Addison Brae

Author

restaurant

How characters find a place to call home

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Sugar Creek, Missouri

Book heroines often mirror what happens in real life and return to their childhood hometowns. Some have a sense of adventure that takes them across the country or to the other side of the world. Just like us, other main characters fight to escape bad memories by moving as far away as possible.

Gillian, the heroine in Dark Energy, Return to Becker Circle, opted to leave her small-town childhood home of Sugar Creek, Missouri behind. Gillian’s world crashed when her mom lost her battle with cancer. Then she watched her father slip into the bottle. Gillian could mix the best martini of any 12-year-old. Luckily the bar where he was a regular was only a block from their house, so he could stumble home safely. Gillian left her hometown as soon as she could with a scholarship to Harvard.

Becker Circle

After graduation, Gillian headed to Dallas for a fresh start. The weather was warmer than Boston or Sugar Creek. It was a great place to find an accounting job. There were tons of young professionals. And Dallas was far away from her past.

Kross Lounge & Restaurant, Sugar Creek

I researched middle-America towns near metropolitan areas to create Gillian’s roots and found Sugar Creek. Visual mapping and websites helped me locate her schools, part-time job, newspaper where her father was the editor, home, and the bar in the next block.

Visiting Sugar Creek confirmed the town was right for Gillian. Sugar Creek has a Moose Lodge, town gazebo, and shady streets lined with pre-WWII homes. Best of all is the Kross Lounge & Restaurant, exactly the place I picture as the local bar where Gillian’s dad was a regular. It’s a place where everyone knows your name. I ate lunch at the bar and chatted with the bartender who had worked there for 19 years. When I told her why I was visiting, she agreed she would likely be the one who made sure Gillian’s dad made it home.

Blending fiction with real settings and situations helps create relatable characters. Most people who’ve worked hard to start over in a fresh place will understand why Gillian might have selected her new Dallas neighborhood home.

How did you find your place to call home?

Whistle Bitch’s playlist

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Whistle Bitch can whistle a tune to fit any situation. Her real name is Makinzie. She’s one of my favorite Becker Circle and Dark Energy characters. She earned the nickname from her coworkers because of her amazing talent and ability to brings smiles to any stressful situation with her tunes.

Makinzie is a server and bartender (and cook when they’re in a pinch) in Pinkie’s Too and the George & Dragon, the two bars where these stories take place. A real bartender in an all-night bar/diner near the Space Needle in Seattle inspired Whistle Bitch because she whistles while she works.

Here is Whistle Bitch’s playlist, in the order the songs show up in the two books. Take a listen. This playlist is 45-minutes of music that will make you dance and smile, just like Whistle Bitch does in the book. Curious what situations triggered Makinzie to whistle these songs? Both books are available on most ebook retail sites.

Find Becker Circle & Dark Energy – Whistle Bit*h’s Playlist on Spotify.

You are the Sunshine of my Life by Stevie Wonder
Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen
Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley
Holiday by Madonna
You’re Gonna Miss Me by 13th Floor Elevators
Tequila by The Champs
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
Material Girl by Madonna
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
Cheers (Drink to That) by Rihanna
The Twilight Zone Main Theme by Geek Music
Dark Energy by Brian Miller
Dark Energy .germans remix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke

The last two songs are bonus tracks I co-wrote to go with the books. Jon, the adorable guy in one of the bands falls for Gillian, the main character, who inspires him to write a song called Dark Energy in the Becker Circle story. As Jon explained the song to Gillian, “I wrote it about someone who had a streak of bad luck and how they changed it with good karma.”

Listen for Track 12 (on Spotify) toward the end of the book trailer. If you are a Foo Fighters fan, you will like Dark Energy.

Find your beat today with a little music.

Who shoots a book trailer in a bar during a pandemic?

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We do. Sometimes I wonder if it was dark energy that kept creeping in and disrupting our efforts.

The Dark Energy trailer script had been written for months. The talented actors who played Gillian and her boyfriend Jon in the Becker Circle trailer had already agreed to reprise their roles. A friend was the exact Pinkie I envisioned. With a little coaxing, he accepted the offer to play Pinkie. We were looking into bars to use as the location.

Then COVID.

Restaurants and bars closed. People quarantined. The book released in June, and we didn’t give up.

In July, bars had to close again. We took a chance and asked a bar owner we know if we could shoot in his bar while it was closed. He said yes. We jumped on a date when the location and small cast and crew were available. We found some great props and gathered a few extras. We took a late afternoon into the evening to shoot several scenes.  

Editing takes specialized equipment and skills to put the right footage together to tell the story, record voiceover, select music, and add cover art, publisher information, and a purchase link. Do you recognize the green computer code as the trailer begins? A brilliant addition!

This trailer is extra special because of the song Dark Energy you hear toward the end. The song plays a huge role in both novels since the main character inspired the song. Look for Dark Energy by Brian Miller (Amazon, Spotify) and Dark Energy .germans mix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke (Amazon, Spotify) on your favorite music retail and streaming sites.

There’s no better way to bring a story to life than with film. That’s why some authors create trailers to help market their books. The experience creating this trailer was completely different than the one for Becker Circle. Book trailers of this quality are possible for me since I’ve assisted with hundreds of videos in my day job, but especially because of my good friend who’s an experienced, talented videographer.

This trailer is surrounded by talent. Dustin Grant, Pink Mouse Blue Mouse Productions, produced, directed, and edited the video. John Harrell of Harrell Creative art directed it and designed the art cards and album art. Katlyn Steele plays Gillian, including voiceover, and Rafeal Villagas plays Jon. This is Vermaine Howard’s acting debut as Pinkie. Numerous amazing friends pitched in as crew and also extras that make the neighborhood really come alive. I’m grateful to everyone who helped make it happen!

The trailer for Dark Energy turned out better than I could have imagined. My favorite words during the process…

That’s a wrap! 

Fictional song now real

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Dark Energy .germans mix featuring Brian Miller & Bobby Hoke lyrics by Addison Brae from the Becker Circle novel series

Music has always been a part of my life. All the way through school I played instruments, took part in church choir. My favorite tunes were on while I did homework. The songs that inspired me most calmed my nerves before the most dreaded college finals. My first marketing job was radio and music video promotions for a major record company. But I never had enough talent and drive to be a professional musician.

Music also inspires me. It’s always playing in the background while I write. Dark Energy and Becker Circle take place in the bar scene around live music. Jon, the adorable guy in one of the bands falls for Gillian, the main character, who inspires him to write a song called Dark Energy in the Becker Circle story. As Jon told Gillian, “I wrote it about someone who had a streak of bad luck and how they changed it with good karma.” It hit me while writing Dark Energy: Return to Becker Circle. The song had to be written in reality.

The song symbolizes the dark energy and dark matter theory in the cosmos. Dark matter allows gravity to pull stars, suns, planets, and other matter together the way I see some people draw us together. Dark energy is the vast empty space that opposes dark matter. It slips into the voids of our lives trying to disrupt like it pushes matter apart attempting to destroy our universe.

I never dreamed I would become a songwriter. Thanks to Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke, Dark Energy has music and is recorded and released. Listen for this version toward the end of the book trailer. And now we have Dark Energy .germans mix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke, released on March 5.

The chorus below (and all of the lyrics) represents the strength people possess that can help them push past economic, emotional and other hardships that strike even the most careful and good people.

Chorus
Find someone else to conquer.
What does it mean this dark energy?
Dark energy won’t control my fate.
I don’t deserve this dark energy.

Deep thanks to Brian for writing the music and recording both songs, and to Bobby for his vision for the .germans mix and for doing such an amazing job producing. Thank you John Harrell for the beautiful song art and Katlyn Steele for modeling. If you are a Foo Fighters fan, you will like Dark Energy.

You can find Dark Energy by Brian Miller and Dark Energy .germans mix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke on your favorite music retail and streaming sites including Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, and Apple Music.

Find your dark matter and enjoy the songs.

Book trailer debut – Dark Energy comes alive

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Nothing brings a book to life better than a movie. In 81 seconds, this Dark Energy: Return to Becker Circle trailer paints a realistic picture of trust and deception that none of us ever wants to experience.

The trailer drops viewers into Gillian’s do-over with a new boyfriend and career managing Pinkie’s second bar fresh from escaping a vicious murder investigation. You’ll be with Gillian when a cryptojacking scheme lands her boss in jail leaving her to run both bars. Gillian will pull you along with her while she’s forced to trust known criminals. Also as she struggles with a broken heart as she puts her life in danger to find the real criminals and free Pinkie.

The book tells the rest of the story.

This book trailer is full of talent. Dustin Grant, Pink Mouse Blue Mouse Productions, produced, directed and edited the video. John Harrell of Harrell Creative art directed it and designed the album art. Katlyn Steele plays Gillian and Rafeal Villagas plays Jon. I’m grateful they reprise their roles from the Becker circle trailer. This is Vermaine Howard’s successful acting debut as Pinkie. Numerous amazing friends supported the trailer as crew and extras that make the neighborhood truly come alive. Shooting in a bar and recording music is a challenge during a pandemic. Sincere thanks to each person who helped make this real.

Listen toward the end of the trailer for the new song, Dark Energy. Look for Dark Energy by Brian Miller (Amazon, Spotify, Pandora) and Dark Energy .germans mix by Brian Miller and Bobby Hoke (Amazon, Spotify, Pandora) on your favorite music retail and streaming sites.

Let the video and songs spark your imagination before you read!