Interview: Jessie Harrell Part 1

On Tuesday night Jessie Harrell and I had a fun chat about her debut novel, Destined.  🙂 Take a look at Part 1 of interview.

Hey! 🙂 Welcome!
Hi there!  Sorry I’m a little late. That’s the danger of reading on a Kindle to your kid; the stories can end up being longer than you anticipated. I’ve been looking forward to this!

Awww that’s so sweet! No you’re not late! ME TOO! haha So how have you been?!
Really good. Hubby ran in an Ironman triathlon this weekend. Lots of fun to watch

Wow! I heard of those. They’re INTENSE!
Yeah, 70.3 miles (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). How have you been? What’s on your TBR pile right now?

I’ve been good! Too many. I’m about to read Liz Crowe’s “Paradise Hops” 🙂 … OMG and he did ALL OF THAT?!
I’m more of a computer/book girl. Doubt I would’ve made it past the swim part. I haven’t heard of that one. I’m reading Jessica Khoury’s ORIGIN right now. Great writing.

Ooo I’ll have to check that out!
I’m not a huge dystopian/Sci-Fi fan, but it’s good so far. Plus, Jessica is super-sweet 🙂

Congrats on your debut novel! For those who don’t know, tell us a little about yourself.
Thanks! I’m a mom of 2 girls, wife of a triathlete, appellate attorney, and now an author. That about rounds it out. Oh, and I love to scrapbook too.

What inspired you to begin writing? Did you like writing as a child?
I had a 6th grade teacher who knew I’d be an author one day, but I wanted to be an actress back then. I didn’t consider writing until after my girls were born and hubby jokingly suggested we write children’s books because, “how hard can that be?” Umm – pretty hard!

I can’t even imagine!
He was thinking picture books, but I can’t be that brief. I needed more words, so I went with YA!  (I’m only sort of joking.)  I do LOVE reading and writing YA though.

Wow! That’s amazing! I like acting too! I minored in Theatre in college.
Ugh, I’m jealous. I gave up acting because I can’t sing. Like, at all. All the plays in high schools were musicals, so, you see where that left me. :/

Awww! That’s why I loved it.. I started out in choir all my life and my fav parts were the performances we had to make. 🙂 Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?
I don’t really remember the “ever” part – I do remember writing trippy poetry in high school and a spooky short story about an incestuous brother and sister. Nice, huh? Once I got into writing for YA, Destined was my first novel. I must say, though, it has been through MANY revisions and spent years getting to where it is now.

Big departure! haha What’s your writing process? Some authors like to write dialogue first then go back to stage it, while others do a combination of both.
I have to write in order. I basically know the scene I’m going into and write what needs to be there. I generally think I’m better at dialogue though, so I use it liberally.

Do you have a daily writing goal or do you stick to an outline?
I NEED a daily writing goal. I’m one of those people who works in sprints & then slacks for weeks (or months). Unless I have my co-author for the next book keeping me in line. When we wrote the current novel last summer, we had a very strict outline. You sort of have to when you’ve got 2 people working on the same story.

With Destined, did you already know how you wanted to make it public? Did you have author friends to give you advice/help?
The author support community is amazing. I relied on #YALitChat folks a lot for advice. (yalitchat.org) My original plan was to try traditional publishing, and I got very close to doing that, but decided for various reasons that my book would be better served getting it out sooner, rather than later. I didn’t want to miss the mythology trend that was going on in 2011. Plus, I got full creative control of the cover!

I loved the cover! 🙂
Thanks. Perri is a beautiful girl and I feel so lucky that she let me use her self- portrait. She’s the perfect Psyche in my mind.

When Michelle told me about Destined I was VERY intrigued.. I might have told you my fav. art piece is the sculpture by Canova.. and then I looked up the book and I said “I have to read this”!!!
Well, I’m so glad you did.  🙂  And I’m even happier that you enjoyed it! And yes, that’s a great sculpture!

How do you juggle your career in writing with your busy life? You wear so many hats!
I guess that’s part of why I’m not a consistent writer – not a great juggler. But I find that I have to have creative outlets and writing is a great one!

No you’re awesome!! 🙂 Has your writing influenced your family, specifically your children? Apparently they love to be read to!
My writing time comes after the kiddos are in bed. I’m a night owl, so it works…My girls do love being read to – they’re 6 & 7 – and they were sort of impressed in the beginning that I’m an actual author, but now they don’t care too much. My hubby is totally awesome and supportive. He’s gotten used to the fact that I ignore him many nights and type away on a computer instead. We used to joke that I got the laptop so I could ignore him from the same room, but the typing interfered with his TV watching, so …

We hear that a lot! haha It’s so great to hear you have a supportive team!
I do, I’m very blessed. He never even blinked when I said I was going to Indie publish. He’s been behind my decisions 110%.

How would you describe this new telling of the Psyche & Cupid story? It’s kinda modern, contemporary, fresh, etc. I think you did a GREAT JOB mixing in present-day ideas into an ancient story!
Awww. You’re making me blush. What was most important to me was to make ancient mythology accessible to teens. I hate hearing them say they think mythology is boring because they’ve only ever read The Odyssey.

EXACTLY! THANK YOU! *bows down* haha It’s true!! I remember back in high school we had to read some Greek mythology (even in college) and it wasn’t fun.
These are GREAT stories, they just have to be told in way that makes teens (and all readers) WANT to read them. For me, that required modern dialog and slang. I know it didn’t sit well with some readers, but that was my vision for the story and I wanted to be true to that. (Another perk of Indie publishing. I can do what I want.)

Freedom! 🙂 What motivated you to write Destined? You majored in Classical Studies, was this story always in the back of your mind?
Yep. Cupid & Psyche was always my favorite – probably because I’m a sucker for love stories. (Love Beauty & the Beast too.) I remember going back and re-reading it to my infant daughter. So when it came time to write a story myself, there was no doubt in my mind what I wanted to do.

I was going to mention that too! I thought of Beauty & the Beast while reading.
I believe the Eros & Psyche myth was a precursor to many beauty/monster myths.

How much research did you have to do before writing Destined? You obviously knew a lot from school…is there any books, links etc you would recommend for someone who would want more info about Psyche & Eros? Some versions are different.
Well, the version of the story that’s been handed down comes from Apuleius’s The Golden Ass. You can read it there if you want it straight from the horse’s mouth. I don’t remember any particular links, but there are a lot of scholars who have websites about the various gods and myths. I did do a ton of research, but once I had the story down, my research focused on things like clothes, furniture, food, plants, etc. I wanted to be sure if I mentioned something, it could have been in ancient Greece. (Yes -they did have cheesecake in ancient Greece.)

Yea I got that too! ooo really!? See I would have imagined that was one of those contemporary or modern moments! NICE!
The Greeks were very sophisticated. I’d love to go back in time and see them in real life.

What was it like writing Destined, knowing you were retelling this famous story?
The best part was getting to make it my own. As much as I loved the mystery and romance, I wanted to be sure Psyche didn’t come across as a dumb bimbo. It’s a little intimidating wondering if people will be mad that you tweaked the myth, but then again, it was more just exciting for me to think that more people will get to know the story who maybe hadn’t heard of it before. Sharing the love!

Stay tuned for Part 2! Coming up on Monday 10/8! 🙂

7 Smooches Showdown:

1. Where’s the one place you want to go and why?  (since you love to travel)
Germany. My dad always tells me how beautiful it was when he was there.

2. What was your most favorite Halloween costume?
A couple of years ago I was a full-fledged vampire (along with my girls). I had the cool press on fangs and everything.

3. Favorite male vampire?
Edward. I even named a cat after him.

4. Would you rather read a book to someone OR have someone read a book to you?
I’d rather be the reader. My mind wanders if someone else is reading to me. I need to see the words to focus on them.

5. Favorite drink?
Coke.

6. Superpower you wish you had?
Flying. How much easier would it be to travel if you could fly?

7. Favorite movie and actor
You know, I actually don’t watch TV (except for True Blood) and hardly ever see movies, so this is a hard question for me. I think Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio are both fabulous actors. If I HAD to pick a movie, I’d maybe say The Bourne Trilogy. I can watch those again and again without getting bored.  they’re not exactly hard on the eyes.  You know [Leo] was my inspiration picture when I was writing, right? Young Leo for the win!