Tell us a little about why you write in so many different genres. Does it work for you?
I can’t stick to one genre. I love writing all types of stories. Does it work for me? Yes and no. Yes, because I’d start to feel claustrophobic if I had to write in the same genre all the time. No, because I think it confuses my readers that I write everything under the same author name. I regret that decision to this day. My advice to authors considering it: Don’t make this mistake! I’m in the process now of correcting that error.
How do you plot your novels? Do you outline?
I never outline because I like to let the story and the characters take me where they want to go. Some authors can outline very well and it works for them, but I can’t do it. It has always felt more natural to me to just go along for the ride and see where it takes me, kind of like in real life, I guess. Some scenes in my books were figured out ahead of time, but not ‘planned out’ ahead of time, and there’s a big difference. The only exception to this method is that I do always know my ending before I begin. (Except with my book DIRTY EDEN)
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I’m impatient. Very impatient. It’s challenging for me to get through the first 2‐3 chapters of every book because I have a bad habit of looking at how much I have left to go. I just want to be done with it already so that my readers can enjoy!
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
The last sentence. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love getting into the story, living out my character’s lives, but there’s nothing like a finished manuscript. It’s a huge accomplishment and I doubt I’ll ever tire of it.
What would you like for readers to take away from your
novels?
I just want my readers to be able to connect on some level with the characters I create and take with them an experience rather than just a story. I want them to think about the characters long after they’ve finished the book. I want tears! And genuine laughter! And, I admit, I also want them so mad at me they *almost* want to physically hurt me, LOL! If I can accomplish any of those things, then I’ve done my job.
What would you say is your writing style regarding theme?
I tend to always write about deep issues, and even when I try to write a ‘fun’ and ‘flirty’ story with just a little average relationship drama, it never turns out that way. Somehow, I always end up dragging my characters through some really tough stuff before they even think of seeing any light on the other side. So, I guess my style tends to be ‘dark, emotional, intense, with a happy ending’.
When did you first realize that you wanted to become a writer?
I started my first novel at the age of thirteen and I’ve been writing ever since. Writing has been the one consistent thing throughout my life and I can’t imagine life without it.
What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
I never stop writing for the day at the end of a scene or sentence, but instead right in the middle of them. This helps me prevent writer’s block and keeps my mind fresh.
Do you have a routine that you use to get into the writing frame-of-mind?
Cold brew coffee.
Do you think children are more encouraged these days to read and/or write?
I think more than ever children are encouraged to read and write and I LOVE it. I know Harry Potter had A LOT to do with this and that’s just another reason why I have so much love and respect for J.K. Rowling.
When it comes to writing, what are your strong points? What are your weaknesses?
I love to write dialogue. It feels and flows more natural to me. I feel like I struggle a little more with description, because I’m impatient and sometimes it feels like the description is slowing me down. But I pace myself! If I didn’t, the entire novel would be one giant conversation.
Excerpt 3
“Why are you so angry, Atticus?” My voice was soft and concerned now.
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I can’t stick to one genre. I love writing all types of stories. Does it work for me? Yes and no. Yes, because I’d start to feel claustrophobic if I had to write in the same genre all the time. No, because I think it confuses my readers that I write everything under the same author name. I regret that decision to this day. My advice to authors considering it: Don’t make this mistake! I’m in the process now of correcting that error.
How do you plot your novels? Do you outline?
I never outline because I like to let the story and the characters take me where they want to go. Some authors can outline very well and it works for them, but I can’t do it. It has always felt more natural to me to just go along for the ride and see where it takes me, kind of like in real life, I guess. Some scenes in my books were figured out ahead of time, but not ‘planned out’ ahead of time, and there’s a big difference. The only exception to this method is that I do always know my ending before I begin. (Except with my book DIRTY EDEN)
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I’m impatient. Very impatient. It’s challenging for me to get through the first 2‐3 chapters of every book because I have a bad habit of looking at how much I have left to go. I just want to be done with it already so that my readers can enjoy!
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
The last sentence. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love getting into the story, living out my character’s lives, but there’s nothing like a finished manuscript. It’s a huge accomplishment and I doubt I’ll ever tire of it.
What would you like for readers to take away from your
novels?
I just want my readers to be able to connect on some level with the characters I create and take with them an experience rather than just a story. I want them to think about the characters long after they’ve finished the book. I want tears! And genuine laughter! And, I admit, I also want them so mad at me they *almost* want to physically hurt me, LOL! If I can accomplish any of those things, then I’ve done my job.
What would you say is your writing style regarding theme?
I tend to always write about deep issues, and even when I try to write a ‘fun’ and ‘flirty’ story with just a little average relationship drama, it never turns out that way. Somehow, I always end up dragging my characters through some really tough stuff before they even think of seeing any light on the other side. So, I guess my style tends to be ‘dark, emotional, intense, with a happy ending’.
When did you first realize that you wanted to become a writer?
I started my first novel at the age of thirteen and I’ve been writing ever since. Writing has been the one consistent thing throughout my life and I can’t imagine life without it.
What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
I never stop writing for the day at the end of a scene or sentence, but instead right in the middle of them. This helps me prevent writer’s block and keeps my mind fresh.
Do you have a routine that you use to get into the writing frame-of-mind?
Cold brew coffee.
Do you think children are more encouraged these days to read and/or write?
I think more than ever children are encouraged to read and write and I LOVE it. I know Harry Potter had A LOT to do with this and that’s just another reason why I have so much love and respect for J.K. Rowling.
When it comes to writing, what are your strong points? What are your weaknesses?
I love to write dialogue. It feels and flows more natural to me. I feel like I struggle a little more with description, because I’m impatient and sometimes it feels like the description is slowing me down. But I pace myself! If I didn’t, the entire novel would be one giant conversation.
Everything Under the Sun
Jessica Redmerski
Genre: Dystopian YA/NA Crossover
Jessica Redmerski
Genre: Dystopian YA/NA Crossover
Date of Publication: August 28, 2017
ISBN: 1546413081
ASIN: B074W372G6
Number of pages: 657
Word Count: 203K
Cover Image by Perrywinkle Photography
Cover Design by Okay Creations
Tagline: Can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?
Book Description:
Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.
Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?
Excerpt 3
“Why are you so angry, Atticus?” My voice was soft and concerned now.
He
blinked, but offered no response.
“I’ve
seen men fight before,” I went on, “but I’ve never seen a man as angry at the
world as you are. The way you beat that man in your room”—I shook my head with
despondency—“the one just now; Atticus, you’re just so full of rage and hate.
Why?”
He
snorted, as if he’d found my question ridiculous.
“Why?” he mocked incredulously, holding
out his hands, palms up. “I’ll tell you why, Thais: at every turn someone wants
to rob or maim or kill us; we can’t sleep, night or day, without the thought in
our heads as we close our fucking eyes that we might not wake up.” He gestured
his arms wildly, his features constricted with indignation. “We’re covering our
shit up like animals, sleeping in ditches, watching over our shoulder every
second of every day for the chaos to grab us by the ankles and pull us down
with it—and you ask why?”
I sat
against my quilt, unable to stand to hear this truth. And as if his movements
depended on mine, Atticus fell into a crouch in front of me, bouncing on the
toes of his boots. I never looked away from the pull of his gaze, trapped by the
intensity of it.
“I
haven’t slept since you arrived in Lexington City,” he went on. “When I saw you
that day, clutching your sister as she was ripped away from you; when you lay
on the sidewalk, begging me to help you—it did two things to me, Thais”—he held
up two fingers, and then dropped them between his legs—“it fucking killed me;
the things I had to do, the part I had to play in not only your fate, but the
fate of every girl in those ropes—it fucking killed me! It killed what little was left of my humanity!” His
voice had risen with his heated words, his memories, but then he paused to calm
himself, lowering his head but for a moment.
I
remained motionless, speechless, but my heart began to ache and fill up at the
same time. I listened raptly to every word, my heart breaking as he spoke them.
“It
killed me,” he repeated. “But then something reached into Hell, grabbed me by
the throat and pulled me back. I died that day in the street, Thais Fenwick; I
died and then there I was, looking down at you with the eyes of the man I used
to be, and I wanted to help you. I still fought with myself after that, but I
wasn’t going to let you die or be raped or forced to marry a man you didn’t
love—I didn’t know what to do, but I
was going to do something, goddammit.”
I
sighed. I wanted to hold him, but all I could do was sigh.
About the Author:
Jessica Redmerski is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, international bestseller, and award winner, who juggles several different genres. She began self-publishing in 2012, and later with the success of THE EDGE OF NEVER, signed on with Grand Central Publishing/Forever Romance. Her works have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Jessica is a hybrid author who, in addition to working with a traditional publisher, also continues to self-publish. Her popular crime and suspense series, In the Company of Killers, has been optioned for television in the United States by actor and model William Levy, and a film exclusive to the Dominican Republic.
She also writes as J.A. Redmerski.
Web Site: http://jessicaredmerski.com/
Love this book so much!
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