Jenn J McLeod - small-town storyteller

Start by telling me if it’s scones and tea or some other homemade delight you have whipped up for me today! 🙂

Freshly baked rock cakes with cherries, served alongside hot chocolate and marshmallows. Bliss.

(I’d have to have rocks in my head not to partake in that treat! Thanks, Elise. Now…)

At home…

My mum says garden gnomes make a house a home! Are you loud and proud in your love of garden gnomes at home, a closet gnomer or with a strict ‘no gnomes’ policy at your place?

Strict ‘no gnomes’ policy at my place. But I do have a metal goat named JoJo, who has a funny face and something quite special about it.

(No kidding!!!!!)

What vegetable (or fruit) have you always wanted to grow at home?

Snow peas. My mum used to grow them over one side of the garden shed when we lived in Queensland and I used to eat them straight off the vine. I thought I was really sneaky about it too, but apparently Mum would watch me from the kitchen window and smile. I’ve tried to grow them since, but they’ve never come close to the quality of hers.

If I came to your home and looked in the refrigerator, what would I find?

Hm. I used to have what my family affectionately called a ‘serial killer’ fridge. There used to be bottles of soft drink, a triangle of cheese, an unopened container of butter (for all that bread I didn’t have) and some milk. That was it.

Now that my boyfriend and I have moved in together, there is meat for dinner, jelly for snacks, two kinds of milk, eggs, assorted fruit, packed salad. Basically, a normal person’s fridge contents. Oh, and soft drink, a triangle of cheese and an open container of butter.

He completes my fridge!

(LOL, cute! Now explain ‘serial killer’ fridge, please????)

If you sorted your wardrobe by colour, what colour would stand out? (Ahh, do you sort your wardrobe by colour?!)

Dark blue. That would capture all the denim and it’s pretty much my go-to colour for clothes. My cupboard is sorted into pants, skirts, shirts and dresses, and I use the spare room cupboard for jackets and jumpers, but that’s as far as the organisation goes. There’s also the world’s biggest clothes basket in the corner, laughingly referred to as the ironing pile. But I have this strange allergy to my ironing board. I’ve had it since I was a little girl. I can only endure short bursts of exposure to it. So sad, right?

(Gee, boyfriend really hit the jackpot with you, Martha Stewart!)

What are you wearing now? (Be honest!)

Dark blue! It’s cold, so jeans, grey socks, a grey long sleeved shirt, and a dark blue polo  top from when I worked on the Hamer Hall redevelopment project. It’s got all the alliance participant logos on it and it’s one of my favourite knock-around shirts. Forgive the plug, but my book Unforgettable is based off this project, so the shirt’s nostalgic to me for a number of reasons.

(Plug away. That’s what we do here on Harvest. In fact, here’s a cover shot.)

Whose home would you like to housesit and why?

Nora Roberts’s. I would love to see what her home office looks like and if she has trinkets or images scattered throughout her house that I would remember from her books. I say this because I have pieces of jewellery that I associate with particular characters of mine, and travel mementos that have made their way into my books. I’d love to see how many of her imaginary worlds have found their way into her real world.

Country curiosities…

We love a sunburnt country (slip, slop, slap and all that). What’s your ideal hat? Or are you a boots person?

I am not a hat person. Hats have not looked good on me since I peaked in preschool with an adorable bonnet too big for my tiny head. Therefore, I am a boots person. I love me a good set of boots. Especially in Melbourne weather because I’m so fond of socks and usually too late to notice a good-sized puddle.

If you were a tree (or animal) what kind of tree (animal) would you be?

I’d probably be a cat. As a person I’m likely to seek out the line of sunshine on the carpet and luxuriate on the couch, so it’s not too big a difference. I’d master the television remote and watch TV shows when my humans were at work (and record the ones they weren’t home for – now that would spin them out. “Who recorded this?”). I’d also pose for a never ending amount of adorable cat pictures so my humans could amuse themselves with writing on the pictures and uploading them onto the internet. I’d be the star of I Can Has Cheezburger?

(Grumpy Cat has nothing on me when I see those blasted cat memes. Everyone shares the damn cats. If they’re not sharing cats they’re sharing dogs or a so not adorable brat with a “please give me one-million likes and my dad will get me a dog” sign. Grrrr! What about me? (Yes, I am sounding like Shannon Noll now.) But what about my adorable House for all Seasons memes? No one shares them and… Whoops! Sorry. Small rant (and grumpy cat turns into sulking, pouting cat as she heads off to prepare next Monday’s meme. *big hint!*!!!!! 🙂

Now for the big question… Why did the chicken cross the road?

I think the real question here is why did the road cross the chicken’s path?

(Nice one.)

About you…

Your turning point: when was that point in your life that you realized that being an  author was no longer going to be just a dream but a reality and a career?

When I started winning writing competitions. I was at the end of my rope with trying to get off the slush pile, and I was ready to put my manuscript in a bottom drawer. Needing to know what I was doing wrong so that I wouldn’t repeat my mistakes, I sent it out to a dozen national and international competitions, keen for impartial feedback and advice. Then the congratulations started rolling in. I won enough of them that my confidence was restored, and I began submitting again. Publishers sat up and took notice, and not long after, it was picked up by Destiny Romance. Small Town Storm almost never was.

(A favourite quote… “The moment you’re ready to quit is the moment the magic happens.”)

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

It comes at the cost of sleep, for me. I have a full time job to work around, so I’m usually writing late at night and into the morning. I write whenever I can – on my commute, when I’m waiting for someone, any time I can snatch ten minutes, really. But being tired all the time is hard.

If someone was to write your biography, what do you think the title should be?

The Woman Who Never Sleeps. Or, The Woman With A Thousand (imaginary) Friends.

What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?

I ask this question in my blog interviews. I’m happy to be on the other end of it – I think it’s very personal and telling.

Q: The last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?

A: I was standing in a cemetery. It was close to eleven o’clock at night. There was a full moon, acres of shadows and loss, and the indistinct outline of man in a suit leaning against the balustrade of a distant gazebo. The things we do for research.

(What a lovely question AND answer.)

Fun stuff … 

What does your protagonist think about you? Would he or she want to hang out with you, the author, his/her creator.

The character on my mind at the moment is mysterious and misunderstood Ethan Foster. He’s the protagonist of Ask Me To Stay. He’s very private, but easy-going and generous with his heart. We’d be fast friends, I think, and near inseparable. I think he’d like our similar sense of humour, and our shared tendency to give more than we get. But I think he’d want a stern word with me about why I gave him such a hard time in the book. The things I put that poor man through…

If I said to you, “Just entertain me for five minutes, I’m not going to talk,” what would you do?

I’d probably jump at the opportunity to use you as a sounding board. I love reading aloud, so I’d probably hunt up something I’d enjoyed reading recently, or make you endure the latest chapter of my WIP. God help my future children. I’ll be trying to read to them when they’re old enough to leave home!

(I love reading aloud too. Lucky for me my dogs never complain, although they do snore rather loudly.)

What food would you be?

Baked strawberry cheesecake. Hands down, no question. It’s a little embarrassing how quickly that answer came to me.

(Yum.)

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Unsliced bread.

Name 5 uses for a stapler that has no staple pins.

1. Projectile.
2. Paper weight.
3. Something to fidget with.
4. Trip hazard. (Is the related to the ‘serial killer’ thing?)
5. A like-for-like replacement when I swap it with someone else’s.

How weird are you? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (not) to 10 (very).

Probably 7. I have imaginary people (aka characters) talking to me all day: that definitely bumps me up the scale! That, and I’m frequently on the receiving end of someone’s mouth dropping open.

(Nothing weird there. I think all that does is make you a writer!)

Now if I Ask You To Stay, will you tell us about your new novel Ask Me To Stay?

When family tragedy brings bad boy Ethan Foster home, he doesn’t expect a warm welcome. In the small town of Hinterdown reputation is everything – and Ethan’s was ruined long ago. Nobody wants him around, particularly not Sam O’Hara, the girl he left behind.

There’s still a powerful spark between them, but Sam is afraid to risk her heart again. And Ethan is hiding a secret that will have repercussions for his whole family. Will the townspeople ever forgive him? More importantly, will those he loves the most find it in their hearts to take him back?

This tender tale of love and redemption is the first in a brilliant new series by Elise K. Ackers, author of Small Town Storm and the bestselling The Man Plan.

Connect and buy links for Elise:

Destiny Romance: www.destinyromance.com
Website: www.elisekackers.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EliseKAckers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elise-K-Ackers/145929782088997
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