SPOTLIGHT ON… Aussie Rural Novelist: Jennie Jones

JENNIE JONES:

1.         Describe yourself in one word:
Artistic (with every idiosyncratic and wonderful thing that characteristic encompasses – be it introvert or extrovert – and it can be both).

2.         The best thing about being a wordsmith:
I found more staying power within myself during the last three years of learning to write fiction (a continual process, I must add) than ever before in my life.  Now, I believe when I’m writing I’m giving, so if I’m going to give, I’d better give in the best way I possibly can which means I will be searching my soul and learning how to get better at writing forevermore.

3.         You wish you wrote:
Tied to the Tracks by Rosina Lippi (aka Sara Donati) or The Thorn Birds  by Colleen McCullough (and doesn’t that show my eclectic style?)

4.         If you weren’t writing, what would you be doing?
I’d be sitting on a padded swing-chair on a warm, sunny veranda, drinking French champagne and thinking about writing.

5.         Favourite fictional character:
Jane Eyre (but I wouldn’t want to be Jane Eyre, she doesn’t own enough shoes. I’d rather be a princess from the start :D)

6.         If you were a character in a novel, you’d be:
The busy-body. The nosey, argumentative secondary character who steals the show when she appears. Someone with attitude who’s not afraid to show it, in fact, who needs to show it – but I would prefer the character to make the reader laugh or at least smile, rather than be dour and villainous.

7.         What book has changed your opinion/stance on something important to you, and why?
Thesaurus – any imprint will do but I currently adore Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus.  You think that a strange choice? Not really – I’ve learned so much from the thesaurus – more than from the dictionary. A thesaurus is a valuable tool for a writer. (Have you noticed how hard it is to say ‘the thesaurus’ consecutively? There must be a tongue twister for it somewhere).

8.         The one author you would you spend your last $20 on?
Tough question, but today, I think I’d go for Sally Beauman (British author). I bought Destiny many years ago even though there was no blurb on the cover – none! But it was a wonderfully involved story and I couldn’t put the book down.) I enjoyed all her following novels, but although her ‘voice’ remained the same, her storytelling style changed. Love that ability to move on and move forward, testing the waters and doing it brilliantly. Tomorrow, I might spend my dollars on Bronwyn Parry (Australian author). Her characters resonate deeply with me, she has a way with storytelling – no unnecessary words, high impact depiction and utterly fabulous male and female protagonists – she writes the type of heroine I’d like to be. The next day I would probably spend my dollars on Nora Roberts because I love most of her work, and she was inspirational in my choice to write romance.

9.         Biggest accomplishment to date:
It should be getting published, but it’s more than that – it’s getting published because of the effort I put into getting published.  Fate, luck and having the stars aligned helps a lot but I don’t believe providence will get a person anywhere unless they make use of what they have, learn from the best and keep going through the hard times.

10.       What’s next for you?
Book 2 in the Swallow’s Fall series, Trouble on Main Street.  Then book 3, Return to All Seasons Road.  Somewhere in the midst of these works in progress, I have an almost finished modern-day romantic comedy entitled Don’t Tell Ella which I’m desperate to get out into the world of submission!

11. What attracted you to writing about rural Australia?
I didn’t start out or intend to write a rural story, but my characters formed and it turned out they were living in the country – and a remote, rural town at that.  I loved the fact that this gave them issues they had to deal with: one new, one home-grown.  One searching, one thinking about running. And the townspeople interfering which sends them on a merry-go-round of problems.

12. Do you have a background in rural Australia?
Only if you count the time I was a teenager living in Wales and reading My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin, then The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, then A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. I was sold. I knew I’d go to Australia one day. Here I am seventeen years an Australian and loving it. The Australian scenery is soldered in my mind as extraordinary, wide, open, gracious and elegant in its breadth and value. What stories were lived on this land and have been told over the last two-hundred-plus years? More than have been written about, I bet.

13. What’s one thing you’d like readers to know about the rural romance genre?
The setting is a third character in any novel, and it’s what the setting does for the story and how the setting envelops the characters that is so important. Somehow, a story set in a rural, country environment is more personal for me. It’s a journey that allows me to leave the rat race and walk the wide-open fields under the sun. However, it’s not easy living in the country so if we add a man and a woman, an attraction, a conflict, a bit of fate, a push from external elements like nosey townspeople or locals with attitude, we have a Rural Romance.

Here’s a favourite quote and one I think pertains to what readers are looking for when they pick up a rural romance: “As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children.” John Adams.

THE HOUSE ON BURRA BURRA LANE by Jennie Jones
Just ten days after her fresh start in the isolated Snowy Mountains, Samantha Walker trips over a three hundred pound pig and lands in the arms of Dr. Ethan Granger — and the firing line for gossip. It was hardly a ‘date’ but sparks of the sensual kind are difficult to smother in a community of only 87 people. Now there’s a bet running on how long she’ll stay and what she’ll get up to while she’s in town. Ethan has his own issues — Sammy’s presence in his childhood home brings with it painful recollections of family scandals and a bad boy youth. When the gossip around them heightens, his life is suddenly a deck of cards spread on the table for all to see. Then Sammy’s past catches up with her… and it looks like all bets are off.  Currently on sale at iTunes for 99c!

Find Jennie online at:
Website & blog:  http://www.jenniejonesromance.com
Facebook: here
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JJRomance

JOIN ME TOMORROW as 2011 and 2012 ARRA finalist Cathryn Hein takes the spotlight!