Please join me in welcoming Jordan.
Hello. My name is Jordan Alexander, and I am the author of Godhead, a psychological romance suspense novel set in Belize in the 1960's.I am Everywoman with a pen. I have children, and a husband, and a cat, and dishes. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I had a college education, a plan, and a ton of amazing experiences. When you mix all that together you end up with a writer.
Q. Tell us about Godhead.
A. My books are about freedom, about the choices women have to make. In Godhead, I tell the story of Isabel Cordova, a young woman that thinks she's getting what she wants, but ultimately none of it really belongs to her.
She inherits a banana plantation In British Honduras (Belize) from a father she barely knew, and she leaves everything behind hoping to find freedom, to rekindle a childhood romance, to start her life. But the plantation is dying, she can't have the man she loves, and the man she ends up entangled with is the worst possible choice. He leads her down a very dark path, manipulates her into making bad choices that began to destroy her and the people she loves. The more she struggles for freedom the more she becomes trapped. To escape she will ultimately have to embrace herself, her cultural identity...her power.
That's what woman wrestle with...how much to give in and how much to hold onto. The only power that we have is inside of us, and sometimes it's a very difficult journey to reach that awareness.
Q. What was it about romance/suspense that captured your fancy?
A. Actually the genre captured me. My stories dictate themselves. I sit down thinking I'm writing one thing and another comes out. Godhead is very sensual and very dark. It started out kind of cheerful and I knew there was a darker story to tell. I kept wondering when that was going to happen, and then whump...suddenly I was in this shadowy space telling a much deeper and more sinister tale than I expected. I finished the first draft, and read the whole thing totally on edge. I didn't know until I was finished that it would be suspense and romance. I was relieved to find out there was such a genre!
Q. Do you have an all-time favorite novel in your genre, and what elements make it your favorite?
A. I'm a genre hopper. My books cross genres or deviate from the typical genre all the time, so this is a difficult question. I'm a sucker for Diana Gabaldon. She's an incredible writer and researcher. I love the layers of complexity in her books, the details that bring the era alive, the round flesh and blood believability of her characters, and the way she weaves a history lesson into an epic story that is always at its core about love and family. She has really elevated romance in the public eye.
Q. How do you research your novels?
A. I worked in a bank years ago and people would tell me some unbelievable things in the five minutes we had together. I remember so vividly the day a particular elderly man came in. He was in his eighties, his voice, his body, large and jovial. We were all eating chocolates and we apologized for eating in front of him. "Never apologize for enjoying yourself, “he said, "Never apologize for happiness, it is a great gift." He gestured to his sloping St. Nick belly. "You see how fat I am," he exclaimed. "So fat. In 1938 when I got out of the camps I weighed seventy five pounds. Now I am fat, and I am alive. Enjoy every moment."
That had a profound effect on me. Every human being has a story of survival, of their own personal search for freedom. Sometimes it's epic, sometimes so small you don't even notice it until you pick at the threads.
There are a thousand books in the lives of everyone riding the morning commute with you. Talk to people. You will be inspired and humbled. And the internet is an incredible tool. I am amazed by the information that is available instantly at the touch of a button. What kind of insecticide did they use on bananas in Belize in 1960?... Nemagon. It's all there, this gigantic brain that I can access anytime. Much better than my own, which takes three cups of coffee to be able to connect with anything.
Q. Tell us about your favorite novel that you have written, and why it's your favorite?
A. My first novel. "In the Grey". It's still unpublished. I'm probably a dysfunctional author-parent because I won't let it leave the nest, even though it's reached maturity. It's set during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya Africa and I researched for fourteen years to complete it. After all that time with the characters I feel them, I see them, I live life through their eyes. It's exhausting to be so committed to a story like that, a gut wrenching story pulled out of real events. The people I've met, the things they've seen...I am just awed. And somehow I’ve managed to transfer some of that awe, that substance into the novel. And now I'm afraid to let it go. I love it so much, I can't stand the idea that other people won't love it like I do. So I shelter it. Soon though...stay tuned.
On Writing:
Q. Is there anything you absolutely must have in order to write?
A. I don't need silence, or a good luck totem, or my own private space. I have four children, so it's always noisy. I can tune it out most of the time.
However, I just got a blue tooth headset, and when I put it on with music it's like falling into Narnia. A whole new world with only me in it. And of course, I need my muse. She has platinum blond hair and slinky clothes, and she sits next to me drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, and she dispenses her best advice at three in the morning.
Q. What is the most difficult part of writing for you?
A. I love research and writing, when the words just flow. But editing. Yuck. Get thee gone grammatical errors! It's just so tedious.
Q. What's a typical working day like for you? When and where do you write?
A. I used to have an office space in an unused corner of the house. But the children would just hover around me like gnats. So I decided to invade their space. Now my desk is smack dab in the living room where the TV and the toys are. They totally ignore me now that I'm accessible. The challenge is gone.
I have no typical day; I'm totally erratic and unscheduled. I do however commit to one or two hours of marketing and at least ten pages of whatever I'm working on. I'm disciplined only in the fact that I accomplish what I need to each day, somehow, at some point, even if it's in the middle of the night. I like to achieve my objective.
Q. Tell us a little bit about your life online and the sites you maintain.
A. I used to blog a lot. I had this great one about being a dad on weekends for my kids. It was so much fun and I had a good readership and a lot of exposure. I'm thinking about resurrecting it.
I’ve taken from that experience and launched two blogs this month. The first is Jordan Alexander Writes, which chronicles my experience in the e publishing business and expands my reader’s knowledge on the settings of my novels. And I'm about to launch a blog for my young adult series due out in August, Lux.
I have a dot com in development and that's a whole new thing to me, it seems so official, not as personal as a blog. I try to make the blogs fun. And interactivity is so important, not just comments, but playlists you can add to as a follower, and widgets that you can play with. I try not to overwhelm the blog with words. It's hard, because as you can see, I talk a lot.Just For Fun:
Q. What is your favorite quote?
A. This is embarrassing. But really my favorite quote is from Saturday Night Live.
If trees could scream, maybe we wouldn't be so cavalier about cutting them down.
Unless of course, they screamed all the time,
For no good reason.
Alternately,
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
Anything Khalil Gibran says is astounding.
Q. Where is your favorite place to read?
A. On a deserted tropical island, with a frappe and a bowl of mangoes. In real life, the bathtub with the door locked.
Q. What is your favorite OUT OF YOUR GENRE book and author, and why?
A. I’m reading an amazing book right now, Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee. I suppose it would be considered literary fiction, but it has so many elements. It’s about the dissolution of a marriage. The man is a spy but not the glamorous sort, the behind the scenes sort. The author is Korean-American and so his culture paints every line in the book, offers a different angle to consider. Every word, every line, is exquisite, flawless. It’s the kind of book where you grab the person next to you and make them listen to a passage. His words are like a beautiful song that gets stuck in your head.
Q. If you were a supernatural or mythological entity, what, or who, would you be, and why?
A. I would be a mermaid. I grew up on a sailboat and I lived in the water, it’s my natural element. I would go as deep as I could, swim down to the black, the deep mysterious layer where the sharks live, and I wish I could linger there. I pictured myself trailing long silver hair and being courted by mermen with great abs.
Q. If you were stranded on a desert island what 3 things would you desperately want with you, and why?
A. My lap top, toilet paper, and a volleyball to keep to keep me company.
Complimentary Commemorative Musical Jigsaw Puzzle
This Puzzle Created To Commemorate
Jordan Alexander Author Interview
Presented July 26, 2011
Featuring
Godhead
Available At
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Godhead-ebook/dp/B005AJLQKE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310891595&sr=8-1
and
Smashwords
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/71179
Book trailers
Godhead- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZKO-7_AqHE
Lux teaser- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6spL2S330o&feature=feedwll&list=WL
Blogs:
Jordan Alexander Writes - http://jalexanderwrites.blogspot.com/
Lux The Series- http://luxtheseries.blogspot.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jordan-Alexander/288582985041
Twitter- @ jalexwrites
Thanks to everyone for stopping by, and don't forget Jordan has generously offered to give a copy of Godhead to 5 lucky people leaving comments, with the winners chosen via Random.org on August 26, 2011.
Smiles & Good Reading
Teresa
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It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915
I rather like the idea of "Falling into Narnia". I must chase up 'Native Speaker' by Chang-Rae Lee, it sounds amazing. A psychological romance suspense sounds like my kind of read. I will add GODHEAD to my list or fingers crossed!!
ReplyDeletemarypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteklepard94(at)yahoo(dot)com