It's snowy and cold outside here in Alabama, but you can warm up with the new book, "Sunny Days, Moonlit Nights" from our featured author Jean C. Joachim. Hop on over to Astraea Press to get yours today!
Caroline Davis White is a well-known artist and married to a wealthy, controlling man. She has everything money could buy except one thing: Love. Brad refuses to give her a divorce she so desperately wants. With no money, family, or friends, she flees to the Catskill Mountains where she spent her summers as a young adult.
Mike Foster has achieved success and made more money than he could have thought possible, but it destroyed his marriage and cost him his son. He is wary of every woman he meets, knowing his money may be more attractive than his good looks.
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a writer, even when I was seven years old, though I was sure I would never be good enough. In high school, I had to write a book report on a book of short stories and couldn’t find one anywhere. So I made one up and wrote the report on my imaginary book, making up each story as I went along. Being the incredibly honest child I was, I felt enormously guilty and was terrified I was going to get caught in this huge lie. I lived my own personal purgatory for a week. Then I got the report back, I got a B-. It was then that I thought I might have the stuff to become a writer.
What was the scariest moment of your life?
When I was 39 I had an emergency C-section with my first son because I had toxemia. I was too old to have toxemia, but I had it just the same. I was terrified my baby would die even though I was the one in intensive care after the operation. But he was okay and I was okay and in less than five days we were home celebrating our new arrival for Christmas. It was a close call.
How do you develop your plots and characters?
My first books just came to me. I wrote “Now and Forever, a Love Story” because the characters landed in my head and refused to leave until I had written their entire story. I got the idea for “Sunny Days, Moonlit Nights”, my newest book, by thinking back on my life, looking around at where I was and saying “what if?” I love “what if”, it starts the creative mind working and inventing scenarios, sometimes outrageous ones, for life situations. There are no formulas for me when it comes to plot and characters. I let my mind take over and try to go with what is created there.
Do you listen to music while writing?
For a person who can’t carry a tune, I find music is very influential in my writing. I don’t have one story where without a theme song. In my first book it was “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers in “Sunny Days, Moonlit Nights” it’s “Hello, Again,” by Neil Diamond. Music speaks so eloquently of romance and creates a mood. When I need to channel my characters and I’m having trouble, I put their theme song on and we connect right away.
Plotter or Pantser? Why?
I’m both. As a story comes to me, I write it down. Then I create a loose outline of events and appearance of characters. When I sit down to write, I let the characters tell me their story, I listen to them and write down what I see and hear in my head. The outline becomes only a guide. What the characters are saying and doing is more important. I know it sounds weird, but they do take form in my brain, come to life and take over the process.
I never know what’s going to happen when I sit down to write a story. In one book, my character was only supposed to wound the bad guy, but she “shot him until he stopped moving” and he was dead! I had not planned that, but it was the right action for the scene and the characters. I was a little shocked.
Tell us about your current release.
My current book, “Sunny Days, Moonlit Nights” was a labor of love for me. The setting is familiar to me, similar to the summer community I’ve been visiting with my sons for 14 years. I love the characters. Sunny is a gutsy woman taking charge of her life even though she isn’t too confident about it. Mike, our hero, is a strong man, sweet and loving. My characters are not perfect, and I love their imperfections. It makes them seem real. I find a happy ending satisfying. If you want an unhappy ending, turn on the news!
Facebook: Jean Cohen Joachim and Now and Forever, a Love Story, group site.
