Blackhorse Road by Merida Johns

Please welcome Merida Johns author of Blackhorse Road

Merida Johns will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Blackhorse Road

byMerida Johns

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GENRE:   Womens fiction, romance

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INTERVIEW:

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

There’s a noteworthy story about what inspired me to take an offramp from writing nonfiction, mostly textbooks, to authoring fiction.

After I retired from academia, I started my practice as a leadership coach to help women break the glass ceiling and fulfill their leadership and economic potential. During the past ten years, I transitioned from writing textbooks to motivational books on creating environments where people flourish through better leadership.

About three years ago, I was on a conference call with fellow life coaches, and we were discussing concepts of what makes a fulfilling life.  Bang! Like a thunderclap, I had an insight. What would it be like to help people understand the concepts of a flourishing life in a story instead of through a motivational book or text? After all, I thought, storytelling has been the most compelling form of communication for thousands of years. As far as I could recall, none of the great Profits fed up learning objectives and multiple-choice questions to their followers.  No!  They got their message across through stories.

To be honest, I was tired of writing motivational books and textbooks that give frameworks, theories, and ideas but don’t immerse readers in the human experience.  Since I was ten years old, I had wanted to write fiction, but my professional career steered me in another direction.   Now, I saw an opportunity to follow the dream I had had as a child.

2. How did you come up with ideas for your books?

Write about what you know!  One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given for writing fiction. My stories blossom from my imagination that is influenced by my experience, perspectives, and observations that give the story authenticity and sensitivity, helping readers connect with the characters and feel their joy, disappointment, sorrow, and happiness.

But my fiction has more. It is enriched by the backstories that set the context for the characters and events in the story—historical incidents, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, and psychology that influence the characters’ values and, ultimately, the consequences of their actions.  As Connor, one of Blackhorse Road characters, says, “Time and place shape a person.” It’s the intermingling of these forces that creates a complicated explosion and tension within and among the characters.

I uncover these backstories from usual fact-checking and readily available historical references.  But the sources I like best that enhance my novel’s palette are diaries and old letters that are firsthand accounts about relationships and peoples’ challenges and their feelings of sorrow, love, hope, sadness, and happiness. These are the special elixir in Blackhorse Roadthat connect readers with the characters and become one with the story.  If readers enjoy that experience, then Blackhorse Roadand my upcoming fiction are for them.

3. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

If we’re talking about writing expertise, I’ve published several nonfiction works over the past thirty years. As a result, when I started writing fiction, I had a good foundation about publishing from an author’s perspective.  I understood that a good team—developmental editor, copyeditor, proofreader, interior book designer, cover designer, and beta readers—produces good work.  I was fortunate to have put together that kind of team for Blackhorse Road.Besides my previous writing background and the excellent publication team I have, I also hold a copyediting certificate from the University of California at San Diego.  Going through a formal program in copyediting has helped ensure consistency, coherency, correctness, and clarity in my fiction manuscripts and helped me to be a better advocate for the reader—after all, it isn’t about the author, it must always be about the reader.

4. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

I love dogs!  Boxers, Boston Terriers, and Shih Tzu’s have had a home with my husband and myself.

5. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I plan to have two stories that might be called prequels to Blackhorse Road. After completing Blackhorse Road, I found that readers had a real curiosity and wanted to know more about two of the story’s characters (Marie and Genevieve).  Some backstories are hinted at in Blackhorse Road that explain what makes both of these women tick.  But they need a full book of their own to explore the depth of each of these women. I can’t wait to reveal their secrets.

10. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

When I started writing, I took to heart two pieces of advice:  write about what you know and know about what you write.

My imagination and creativity are influenced by what I know—my experience, perspectives, and observations that give the story authenticity and sensitivity, helping readers connect with the characters and feel their joy, disappointment, sorrow, and happiness.

But there is another part of fiction—the part where I know about what I write. My imagination and experience are supplemented by research that opens a new world of fascination. For things that I wanted to know more about in Blackhorse Road,  I took a shovel and start digging and couldn’t stop. I was hungry to learn how historical events, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, and psychology might influence the characters’ values and, ultimately, the consequences of their actions.  What I uncovered, through old letters, diaries, and other firsthand accounts, I’ve shared and exposed within the whirlwind of my imagination on the pages of the story.  As reviewer Gayle Scroggs says, “The exceptional self-awareness that the characters show is what stands out in Blackhorse Road.” And it is the backstories added to my imagination that add depth to the characters and events. 

11. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I compile what I call a mini-story.  This includes a few paragraphs on the story’s theme(s) that sketches out the plot, conflict, and resolution. Then I elaborate in the next section on the powerful influences/influencers in the story, followed by descriptions of the strong challengers, major conflict, and resolution.

I also use a few tools that I learned from my classes in creative writing.  One of these is developing a character profile for each of the characters in the story.  In this profile, I identify things like physical descriptions, home or neighborhood they live in, close relationships, family members and background, gender relationships, job, dress style, favorite foods, regrets, best qualities, worst qualities, and so on.

Afterward, I develop a short synopsis, as far as I can go, of each chapter.  To be sure, though, nothing is set in stone. My characters and events evolve, and each day as I write about these, the characters take me off guard by their actions and thoughts, and I am surprised by unexpected events that surface without notice!

For tracking characters and events, I develop a timeline and a list of characters and their relationship(s) with each other. Both of these will have additions and are edited throughout the development of the novel.

I maintain a style sheet while I’m working on my novels.  Style sheets are usually used by copyeditors, but I have found this tool essential in keeping track of style and usage for my own purposes. For example, I will list words that I always hyphenate or capitalize, notate how I treat inner thoughts by using italics, not quotations, and so on.  The style sheet also lists all references I have used for fact-checking and fact-finding.  When I hand the manuscript to the copyeditor, the style sheet functions as a communication tool between the two of us, making life so much easier for both.

12. Do you have any hobbies and does the knowledge you’ve gained from these carry over into your characters or the plot of your books?

My hobbies include knitting, crocheting, quilting, and weaving. Readers will notice that I use metaphors in Blackhorse roadrelated to weaving and fabric. In my next project, an old quilt will play a significant part in establishing a relationship between two of the characters and reveal some secrets too.

14. Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book?

I am working on a women’s fiction novel tentatively titled Suzanna that begins in Columbus, Ohio, in the mid-1980s.  Suzanna has her whole life in front of her like an open freeway or so she believes . . . The story is packed with challenges and hard decisions as Suzanna strives to follow her North Star.  Like Blackhorse Road, the ending has a surprising twist—this one, though, might raise the reader’s curiosity just enough to wonder if coincidences that edge on the paranormal might be real.  Stay tuned!

16. Can you tell us a little about the black moment in your book?

The black moment is when the protagonist (Luci) realizes that she has been betrayed:  a betrayal that has caused her to believe something about someone that was not true, which caused her to lose her self-belief and that left her romance in shatters.  Now Luci’s challenge is whether she can ever forgive someone who she should have been able to trust. This is a quote from the book that gives a hint at Luci’s despair when she discovers the betrayal:

“Luci doubled up, covered her mouth, and let out a primal scream.  There was a cacophony of thousands of swords clashing and echoing in her head.  She rocked in her chair, hugging herself, trying to rouse f flicker of comfort.”

19. Anything else you might want to add?

    I would like to share a couple of “ah-ha” moments I have had since Blackhorse Roadlaunched.

Blackhorse Roadis a work of women’s fiction—a story of a woman protagonist’s journey toward a fulfilled self. I believed that the story would appeal primarily to women age thirty and older because of its genre. But since launching the book, I have had a couple of “Ah-ha” moments that have changed my perspective.

During a virtual launch party for Blackhorse Road, the first came when an audience member asked the beta readers if the book would be appropriate for younger readers.  What prompted that question was the beta readers’ observation about how the lines of communication between Luci (the protagonist) and her father play a critical role in forming Luci’s values and belief system and her grit to achieve autonomy. In response to the question, one of the beta readers said that she had given the book to her seventeen-year-old granddaughter so that the two of them could read it together, and another beta reader shared that she was reading the book with her fourteen-year-old daughter. The consensus among the beta readers was that the book was appropriate for teens fifteen and older.

The second ah-ha moment came from a text I received from a middle-aged man who had just finished reading Blackhorse Road.  “Just finished Blackhorse Road.  WOW!  Very powerful.  Made me cry! Great job.  Let me know when you have a book signing event in my area.”

BLURB:

Under another hand, Blackhorse Road could all too easily have been a singular romance. Johns provides more as she follows Luci down the rabbit hole and out the other side of life experience, bringing readers into a world where . . . transgression changes everything and challenges carefully-constructed foundations of belief and values. As Luci lets go of her lifesavers and navigates obstacles to happiness, her story becomes a vivid portrait of hope and self-examination which ultimately moves into unexpected territory. Novel readers seeking a tale that closely considers deception and forgiveness, love gained and lost, and family ties will welcome the multifaceted Blackhorse Road’s ability to come full circle in a satisfyingly unexpected way. – D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

It’s the turbulent mid-1960s, and Luci, an eighteen-year-old Southern California girl, is on the quest for self-determination and new beginnings. Three powerful forces influence her values: the grit of her Irish great-grandmother, Lucinda McCormick; the philosophy of choice of her father, Sam; and the 1960s ideals of equity and altruism. But potent foes thwart Luci at every turn. Her budding romance with a handsome United States Air Force Academy cadet sets the stage for conflict and deception that last for two decades. When Luci discovers how her autonomy and love affair were hijacked, she struggles with anger and bitterness. But from a surprising source, she finds a forgiveness path that restores her well-being and hope and, in the end, faith in herself.

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EXCERPT:

The cranky engine revved as the driver shifted gears, and the military bus crawled forward exiting the air force base. Along a narrow and dark roadway, the vehicle increased its speed and left the MPs at the gate standing immobile and mute in the glow of the rising moon. Drifting through the open windows, the Southern California desert air blew like pixie dust across the faces of the thirty young women headed home from the street dance. A few hours ago, they were preening and adjusting their bouffant hairdos, reapplying creamy pink lipstick, and placing the last twirls of mascara on their eyelashes to prepare for a street dance with cadets from the elite Air Force Academy. Then, the atmosphere buzzed with gossip, chatter, laughter, and anticipation. Now, the glimmering night sky created the perfect backdrop that lulled each into a contented silence to fantasize about the handsome men they had met.

“This is the beginning of my story about love and betrayal and a journey toward empathy, compassion, and forgiveness. It is also a story of choice—my choice to be inspired by the resilience of a great-grandmother, the values of a father, and the wisdom of a spouse. But in the end, it is a story of how a letter of gratitude . . . reminded me to open my heart to love and kindness.”

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

For three decades, I was a university professor who taught classes and wrote textbooks on “nerdy” subjects centering on computer systems in healthcare.

But a decade ago, informed by my experience in a male-dominated area, I started my practice as a leadership coach to help women break the glass ceiling and fulfill their leadership and economic potential. Consequently, during the past ten years, I transitioned from writing textbooks to motivational books on creating environments where people flourish through better leadership.

About a year ago, I was on a conference call discussing concepts of what makes a fulfilling life with fellow life coaches.  Bang! Like a thunderclap, I had an insight. What would it be like to help people understand the concepts of a flourishing life in a story instead of through a motivational book or text? After all, I thought, storytelling has been the most compelling form of communication for thousands of years. As far as I could recall, none of the great prophets fed up learning objectives and multiple-choice questions to their followers.  No!  They got their message across through stories.

Motivational books and textbooks give frameworks, theories, and ideas, but they don’t immerse us in the human experience. They don’t show us how others face challenges, embrace their passions, overcome sorrow, celebrate achievement, quash self-doubts, develop positive emotions and relationships, handle betrayal, or act on aspirations.

Storytelling ignites our imagination and emotion.  We experience being part of the story rather than being served up a platter of facts, exercises, and information.

This eye-opener was enough for me to take on the challenge of novel writing.  My passion is to help people catapult beyond concepts and theories and jump into the wonderment of imagination in designing a flourishing life for themselves.  Storytelling does this best.

Happily, as a fiction writer, I have jettisoned learning objectives and test questions.  Ah…the freedom makes me feel as light as a balloon on a summer breeze.

Website:  www.MeridaJohnsAuthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MeridaJohnsAuthor/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/meridajohns

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Merida-L.-Johns/e/B001IU2KBS%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/MeridaJohns

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

Merida Johns will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3549/