the story evolved.

I am definitely a pantser (a writer who writes by the seat of her pants without an outline or notes), but that’s only because I prewrite in my head before putting anything on paper (or screen). For instance, my debut novel, The Fire Slayers, had taken up residence in my mind a full ten years before I began writing it. I knew the beginning and the end, but the journey between those two points was an adventure with twists and turns I did not anticipate when I began.

And so it was with The Painted Fan: I thought about it for years, did research, wrote scenes and dialogue as they came to me, and researched some more. Quite a bit of this research was done before the internet put newspaper articles, books, maps, and timelines at your fingertips, but as more information about organized crime became available online, the investigation and confirmations became quicker and easier to integrate into the narrative because there was no lag time between, for example, “I wonder when Castro took over Cuba,” and “January 1, 1959,” or “When did La Gaceta begin publication?” and “1922.”

Writing by the seat of my pants is the most fabulous fun for me: world-building, narrative arcs, and character arcs are just the details. The real excitement comes from entangling and untangling characters, the plot lines, and the joy when something clicks in your mind, and you cannot write fast enough for fear the thought, character, subtext, might get away. And then you get to edit, to smooth the creases, find the perfect words, and jettison the lovely for the lyrical.

You just can’t put those feelings in an outline.

9/5/2026 09:26:15 am

That was a long time for the idea to germinate and grow. Sometimes a great idea needs to sit for quite a while.

Pantsers are so bold! To step onto the tightrope without the safety net of an outline takes a special kind of courage. I think knowing the end is more important than knowing the start of a story or a journey. Outline or not, those feelings come only with the writing.

New questions.

Significant details are a part of what makes a story live. One can hardly miss the details in your story; it almost reads like a love letter to the City of Tampa.

Have you ever lived in Tampa?

What about it fascinates you?

9/5/2026 02:04:18 pm

Yes! I moved to Tampa with some high school friends when I was 19 and stayed until I married my Tampa-born husband, and his job took us to North Miami. Over the years, because of our attachment to our friends and family, we had the joy of making trips back and forth on every possible occasion. It was one way we had of keeping in touch with Tampa’s news, changes, and growth. Jim loved Tampa and knew practically every square inch of it; it was our favorite topic of conversation.

For me, I was raised up and down the East Coast of Florida, from Jacksonville to Ft. Lauderdale, but had never even visited the West Coast. I wasn’t prepared for the beauty, the graciousness of the people, and Tampa’s sense of history. It just gobbled me up, and the dozen or so years I lived there are unforgettable. The Gulf, the drive along Bayshore Boulevard, the buildings in Ybor City, Gasparilla, and the food! Oh, my goodness, the food.

But it was the architecture that caught my imagination. New buildings going up, historical buildings that were fighting for preservation. The second paragraph on the third page of The Painted Fan explains my admiration for the “concrete and glass of towering hotels and office buildings . . . the stucco and terracotta of Spanish architecture, the Italianate and Mediterranean influences, and, of course, the southern architects’ penchant for charming wrought-iron fenced gardens and intricate gingerbread millwork.”

Of course, there are many opportunities throughout the novel that allow me to wax lyrical about how beautiful Tampa is in the present, past, and, no doubt—due to the roots so deeply ingrained in its residents—the future as well.

So, yes, The Painted Fan is a love letter to Tampa, not only to the city itself, but also in gratitude for the love and friends I found there, and because it will always be the shining city of my heart.

9/5/2026 04:23:04 pm

Your love for Tampa shines brightly in the story. Tampa is an important character also. It shapes the reality the characters encounter on a daily basis.

I have lived in central Florida for a little more than five years now, transplanted from Oregon. We were in Tampa not long ago and discovered a wonderful ice cream place, Hampton Chocolate Factory! What a lovely treat.

New question.

What does the title of the book, The Painted Fan, mean to you?

9/5/2026 09:46:16 pm

At first, The Painted Fan was just the name of Remi’s gentlemen’s club. I needed a name that sounded both British (Remi was born in England) and southern. Then, as I began writing, I found that I was writing not to the object of the fan but to the purpose of the fan.

A fan – in dance or fireplaces or a lady’s accessory – is intended to shield what is behind it from other people’s notice. In dance, it is used to hide the dancer’s awkward movements; in fireplaces, it hides the ashes of previous fires; and ladies employed it to hide their blushes.

And the more beautiful it is, the more successful the subterfuge because the fan’s beauty is its own disguise.

Above the bar in Remi’s club is a portrait of a mysterious woman holding a beautifully painted fan in front of her bosom. It is a tease, of course, to the patrons – what could she be hiding behind her façade? Is what she is shielding from their gaze as lovely as her face? Remi says the painting is where he got the club's name, but it is so much more than just inspiration.

What could Remi be hiding behind the beautiful emerald green carpets, carved oak bar, and deep burgundy chairs of a post-WWII gentlemen’s club restricted to men with enough money and power to protect it? A brothel? Maybe. A secret gambling room? Probably. A front for organized crime? Define the crime. Desire? Cruelty? Extortion? Murder?

Can his Painted Fan obscure such horrors? Is it enough of a distraction for the authorities to avert their eyes and, through such neglect, exacerbate those horrors?

It can try.

9/6/2026 08:57:53 am

A painted fan can hide many things. But like a magician's sleight of hand, the fan is designed to distract an observer's attention. To keep something important from being noticed. The opulent facade of Remi's club worked ever so well until the anomaly of Shannon/Ruby's appearance.

New question.

What is next for you? Another urban fantasy, or do you have another genre in mind?

9/6/2026 06:20:25 pm

Genre-wise, I am all over the place right now.

Between the Lines Publishing is releasing “Training Ground,” the fourth book in The Fire Slayers’ science fiction-romance series. “Keeping her promise to the man she loves, a woman escapes an alien underground colony with four children, only one of whom is hers. Although she knows both humans and aliens are searching for them, she decides to raise the boys in plain sight, which, as you might imagine, has its own set of challenges.” The release date is October 13th. Although it is fourth in the series as the story continues, Training Ground breaks with the setting and focus of the first three books and is truly a standalone novel.

I am also in the process of publishing a children’s Christmas book titled “Santa and the Lost Hat,” which has a companion coloring book: “Christmas is only a week away, and Santa has lost his hat! Not a problem, he thinks; I’ll just get a new one. But things get complicated when he is told that there is only one Santa hat. The elves don’t recognize him, and the reindeer are being difficult, too. What is he going to do?” A true labor of love, Santa and the Lost Hat will be available mid-October.

With the new year, I plan to move on to a new genre for me: a memoir of sorts. I say “of sorts” because the project does not include my memories. It is about my husband’s parents. I have his mother’s letters written to his father during WWII, when he was in the Army stationed in Europe. The really cool part of their story is that they got married by proxy during the war (and I find that so romantic!), and I am looking forward to tracking their love story with as much as I can find out about his company in Europe. When I have finished transcribing her letters, I am going to donate the originals to the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University.

Also, next year, I plan to move on to the fifth book in The Fire Slayers’ series, “The Retribution,” which tracks four love stories amid an alien apocalypse. AND (you didn’t possibly think I was finished, did you?), if you remember, last year I published a collection of short stories titled “The Bookbinder’s Apprentice and other Impossible Love Stories.” I am looking forward to pulling the main short story from the collection and expanding it into a novel. You know, most of my characters, when I get them all nicely written, are very happy to settle down when I’m finished. However, the characters in “The Bookbinder’s Apprentice” are whispering that there is more to their stories, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better.

So, what’s the genre count?

2026 Fall forthcoming:
Sci-fi/romance – 1 (Training Ground)
Children’s book – 1 (Santa’s and the Lost Hat)\

2027 Projects in progress:
Sci-fi/romance – 1 (The Retribution)
WWII true love story – 1 (Proposed title: Unstoppable)
Paranormal romantasy – 1 (The Bookbinder’s Apprentice)

Looks like I’m going to be very busy!

9/7/2026 08:30:28 am

Busy? Oh, yes! You are going to be busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of active rocking chairs!
The tagline for Training Ground is very intriguing. Santa and the Lost Hat sounds delightful and selling a companion coloring book is brilliant. The memoir is interesting. I have never heard of proxy marriage. I loved the title story of The Bookbinder's Apprentice! The idea of a novel growing out of the short story is exciting. I promoted that book previously. The link is just above the interview or put the title in the search box below.

Last question.

I noticed that your book is in Kindle Unlimited. How is that working out for you?

Why did you choose that exclusive venue?

How many books have you put in KU?

PJ. Braley link

9/7/2026 11:21:18 pm

For those who do not know, Kindle Unlimited is an exclusive e-book service provided by Amazon that charges patrons based on the number of pages they read of any given book on their list. There is a monthly fee ($11.99), and subscribers (estimated at 4.5–7 million globally) can read an unlimited number of books. The downside is that while authors are participating in this program, they cannot sell their e-books through any other e-book retailer such as Nook, Apple Books, Kobo, or even their own website. The upside is that KU readers have instant access to your book and may be willing to try writers that are new to them rather than investing in purchasing the entire book. Another thing, and this is the part I find useful, is that if someone reads your book and likes it, they may buy it for a friend or relative or share their experiences, which can encourage sales. If they don’t care for it and stop reading, the author still receives a royalty on the pages read. This service doesn’t affect print books, and authors can opt out after ninety days.

However, the above discussion does not really apply to The Painted Fan. My publisher, Between the Lines Publishing, reads the market data and makes all the decisions regarding how and where to publish my books. I will only add that, in the past, I have received royalties from Kindle Unlimited, so that I may be a bit biased.

So, based on my personal experience, I have added my self-published short story collection, The Bookbinder’s Apprentice and Other Impossible Love Stories, and my children’s book, Santa and the Lost Hat, to Kindle Unlimited as a way of reaching new readers . . . at least for the next ninety days.

9/8/2026 10:21:55 am

Thanks for explaining Kindle Unlimited so well. I do know that an author receives a fraction of a penny for each page read. Some authors place the first book in a series in KU and leave the others out.

Thank you for hiring me to promote The Painted Fan. I love time-travel stories and your book gave me great reading pleasure.
Until next time, keep on writing.

9/8/2026 11:34:25 am

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me about The Painted Fan. I’ve learned quite a bit about why this book was so important to me, and that sort of reflection does not always develop on its own. I’ve appreciated your responses and am very heartened that you enjoyed my book. It will always be one of my favorites.

Until the next one, stay cool,

P.J.

The Painted Fan by P. J. Braley

Leave a Reply.

Who am I?

Archives

Categories