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Book Description:
Josie spent twenty years as a battered wife, dying for a hero.
Now, she’s dying to become one.
Josie Kane is a “difficult” woman, a pure enigma – one who survives her abusive husband by honing her unnerving talent for playing mind games: she knows exactly how to manipulate a bully.
Finally divorced, she thinks the abuse is over, and she’s free.
She’s wrong. And her cynicism is building.
Josie works with battered women, trying to rescue them from a fate similar to hers. But on the night that yet another battered woman is murdered by her husband, pining for a hero as she dies in Josie’s arms, her cynicism becomes a quiet, simmering hatred.
Her one remaining refuge is in her bond with Maxine and Samantha, the two friends whom she loves like sisters. When Samantha becomes pregnant by Jack – an abuser who makes known his intentions to use the baby as a weapon of control – Josie’s hatred ripens to a vengeful fury.
She sets out to take on one more batterer, manipulate one more bully… And she lures Jack into the crosshairs of the ultimate mind game.
Her friends are convinced that she intends to rid Samantha of Jack.
They’re right.
But with Josie Kane, as always, there’s a twist.
With her friends helpless to stop her – and with Samantha hanging in the balance – Josie squares off with Jack in a life-and-death, winner-lose-all battle of wits to determine which side will win Sammy’s future.
And this time, there will be a hero.
TR: Hey Jenna…good morning. It’s so great to have you here…
JB: Hi Thomas…great to be here. Thanks so much!
TR: So, let’s here about Jenna Brooks. How old were you when you wrote your first piece?
JB: I think I was maybe four years old…?
TR: Four? Well, that’s a new record for these interviews. What was it?
JB: Obviously, Kiddie Lit. I have trouble remembering if the title was Puppies! Puppies! or Puppies! Puppies Everywhere!
TR: Heh heh heh. A youngster’s mind, for sure. What made you write it?
JB: My elder sister – the one I wanted to emulate – liked to write, and I did everything that she did.
TR: Right. Keeping up with sis. I’m sure there will be piles of answers for this question. What have you written since then?
JB: Since Puppies? I’ve been all over the place. Featured/guest columnist, regular columnist for a few newspapers and organizations, and of course I have my blog. October Snow is my debut novel.
TR: Very cool. So, what was the inspiration for “Snow”?
JB: I wrote October Snow after too many years of watching women, especially mothers, get destroyed by the bullies we refer to as “domestic violence perpetrators.” As the vernacular has shifted in recent years to the idea that “women do it too”, and the culture has embraced the development of a movement called “Father’s Rights” – which, in many cases, is no more than a haven for abusive males – I decided to present a realistic picture of the Family Court system, and the impact it can have on battered mothers and their children.
More than that, though, I wanted to present a different take on the targets of DV. These women are nothing less than heroic, and yet our culture (lip service notwithstanding) regards them as naïve, weak, and often foolish. Most people who have never been abused by someone whom they once loved, and someone to whom they trusted their lives – and the lives of their kids – would crumple in a New York minute under the psychological warfare that is the reality of DV. As such, we need to rethink our opinions of the targets of DV, and provide them with the real help they need (including post-abuse – if, indeed, they manage to survive, and then leave.)
TR: So you wrote about something you’re very passionate about – a crucial part of writing a good book. Tell us a little bit about it, and where it’s available.
JB: October Snow is a (technically) fictional story about Josie Kane, a woman who – through her abilities to manipulate – endures twenty years of an abusive husband, and then finally finagles the escape that the Family Court prevented for years. The problem is, Josie can’t get her life together again: she’s filled with a rage that she can’t reconcile. Her best friends, Maxine and Sammy, are watching her deteriorate, and fight to save her from the combination of rage and hopelessness that threatens to destroy her.
When Sammy is suddenly facing the same kind of situation that took Josie apart, it’s the last straw. Josie creates and then launches the ultimate mind-game against Sammy’s abuser, designed to take him down – once and for all.
It was published on November 29th, and is currently available on Amazon.com. (Excerpts, and more about the novel, can be found at my author’s site, http://octobersnow.weebly.com
TR: So it’s fiction, but based on a situation that’s very real in the world today. That’s a clever way to get a message out. Very nice. Tell me – is there a particular place or setting where you get your writing ideas?
JB: Everywhere, because I write about reality. I tend to form a story by talking to my dog, while we look out the window at the beauty that is New Hampshire.
TR: Sounds great to me. Now, what made you choose either traditional or independent publishing?
JB: When I started October Snow, I had every intention of going Trad; however, I started chatting with a best-selling author who went from Trad to Indie, and he referred me to articles and resources that made me see the mistake it would be to go the traditional route (for me). I am, absolutely, a control freak about my writing; moreover, I wanted the freedom to direct the course of October Snow.
TR: That does seem to be a common theme with indies. Now, if you had to choose the most important element in an author’s platform, what would it be?
JB: “Platform”… That’s something of an all-encompassing term, and people define it in varying ways. I think it changes by necessity as an author evolves.
My best advice to writers would be to avoid setting your literary persona in concrete. That, and don’t go trendy. Not to say, don’t write in popular genres; but if you do so, don’t crank out 75,000 words of McLiterature, and grab the momentary cash you may get from it. Your novel will be out there forever, so make sure you’re glad that it is.
TR: Well said! Okay – my favorite question – what mistakes have you made in regards to publishing and marketing your work, and what will you do differently in the future?
JB: I badly underestimated the amount of work it takes after typing “The End” for an Indie author to turn out a quality novel . October Snow came out last week, and it was the completion of almost four months of the hardest work I’ve ever done. Next time, I’ll be aware – and that will cut down on the Tylenol consumption.
TR: You’re right of course. Writing the book is only the start, isn’t it? Do you have an idea for your next book?
JB: Yes. I’m not sure yet if there will be a sequel to October Snow, but I am putting together two self-help books: one on domestic violence recovery (based on my seminar, Reclaim), and one on (what I regard as) the cultural betrayal of the generation of women who are lumped together under the title, “Baby Boomers”.
But those are in their formative stages – because I’m taking a few weeks to kick back and enjoy the holidays.
This was a pleasure, Thomas. Looking forward to the official release of The Clearing.
TR: Thanks so much, Jenna. It was truly my pleasure, and much luck in your writing and bringing light to domestic violence.
That’s it for today, folks. “October Snow” is out there, and it sounds fantastic. What are you waiting for?
Tune in Thursday, when I interview Carol Bugge (C.E. Lawrence), author of “Silent Stalker”…be there!
It was a lot of fun, Thomas. Many thanks.
My pleasure Jenna…hope it helps. Your book sounds marvelous…much like at the signing, too.