The *Next Big Thing* Blog Hop

Welcome to the NEXT BIG THING Blog Hop. What is a blog hop? Basically, it’s a way for readers to discover authors new to them. On this stop on the blog hop, you’ll find a bit of information on me and one of my books and links to other authors you can explore!

My gratitude to fellow author Joy Ross Davis for inviting me to participate in this event. Visit Joy’s website to learn more about her and read an excerpt from her upcoming book, Countenance. She was invited to the hop by my friend, K.D. McCrite, who answered The Questions on November 9, 2012.

In this blog hop, I and my fellow authors, in their respective blogs, have answered ten questions about our book or work-in-progress. We’ve also included some behind-the-scenes information about how and why we write what we write — the characters, inspirations, plotting and other choices we make. I hope you enjoy it!

Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts and questions. Here is my Next Big Thing!

1. What is the working title of your book?

Call me superstitious, but I will NOT speak the actual title of the book aloud. Yes, it’s that awesome. (The title. And hopefully the book.) Every so often, I search for that title on Amazon, and heave a sigh of relief when no one has taken it yet. In the meantime, I call it either Deep South, Jessie’s Story, or occasionally, So Much for That, what I called an excerpt from the novel; as a short story, it won an award in the Georgia Writers 2003 Members Contest. (Holy cannoli – that was a long time ago!)

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Honestly, I have no idea. I started working on the novel in 1996.

3. What genre does your book come under?

Women’s Southern Literary Fiction

In spite of our feminist foremothers, women are still denigrated for our choices. If we have children and go back to work, we can’t possibly be a good mother. If we have children and stay home, we’re wasting our lives. And if we choose not to have children at all, then something must be very wrong with us.

I explore these issues in my book, in what I hope is a humorous, touching manner.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

That’s a tough one. I haven’t really thought about it. If she could believably play an 18 year old, I’d say Sandra Bullock. A younger actress who might do Jessie right (even though she’s not Southern) is Tara Lynne Barr from the dark comedy God Bless America. She doesn’t quite have the ‘look’ I have in my head of Jessie, but she for sure has the spunk and dry humor, and can also pull off the melancholy. Another good one would be Emma Stone, as long as her hair was dark/auburn.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Feisty Jessie Cooper left her small Southern town at 18 years of age with the idea she’d strike it big, but ends up moving from place to place to place; now, she confronts her past and her future, with a little help from an unexpected friend.

(WHEW! I managed to fit it all into one sentence!)

6. Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

None of the above! When I finally finish it, I hope to have it represented by an agency.

By the way, one of Jessie’s adventures, which I called “There is Such a Thing as Too Much Orange”, will be published in the Orange Karen Tribute Anthology, being released in April 2013. Proceeds help a fellow writer, Karen DeLabar, with medical costs associated with a bout of toxic shock syndrome.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About a thousand years. (It’s still not done.)

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The voice is somewhat similar to Diary of a Mad Fat Girl, though Jessie’s Story isn’t as upbeat all the time. The main character of K.D. McCrite’s Confessions of April Grace series has a similar voice and temperament, but she’s much younger so hasn’t had to deal with loss. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson explores loss and love like Jessie’s Story does, but is not as humorous.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See question 2. I have no idea! but Jessie is very real to me. I feel strongly that I need to tell her story, and I feel guilty it’s taken me this long. Many of the stories I share actually happened ~ if not to me, then to someone else. So, basically, the people and world around me ~ and like Jessie, I’m very much a Southerner ~ have inspired Jessie’s tale.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I love Jessie’s voice, and so have all of my early readers. After she leaves home, she flees to the next small Southern town, then the next, and then the next; at each place she gets a low-paying job ~ with very little skills, it’s about all she can expect to find ~ and a boyfriend or three. She generally makes bad choices, most of them clashing against society’s expectations for a woman. Somehow, she manages to have fun. But behind her snarky, sarcastic, witty voice she hides a deep sadness ~ loss piles on top of loss until she’s not sure she can go on.

The novel is written in two parts that will be woven together when it’s completed – the past, when Jessie left home confident in her abilities, and the many jobs and loves she has along the way; and the present, where she confronts that past and her future. At turns funny, at others sad, the story covers the full range of the female experience: joy, loss, longing, understanding, growing up, and moving on.

Remember to visit the Next Big Thing author next Wednesday, January 30, 2013:

• Stephanie Kate Strohm ~ I love her book, Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink (one of my favorite books read in 2012); she answered The Questions on August 16, 2012