J.T. Geissinger Author Interview ~ JeanBookNerd

Monday, September 24, 2012

J.T. Geissinger Author Interview

Photo Content from J.T. Geissinger

A former headhunter and entrepreneur, J.T. Geissinger is a bestselling author of emotionally charged romance and women’s fiction. Ranging from funny, feisty romcoms to intense, edgy suspense, her books have sold more than one million copies and been translated into several languages.

She is the recipient of the Prism Award for Best First Book, the Golden Quill Award for Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and is a three-time finalist for the RITA® Award for excellence in romance fiction from the Romance Writers of America®. She has also been a finalist in the Booksellers’ Best, National Readers’ Choice, and Daphne du Maurier Awards.

Her first novel was published in 2012. Since then she’s written twenty more. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, drinking bourbon, surfing the internet, and daydreaming about all the things she’s going to be when she grows up. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and deaf rescue kitty, Ginger.

Was there a defining moment during your youth when you realized you wanted to be a writer?
No, that moment actually occurred quite late. At 40, to be specific. When I was young I wanted to be a rich widow. It wasn’t until I read Twilight and fell deeply, madly in love with Edward Cullen that I realized I wanted to write a novel about supernatural people falling in love. So I did.

I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that one has to figure out what they should “be” by the time they graduate high school. Over the past 20+ years, I’ve been a recruiter, a floral designer, a business owner, and several other things I’m unwilling to mention in print. All of which enriches my writing. After this, I’ll probably go be an astronaut or run for office. And why not?

Why is storytelling so important for all of us?
In every story, there is the opportunity for learning. Some of the truest lessons I’ve learned in life have been from something I’ve read in a book. Like world travel, good books expand your consciousness and your imagination, and offer a very real chance to become a better person by ingesting thoughts and ideas from minds finer than your own. Some people can’t imagine a world without television, but I can’t imagine a world without books. I feel so sorry for people who never developed the habit of reading for pleasure. (Jay, I’m talking to you.)

What is the best piece of advice you ever received from another author?
Don’t read the reviews. Impossible, of course, but excellent advice.

In your new book; Shadow's Edge, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it and why they should read your novel?
Shadow’s Edge is the first installation of the Night Prowler Novels, a paranormal romance/urban fantasy series about the Ikati, an ancient race of shape shifters that originated in Africa and spawned the cat-worship culture that thrived there thousands of years ago. Hunted to near extinction by the emperor Caesar Augustus after Rome conquered Egypt, they settled in small, secret colonies around the world and have a system of iron-clad laws that punish traitors and deserters with death. In Shadow’s Edge, we follow Jenna Moore—daughter of one of the tribe’s most notorious deserters who’s been raised in ignorance about her past—as she discovers the truth about her roots and is plunged head-first into a world she had no idea existed when a handsome stranger shows up offering her answers about her mysterious past. The story is a blend of fantasy, suspense, mystery and of course romance.

What part of Jenna did you enjoy writing the most?
Jenna is a take-no-prisoners kind of girl. She’s all emotion and very little calculated calm, throwing herself head first into danger if her heart tells her it’s the right thing to do. She’s strong and smart, but she’s vulnerable, too, and I loved pairing her with someone like Leander, who’s used to getting his own way in all circumstances.

If you could introduce Jenna to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
Wow. Let me think here. OK – Bella from Twilight. Bella is ruled by her emotions, just like Jenna, but unlike Jenna she’s a bit of a wimp. She has no boundaries, or at least didn’t until she became a mother. And she strings Jacob along through four books – not cool. At 25, Jenna has a few years on Bella and I think the two of them could have some amazing conversations about what it means to be in love without having to sacrifice yourself in the process.

For those who are unfamiliar with Leander, how would you introduce him?
Leander is a badass Alpha with a marshmallow heart. From the get-go, he worships Jenna, risking his own neck time and again to keep her safe, even when she’s being a royal pain in the butt and keeping him at arm’s length. Though he sometimes seems hard and coldly in control, he’s honorable and loyal—and so beautiful it makes my eyeballs hurt. Think up the most gorgeous, masculine man you can, then multiply it by a thousand and add a proper British accent and you have Leander. Sigh.

What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?
Book two in the Night Prowler series, Edge of Oblivion, is finished and will be released October 2nd. I’m currently working on book three, Edge of Surrender, and am hoping to have a total of five books in the series. There’s also an off-shoot series in the works (which means simmering on the backburner of my brain) involving a Scottish werewolf and an ancient curse from the Druids.

When asked, what’s the one question you always answer with a lie?
“How are you?” I always answer, “Fine,” but that is both a lie and factually incorrect. Hair is fine, people are either “well” or “ill” or somewhere in between. If I were honest I would answer something along the lines of, “Incredibly happy at the moment, thank you, but check back in an hour—I might be plotting your death by then.”

What’s the best advice you can give writers to help them develop their own unique voice and style?
Read everything. And by everything, I mean excruciatingly hard to finish literature (like Ulysses by James Joyce) all the way down through Jackie Collins and the free stuff on Amazon. You will get a sense for what works, what doesn’t, what the sweeping archetypes look like, what you hate and what you love. Think about it, sit on it, then throw it all out the window and write exactly what you want to write. Your writing will be informed by all the reading you’ve done, and if you keep at it after being rejected by about four thousand agents and publishers, your own particular style will eventually shine through. And that, my friends, is worth the price of admission.

Who is the first person you call when you have a bad day?
My husband Jay, though I don’t have to call him because we own a business together and are basically joined at the hip 24/7. (Incidentally, he is the cause of all my good days AND my bad days, which is what happens when you are madly in love with your spouse and you work together.)

What's the worst summer job you've ever had?
God, what’s the worst summer job I haven’t had? Summer jobs are, by definition, bad. The first job I ever had does stand out in my memory, though, and that was when I was 15 years old, addressing envelopes by hand for a local beauty pageant run by an insanely blonde mother-daughter team with a penchant for expensive shoes and small dogs. Don’t ask.

When was the last time you cried?
I cry almost daily. I cried twelve minutes ago as a matter of fact, re-reading chapters from my work in progress. And not because it’s earth-shatteringly good (well, it is to me) but because I’m a crier. Crying is like laughing for me; it happens all the time. Like I said, almost daily. Pet food commercials are the worst; have you seen that cat food commercial about the lost cat and the little boy who is looking for him in the rain? “Morris, Morris, where are you?” That sends me into apoplectic crying jags. My husband has learned to live with this, but the poor man does get a little confused.

What is the one, single food that you would never give up?
What an evil question! The ONE food? Gah! More like the nine dozen foods! Oookaaay….if I had to choose, it would be…wine. A good Bordeaux. Is that a food? If that doesn’t qualify as a food, then I’ll choose cheese. Any kind of cheese, stinky, hard, soft, crumbly, whatever. I love me some cheese. With a high quality prosciutto, and a little jar of orange/fig marmalade. And some roasted Marcona almonds. And maybe a little salame, the gourmet kind with the powdery rind you have to slice yourself. And a good loaf of French bread with a black olive tapenade…

Deep within the primeval forests of southern England, a tribe of mysterious beings lives hidden from the everyday world. Beautiful, savage, and graced with the ability to shift from human to vapor to lethal predator, the Ikati are bound together by ancient bloodlines and a code of secrecy that punishes traitors with death. Half a world away, on the sun-drenched shores of Southern California, Jenna Moore's past is shrouded in mystery. She spent her childhood in hiding, on the run from someone?or something?her parents refused to discuss. She trusts no one, not since her mother's sudden death, not since her father's mysterious disappearance, and definitely not since she began exhibiting strange, superhuman abilities.

But when the handsome, enigmatic Leander McLoughlin appears out of the blue, promising her the answers she so desperately wants, Jenna takes a leap of faith. She agrees to accompany him to England in return for the truth about her origins, never suspecting the shattering revelations that await her there. For once among the Ikati, Jenna faces an extraordinary birthright she never dreamed possible?and a dangerous, sensual destiny she may not survive to see.

You can purchase Shadow's Edge at the following Retailers: