It’s My Party And I’ll Hail Jessica Brody If I Want To
Today is my BIRTHDAY, but I’m giving you guys something fabulous. Two things, really: the winner of the Myra McEntire giveaway (later in the post), and a Girlfriend’s Cyber-Circuit interview with my fellow Los Angeleno (Los Angelite?) JESSICA BRODY!
Jessica’s new book is called 52 REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER, in which “a spoiled teen heiress, famous for her party-girl antics and tabloid headlines, is forced by her ever-absent mogul father to take on a different low-wage job every week for a year, if she wants any hope of receiving her trust fund.”
That’s the description, but Jessica went further than that; she made one of her awesome movie-style trailers for the book. Check it out:
I totally want to read it immediately. But before I sit down and crack it open, I bring you my interview with Jessica, complete with… haiku!
ME: If you had no other responsibilities and could take off on a retreat to your dream place to write, where would that be, and what would your dream daily schedule be like?
JESSICA: I would LOVE to live and write on a cruise ship. I’m obsessed with cruises and boats! I don’t care where the cruise goes as long as I have a balcony. I would wake up in the morning, order room service pastries and coffee, write my 1500 daily words (which usually takes me about 2-3 hours), then eat lunch and have the rest of the day to lounge by the pool, take dance lessons, practice yoga, play bingo, etc. That is definitely my DREAM life! And then when one of my books becomes like UBER successful, I’ll ditch the cruise ship and buy my own yacht!
ME: Is there a character you never expected to appear, but turned out to be intrinsic to the story? If so, tell us about him/her.
JESSICA: I love minor characters who turn out to be really important. Characters like this are what keep us writers on our toes. I think in this book that character would be Horatio, Lexington’s butler. At the start, he was just going to be a butler. Kind of background character, but from the moment he first came into the story, I realized what a special relationship he and Lexi had. Because her mother died when she was five and her father is NEVER around, Horatio is kind of like a father figure to Lexi, a fact she both loves and resents about him. At the beginning, when I set out to write the story, he didn’t even have a name. He was just going to be “the Butler” but by the end of writing the novel, he became one of my favorite characters, so at the end, I decided to give him a very special role in one of mysteries that Lexi unravels about her father’s past.
ME: Writing rituals: do you have any? If so, what are they? If you don’t follow them, do you find it harder to write?
JESSICA: Yes, I have a few. And I’m quite adamant about following them. First off, I can’t write at home. I have to write in a public place. Like a coffee shop. For some odd reason, all the stuff going on around me keeps me from getting distracted! I know, counter-intuitive, right? It’s when I’m alone in my office that I find SO many other things to do and think about!
Secondly, I have a really cool “white noise” track that I listen to. Despite the fact that I have to have people and things around me when I write, I can’t have any noise. (Writers are so weird!) So I found this track called “Waterfall Entrainment” and it’s nothing but a constant waterfall sound that goes “SHHHHHHHH!!!!” in my ear. I loop it and play it full blast.
And third, I ONLY drink coffee when I’m writing. I’ve actually managed to trick my brain to thinking that coffee equals productivity. Plus, limiting my caffeine intake makes the caffeine more effective. So as soon as that coffee hits my blood stream, I am ready to rock!
ME: Ever gotten a piece of fan mail, or had an experience with a reader that really stands out in your mind? Tell us about it!
JESSICA: Let me preface this story by saying that I was NOT a reader when I was a kid. I actually kind of hated it. Because all the books we were required to read in school were long and serious and boring. It wasn’t until I was 20 and read BRIDGET JONES DIARY by Helen Fielding that I realized that books didn’t have to be serious and boring! They could be funny! That was the book turned me into a reader. So I decided that if I ever became a writer, I would write fun books that hopefully make you laugh.
Fast forward ten years and I got an email from a reader who told me that before she read one of my books, she hated reading and that my book got her into reading. It was such an amazing thrill to get that because there was once a book that did the same for me and I always thought, if I could do the same for just ONE person, then I will have given back the gift that Helen Fielding gave to me.
ME: Let’s reach back to school and describe your book in a single… HAIKU! Three lines,
five syllables-seven syllables-five syllables. Ready? Go!
JESSICA:
This spoiled heiress
Is about to learn how to
Scrub a toilet bowl.
LOL! This is why I write novels…not poetry!
Don’t sell yourself short, Jessica — anytime you can work “toilet bowl” into poetry, you rule! Thanks for the interview, and I can’t wait to read the book!
For those of you out there who aren’t familiar with Jessica, here’s her scoop:
Jessica Brody is the bestselling author of THE KARMA CLUB and MY LIFE UNDECIDED, as well as two books for adults: THE FIDELITY FILES and LOVE UNDER COVER. In researching this book, she took on several minimum wage jobs, her favorite of which was working the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant. She splits her time between California and Colorado. Visit her online at: www.jessicabrody.com
Now one last thing to make this a full Girlfriend’s Cyber-Circuit post: the winner of my Myra McEntire giveaway! The randomizer at Random.org made its choice and it’s… TRAVIS! Travis, I’ll be emailing you, and once I get your address I’ll send you copies of HOURGLASS and TIMEPIECE.
