The Animal Senses Series by Jacqueline Paige is on a virtual book tour. The paranormal romance stops at Readeropolis with an author intervie...
What is something readers may not know about you?
I’m sure that list is long, but I write under two different names. Jacqueline Paige (paranormal romance mostly) and J. Risk (paranormal-romance-fantasy) both have a bit of suspense/action to them. The only big difference is in the J. Risk books the intimate scenes have been toned down, so a wider range of readers can enjoy them.
How did you become a writer?
When I sat down and wrote my first book, it was meant to be a joke—to get the last word in with one of my friends (I hadn’t written anything other than the odd poem for more than ten years). At that time, we spent a large portion of each day together, online haunting the same locations or on the phone. When she told me she was going on a month long trip, I couldn’t imagine what I was going to do without her companionship for that long, so I asked her. Her response was ‘write a book’ … so I did. Although when I began it was just to get the last laugh.
A month later when she returned I was on the second book in a series (yes the joke turned into a series!) and the story was flying. When she began to read the first story, she expected a joke in some way and was honestly shocked that I had an actual story with plot—and a good one at that.
What are you passionate about these days?
I would have to say my grandchildren. I’m a mother to five, but as any parent knows the years fly by, you’re too busy keeping up to hold onto the moments long… so grandbabies are the answer to that. 😊
Number nine is due in the next month and I can’t wait. All but one of my grandmonsters live close by (same small town) so I get to see them all the time and it’s an adventure. Since the pandemic began I’ve also become the main babysitter for most of them so mom and dad can keep working and not have to worry about child care. Wrangling up to 5 of them under the age of 7 is exhausting and very entertaining.
Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?
Oh, that’s a hard one. I don’t know if any of my single ones are on the top of that list, but a few of my series I can envision as a movie or series. Magic Seasons Romance Series and my J. Risk Alterealm Series. I’ve had more than one person that’s read these tell me they needed to be made into a movie. For both the special effects/CGI teams would have a blast creating some of the scenes I put in my books.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I’m currently writing the fifth book in the Animal Senses series. It was originally meant to be a trilogy, but the characters took over and secondary characters needed to have their story written.
On the J. Risk side of my desk 😉 I’ve just finished the ninth book (last) in the Alterealm Series and have a rough idea of where it’s going with the new series, Solrelm Series, that’s a continuation but from a different realm.
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
I’ll pick one scene from each other three Animal books:
Heart, it would definitely be the tent scene. Rayne putting up the tent on her own, with no idea of what she’s doing made me laugh the whole time I was writing it. I’ve been there myself, and know how tents work, but still had a few times where it’s been less than cooperative.
Scent, three scenes come to mind, but I don’t want to give away the entire plot. It’s not a scene per say, but the portion of the book when Rayne and Kelsey have gotten away—from start to finish for that was so much fun to write. I’m more of a Kelsey and know the outdoors and hiking etc. but having the Rayne’s comments and input through all of that kept me smiling the whole time.
Passion, it’s not a scene (I can’t pick just one with this book) but Aunt Mari came out of nowhere onto the pages of this book and even I had no idea what was going to happen with her next. I’d love to write more characters like her, but to be honest having her in my head was exhausting, I wouldn’t make it. 😊
Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?
I have tried plotting before, really, it doesn’t work out for me. My characters change things, rearrange events, or just appear out of nowhere on me—almost every book. I have a general idea of a few key points in the story, and usually where it’s going to end up (sort of) but I gave up plotting every detail because my characters take the story where they want.
Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
I know of the two main characters, and any previously mentioned if it’s a series, other than that they just appear on the page as I go. If anything, that keeps me invested in getting the writing done, so I too can see what happens.
Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?
As I’ve mentioned I am a mom to five, even though they are adults, I still need noise in the background to write most of the time. I prefer music and the list is very eclectic. Unless I’m writing in a notebook, for some reason I like quiet when it’s pen and paper.
Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?
I write only one book at a time—but my muse is never tired and wears me out. Very rarely do we disagree, if anything she needs to slow down and let me catch up. When I’m trying to work on one thing and she keeps interrupting with other ideas, I entertain her with music so I can focus and finish what I was trying to do before we rush onto the next five ideas she’s throwing at me all at once. Needless to say, my list of “to be written” is very long.
What do you find as the hardest part of the writing/publishing process?
Some would say it’s not part of the “writing/publishing” process, but it is, promoting.
While the internet, eBooks and self pubbing has opened up a whole new world for writers, fitting in promotion is a never-ending challenge.
As writers we NEED to write, not ‘want’ or ‘should’ but NEED! The characters and ideas just keep coming and for me if I’m not writing I feel like I’m in a funk I’ll never climb out of. I’m my happiest when I’m lost in writing my next book.
Yet, if we authors don’t promote and ‘get out there’ we will starve because no one knows about our books.
I have fallen behind on so many deadlines because I have become hyper focused on the ‘promoting’ side of it. It will suck you in and consume hours of your writing time.
For some it’s easy, they post status updates all the time drawing attention to their existence, I’m not a social creature, never have been, so the promotion side of this is the hardest part for me.
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Thanks for having me here today 💜
ReplyDeleteIt's my pleasure. Best of luck with the books and book tour! I included the tour in the Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020 edition of The BookTube Your Shelf Daily Reader: https://paper.li/Readeropolis/1517059010#/
DeleteLooks awesome!
ReplyDelete