Her youngest son, Thad, has diabetes, and Brenda is determined to help him and others like him. To date, she's raised almost $2.6 million. When she’s not with her family or writing, Brenda is usually raising money for diabetes research. Now that they are empty-nesters, she spends her free time babysitting her two grandchildren. Now a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, she continues to publish two or three novels a year, in a variety of genres.īrenda and her husband, Ted, live in Sacramento and are the proud parents of five children-three girls and two boys. The best advice for any would-be author: read, read, read….”īrenda sold her first book, and the rest is history. “I learned how to write by reading what others have written. “When I first got the idea to become a novelist, it took me five years to teach myself the craft and finish my first book,” Brenda admits. In school, math and science were her best subjects, and when it came time to pick a major in college, she chose business.Ībandoning her academic scholarship to Brigham Young University at the age of 20 in order to get married and start a family, Brenda dabbled in commercial real estate, then became a loan officer.

In fact, Brenda swears she didn’t have a creative bone in her body. However, writing was the last profession she expected to undertake. “It was then that I decided that I needed to do something from home.” “I caught my day-care provider drugging my children with cough syrup and Tylenol to get them to sleep while I was away,” Brenda says. It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s bestselling author career.

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