Congratulations Nightingale! Linda won a choice of
eBook from Jean's Now and Forever series.
Readers, Deanna and I are visiting with Jean Joachim in upstate New York. Join us as Jean shares her new release and why she loves to write. There's Jean over there!
Deanna and Louise: Hi Jean!
Jean: Welcome to Kensington State
University. Come on in, The
administration offices occupy this old Victorian townhouse. Mac Caldwell and
Eliza Baines, the deans here, will escort us to the stone building which houses
the faculty dining room. They have graciously permitted me to bring you there
for some coffee and cake while we chat. We’ll sit over here, by the window
where we can watch a rugby match. The
men are playing and the women are cheering them on. I think we’re losing but
I’m not sure.
Mac and Eliza, two of my main characters in the Now and Forever series,
have to return to work. So they’ll leave us here. Afterward, I’ll take you on a
tour of the campus, including Dave Williams’ police station and the hospital
where the brilliant Dr. Cho resides. How do you take your coffee?
Reader’s
Haven: Thank you for inviting us to NY this week. (Deanna) I'll have a hot mint tea, please. (Louise) Make mine a hot mocha with whip creme! Thanks. Tell us a bit about
yourself that our readers might not
know.
Jean: I started my career in advertising, long
before writing, and worked my way up to be a media director at a division of a
major ad agency by the time I was 28.
Reader’s Haven:
What made you want to become a writer?
Jean:
I was born wanting to be a writer. Every child has a profession they look up
to. By the age of seven, while most kids wanted to be doctors, I wanted to be a
writer. I always loved to read and my cousin tells me I was inventing stories
for us to act out when she came over early on.
Reader’s
Haven: (Louise takes a sip) Oh, this is good! Jean, that's fantastic you always knew what you wanted to be when you grew up. Some of us are still try to figure that out! LOL Please share a bit about
your new release without giving away any spoilers.
Jean: Now and Forever 3, Blind Love. This is a big
book 330-pages and contains three love stories, not just one. One of the three
is the hero’s father, a widower, who falls in love for the second time. The
book explores the changes the heroes and heroines go through as they fall in
love and fight to hold on to their love. There is also blackmail and murder in
the book. It all happens on the campus of Kensington
State University
in a small town in upstate New York.
Reader’s Haven:
Do you write under a pen name?
Jean: No. I use my married name. I find it’s easier
to keep track of and though no one can spell it or pronounce it (JOE ACK’ UM) it’s who I am. Life is much easier
for me to be one person all the time.
Reader’s Haven:
What types of hero or heroine do you like best?
Jean: I like imperfect heroes. My heroes are good
physical specimens, they’re smart and take charge guys, fairly alpha, but they
make mistakes. They say the wrong thing or do
the wrong thing and get into trouble from time to time. Their
imperfections seem to make them more real to me and to readers.
Reader’s
Haven: Tell us about a typical
day in your life as a writer.
Jean: I bounce out of bed at 6 a.m. and head for
the computer. While the tea is brewing in the microwave, I check my sales from
the day before, answer email and chat on FB. Then I settle in with my tea, some
fruit and plain Greek yogurt, I begin work either on edits or my WIP. I write
until 8, take my pug, Homer, for an hour’s walk in Central
Park then return to writing. I stay at it unless I have to go out
for errands until lunch time. I spend most of the day writing.
Reader’s
Haven: (Deanna pours more mint tea for herself) You have a very disciplined schedule. Good for you. Do your books have a
common theme or are they all different?
Jean: I’d say my books do have a common thread in
that most of my characters face unpleasant life hurdles and problems to
overcome on their road to happiness. Some of my books have sad times for my
hero and heroine. But of course they all end up happy.
Reader’s
Haven: How long does it
take you to write and then edit a story?
Jean: If I’m motivated, I can write a book in six
weeks. But that doesn’t include planning and outlining time that comes before I
start writing. After I finish the first draft, I edit it multiple times before
submitting.
Reader’s Haven:
Do you have to be alone to write?
Jean: *helps herself to more tea* Yes. I can write if someone is in the next
room but not if there is noise. Sometimes I play classical music or a
particular song that I’ve included in my book for inspiration. Most of the time
I prefer to write in complete silence so I can hear my inner voice and the
characters speaking in my head.
Reader’s Haven:
How do you go about naming characters?
Jean: Oh, I love naming characters. Usually a name
comes to me when the character’s personality and appearance forms in my head.
Callie Richards, a repeat character in
the Now and Forever series was a name to me almost before she was a fleshed out
character. I love thinking up names and write down interesting ones that come
to me to save for later books. One of my most interesting names is one of the
heroes of my next release due out in July called “The Renovated Heart” – my
best title, I think. His name is Tunney Nichols.
Reader’s
Haven: The characters are the fun part when writing. Creating unique personalities and growing to love them. Is it easier to write
about the characters if you find pictures of them before you write or do you
write then find character pictures?
Jean: I usually form a picture in my head when I
start writing a character. I must say that Mac Caldwell became Hugh Jackman in my head
pretty quickly. Easy to see why! LOL. When I saw Colin O’Donoghue in a movie,
he immediately became my fireman, Gavin Daily in April’s Kiss in the Moonlight.
So I’d have to say pictures come after the character is written.
Reader’s Haven: How
do you pick locations for your stories?
Jean: I fell in love with my son’s college town
which was the inspiration for Willow
Falls. The community
where we have a summer cabin became the model for Pine Grove the town for my
Moonlight series. And my home town of New York City
is the background for my New York
Nights novels. I love small towns and country living. But I’ve been in the city
so long and there are so many unique places to write about in NYC that I have
come to enjoy setting many stories there, too. I feel readers like to read
about the glamorous side of New York,
so that’s what I write about . “The Marriage List” is a perfect example of that.
Reader’s Haven: Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers?
Jean: One last thought to sum up. Creating believable characters is
paramount to me. I insist that they appear real and the plots in their stories be
logical. While I work to achieve this, the characters become real to me in that
I can almost touch them. Perhaps that sounds weird, but writing fiction is an
unusual process, both fascinating and one that defies explanation. I hope my
characters and my books reach out to readers the same way they have to me.
I would love to have a contest and will be happy to give away to one lucky commenter;
the winner's choice of my Now
and Forever series books.
Reader’s Haven: Jean. thank you again for inviting us here to chat with you. Deanna, let's go check out the campus and the cute college guys. Hey, most might be under half our age, but we can still look!!
Great stories of love and passion
Purchase Links "Now and Forever 3, Blind Love":
Now and Forever 3, Blind Love:
Can a
handsome, charming, womanizing professor win the heart of a temporarily blind
ballerina? Love comes to the university as Peter Caldwell, dashing Art History
professor and accomplished pianist meets Lara Stewart, ballerina. Peter can’t
seduce with her with his devastating good looks because Lara can’t see.
Obsessed with the one woman he can’t have, Peter has to learn how to love.
Sam Caldwell
joins Peter, Mac, Callie and his grandchildren. Witty and attractive, Sam isn’t
looking for a woman but finds love isn’t only for the young but the young at
heart as well.
Small town
secrets feed a blackmailer and blackmail on campus is paid with sexual favors.
Blind Love is a roller coaster ride of twists and turns. This full length novel
is three parts love and passion mixed with one part intrigue, stirred up with a
twist of mystery and heated up to three flames.
When half a
dozen people get off the train from New York City
in tiny Willow Falls, NY on a Wednesday afternoon, it’s a big
crowd.
Excerpt:
Mac walked around to the driver’s side of the car and
patted his pockets, no keys. He remembered last seeing them on the front hall
table. He tip-toed quietly into the foyer so Callie wouldn’t know he’d
forgotten them. He stopped when he heard the soft purr of Peter’s voice. Mac
inched his way to the arch leading to the living room and peered into the room,
moving back to remain unseen.
“You’ve been married awhile, Callie. Isn’t it time you took
a lover?” Peter asked, sidling up to her.
Mac held his breath but couldn’t stop watching.
“Oh, but I have a lover, Peter,” she said, holding his
gaze.
Mac froze. His stomach knotted.
“You do?” The surprise caused his voice to rise an octave.
“He absolutely sizzles.” Beads of sweat formed on Mac’s
forehead.
“Does Mac know?” Peter raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t think so.” She turned away from Peter and Mac
could no longer see her face.
“I don’t suppose you’d tell me who it is,” he asked,
leaning toward her.
Callie whirled around to face him, a broad grin on her
face.
“It’s Mac. He’s hot, Peter. So hot…I couldn’t possibly,
wouldn’t ever need anyone else. Your brother is an absolute pistol in the
bedroom.”
Mac’s cheeks puffed up. He quietly emitted a silent sigh of
relief and smiled.
Peter laughed loudly.
“You passed the Peter Caldwell Loyalty Test with flying
colors.” Peter walked over to an open box needing unpacking.
“You know what I could use?” Callie put her hand on his
arm.
“What?” He reached into a box then stopped.
“A brother. I don’t have one of those,” she said, blinking
back tears.
And last but not least, a little bit about Jean:
An
English major in college, Jean always knew she wanted to write but
didn’t know where to start. Non-fiction presented the best opportunities
so Jean joined the corporate world of advertising and direct marketing.
In
2010, fiction beckoned and with her youngest in college, Jean found the
time to write “Now and Forever 1, a Love Story.” She fell in love with
the contemporary romance and eight books later, she is still writing!
Jean Joachim lives in New York City with her husband, two boys and a rescued pug named Homer.
Jamie: What and spoil the mystique? Hmmm. . .long, long ago, in a entirely different space and time I was married to??? I’d have to do you harm, if I told you who he was!
