Please welcome Jeanette Watts author of Brains and Beauty.
Jeanette Watts will be awarding a Victorian cameo necklace to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host.
Brains and Beauty
by Jeanette Watts
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GENRE: Historic Fiction
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INTERVIEW:
1. What or
who inspired you to start writing?
When I was
in elementary school, my best friend and I used to walk to school. Every
morning, I would tell her stories about characters I'd made up in the Star Wars
universe. I had no idea there really was such a thing as fan fiction back in
those days. But I knew what a soap opera was, and how serialized stories
worked. One day, my girlfriend asked me to repeat my story from the beginning
for a mutual friend. As I retold the story, I kept forgetting parts. That's
when Terri uttered those words that would change my life: "Aren't you
writing this DOWN?!" I've been
writing ever since.
2. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?
Self
preservation! When I finished writing
Wealth and Privilege, I thought I was done. Margaret Mitchell never wrote any
more novels after Gone With the Wind. I told my story. Yes, W&P has an
ambiguous ending - I happen to love Gone With the Wind, and Casablanca, and The
Empire Strikes Back. And Edith Wharton Books. All of these do not wrap up every
thread and tie everything up with a neat little bow. They leave loose ends.
It's disturbing, and it sticks with you, long after the movie credits or after
you've put the book back on the shelf. It's also real life... ask anyone who lost
a loved one on 9/11 about "closure" and how everything always comes
to a tidy conclusion. Those families were also on my mind as I wrote
"Finis" on the last page.
My readers
had other ideas. People were mad at me for leaving them hanging. They needed to
know what happened! I had left Shrodinger's Cat in the box, still both dead and
alive at the same time. Some reviewers expressed absolute fury with me for
ending the way I did. I was reminded that while yes, Margaret Mitchell never
wrote anything else, Margaret Mitchell was HIT BY A BUS.
So, to
preserve my life, I went back to these characters I had lived with for ten
years; and I ended up learning things about them I hadn't known.
3. What expertise did you bring to your writing?
I happen to
be a Vintage dancer, and a costumer. I can look at a dress in a museum, and I
can usually date it to within two years. I have worn hoopskirts, and bustle
dresses, and dresses with trains, and corsets. Understanding what it's like to
wear the clothing, to actually live in it, dance in it, play croquet and eat
dinner and lose a glove and use a parasol instead of sunscreen... all these
details were a part of daily life, and makes a huge impact when writing about
these things.
4. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your
bio?
That I
respect their intelligence. I have seen so many distributors of various forms
of entertainment - including books - who seem to have little regard for
people's intelligence. So many books get published that are historic
"fiction." I cringe my way through the sloppy research, and the
contrived plots and endings. I've had agents try to force me to make changes
that I found to be trite, or to insult the intelligence of my readers. Needless
to say, I didn't end up working with those individuals.
5. As far
as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
To keep
writing! Having just gotten Brains and Beauty into print, I am now working on
the release of a modern satire, called "Jane Austen Lied to Me." I've
also been watching the success of "Fifty Shades of Gray" with
interest; I've had an idea for an erotic novel with plot and character
development, and have wondered about actually writing it out. But since I also
have a children's book I'd like to write, in honor of my guardian angel who
passed away last year, I think some pen names might be in order.
6. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and
why?
Wow, I'm
not sure! I admire my heroine, but I'm not sure I'd want to actually be her.
Perhaps her youngest sister, even though she acquires some very serious
challenges she will have to face all her life.
But she's the seamstress, which I completely relate to.
7. Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?
Here
is a bit from chapter one:
It was blessedly
quiet in the conservatory. As much as Regina honestly loved people, she needed
to be away from them. Her host had been right; at least half the city was in
attendance. And every conversation had been about money. Either men were petitioning
her for money, offering her investment opportunities she desperately wanted to
join, or they were complaining about the lack of money since the Panic and
asking her advice on how to pull through when times were so hard. The women
either wanted money from her for their charities or offered to go jewelry
shopping with her, since her garnets were in a very old-fashioned setting.
Her head ached.
It was warm sitting among the palm trees, and she wanted something cold. She
got up from the bench where she had been sitting beside a little decorative
pool in the center and followed the path through the greenhouse. It took her
right up to the wall. She closed her eyes and put her hot forehead against the
cool glass.
She must have
stood there longer than she realized. A sharp voice called among the plants.
“Thomas? I told you, no running off to hide tonight. You’re the host, for
goodness’ sake.”
When a pleasant
baritone voice answered, she knew she had stayed there a little too long. She
felt instant sympathy for Thomas, since apparently he also had a headache. She
thought about announcing her presence, but as the two speakers quickly got into
an argument of a rather delicate nature, she thought maybe the more tactful
thing to do was to stay put and try not to listen.
She failed at her
attempts not to eavesdrop. She liked this Thomas fellow. He was witty, and
seemed to be holding his own against his mother. She wished Henry had half of
this fellow’s gumption. A couple of times she wanted to cheer him on.
At last, the
fight was over and the voices stopped. She wondered how long she should wait
before emerging. If the two of them continued their argument in the hall
outside the greenhouse, she would have some awkward explaining to do. She
listened, but all she could hear was the fountain burbling in the center of the
conservatory. Time to get back to the party and face the multitudes again.
Suddenly, any
number of stinging, sharp projectiles attacked her through the palm fronds.
Regina cried out, more startled than hurt, then quickly discovered that her
face was bleeding.
The baritone
voice called out, “Hello?”
The words were
out of her mouth before she could stop them. “The breeding of money has always
been ugly. I didn’t realize it had also become dangerous.” Damn. Not only did
he know she was here, he knew she had overheard everything. Smooth.
The curtain of
palm fronds parted, and the most gorgeous man Regina had ever beheld was
staring at her with bright blue eyes.
8. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your
writing?
I tried
joining a writer's group, but paying $20 per session to get three pages of my
work critiqued at a time seemed like an expensive way to get feedback on a 400
page book. Instead, I have a network of
talented friends, some who are writers, some who are readers, several who are
retired English teachers. When I get something polished enough for input, I
start asking to see who has the time to read my manuscript. After 6-8 pairs of
eyes have gone over the book, I start to feel confident that any plot holes or
inconsistencies have been found, the grammatical errors have been corrected,
the historical facts that I overlooked have been spotted.
9. Do you
outline your books or just start writing?
While
outlines are great for nonfiction, I don't like them for fiction. Characters,
when done right, take on a life of their own. If you are slavishly hacking them
back to fit the outline, you are hurting the story. My characters very
frequently surprised me by going in different directions than my original
intentions. I would never dream of forcing a character to bend to my will. It
would not be true to the character. Writing feels like sculpting to me. As I
write, I am releasing a sort of truth. I won't find out what that is unless I
let it continue to take shape.
10. How do you maintain your creativity?
Maintain
it? I wish I could just keep control of
it. My brain is impossible to keep up with. I'm currently finishing 8
Renaissance costumes for an event called Fasching, while the fabric for three
new bustle dresses stares at me from their piles on my sewing table. Meanwhile,
I am trying to produce a TV show about social dance in America. Meanwhile, I
have just finished writing a new choreography for my Cancan troupe, but I have
yet to start teaching it to them. I
designed new headpieces for our new Cancan costumes, but I have an idea for
another set of new costumes. Meanwhile, I have several different books cued up
inside my head...
11. Are your plotting bunnies angels or demons?
Oh, I'm sure they must be demons. I wouldn't have had readers threatened to
strangle me if my plotting bunnies were angels.
12.
Anything else you might want to add?
If anyone
knows how to get my books into James Cameron's hands, he doesn't know it yet,
but he wants to direct the movie version!
Any help would be much appreciated. ;-)
BLURB:
Regina
Waring seems to have it all. A loving
husband, a successful business, and the most expensive wardrobe in town. But nothing is what it appears to be. Her
husband is critical and demanding, the business teeters on ruin, even
the opulent wardrobe is a clever illusion.
Regina’s life is one long tiptoe
through a minefield; one wrong step and her entire life is going to blow up and
destroy her. Attempting to hold it all
together, she appeases the husband, dresses the part, and never, never says
what she is really thinking. That would get in the way of getting things
done. And, if there’s one thing Regina
did really well, it was getting things done.
Enter Thomas Baldwin. Young and handsome and completely off limits,
Regina is smitten at first sight. Then,
to her great astonishment, he slowly becomes her best friend. He’s the one person in her life who never
lets her down. Torn between her fascination
with him and her desire not to ruin a marvelous friendship, she tries to enjoy
each moment with him as it comes.
If only that were enough.
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EXCERPT:
There
was grunting, and the sound of wood groaning, and then a wet thump as they
lifted and threw something. Regina could tell that there was a little more room
behind her shoulder blades. There was more grunting and dragging and thumping.
Then she heard them both groan.
“What’s
going on back there? Have I been cut off at the waist?” she asked. Not being
able to see what was wrong, or the progress they were having, was making her
anxious.
“The
next layer is completely wedged in. We can’t do this without tools,” Isaac told
her.
Both
men hurried away from her, making her worry for their safety. She had also
found their company reassuring. What if neither one of them was able to find
her again?
That’s
when she saw the flickering orange glow in the distance. “No.”
Yes.
It didn’t seem possible – but in the midst of water floating below, and pouring
from above, something had caught on fire.
Regina
started listing in her head all the accelerants that might be contained in a
single drygoods store: tar, pitch, turpentine, kerosene. How many homes used
all of them? How many gas lines were ruptured all over the city? How many wood
stoves were knocked into them? There was no way this heap would NOT be set on
fire.
And
here she was, stuck, in the middle of it. No doubt about it, she was about to
die in the same town in which she was born. It was a shame, really. She had
such high aspirations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jeanette Watts only lived in
Pittsburgh for four years, but in her heart, she will always be a
Pittsburgher. She missed the city so
much after her move to Ohio, she had to write a love story about it.
She has written television
commercials, marketing newspapers, stage melodramas, four screenplays, three
novels, and a textbook on waltzing. When
she isn’t writing, she teaches social ballroom dances, refinishes various parts
of her house, and sews historical costumes and dance costumes for her Cancan
troupe.
Links:
Webpage
Facebook
Twitter
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Jeanette Watts
will be awarding a Victorian cameo necklace to a randomly drawn winner via
rafflecopter during the tour, and a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f1490
