Ask the Author: Jodie Bailey
Answered Questions (8)
Jodie Bailey
Ah, Dutch, our friend from Crossfire. Without giving away too much, he surprised me. He was not planned. When he tapped on the window, he scared me almost as much as he scared Andrea! Now you have my wheels turning... maybe he should have a novella someday. Definitely something I'll have to think about. Want a fun fact? When he showed up, he didn't tell me his name, so I had to give him one. I looked down and my dog was sleeping beside me. So Dutch? He's named after my faithful ol' Husky.
Jodie Bailey
Fun questions! I love this kind.
My favorite movie? I have two. The Princess Bride is downright fun to watch, and the book is wonderful as well. Then there is Dead Poets Society. I already loved words when I first saw it, but it lit up something deeper inside me. I knew I wanted words to be my life... and that I wanted to be a teacher. A lot of the things I did while teaching were insipired by Mr. Keating and the way he had a passion for his subject and his students, to make them really understand.
Favorite song is a hard one, because it changes. I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to music, because I was raised on the "oldies." (Of course, by now, the music I listened to in high school is "old.") I think my top three faves are probably Paul Young's version of "Oh, Girl," Christopher Cross's "Sailing," and the Rascal Flatts version of "Life is a Highway." Oh, and Bread's "Aubrey" has GOT to have a story behind it. It's beautiful. Christian music wise, I LOVE Brandon Heath's "I'm Not Who I Was" and Francesca Battistelli's "Beautiful, Beautiful." I'm a huge TobyMac and Third Day fan.
Color? Lime green and orange. I'd LOVE to own a lime green Jeep some day.
Book? Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Hands down my all time favorite.
Vacation Spot? Hatteras Island, North Carolina.
Food and Drink? Wow. Hard one. I LOVE food. :-) Doritos. M&Ms. Almonds. My grandmother's spaghetti sauce. My dad's shish kabobs. My husband's pancakes. A good steak and baked potato. And my grandmother's sweet tea. No one makes sweet tea like she does. No one.
Weather and season. I LOVE fall. Sweatshirt and jeans weather is my favorite. Yesterday was the first day it's been cool enough, and I was in heaven!
Holiday? Christmas. We have a million family traditions that I love so much. And one of my favorites is making a birthday cake for Jesus.
Thanks for asking, Christine!
My favorite movie? I have two. The Princess Bride is downright fun to watch, and the book is wonderful as well. Then there is Dead Poets Society. I already loved words when I first saw it, but it lit up something deeper inside me. I knew I wanted words to be my life... and that I wanted to be a teacher. A lot of the things I did while teaching were insipired by Mr. Keating and the way he had a passion for his subject and his students, to make them really understand.
Favorite song is a hard one, because it changes. I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to music, because I was raised on the "oldies." (Of course, by now, the music I listened to in high school is "old.") I think my top three faves are probably Paul Young's version of "Oh, Girl," Christopher Cross's "Sailing," and the Rascal Flatts version of "Life is a Highway." Oh, and Bread's "Aubrey" has GOT to have a story behind it. It's beautiful. Christian music wise, I LOVE Brandon Heath's "I'm Not Who I Was" and Francesca Battistelli's "Beautiful, Beautiful." I'm a huge TobyMac and Third Day fan.
Color? Lime green and orange. I'd LOVE to own a lime green Jeep some day.
Book? Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Hands down my all time favorite.
Vacation Spot? Hatteras Island, North Carolina.
Food and Drink? Wow. Hard one. I LOVE food. :-) Doritos. M&Ms. Almonds. My grandmother's spaghetti sauce. My dad's shish kabobs. My husband's pancakes. A good steak and baked potato. And my grandmother's sweet tea. No one makes sweet tea like she does. No one.
Weather and season. I LOVE fall. Sweatshirt and jeans weather is my favorite. Yesterday was the first day it's been cool enough, and I was in heaven!
Holiday? Christmas. We have a million family traditions that I love so much. And one of my favorites is making a birthday cake for Jesus.
Thanks for asking, Christine!
Jodie Bailey
Just do it. Seriously. I go to writers conferences and meet writers who want so badly to write, but then they never finish a book. They either get distracted, decide they aren't good enough, or jump from idea to idea. I read a long time ago, when I first started writing, that only the smallest percentage of writers actually finish a novel. That drove me to be a finisher. My advice? That's the first step. Finish a story. Don't worry if it's good or bad; you can edit it later. Just get that thing on paper then print it out, hold it in your hands, and relish the fact that all of those words on all of those pages came out of your fingertips. There's nothing like that feeling. It'll drive even the most stoic person to a tear or two.
Jodie Bailey
I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in writer's block. In my experience, "writer's block" is really the internal editor talking too loudly, dictating right and wrong. I believe in just writing, even if it's garbage. Just putting words on paper. A lot of times, those words that have to be forced are the words that end up being the best scenes in a novel.
Jodie Bailey
We had family who died in the sinking of the Titanic, and I can still remember the day they found the ship. That whole story fascinates me. A few years ago, I started to toy with the idea of writing a novel that took place in the present and in the past, aboard the Titanic, with the theme tying the two stories together. The present day character, Taryn McKenna, came easily. Within a couple of days, I felt like I knew her and the hero, Justin Callahan, very well. Their story just kept on flowing, so I kept going with it. When I tried to write the historical story, it would not come at all. I spent a month of screen time trying to make it work, but I never got past the second page, so I shelved it. Later, the opportunity to write a novel for Abingdon's Quilts of Love line came up, and I realized Taryn and Justin's story was the perfect fit.
Jodie Bailey
Like a lot of writers, the right song can get my imagination all spun up. There's a feeling in certain music that just works, and most of my stories have that one song that soundtracks the whole thing.
For example, I wrote a two-book series that hasn't yet been published, but it's about a racing family. To this day, when I hear Tobymac's "Ignition," I get pumped to work on that story all over again.
In published novels, Freefall's song came after I'd finished the book, when I was revising. There's a ninties Def Leppard song, "Two Steps Behind." I could totally see Shane in that song.
For example, I wrote a two-book series that hasn't yet been published, but it's about a racing family. To this day, when I hear Tobymac's "Ignition," I get pumped to work on that story all over again.
In published novels, Freefall's song came after I'd finished the book, when I was revising. There's a ninties Def Leppard song, "Two Steps Behind." I could totally see Shane in that song.
Jodie Bailey
I'm working on a new military suspense, tentatively titled Smokescreen. It's the story of a former military police officer who has PTSD and is pulled into an investigation without her permission. The hero is a former friend whom she believes abandoned her at the lowest point in her life and who is now asking the impossible of her. They have to work together in order to rescue a mutual friend, who has been kindapped by terrorists overseas.
Jodie Bailey
The best thing about being a writer is meeting new characters. I love when a character "starts talking." It's like making a new friend, and I can spend hours just exploring who they are and where they're going. If I'm not careful, I get lost in getting to know the characters instead of writing their story. Then again, it's always fun to start the story, to put them into situations and see what happens next!
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