The GCC Presents Jennifer Echols!
Have I discussed how much I love the Girlfriend’s Cyber Circuit? I know I have, and this is why: it brings amazing authors to my blog. Today I have the extreme pleasure of welcoming Jennifer Echols, and her new book, SUCH A RUSH!
Here’s a little about the book:
High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.
But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business–until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers–and the consequences could be deadly.
You know what’s coming now, and you know it involves a haiku. Yes, it’s my interview with Jennifer!
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?
JENNIFER: Wow. This is kind of a mean question. It fills me with longing. Right now I’m trying to finish a book while carting my son around to summer activities, and my husband has decided this is a great time to remodel the kitchen.
However, I have been in that dream scenario, theoretically, and I hated it. I went to a writers’ conference in New York City a couple of years ago, but I went a few days early so I could finish a book. I got lonely. I got bored. And what I concluded from that trip is that I really need to write in between going for a jog and ironing. I’ve been juggling writing with family duties from the very beginning–and until last year, I also worked lots of hours at a freelance copyediting job–so when presented with the opportunity for unlimited writing, my brain doesn’t know how to handle it.
ME: Is there a character you thought would be in the book, but who landed on the cutting room floor? Conversely, 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.
JENNIFER: I sit around and think about my books for so long beforehand that by the time I start writing them, I know where I’m going–not the details but the basic journey. Characters don’t usually surprise me. However, the relationship between the main character Leah and her flight instructor Mr. Hall, who is also the father of the hero Grayson, is much more complex that I originally imagined.
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?
JENNIFER: I need coffee. I need the soundtrack I made for the book on my iPod. I need the menfolk in my house to stop asking me for laundry. Other than that, I’m pretty flexible. I write in my office, on the screened porch, in the yard, and at Starbucks, on my laptop, on my Alphasmart, and often longhand when I get stuck.
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!
JENNIFER: I am always touched by the e-mails that say readers have been sick, or have a sick loved one, and my book helped them forget their troubles for a time. Books have done that for me, too, and I’m happy to be able to do that for someone else.
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!
JENNIFER:
Flying to escape
The troubles of this flat earth:
Harder than it looks.
Thanks so much for the interview, Jennifer! I’m personally terrified of flying in small planes, so I’m eager to escape into Leah’s head for awhile. Best of luck with the book — I’m sure it’ll be a huge success!
