JA: Hey, Alexx. Lovely to be here with you. About me, huh? Well, I grew up the youngest of five kids on a farm just outside of Lakefield, Ontario. Rode lots of motorcycles and bit machinery and adored it. I married my high school sweetheart, whom I met in grade ten math class and we have the daughter right out of our dreams. Since moving to the Muskoka region of Ontario, I’ve truly found myself. The serenity of being in a lovely little country house in the middle of the woods will do that to me every time. AMC: When did you discover or decide to become a writer? JA: Though I’ve dabbled with creative writing over the years, doing it seriously is a recent thing for me. My career took a left turn in 2010 and I found myself re-evaluating my life and what I wanted to do with myself. I started writing simply as an outlet to keep my mind busy during a stressful time. It shocked me to find out others actually enjoy what I had to say. That led me to join Scribophile.com where I met my awesome writing group, the turning point from writing as a hobby to becoming serious about learning what I needed to know to hone my craft. Love ya, ladies! You’re the best! Without them, The Glass Man would still be a wreck sitting in the bowels of my laptop. AMC: Tell me about the first book published? What was your writing process for that? Is it any different than how you write now?
JA: My first story to be published was a short story called Snow Angel. I actually wrote it while working on The Glass Man. My writing process has remained pretty consistent since the beginning, no matter what kind of story I’m working on. An idea will pop into my head. I’ll sleep on it and usually by morning my mind will have conjured the first scene. I sit down at the computer, zone out while my fingers translate what I see, then when I run out of scenes to write, I stop, sleep on it again, then repeat the next day. Though, there are days now and then when I just can’t write for whatever reason, so I use those to edit. AMC: What was it like to get that first contract? How long did it take between writing and publication?
JA: Any acceptance is a tremendous thrill for any writer, I think. Those first few short stories to come back with acceptances made me do a jig at my desk, but the first novel contract, now that’s something different entirely. It seemed too good to be true and I waited for days for a follow-up email to come telling me they’d made a terrible mistake. Which, of course, never came. J I wrote The Glass Man starting in August of 2010 and finished in about six weeks. I believe it was March of 2011 that I received my contract, so not very long at all in this industry. Every day I thank my lucky stars for my good fortune. AMC: I admit to being a huge fan of the Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Genres. Where did your story come from?
JA: The Glass Man came from a dream of the daytime variety, and no, I won’t elaborate on that. I’ve always been a lover of the darker side of fiction and wanted to create a work of my own that had all of the elements I look for in a story. A hard won romance, friction between the hero and heroine, a sexy, devious villain who makes their lives miserable, lots of action and a fast pace that satisfies my short attention span when reading. AMC: Talk to us about The Glass Man. JA: This is my baby, the first of my Lila Gray trilogy that released October 15th with J. Taylor Publishing. Although it isn’t the first novel I’ve written, it’s the first one where I actually understood how difficult writing could be and had the help of my writing group to help me polish it. I adore every bit of the story, though while writing it, I did feel a bit guilty for being so cruel to my main character, Lila. AMC: Reading the blurb on your site, he doesn't seems to be a nice guy. Does he have any redeeming qualities? Or is that potentially too much of a spoiler?JA: Parthalan has been seduced by his own power. He’s somewhat lost, detached from reality, caring nothing for what’s best for anyone but himself and seeking only his own pleasure and amusement. He doesn’t have many redeeming qualities in The Glass Man, but he isn’t beyond saving. I can’t say more than that.
AMC: What is Lila like (the stuff in your head that helped you create her)?
JA: Lila actually has a lot of me in her, which I guess is why I found it so easy to get inside her head. She’s blunt, to the point, a bit of a control freak and is determined to do whatever it is she sets her mind to. Add fierce loyalty and a nasty temper to that equation, and Lila is someone amazing to have as a friend, but you don’t want to be on the wrong side of her. Yeah, not a good place to be. Beneath it all, though, she cares and loves deeply enough to wound if anything goes wrong. Not that she’d let anyone know if she can help it. To have room to show Lila’s growth and acceptance over the three books, I made her quite a flawed character. Some readers will like her and some won’t, and that’s something I accepted going into this trilogy. I like her and feel for her trials, and I hope that comes through in the book.On top of her personality, she has some pretty kick-butt gifts that come from being what she is. I won’t say more so I don’t spoil anything.
AMC: Can you tell us about the Anthology I found while wandering your site Into the Unknown?
JA: Absolutely. Into the Unknown is coming out December 1st, 2011, and is an anthology put together by the three debut authors from J. Taylor Publishing. This nifty collection takes the yummy heroes, Sean Holloway from J. A. Belfield’s Darkness & Light, Wyatt Moreland from Aimee Laine’s Little White Lies, and Liam from The Glass Man, and gives readers a short story from their points of view. It also includes the first chapters of each of the three novels. If you’re not sure if any of the three books are for you, this is a great, inexpensive test drive. AMC: What can we expect from you in the future? Do you have any specific projects in mind?JA: Oh my, lots I hope. J I’ve finished the second novel in the Lila Gray trilogy, entitled Shadowborn, and should be hitting the shelves in 2012. My paranormal romance novella, Touch of Frost, will be out February 1st, 2012. A short story I wrote last year, The Undergarden, is appearing in the Tidal Whispers anthology put out by J. Taylor Publishing in June. Along with a completed contemporary romance novel that will come out at some point, I’ve also nearly completed two more novels (Paranormal romance, Road to Salvation & Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance, One Night in the District) during NaNoWriMo, which I hope to have first drafts by December 31st of this year. After that, Lila Gray #3 is next on the finishing block, Rise of the Magi, which is already begun, should be wrapping up around April or so.
********************************Ok. Now for some fun stuff: AMC: If you had to pick a favorite author, who would it be and is there one book in particular that is brought to mind?
JA: Hmm, I’m torn between my original hero, Stephen King for his amazing ability to create memorable characters and my genre hero, Laurel K. Hamilton who opened my eyes to the dark flavor of writing I’ve come to enjoy above all others. I loved the Anita Blake series, which was what really narrowed down the style I wanted to create.
AMC: What is your favorite part of writing? Your least.
JA: Absolutely, it would be finishing a chapter, reading back through for the first time and thinking, holy cow, I wrote this? It’s not half bad! Often I zone out so completely when writing that I have no idea what I’ve written until I come up for air and do a read-through. Neat. What I hate most is editing. I’m a punctuation moron, just ask my editor, but thankfully she puts up with me.
AMC: Do your characters talk to you, develop a life of their own?
My characters lead and I follow. I’m not a writer who outlines anything, I just step onto the literary road and follow where my characters take me. Somehow it all works out in the end. Sounds a bit weird, I know.
AMC: Chocolate or Vanilla?
JA: There will be those who will shoot me for saying so, but vanilla all the way. I have a mild allergy to cocoa powder, so the darker the chocolate, the bigger my reaction. Milk chocolate is okay, but I’d still rather have vanilla, especially when talking about cake. AMC: What do you listen to when you write? Do you have a play list? I have seen some authors even publish their play lists.
JA: I’m one of those odd ones who needs complete silence to write. Music distracts me out of that white place in my head where I go to play out the scenes. AMC: If you could time travel would you go to the past or the future? Why?
JA: Oh, that one’s easy. The past, definitely. Although I spent almost 13 years working in I.T., I’m not a gadget freak. I love nature. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era and should have lived when women wore corsets and big billowy dresses, when forest still owned most of the world. Except for the women are chattel issue, I think I would have thrived then.
AMC: Is there anything else you want us to know? Anything at all? We want to know!
JA: Only that I hope you enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoy writing them. AMC: Thank you so much for being with us today! I have enjoyed this very much! Please keep us informed of your up coming projects! JA: This has been terrific. Thanks so much for having me.
Please check out this awesome author at:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jocelyn-Adams/204748756204572Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JocelynAdamsWebsite: http://www.joceadams.comBlog: http://www.joceadams.wordpress.comGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4828608.Jocelyn_Adams
You can also purchase The Glass Man at: Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005RQ00E8/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d1_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1VT2F5D9KHNZF9AW0Y06&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-glass-man-jocelyn-adams/1105847141?ean=9780983405825&itm=1&usri=the%2bglass%2bman%2bjocelyn%2badams
