Who can you turn to when your life
falls apart?
In this moving debut ~ Peyton Brooks, a newly-empty nester
with a comatose marriage, loses her three friends in a car crash, and reaches
out to women in the To-Hell-And-Back Club, hoping they’ll help resuscitate her
life.
Through the
“Hell Club”, Peyton learns it’s never too late to begin again. These
been-there-felt-that women use their sense of humor, strength, and support to
help pull her off the couch and back to living
her life.
She rebuilds
the life she’d put aside two decades ago. But when Peyton digs up time capsules
she and her friends buried years ago, and uncovers secrets about those she
loved, she struggles to keep her own life-changing secret buried.
Some Q & A with myself (yes, that sounds weird, even to me!) ~
You can connect with me here:
Where do you get your
ideas?
There are endless ideas jumping around in my
head every day. Seriously. I hear a conversation, and my brain conjures up a scene
about it. Or I see something unusual, and think about a “what if something
happened” scene. The problem is getting all of these ideas to make up a story!
What are you working
on now?
Honestly? Everything to do with writing
except actually writing! I put book #2 aside so I could focus on enjoying my
book debut, and help promote it to readers. It is a lot of work, but anything
you love and feel strongly about, is worth the time and effort. Hopefully.
Is anything in your
book based on real life experiences?
A few experiences are slivers of my life,
along with slivers of experiences from people I know. To be clear, yes, I’m
divorced, but no, Jerry (the soon-to-be-out-the-door husband in the story) is not based on my ex-husband. Same goes for
the friends in my book!
Do you have a
favorite chapter or scene?
A scene toward the end with Peyton and her
sister, Grace, who comes to visit her all the way from Texas (the story takes
place in Minnesota.) It is a heart-wrenching scene, and I choked up writing it.
Not having a sister of my own, I imagined how important it would be to have a
sister like Grace, to be there for you as she was for Peyton. I hope I did
their relationship justice.
Do you have a ‘day
job’ as well?
I sure do. I’ve been at a communications
company for close to twenty years. The upside? It is a whopping 1.3 miles from
my home. The commute is brutal. ;) The downside? All day at a computer, which
makes coming home to sit and write on a computer not-so appealing.
What are some things you enjoy when not
writing?
I
started writing and running, two “bucket list” goals of mine, after
I turned forty-five and heard the saying “what
would you do if you knew you could not fail?” Those two things came to
mind. I’m still running, and absolutely love the sport of curling, and the
women I get to curl with. I love being outside (thank goodness for laptops or I’d
never write in the summer!) and I especially love time spent with our kids and
grandkids.
Is there anything
you’d like to say to your readers and fans?
There is no such thing as “I” in writing.
Yes, yes, I know, it is in the word twice. But writing a book is just that,
writing. Without the editors, publishers, book reviewers, book bloggers, fellow
supportive authors, and book lovers, a book will hibernate in the soul of the
writer. I appreciate every single person who has helped, cheered, and pushed me
along to get to this point.
If you ever think your opinion doesn’t
matter, it does as a reader! If you’ve read a book you enjoyed, the best gift you can give
an author is to read ~ review ~
recommend.
Instagram: @jillh.anderson
Looking forward to reading and reviewing your debut novel. So happy to see your hard work pay off and your dreams come true!
ReplyDeleteHi Mary, Thanks so much, Mary! I look forward to you reading it. :)
DeleteJill, you are one of the very most supportive authors out there! I am so excited for you and hope you enjoy this experience!Just picked it up on my Kindle!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Ella, both for your kind words and buying my book. I appreciate them both! :)
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