Who or what influenced your writing once you began? My parents and grandparents were very charmed by my interest and so plied me with the tools of the trade. Their support probably encouraged me to take myself as seriously as I eventually did.
Who or what influenced your writing over the years? That is an unquantifiable number of people and sources. My teachers in undergrad and grad school; all the authors I’ve ever read. The authors I interviewed when I hosted a literary radio show, and interviewed for Writer’s Digest magazine. All my trusted writer buddies… and so on.
What made you want to be a writer? It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be, and I imagine that stories are what made me want to write. My love of stories.
What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general? The most challenging thing about writing a novel is the sheer scope of it, of finding a way to hold the long-term view, while at the same time not getting lost in the details. I’m a big fan of structure, finding one that works for you and using it, but I also allow my first drafts to sprawl and be messy and apply fixes in later drafts.
About writing in general, the biggest challenge is doing it, making yourself do it on a regular basis, to keep the muscle strong.
Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it? Writing this book was a HUGE journey for me. It’s been through three pretty major incarnations. It taught me to trust my instincts on the worth of a project; that when I feel the most blocked and terrified that I’ve failed, it’s actually because there’s some fear I have to face, some drastic change I have to make. It taught me also that there is so much rich ore to be mined in something as simple as a relationship between characters; big showy plot twists are not always necessary to create tension.
Do you intend to make writing a career? Well, I feel I have made one already, but yes I’d like to make more of a career writing novels. I have two writing books published already through mainstream channels, and have been freelance writing for a decade. But I’m also a person not easily satisfied with one channel so the other things I do I want to keep doing, like heading up indie-visible.com, a writer’s collective, teaching writing classes, editing and more.
Have you developed a specific writing style? Probably, but I couldn’t tell you what it is J
What is your greatest strength as a writer? Well, I’ve published a book on writing scenes; I’d like to think I’m pretty good at doing so myself.
Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
JR: Many, many times. Each block is for a different reason, but more often than not it’s usually something that needs fixing in the work—I’m stuck because I’ve hit a wall, or I don’t like what I’m doing. The only fix, I’ve found, is to keep writing, to plow forward and write crap until you break through to the other side.
How did you come up with the title? My book has had three titles. I really loved its original title, Little Alien, but beta reader reactions to it told me it wasn’t working, and also, I didn’t want my main character to see herself or be seen as alien by the end of the book, so I ended up choosing a title that both plays on her name, and speaks to the fact that she was burned. Forged in Grace.
Can you tell us about your main character? My main character Grace Jensen is a deeply empathetic, sweet person who always put herself in the shadow of the bigger, bolder, wilder best friend, Marly Kennet. After the terrible accident that burns her badly at age 15, she goes even deeper into herself, becoming almost hermitic. This book is the story of her very late coming of age (28) and her journey to healing not only herself, but others as she discovers what really happened to her in the fire, and her best friend, who moved away and never contacted her again until the novel’s inciting incident.
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Genre – Psychological Suspense
Rating – R
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Website http://indie-visible.com/
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