Interview with Jadie Jones

Release Day – The Jolly Dodger Interview with Nicole Knapp

Interview with Jadie Jones

My interview today is with Parliament House Press author Jadie Jones who just released Wayward, the third book in her Hightower series.

Wayward blurb: Tanzy’s journey races toward an explosive end in Wayward, the third book of the Hightower Trilogy. Tanzy Hightower has crossed the veil between the Seen and Unseen worlds. She is now the only mortal in a land teeming with creatures who want her dead. To stay alive long enough to stop Asher and seal the door between worlds, she is forced to accept his marriage proposal and seek refuge inside his fortress. Tanzy is certain she can withstand any offers he makes to tempt her into opening the door, but he possesses a bargaining chip she could never have imagined. On the Seen side of the veil, Tanzy’s allies are fragmented, lost, and leaderless. They must learn to work together as they gather more candidates and begin training to defend their world against unfathomable predators poised to strike should the veil holding them at bay dissolve. While Tanzy has accepted her own inevitable death in fulfilling her destiny, her closest friends refuse to stop searching for the impossible: a way to save Tanzy’s life.

A choice will be made. The veil will change. The worlds as Tanzy knows them will never be the same.

What inspired you to write your latest work?

When we were in edits for book 2, Shayne asked me to consider writing a prequel novella to the series – something short and explosive that would introduce readers to the Unseen world and some of its characters prior to “Wildwood” beginning. There’s a scene in book 2 that reveals an unpleasant secret from Lucas’s recent past that I have always been interested in expanding upon, and this gave me the perfect opportunity to do that, which is what became “Wither.”

Tell us about your writing process. What is the journey from idea to published piece?

I “taste” new ideas probably a couple times a week, on average. Something will happen or I’ll come up with a little hook in my head, and I’ll chew on it, marinade it, see how strong the flavor is. If the idea is still growing and soaking up juices a few days later, I write it down in my notebook, and any little thoughts that come up about it I’ll list beneath it as I go so when I’m ready to start a next project I have all these “spices” and “ingredients” waiting to be mixed together.

From there, I start sketching out my characters. How old are they. What do they want? What are they scared of? Are they social? It’s kind of like drafting a “for sale” ad for a horse. The most important piece for the main character is: WHY YOU. Why is your voice in my head? What makes you do a double take? What are you pointing at? What would you do if you could literally do anything? What lengths would you go to in order to survive should your world burst into flames? Those answers also help build the blocks for the obstacles in the way of whatever it is he/she wants. Those blocks are sometimes time/distance, but more often they’re a WHO, not a what. I look at the blocks and ask them similar questions: WHY YOU? What do you stand to gain by standing in the way, etc.? What do you want? What are you hiding? Who trusts you? Why do they trust you? Then I figure out where the hell we all are, and I start braiding everything together.

Often with the first draft, it’s like stumbling around blindfolded in a room you’ve never been in, with the goal of getting from one side to the other. You shuffle. You bump into things. You flail your hands out. You second guess yourself. But you also learn where things are and where they aren’t, all by feeling and flailing and running into things. Once you get to the other side, you get to take off your blindfold and clean up the path you made from one wall to the other.

I have an office, but it’s not the only place I write. Where do you write?

Wherever I can. I have 3 kids (ages 3, 4, and 8,) so I have had to learn how to write in snatches of time on whatever flat surface I can find. Dashboards, kitchen counters, the bed of my truck, a plastic fisher-price picnic table, my knees… I used to have all these little rituals to try to “help” me get in the zone, but honestly they became more of a crutch and a distraction than inspiring. My focus is inside my head, not outside of it. Now, I look around, make sure nobody needs anything, and jot down as much as I can. If I’m on a deadline, I stay up after everyone has gone to bed and write at the desk in my bedroom or at the kitchen counter (if the light is bothering my husband.)

Do you have a writing goal you want to achieve?

I want to stumble upon fan art or fan-fiction that someone has made inspired by the Hightower series. I want a reader to be so enraptured in this world that they create something of their own. That’s how I will know that my books did for them what my favorite books have done for me. Pipe dream goal: to be blurbed by Joss Whedon or Sarah Michelle Gellar.

What does writing success look like for you?

I want to be able to help pay my family’s bills with my writing. I know that sounds plain and unromantic, but I see writing as a career, and the time and energy it takes from me (and subsequently from my family) is a cost not unlike a full time job (that mostly happens on weekends and over holidays when I have more hands to help at home so I can squirrel away and write.) Success for me would be the ability to pay my monthly mortgage payment.

I totally understand that dream! Do you plot your entire story, or have your characters drive it?

I generally have a few “stepping stone” ideas for the plot, but for the most part put the characters first. It means for extensive revisions from the first draft to the second, but it also allows characters to interact in a more organic way and for secondary plots to generate more naturally as well.

What book has had the most impact on you? Why?

Bloodroot by Amy Greene. It was the first multi-pov book I’d ever read, and it also spanned a couple generations’ worth of time. The way she wove in details and the tiniest red herrings was phenomenal. The ending was also supremely satisfying, even if it didn’t necessarily end the way I wanted it to as far as characters getting what they deserved (good and bad.) It was well rooted in salt-of-the-earth stability with whispers of mystical and all of it was smart as hell.

What’s the best piece of writing advice that someone has given you?

To let the first draft of any new story absolutely, unflinchingly suck. It’s impossible to really understand your story as you’re writing that first draft. So many little things will reveal themselves to you – some that may change really big pieces in other places in the book. You have to take the pressure off yourself that you’re going to come out of the starting gate and pave the way with beautiful, cohesive prose all the way to the finish line. I don’t know that I’d ever get past the first page. The first draft is just a rough map of where you’re going and how you think you can get there with the information you have. And a map doesn’t have to be fancy or colorful. It just has to show you how to get there.

I love that advice. I always try to make everything perfect and it does create stress. I love the covers of the Hightower series. They are so beautiful. Who designed them and did you have any input?

Shayne Leighton – the captain and creative goddess at the helm of Parliament House Press – designed every cover in the Hightower Series. She asked me what feel I wanted and she took it from there. She encourages author feedback at every stage in the game, which is wonderful. For Windswept and Wayward, I asked for a couple very minor adjustments to the original mock-ups, and gave her my reasoning, and she was totally on board. She’s a visionary and a renaissance woman. Parliament House is a game changer for the indie-book industry.

What else do you do besides writing?

I love working with horses, especially rehabilitating horses that need nutritional or injury support. I also love long walks. I could walk all day if I had the opportunity to do so.