Q: Can you tell us a bit about your writing journey? When did you begin to write fiction and how did you get to where you are now?
Jennifer: My background is in advertising so, in a way, I have always been a fiction writer. 😊 I started writing as a young adult but didn’t get serious about it until I had children. I got tired of cringing when I watched movies with my teenagers. There had to be better content—thrilling stories without all those things that make a mother blush. The more I looked for that type of story, the harder it was to find, so I started writing.
Q: Who or what was your inspiration for Anna Greenan, the main character in The Killing Carol? What is she like?
Jennifer: For me, the plot came before characters. One sentence popped into my head and that was how this book began. “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, the reason your husband had to die.” That sentence was my inspiration for The Killing Carol. It took me rewriting the novel many times in order to finally figure out who Anna was. She’s strong and smart and having a tough time letting go of the life she thought she would have. Being a widow in your thirties will do that to a girl. She has a sense of humor and a strong moral compass.
Q: Do you have a favorite scene in the novel? If so, can you tell us about it without revealing to much?
Jennifer: YES! YES! YES! There’s a scene about 40 pages in. Anna dreams of a little girl, not more than eight or nine. The moment I wrote that scene I knew I’d done it. I knew without a doubt, this novel would be published. Every single person who has read that scene has had a similar reaction: “I have goosebumps.” Or just “Oh my goodness.” I think it is the only chapter in the book I never had to edit. Here’s the eerie part… when I wrote it, I had no idea how it fit into the story. It came out of nowhere and stole my story.
Q: Were there challenges in transitioning from writing commercials to writing in the mystery/thriller genre? If so, how did you overcome them?
Jennifer: Writing television commercials may be the greatest training for mystery/thriller writing or even writing in general. I always tell people it is a lot easier to get a reader to turn a page than it is to get a consumer off the sofa and into a store. If I can write the latter, I surely can accomplish the former. My struggle is commercials are only 30 seconds. You must convey a lot of information in a short period of time. That came through in my writing. I didn’t want to waste time on extraneous details, but it is those details that allow the reader to really get drawn into the story. I had to really tamper down my mile-a-minute style to give readers a quality experience. I still write fast-paced. I cannot help that, but not at the expense of the story.
Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?
Jennifer: I hate answering questions like this because there are so many great writers. Hands down, my favorite writer is James Patterson. There’s a reason he is one of the best-selling authors of all time. I tried my best to model his pacing and use of tension. His Masterclass on writing is fabulous and I recommend it to all writers.
Q: What are you working on now?
Jennifer: I’m hard at work on the second book in the Anna Greenan series. I haven’t decided if I am going to weave in a Christmas theme again. I’ve found the holidays to be a delightful backdrop for murder.
Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Jennifer: The best thing every writer can do is to get into a solid critique group. You must have a group of people who can tell you what works and what doesn’t, even if they can’t always articulate why. The more diverse the backgrounds of the group, the better. Some of my best critiques came from romance and fantasy writers. They caught things the mystery writers missed. It made my entire manuscript stronger and more appealing to a broader base of readers. If I could go back and start over, I would have gotten a lot more involved in Bookbub and Goodreads sooner. I read all the time. I wish I spent more time connecting to other readers before I became a writer.
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