Featured Author Interview
- Tasha S. Heart
- Mar 13, 2017
- 6 min read
About Author Jocelynn Babcock:
Jocelynn Babcock hates talking about herself in third person, but loves reading and writing third person narratives. A typical writer, she’ll tell you she created books with her grandma’s yarn as a child and grew up to marry an engineer (as all writers do). She lives in the Channeled Scablands where the fine line between sanity and not is an outlet for idle hands. You can follow her work on WordPress, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
Interview Questions:
What is your favorite color?
Red
What are your hobbies?
Besides Reading, I scrapbook both in physical and digital form. I sew, knit, do beadwork, and try to recreate Pinterest home projects.
What is your favorite food?
Pizza with good gravy (that’s sauce)
Do you have any pets?
I have a Karelian Bear Dog/ Australian Shepherd mix named Thunder Thor
What is your favorite movie?
Practical Magic
What would be your dream vacation?
Meditating at the vortexes of Sedona
What is a personal attribute that you're most proud of?
I’m a fighter ready to bring the fire
What was your favorite storybook as a child?
Little Golden Books #397: The Bear in the Boat by Ilse-Margaret Vogel
What genre do you currently write?
Paranormal Mystery
What made you want to become a writer?
I’ve always written. I used to make books as a child and bind them with my grandma’s yarn. The road to believing I could be a writer, having the confidence to be a writer was a long one.
I went to this psychic reading and she said I would change jobs and use my talents for good. This is a fun story by itself for another time. I polled my friends and told them I love to research and write and won’t work for doctors or lawyers, what should I do? 8 of the 10 responses told me to write grants. So, I went back to college and took every writing intensive they had. That has been my trade (more exclusively) for eight years. Grants and textbooks, which is passive writing. Eeek!
Where do you find your inspiration?
Music and Community. I’ll start with the first. Lyrics to songs are so powerful. I see images, get ideas, and it feels like surfing on a wave of energy. For example, in 2010 I wrote a ritual theater (play) called Women of the Earth inspired by the Spiral Dance Song, Woman of the Earth. A student in a woman’s study class made a piece of art based on my play, which hangs on my wall to this day. Art imitates life in a cycle.
I told you that story to tell you this one: I had an assignment due in Creative Writing based on irony. Returning from the play (driving home with a laptop in the car). I wanted to write a story about a psychic and asked my husband, “What’s ironic about a psychic?” He said, “What if she has amnesia?” It went over so well with the peer reviews, I have a trilogy based on this single moment.
When I say I am inspired by community, I mean specifically how women create community and support one another. I have seen this more times than I can count, and my female characters rally around the amnesiac and help her in any way they can. Well, almost all of them…
What do you like most about writing?
Writing provides an interesting outlet. I did not realize I had a dark side and it wanted a voice until I sat down and decided I was going to write a book and this time I wasn’t going to burn it when I finished.
Writers see the world; they document the world. Our job is to examine and analyze the human experience. A book will tell you an expression from 100 years ago that is lost or archaic now. If you want an example, Jane Austen’s Emma. During the piano concert he put a rubber on her leg. In 1815 England, that meant eraser.
Writing is an emotional process. I experience the same feelings writing as I do reading. There are parts in The Eyes of March that make me cry no matter how many times I read it. Other parts where I still laugh. My characters surprised me when I gave them space to lead.
What do you hope to be doing in five years from now?
There is the MANTIC trilogy, another trilogy, a Dystopian, a Sci-Fi, a Family Drama, and a collection of short humorous stories in line. I would like to have 7 of the 10 completed in 5 years.
What author would you love to co-write a story with?
I love so many authors it’s hard to choose one, but for me to co-write I would pick my opposite. I wanted to write funny and instead went dark. I would love to write a story with mystery author Gina LeManna, because her humor is amazing. I laugh my ass off when I read her books.
What obstacles do you run into when you're writing?
I tried to plot my books. Originally I was writing a humorous women’s fiction with 12 books planned. I sat down and wrote a dark murder mystery, and only 3 books. Trying to stick to a planned plotline is the worst. I don’t want to stomp on the creative juices flowing. I only have a planned beginning and end and let the middle get decided while I’m in the zone.
Of course, pantsing a novel has its own obstacles. Timeline issues and plot holes galore. Thanks to Tinthia Clement and Saturn Celeste, we found and fixed those in The Eyes of March.
Do you have any routine when you write?
I info dump and front load. I have to tell me the story first. Next, I write dialog, because it comes naturally to me. Then, I add in body language. Last, I add the scenery and description.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m going to NaNo MANTIC Volume II: To Dance with Serpents in January. Get the basic outline feel of the novel and fill the details in over a couple months before sending it to beta. I plan to release Volume II for The Ides of November (11/13/17).
If you were trapped on a deserted island with one of your characters, who would it be? Why?
Angel, because she had been homeless. She doesn’t have many possessions, except a box of belly dancing costumes. Angel is a survivor. She’s also funny. I have no doubt she would get us through alive.
Is there a character in any of your books that you relate to? Why?
There is a little of me in every character, but I created Bryn to be the most like me. She has red hair, a fiery personality, struggled with infertility but would not receive help due to her illness. She can’t adopt either. I walked in her shoes. She is my story.
What character do you wish you could be more like? Why?
The MC in The Eyes of March is an amnesiac. I have the advantage of knowing her backstory. If you think Angel’s a fighter, wait until you meet the real V. What V has to do, what I ask of her, is to face her problems and stop running. She has to reconcile who she was and who she becomes, and she does so with more grace and patience than I can muster.
Are any characters in your titles based on someone you know? Does that person know they are in your book?
Yes and at the same time no. Originally I set out to model characters after my friends and told them I was doing that. The problem is: developing a character has to come with a light and a dark side. I could not be authentic to my friends and take my characters where I needed them to go in order to achieve development. So I went back through those stories and changed them. I asked, “What if this happened instead?” This allowed me to separate myself from thinking of these characters as friends and treat them like characters.
Are you attending any book signings in the near future?
I decided not to print in paperback until I have all three in the trilogy complete. My author friends do not recommend book books until you have a fair amount of them to show. I trust them.
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Mantic: The Eyes of March
A psychic with amnesia? Two women murdered, both with identical tattoos. A third tattooed woman survives an attempted drowning. Valena is the only link to stop the serial killer pursuing her, but she is afraid of her dark truth and surrenders to amnesia. Haunted by visions, she meets the Wyrd Sisters and enters a life of psychics, tarot readings, prophecies, and possible death. When those from her past find her, how can she accept police help and hide from the killer if she refuses to remember?
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