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26 September 2013

Getting to Know you Thursdays with Melissa Jagears


Please welcome debut Melissa Jagears to my blog today. Melissa also has a free download for the prequel of her debut book. Links included. 



1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m a stay-at-home mom who used to teach English as a Second Language. I’m a hermit. I could stay in my house and not go outside for maybe a handful of months and be totally happy—as long as I had hubby and kiddos for a bit of human interaction . . . and books! But my two children are extreme extroverts, sigh, so I have to leave the house. I’m hoping the third child turns out to be an introvert so I can have an ally. J (Melissa has a new son)

2. When you were a child did you have a favourite book or books?
Nancy Drew was the best books and the only thing worth reading. I devoured them until I was having to wait for the next one to come out. Frustrated at the agonizing month wait or so between books, I gave up reading all together for several years! Nothing could be better than Nancy Drew! Thankfully someone forced a Lori Wick book on me for my 8th grade birthday and I begrudgingly read it and decided maybe I should read books again!

3. Do you have a favourite Genre to both read and write?
Christian Historical Romances

4. Did you have favourite authors growing up who have influenced you?
Lori Wick, since she’s the one that got me to fall in love with reading again—I pretty much stick with my favorite genre (see my Nancy Drew tenacity) so, since I read a Historical Romance Wick book first, I’m a historical romance girl!

5. When did you know you wanted to be an author?
When I started writing, it took me 10 months to write 10 chapters (had to have a new chapter ready for my small local writing group to hear each month). At the group, I heard about a nearby, inexpensive little writing conference, so I went with my 10 chapters. The main thing I got out of that conference was how very hard it was to get published. And when someone says I can’t do something, that makes me want to do it all the more. I came home and finished the rest of that book in two months and have been writing away ever since.

6. How did you go about becoming an author?
When I first wanted to write a book I had no idea how to start, it seemed too daunting. So I googled all kinds of plotting methods until I came across the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson which made sense to me and started working with that until I got too antsy to not start writing. Then when I went to that conference mentioned above, an author said, “My writing career took off when I joined ACFW,” so that was my next step. I joined a critique group through that group (the best thing I’ve ever done for my writing) and then wrote and wrote and wrote.

7. If you were not a writer what would you like to be?
An editor! Or a Wycliffe Bible Translator.

8. Outside reading and writing what do you like to do?
Goodness, that’s my whole life! I like to um . . . . . I used to crochet!

9. Do you have a place you love to visit or would love to visit?
I wish I could go on a castle/famous places tour of Europe, and stay in a new historical monument every week.

10. If you could have a meal with 3 living people who would you choose and why?
Um, planning a dinner party? Did you catch I’m a hermit? Without TV, I don’t even know who most of the celebrities people talk about on social media or who stare at me from the grocery checkout aisles. So let’s see…..Ravi Zacharias, Greg Koukl, and John Piper. I wouldn’t do any talking, I’d just listen and be in deep theology discussion heaven.

Finally can you tell us about your current books and/or any that will
be coming out soon. Also where we can find you on the web.
My enovella, Love by the Letter, is the prequel to A Bride for Keeps and is available for free download!
Here’s the blurb for A Bride for Keeps:
Although Everett Cline can hardly keep up with the demands of his homestead, he won't humiliate himself by looking for a helpmate ever again--not after being jilted by three mail-order brides. When a well-meaning neighbor goes behind his back to bring yet another mail-order bride to town, he has good reason to doubt it will work, especially after getting a glimpse at the woman in question. She's the prettiest woman he's ever seen, and it's just not possible she's there to marry a simple homesteader like him.

Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiance. Having finally worked up the courage to leave her life in Massachusetts, she's determined to find a place where people will value her for more than her looks. Having run out of all other options, Julia resorts to a mail-order marriage in far-away Kansas.

Everett is skeptical a cultured woman like Julia could be happy in a life on the plains, while Julia, deeply wounded by a past relationship, is skittish at the idea of marriage at all. When, despite their hesitations, they agree to a marriage in name only, neither one is prepared for the feelings that soon arise to complicate their arrangement. Can two people accustomed to keeping their distance let the barricades around their hearts down long enough to fall in love?


You can find me here:
Inspirational Historical Fiction Index: http://inspirationalhistoricalfiction.blogspot.com/

Thanks again for your time and agreeing to be on my blog.
Thank you, Jenny!



4 comments:

pol said...

Hi AusJenny and Melissa, love the interview, this book sounds wonderful and I could see where they both will need some time to adjust when they get together. I like reading this type of book.
I liked the Nancy Drew books also when I was young. good start and like the way you finally got your start in writing and being published.

Paula O(kyflo130@yahoo.com)

Susan Anne Mason said...

Hi Jenny & Melissa,

Great interview! You sound a lot like me Melissa! I loved Nancy Drew, and when desperate, read my brother's Hardy Boys books.

I've got your novella and I've ordered your book! Can't wait to dive in.

Big congrats on the birth of *both* your new babies! Wishing you every success!! And many good reviews (ignore all others) and lots of sales!

Cheers,
Sue

Melissa Jagears said...

Susan, I guess I was more hard core Nancy Drew, I remember looking at the Hardy Boys thinking maybe they'd be good enough, but never actually cracking one open. :)

Thanks for the congrats!

Victoria Bylin said...

Fun interview, Melissa! You can go wrong with Nancy Drew . . . AusJenny asks such great questions!

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