Interview

Hi Jean, and welcome. I am so glad you could join us here at RomanceJunkies. To start, will you please tell us a little bit about your current projects?

 

Thanks so much for inviting me to chat with you today! I’m currently at work on a series entitled LOVE ON THE LAKE and I’m very excited about it. The first in the series, SHADOW LAKE, was released on April 1st (Black Lyon Publishing). It is a sweet contemporary romance that features Emma Beckman, a recent widow who seeks summer employment at Shadow Lake Campground and winds up falling for her boss. The second book in the series, STRANGE MAGIC, will be a ghosty paranormal.

 

Your life involves a lot of writing. What is about writing that draws you to so many of its forms?

 

Writing has always been my greatest form of self-expression. As we wander through our lives we take in so many different experiences each day, some ugly and some beautiful. These impressions build up inside until they beg to be sorted out, reconciled, and for a writer, written through. Sometimes I can do that with a twenty-word poem and sometimes it takes an 85,000 word novel. I use whatever form and word length it takes to get the job done.

 

Have you ever been in the position of having an editor ask you to cut out or significantly change something in a story that you strongly felt you should not compromise on? If so, how did you handle the situation?

 

Thankfully, no. I’ve never had an editor ask me to cut major portions of a manuscript. But that’s probably because I edit my work so heavily before I send it out. I comb through it, word by word, scene by scene, and if something doesn’t pull its weight, out it goes, no matter how attached I might be to it. I have had short stories appear in magazines that have been pared down from the original almost beyond recognition. That can be pretty hard to take.

 

When finishing a project, are you ready to move on to the next one, or do you take a bit of breather first?

 

I always give myself a little bit of a break after I’ve finished a major project. That’s not to say that ideas aren’t swirling around in my head for the next one, but I don’t usually put them on paper right away. When I’m deep into writing a novel I tend to let a lot of other things slide, and I need a few weeks to get caught up on my real life before plunging back in.

 

All writers ask for advice on how to succeed, and get plenty of it! What was the one bit you wish you had just ignored?

 

When I first set my mind to writing professionally I didn’t have the first clue how to get started. I read a lot of books and asked for a lot of advice, and boy did I get it! When I was in college a well known author came to lecture. I was very excited. This was my chance to get the scoop from someone who’d really made it! I planned out everything I wanted to ask her, and when she opened the forum up for questions mine was the first hand up. I asked her how one went about getting started on a career as a writer. She looked at me with something like contempt and informed me I’d have to move to New York City or someplace like that where there was actually something to write about. She told me I was never going to make it as a writer as long as I lived in that small city. I’m a small town girl through and through, and that “advice” set me back quite a few paces. All these years later I can see her “advice” for the ridiculous nonsense it was.  

 

When you aren't writing, what other career do you pursue?

 

I am a teaching assistant employed by an educational co-op that spans four counties and services twenty-four school districts. I never quite know from one year to the next what my assignment will be. I have worked with children of all ages and ability levels, from those with severe/profound retardation to those with autism, to the emotionally disturbed. I’m currently working in a high school GED class. Suffice it to say that life is never dull!

 

Imagine that you are stranded on a deserted island for a month. What three things would you miss the most? What three things would you enjoy so much that you would want to remain stranded for another month?

 

The thing that would make me want to stay stranded would be the solitude, the peace and quiet. I don’t think people get enough of that any more. As long as I had plenty of books, pencils and tablets I’d probably be fine for a good six months! What I would miss the most would be, of course, my family. And I’d miss puttering in my greenhouse. And my Internet connection!

 

What grows in Jean’s garden? Ever fight with critters that want to feast off your efforts?

 

I have a little bit of everything growing in my garden. When we bought our five-acre plot and plopped a house on it, I looked at what was then a barren field, no idea where to begin. I started with a perennial bed, filled it with ferns and daylilies and other things I could transplant from the woods out back. The next year I added flowering trees and birdhouses, a few more perennials. Then my husband built me a greenhouse and I started experimenting with all different kinds of annuals. These days my yard is an all-consuming explosion of color, shapes and scents. I like to think of it as my own private little wildlife sanctuary, full of deer, bunnies, bears, birds and critters of every kind. They don’t bother my flowers too much, but I have to grow my veggies inside the greenhouse!

 

How did you and your husband meet? What made you know he was “the one for you”?

 

I met my husband when we were both working at the same furniture store; he was a delivery man and I managed the wallpaper department. Something clicked between us from day one, but I didn’t think we could have a relationship beyond friendship because he is a decade younger than me. I loved his sense of humor and the fact that he listened, really listened, when I talked. When you find someone you can laugh with, cry with, someone who understands and supports your dreams, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

 

What is your idea of the perfect romantic vacation?

 

Buying a motor home and taking off to see the whole USA.  Every day would be a vacation, the romance being in not planning the trip at all, in just letting it happen. We’d take back roads and stop in out of the way places, just because.

 

MORE FUN…

 

Who is the person who has had the biggest influence on your life? Whom will you pass this “influence” on to?

 

I would have to say that person was my mother. As I grow older, I find I am becoming more and more like her. She loved God, books, gardening and family and passed the love of those things on to me. I hope some of that will rub off on my son.

 

Who is your favorite animated or fictional TV character?

 

Oh, boy. I don’t watch any TV at all except for the news (who has time?) If I had to choose a favorite animated character, I guess I’d go with Shrek.  If you think about it, in a lot of ways he’s the perfect man; a hunk waiting to happen, tough and tender, an ogre with a heart of gold. 

 

And lastly, no interview of a writer would be complete without this question: what is your favorite comfort food?

 

Hands down, salted cashews.

 

Thank you for chatting with us!  It has been really fun.  Continued success with your writing career.

By Brooke Wills

Romance Junkies Publishing Editor

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