Barbara Conrey

Interview with Jennifer Klepper, USA Today Best-Selling Author of Unbroken Threads. If you haven’t read Unbroken Threads, I suggest you pick up a copy. It’s timely, an extremely well-written story of trust and fear and bias that reminds us we are all human, no matter what part of the world we come from, and I promise you’ll love it. I first met Jennifer in 2016 at the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Regional Writer’s Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She’s like most writers in that she’s friendly and on the quiet side. She’s more likely to talk up someone else’s book than her own, so I’m pretty happy that I got her to devote a few minutes to talk about what it’s like to have her debut, Unbroken Threads, become a USA Today Best Seller. How does one become a USA Today Best-Selling Author? I wish there was a magic formula! For Unbroken Threads, I had steady growth in terms of exposure and word of mouth for the book after launch. This all helped when my book was featured on BookBub. BookBub is an incredible tool for readers to learn about new books and promotional sales, and having a book featured in BookBub’s newsletter can help an author reach countless new readers. Was this a goal when your book was published? It wasn’t something in my mind, no. I came into publishing a little blind to goals. I still don’t really set them. I think writing a novel is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. Everything else--whether it’s getting a publishing contract, getting great trade reviews, or hitting a bestseller list--is icing on the cake. What was your first thought when you found out? Were you surprised? I was on my way to visit with a book club that had read my book, and I thought it was kind of perfect to have gotten the news then, because book clubs have been a huge part of my book’s success. My second thought was, “How can I possibly thank everyone who has been a part of getting me and my book to where it is now?” As far as whether I was surprised. I was shocked, really. I’ve always considered my book a small book and kept my expectations in check. But my publisher, Red Adept Publishing, while a small independent, has a number of USA Today Bestselling and NY Times Bestselling books. I just didn’t plan on mine becoming one of them. Can you tell us anything about what you’re writing now? I am working on a novel inspired by something my husband and his friends did in college, except that in my version the cast is all female and things do not go as planned. What’s your best piece of writing advice for new authors? Find a writing group--a group of other writers in your genre. There’s a lot to learn from others who read and critique your work. But I think there can be even more to learn by reading and critiquing the works of others. How about marketing advice? Build your writer network and share what you know. Book marketing is a necessary, time-consuming, and always changing evil. Having a support group of other authors who can share what they’ve done, including what has worked and what has not, is invaluable. On the marketing sanity front, I’m a strong believer in boosting other authors and not focusing only on your own book. There’s big joy in watching your friends’ books soar, why not be a part of making that happen? Thank you, Jennifer, for giving us Jessica Donnelly and Amina Hamid! I look forward to your next book.

So here’s the thing about writing: you need to name your characters. It sounds easy—you named your kids and your pets, right? But there are rules to follow when you name the characters in your books. Of course, I didn’t know there were rules until I broke them. First Rule: Don’t name two characters with names that start with the same letter. Second Rule: Try not to name more than two characters with names that have only one syllable. Third Rule: Do not, for the love of all that’s holy, name two characters by the same name. Fourth Rule: Do not even think about changing the name of a character midway through your story, and if for some unfathomable reason you do, make nice with the Find/Replace function on your computer. You will find it invaluable. I’ve been told that the easiest approach when naming characters is to use the names of people you know in real life. Which sounds reasonable. Unless, of course, you are writing about serial killers …. The people I know don’t have fascinating names. But that didn’t stop me from trying to name a character after my very first and very only blind date. Elwood. What was I thinking? What were his parents thinking? So maybe naming characters based on real people isn’t the way to go. But not to worry. There are research sites and reference books and phone books and movie characters and high school and college yearbooks to peruse. There’s also Twitter. Just for fun, I put the question out to my fellow authors on Twitter, and while my question was received with enthusiasm, because, you know, there’s nothing writers like to do more—besides write—than help other writers, their responses came with specific caveats. Time period is essential: you probably shouldn’t be naming your protagonist Blue or Ocean or Autumn if your story takes place in the eighteenth century. You should also consider the geographical region where your story takes place. I wouldn’t recommend using the name Ashley Wilkes if your character lives in the North and fought in the Civil War. Everyone had suggestions and I loved them all. The most fascinating answer came from an author who writes historical fiction. Her reference is gravestones. She walks through old cemeteries and gathers names like fairy dust in the mist, which almost makes me want to write historical fiction.

So here’s the thing about writing: Fiction frequently involves research. Hope I didn’t disappoint you. Make believe is not all make believe. Some part of real is going to sneak in when your back is turned. It will, at least, if your story lives in the real world. If six little words in an eighty-five-thousand-word manuscript refer to the first quarter earnings of, say, the Tidy Toity Paper company, the figures better be correct. Assuming, of course, there really is a Tidy Toity Paper company. But I didn’t write about toilet paper. I wrote about brain tumors. Of which, thankfully, I have no personal experience. I wrote about a real type of brain tumor in a make-believe child. Which meant I needed to research my subject. And research, for me, always starts at the library. By the time the librarian checked out the six pediatric brain tumor books I had plopped on her counter, she refused to meet my gaze. When I returned the books two-weeks later, she presented me with a two-pound box of Godiva chocolates. And then she walked away. Fast. Along with speaking to doctors who were willing to spare a few moments to discuss brain tumors, I spent some time on the Internet. And now my browsing history includes videos of brain surgery. Which I actually watched. Well, to be honest, I closed my eyes at some of the yuckier parts. I’m not sure why you might want to know this, but you can purchase all the surgical implements needed to perform brain surgery. Sometimes at a sale price. Because of my online research, two separate oncology organizations reached out to see if I was interested in receiving their monthly newsletters on cutting-edge (no pun intended) surgical procedures. I don’t know, maybe so I could put all those surgical tools to use if I ever decided to splurge and see how far I could stretch my Visa limit. Along with brain tumors, I also researched the Rescue Freedom Project because one of the characters in my story rescues beagles. If you are unaware of the plight of laboratory animals, specifically beagles, please check out their site at https://rescuefreedomproject.org/ Reading fiction is that wonderful hobby many of us enjoy. Writing fiction is also a joy, just make sure you get your facts straight.

So here’s the thing, I’m an introvert. It’s hard to tell which came first, my need to be alone, or my need to write. No, wait, I know the answer: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a kid hiding in my bedroom inhaling every word of James Michener’s Hawaii. I still can’t eat bananas, but I devoured that book. Writing fulfilled all of my needs. It let me put on paper what I couldn’t say out loud, and it let me hide in my office with the door closed. I thought I was safe. I didn’t have to answer the telephone, I didn’t have to attend business meetings or business lunches or have personal contact with anyone I was not interested in interacting with. I was safe right up until I was advised, yes, someone actually had to tell me, that I needed to develop a public presence. People needed to know my name, what I looked like, a little about what a stood for. Maybe a little more about what I ate for breakfast. So I introduced myself to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn and You Tube and Goodreads. And BookBub. And I created a web site where I discuss books that I like and stuff about myself, again, like what I ate for breakfast. Social media is important to my writing career: I think I get that now. As an example of how far I’ve come, just this morning someone on Twitter asked Twitter-verse to cough up really-awful-why-did-I-buy-a-new-dress-for-this-wedding stories. And I thought: I can do this: Worst wedding: my first. Don’t judge, everyone needs a practice wedding. Hubs passed out at the altar breaking his two front teeth. My father and I were halfway to the altar: he muttered an unutterable word—if you happen to be walking down an aisle in a church heading to an altar. I looked for the nearest exit. My mother swore until her dying day that we were never legally married. I hope no one actually read that post. It happens, right? Tweets go missing in the land of Tweets-ville. Had I paused for one bloody second, I might have stuck with what I had for breakfast. I’m fairly confident I’ll get better at this. >

If you’re a writer you know what call I’m talking about. It’s the one you’ve been waiting for. The one that gives validation to the days and months and years you’ve spent chained to your desk trying to put into words the ideas you are certain – fairly certain – will be the next great work of fiction. If you’re not a writer, you might not have a clue about this call, but trust me: it’s important. Now, let me just back up for a minute and mention that this call ‘the call’ should not come as a surprise, and any writer worth her/his salt should have squirreled away tons of documentation on how to handle this call. I can only speak for myself. I don’t know what you do with your important ‘how to’ information. I tend to store mine either in an email folder labeled ‘Someday I’m Going to Need This’ or in a cute little three ring binder where I keep all my I-really-need-to-read-this-stuff stuff. Either way, I have everything I need to insure I don’t sound like an idiot when the call comes. But here’s the thing. Or, at least, for me, here’s the thing: In my head I might not have thought that call was ever going to come. So, instead of learning to ask the right questions, I just kept writing. Because writing’s important. Right? I bet you already know how this story ends: the call came. Actually it was a voice mail message on my answering machine because I gave my home phone number as a contact instead of my cell phone, which, now that I think about it, was probably the better plan. Imagine hearing your car’s blue tooth announce your caller is so-and-so from so-and-so literary agency or publishing house. I actually don’t want to imagine that. Not while I’m driving, anyway. So, my point here, folks, is that I went into this call cold. In fact, at one point I found myself nodding in answer to a question my caller could not possibly have seen. Luckily for me, the woman on the other end of the call had all her ducks in a row and answered every conceivable question I could possibly have thought of. She even told me she liked my title. SHE LIKED MY TITLE! Not to belabor the point, but don’t be me, sitting at the kitchen island with a napkin to write on, a pen in one hand, the phone in the other, wishing I had a third hand to hold up my head that was close to exploding from excitement.