RHYS BOWEN: I am often told that I am driving myself into the ground for writing two books a year. But I've come up with someone who is even crazier than I. Jenn McKinlay is my good friend and neighbor when I spend my winters in Phoenix and we've done some fun events together. But I am in awe of her writing schedule. Beside her, I'm a slacker. And she'll tell you why. Take it away, Jenn.
Jenn McKinlay: Who do I want to be
today? No, really, I have a variety of
names to choose from. Some people have a
tough time choosing what to wear, I have a hard time choosing who to be. Just kidding, mostly.
So far in my mystery
writing career, I’ve written under three different names for five different
series. I am Lucy Lawrence, Josie Belle
and Jenn McKinlay, the latter being my actual name. People often ask me why I write under
different names. I tell them it’s
because I don’t want to hog too much shelf space, but the truth is that I want
to have multiple aliases in case I am ever in trouble with the law and have to
flee the country. Yes, that’s a
lie. Clearly, fiction writers are not to
be trusted even with their own backstory.
The truth, so boring,
is that because I kept submitting new and different ideas to my publisher, all
of which were rejected, I think they finally had a meeting, which no one will
confirm or deny, and decided that if they offered me a book to write, I would,
please god, go away.
So, they asked me to be
a writer for hire and pen a series about a woman who works in a paper shop and
does decoupage for a hobby. I became
Lucy Lawrence and took on the job.
Knowing decoupage was about as timely as macramé, I quickly offered up
more series ideas so that I would not find myself out of work before the ink
dried on book three. I sold a series
about cupcakes, thought the fad would be quickly over, and another about
libraries, also thought they were going the way of the dinosaur, both under my
name Jenn McKinlay.
Convinced I would
fail with these series, yes, I was having some confidence issues, I took on
another writer for hire work and wrote a bargain hunter mystery series under
the name Josie Belle. Then I got a wild
hair to write a book set in London, I really needed a vacation, and sold
another series set in a hat shop in Notting Hill as Jenn McKinlay.
Now with three
different author names and five distinct series, one might wonder if I suffer from
multiple personality disorder, a split personality or just a general identity
crisis. I do. Oh dear, another lie! Seriously, I don’t. Not really.
My author names don’t define me any more than my married name does, yes,
that’s yet another name. See? I really
could flee the country if I had to -- just sayin’.
When I was new at
this writing game, I used to roll my eyes when I’d hear writers talk about the
world they had created as if it was real.
What a rude newb I was! Now that
I have had to develop some multiple book story arcs, I get it. I have caused great pain and suffering to
some of my characters, I have shattered dreams and occasionally killed off people
I didn’t want to die which caused some tears of my own. For real.
For me, being an
author is a lot like being a reader. When
I was a kid, my first out of body experiences happened while sitting under a
big dogwood tree in our yard where I went sleuthing with my two besties in my blue
roadster and when I fell through the back of a wardrobe during a game of hide
and seek and found myself in Narnia.
How about you? If you’re a writer, how does it work for
you? Is it like taking notes while
visiting a new world? If you’re a
reader, how do you feel when you are immersed in a great story? How far do you wander from your actual
surroundings into the world the author has crafted?
Thanks for inviting
me to visit, Rhys. It’s always a
pleasure to visit the ladies at Jungle Red.
RHYS: Thank you, Jenn. Fun post. And Jenn will be giving away a copy of her latest hat shop mystery, DEATH OF A MAD HATTER for the best comment of the day.
