Oh, boy...I guess I started wanting to do the very best job I could, but I'm not sure I ever thought that. I know that everything good comes from the Lord - my creativity, my ability (what there is of it) to write, my time, my energy - and when He wants me to do something else, I need to be ready!
How do you make the decision to end one series and start another?
That's a great question. I hate ending series. That really drives my readers crazy, because they want to know what happened to so-and-so, because I have a tendency to leave at least one character open-ended just in case...
With so many series, how do you go about not repeating this same storyline?
Well, at their core, romance is all about boy and girl meet, overcome, and fall in love. So, everything is really a variation on this theme. I try to take fun things and funny things and romantic things and twist them just enough to make them fresh, then hopefully turn that into a great story.
I do my own formatting, although my assistant, Chasidi, has taken some of that off my plate now. My daughter makes my covers. Handy, right? (She was always creatively inclined, so I gifted her a class on Photoshop specifically for making covers to market, and she took it from there.) She actually makes covers for several other authors as well, but we have a really great time looking at trends and showing each other covers we love.
Almost every day I'm sending her a cover and saying, Isn't this cute? Just today she was working beside me and read off a blurb then said, You have to see the cover! It's adorable! And we talked about what we loved about it for a while. It's awesome to have someone like that right beside me. : )
What’s the hardest part for you in publishing and marketing your own books?
The hardest thing for me is marketing. I'm much more likely to tell people why they shouldn't buy something than why they should. So, learning to frame my books in a way that was appealing and to do that in an ad was a very steep learning curve for me.
I'm also terrible at social media. I wasn't even on social media - nothing - until I started to write. That's been hard for me because it feels like an alternate world. There's the "real" world, and then there's social media. That said, I've met some amazing people online.
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
The hardest part is actually sitting down and writing. Seriously, I love writing, but I'm lazy and don't want to actually structure my thoughts into scenes and plot. I also am a very linear, straight-arrow thinker, so more than two people in a scene and timelines are hard for me.
What’s the best encouragement you’ve had in your writing?
I've had people tell me I'm their favorite author and that just...is unbelievable to me. But, I think the best encouragement is when someone tells me that my writing has influenced their walk with God, brought them back to Him, or helped them see the Bible and its commands in a way that convicted them about their lives. That just amazes and humbles me that God would use my writing to be a help and a blessing to someone.
We have all experienced rejection. How have you learned to write past it.
Use it as inspiration. When anyone tells you that you can't, you can smile and be nice to them, but in your heart, you can tell them that They. Are. Wrong. Kindly, of course. : )
When I first started I entered a lot of RWA competitions. One judge, on a scale of 1-5, scored me 0's. Ha. She was right. My writing at the time was terrible. But I did cry and get depressed. It was discouraging. I already knew I wasn't the most talented writer in the world, not the smartest, not the best at anything, but I can learn and I can work. So I did.
What do you know now about writing you wished you had known sooner?
Well, I suppose I thought I'd write a book and sell it, then do it again. It doesn't quite work that way, but I'm glad I didn't know that when I started. If I had known how hard it was, I might not have tried to begin with. So, yeah, you'll find things out when you need to. Be willing to learn, but don't worry about what you don't know. God knows, and He'll make sure you know it when you need to, and that's enough.
What is the best writing advice you’ve received or could give?
Write. Seriously. It's good to learn, it's good to take classes, good to do a lot of things, but in order to get better, you need to write.
Are there any other points about writing you would like to add?
I know when we're starting out, we want to know what the easy way is. Tell us the shortcuts. There is no easy way. It's all a lot of hard work.
I think the important thing, with writing, as with anything else, is that we don't get consumed with being "successful." The people we meet on our journey, the lives we touch and change, the way we make people feel, the care and attention we give...life is about being a blessing and focusing on others. It's less about scratching your way to the top and more about creating waves of kindness, goodwill and generosity, along with hard work, determination and perseverance, that eventually lift you where you need to be.
What is the next book coming out?
My narrator, the incredible Jay Dyess, and I have teamed up to offer over 40 of my books in audio format, completely free, on SaywithJay on YouTube. I am SO excited about this because it's free for readers/listeners, yet we make money through the ads on YouTube, so it's a win-win for us all. Eventually we want to have all of my books - over 70 and counting - up on his YouTube channel.
Let me talk about the series I have going right now. It's set in Sweet Water, North Dakota, and features a group of matchmaking ladies who set up love connection-type game shows, do some misdirection, and instigate kissing lessons. It's a lot of fun, and you never know what they're going to come up with next!
That's all for today's interview. I hope you found something useful to aid you in your own writing journey. If you'd like to learn more about Jessie's books, here are some links to get you started.
Say with Jay: https://www.youtube.com/c/SaywithJay
My books on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09YQKL5Z6
The hardest thing for me is marketing. I'm much more likely to tell people why they shouldn't buy something than why they should. So, learning to frame my books in a way that was appealing and to do that in an ad was a very steep learning curve for me.
I'm also terrible at social media. I wasn't even on social media - nothing - until I started to write. That's been hard for me because it feels like an alternate world. There's the "real" world, and then there's social media. That said, I've met some amazing people online.
The hardest part is actually sitting down and writing. Seriously, I love writing, but I'm lazy and don't want to actually structure my thoughts into scenes and plot. I also am a very linear, straight-arrow thinker, so more than two people in a scene and timelines are hard for me.
What’s the best encouragement you’ve had in your writing?
I've had people tell me I'm their favorite author and that just...is unbelievable to me. But, I think the best encouragement is when someone tells me that my writing has influenced their walk with God, brought them back to Him, or helped them see the Bible and its commands in a way that convicted them about their lives. That just amazes and humbles me that God would use my writing to be a help and a blessing to someone.
We have all experienced rejection. How have you learned to write past it.
Use it as inspiration. When anyone tells you that you can't, you can smile and be nice to them, but in your heart, you can tell them that They. Are. Wrong. Kindly, of course. : )
When I first started I entered a lot of RWA competitions. One judge, on a scale of 1-5, scored me 0's. Ha. She was right. My writing at the time was terrible. But I did cry and get depressed. It was discouraging. I already knew I wasn't the most talented writer in the world, not the smartest, not the best at anything, but I can learn and I can work. So I did.
Well, I suppose I thought I'd write a book and sell it, then do it again. It doesn't quite work that way, but I'm glad I didn't know that when I started. If I had known how hard it was, I might not have tried to begin with. So, yeah, you'll find things out when you need to. Be willing to learn, but don't worry about what you don't know. God knows, and He'll make sure you know it when you need to, and that's enough.
What is the best writing advice you’ve received or could give?
Write. Seriously. It's good to learn, it's good to take classes, good to do a lot of things, but in order to get better, you need to write.
Are there any other points about writing you would like to add?
I know when we're starting out, we want to know what the easy way is. Tell us the shortcuts. There is no easy way. It's all a lot of hard work.
I think the important thing, with writing, as with anything else, is that we don't get consumed with being "successful." The people we meet on our journey, the lives we touch and change, the way we make people feel, the care and attention we give...life is about being a blessing and focusing on others. It's less about scratching your way to the top and more about creating waves of kindness, goodwill and generosity, along with hard work, determination and perseverance, that eventually lift you where you need to be.
My narrator, the incredible Jay Dyess, and I have teamed up to offer over 40 of my books in audio format, completely free, on SaywithJay on YouTube. I am SO excited about this because it's free for readers/listeners, yet we make money through the ads on YouTube, so it's a win-win for us all. Eventually we want to have all of my books - over 70 and counting - up on his YouTube channel.
Let me talk about the series I have going right now. It's set in Sweet Water, North Dakota, and features a group of matchmaking ladies who set up love connection-type game shows, do some misdirection, and instigate kissing lessons. It's a lot of fun, and you never know what they're going to come up with next!
That's all for today's interview. I hope you found something useful to aid you in your own writing journey. If you'd like to learn more about Jessie's books, here are some links to get you started.
Say with Jay: https://www.youtube.com/c/SaywithJay
My books on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09YQKL5Z6
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